Aliens: Colonial Marines is analogous to a soldier being forced up against a wall by an alien. He’s a helpless man, armed to the teeth, on the verge of losing his mind.
We take on the character of Corporal Winter, an American marine in the search and rescue team, in the game. We receive an S.O.S. signal from the renowned ship USS Sulaco and travel to it in search of the remaining crew. Ellen Ripley is said to be among the survivors. Things take an unexpected turn on board. Of course, the supposedly empty spacecraft turns out to be a breeding place for xenomorphs, and a crew of scientists sets out to tame the aliens and transport them to other worlds. Without a doubt! A tiny but valiant unit cannot allow this to happen, therefore we detect and eliminate the threat as soon as possible, protecting our own people. O’Neal will be the first to join Corporal Winter. The dark-skinned strong guy follows us nearly the entire game, because Aliens: Colonial Marines is actually a cooperative game.
Before we liberate O’Neal, we’ll get to play the most exciting section of the game: the opening fifteen minutes, which are inspired by the Aliens vs. series’ adolescent installments. Predator. We’ll sneak through the starship’s dark hallways with a motion detector in one hand, a gun in the other, and a spotlight on the helmet. His heart was pounding, and the ominous quiet was piercing his skull. Anxiety, followed by a peek at the detector. Purely. A few steps further, and something in the neighboring room moved. I go in and notice a grate dangling from the vent. I’m very sure someone or something is here. It hides in the cracks and crevices. However, we are immediately returned to Earth, and the voices of the past are silenced. Following the meeting with O’Neal, a Cameron-style slaughter ensues, lasting nearly the entire single-player campaign, which is less than seven hours. Aliens: Colonial Marines is a continuation of the tale described in “Alien: Decisive Battle” in terms of storyline. It’s more of an action game than a thriller. Aliens jumping from the ceiling will give you a thrill now and again, but humans are more likely to smile and open fire at the sight of xenomorphs than to flee into cosmic space. Every admirer of the alien planet will feel completely at home with the armament for removing crafty aliens that has been carefully calibrated. A pulse rifle in your hands, a grenade in your pocket, and a motion detector are all necessary components for a successful hunt. It sounds fantastic, but we barely employ half of our weaponry during the game since the remainder is either ineffective or just superfluous on the battlefield. Shooting may be enjoyable, especially when we beat the alien and it begins splattering acid directly in front of us. We gain experience for accomplishing important tasks and achievements, as well as points for each promotion, which we may use to purchase laser sights, larger magazines, or regional tuning, such as painting the weapon in national colors. Xenomorphs are swift, merciless creatures. We may have a significant health concern if we allow a stranger to be in close proximity to us. Two or three offenders close to us are almost guaranteed to die. Keep a watch out for foes lurking in ventilation ducts, strolling on walls and ceilings, and hatching virtually anywhere. Typically, we will face a variety of xenomorphs. Some of them cannot climb hills, yet they can travel a long distance in a single bound. Others spew acid from a safe distance, while a specific behemoth batters everything in its path with its hard head. The queen, on the other hand, is immune to bullets, and the animals that freeze and freeze can burst as soon as someone gets near them. Naturally, there are facehuggers, which are little spider-like creatures waiting for the appropriate opportunity to pounce on our faces and lay eggs in our throats, which is a dramatic chapter of the narrative.
Every aspect of Aliens: Colonial Marines is either directly or indirectly tied to the movie. This may turn out to be the most exciting portion of the game for fans. We will not only hear renowned names and see known people during a brief game, but we will also visit accurately reproduced locations – the Sulaco spacecraft and the moon LV-426. The rich atmosphere emanating from the remains of dead troops might enchant you amid the dark, doom-like passages and volcanic surfaces. It’s unfortunate that we return to several areas twice or even three times over the eleven stages. True, they are cosmetically different each time, and this technique has a story rationale, but they reinforce the creators’ second-handness and sloth. The locations of the action grow quite uninteresting over time. Dog tags, legendary weaponry, and audio recordings of random individuals dispersed over the maps that reveal the truths of the universe are insufficient compensation. The gameplay was intended around the now popular cooperative option, which is obvious at first sight. Three people can join us online at any moment, or one person can play on a split screen. However, the cinematic mood vanishes somewhere in collaboration, and the mode does not provide any real tasks that require cooperation. If we wish to play alone, we must rely on artificial intelligence, which typically hits the xenomorphs and the mission goal, but it may also play tricks on us. My faithful buddy occasionally got trapped in the door and couldn’t open it, then froze on the wall and refused to move, and another time he got lost somewhere along the path and abandoned me to my destiny. This was a problem because there are a lot of aliens in the game and it’s pointless to play Rambo yourself.
Aliens: Colonial Marines haphazardly blends the benefits of classic shooters with those of current, coarsely written action games. The health bar is separated into three halves, and we will not fully replenish our strength if we are gravely harmed. We won’t get them back until we discover the first-aid kit. We can huddle behind the boxes but not lean out from behind them. There is no save game, simply sporadic checkpoints that artificially complicate the game. On higher difficulty levels, dying early is annoying since you must restart a substantial portion of the stage to reach the next checkpoint. It stings the most when our friends’ artificial intelligence fails and, instead of assisting, interferes with the enjoyment. Our allies, on the other hand, are not exceptions. Aliens may chase their tails like a dog, and by becoming an easy target, they commit themselves to death. Enemy soldiers, for their part, may occasionally hide behind glass containers or barricades, exposing themselves to fire. As if that weren’t enough, some characters, such as Saint Wit, “dance” on the floor after death, which is an inadvertent humorous aspect. The warriors we fight are likewise pitiful since they are nearly identical – the only difference being their weaponry. To make problems worse, the hit mechanism does not always function properly. We sometimes have to shove the full magazine into the opponent’s chest until he collapses.
Fortunately, Aliens is more than just a narrative campaign. The real fight begins in the competitive multiplayer mode. We have four game modes to choose from, each with its own rank system and the chance to gain new weapons, techniques, and cosmetic components. Cooperation and division of tasks when playing marines and hunting aliens provide some comfort and enjoyment. As soldiers, we keep our eyes on the motion detector, grab a hurriedly discovered flamethrower, and set up defensive turrets, while dressed in black alien skin, we jump, climb, spew acid, and even transform into a massive, strong xenomorph. Unfortunately, taming the beast is tough since aliens are uncomfortable and unintuitive to manage, especially when we climb walls or dangle from ceilings. The maps are modest, but they are meant to match the film and online gaming norms. They are full of ducts, ventilation shafts, gaps, holes in the flooring, and other environmental features that can be used to win. The multiplayer is basically OK, offering nothing surprising or novel.
The story campaign of Aliens: Colonial Marines is formulaic, short, and dull. The AI fails, the graphics are awkward and occasionally ugly, and the animations are awful. The multiplayer mode and the magnet – the achingly well-done cinematic quality and the well-known and popular Alien universe – are the only redeeming features of this game. This is far from enough to promote Gearbox Software’s work without reservation.