Aliens Colonial Marines Collector's Edition

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $99.99
Sale Price: $39.99
Today's Bonus: 60% Off

As a lifelong fan of the first two Alien movies, it pains me to write this about a game I had been anticipating for years. This at best is a broken and unfinished and near unplayable thing passing off as a game. There are visual bugs and glitches riddled throughout the game from start to finish. There is a lack of textures and lighting. Effects and cutscenes are mid generation PS2 quality at best. Enemy AI is virtually non-existent. I walked into what passed as swarms of Aliens; I never encountered more than a few at a time; and at times they simply stood there or inexpicably charged headfirst into gunfire. There is nothing about their movements or actions to evoke a sense that the source material of the movies was ever used in conceiving this virtual incarnation of the xenomorphs. Aiming down the sights is pointless and a waste of time as the weapons seem to be more accurate when fired from the hip. Grenades and other "heavy" weapons serve virtually no function.

Cutscenes and exposition in regards to the story are also pointless to non-existent too. Without spoiling anything, lore breaking events take place in the story that brings off the whole of the game as a piece of extremely bad fanfiction/wish fulfillment fantasy nonsense for an Aliens story. Why is the game so utterly terrible when the demo looked so much like the game we were led to believe they were making? Even as a piece of nostalgia harkening back to the movie, the game fails. Poorly rendered environments and a lack of attention to detail regarding events of the movie are reflected all around the player. Things that should be there as a result of the movie are not, and vice versa. It's just bad through and through. It will leave you shocked, then angry, and then despondent as a fan of Aliens; in that order most likely. As I said at the beginning, the game is broken, unfinished, and unplayable at best. Most likely, at its worst, it is a case of being deliberately lied to through an extremely slick marketing scheme built upon one of the most beautiful visual demos to ever lie to the gaming public and fans of the Alien franchise.

If you want a playable and good; fun even; Aliens game looking to evoke and capture the spirit of the franchise; or at least the Dark Horse comics section of the fandom; then go and play Rebellion's AVP game that came out a few years ago. It's just a better game, truer to the source material, and just more fun overall. That is about as damning an indictment as I can make here.

Click Here to Read More Reviews >>

Sometimes you need a monetary punishment like this to remind you why not to preorder something. Its as bad as everyone says. If i had a time machine, i would go back in time and kick my past self in the balls.

Buy Aliens Colonial Marines Collector's Edition Now

I love Alien. I happen to think that the Alien movies are among the most significant sci-fi movies in the world.

Aliens is a fantastic entry into the series, and it's the one that best allows itself to be translated into a video game. Which is why I was very excited for Colonial Marines. The Alien movie series has had a long and very unsatisfactory history with video games. There have been a few Aliens game released, but none have been able to capture the feeling of dread that is created in the movie.

I honestly thought that this games was going to break that cycle. I had the utmost faith in Gearbox. I placed my preorder for this game MONTHS ago. That's how much I believed in this game. I even ordered the collector's edition. Lo and behold, this game is broken. It's not complete. It feels terrible to play. The controls are your typical shooter fare, except for the wonky weapons system. I understand that Gearbox had been working on this project since '06, and had delayed it various times. The story goes that Sega essentially strong armed them into releasing this unfinished project. Gearbox was too busy working on Borderlands 2, therefore they passed on campaign responsibilities to Time Gate studios. In my mind, the true culprits are Gearbox. They had the better half of a decade to work on this game, but they still managed to ruin it.

Here's my main gripe with the game. It's too generic, which in turn makes it too easy. I don't feel creeped out by the aliens, in fact they kinda make me laugh more than anything. The facehuggers are difficult to kill simply because they are hard to target. The human enemies. Oy... Come on man, try harder next time. I'm playing this game on the hard difficulty, and I'm not even breaking a sweat. Simply put, I'm pissed. Because this game could have been a damn epic. It could have been one of the greatest games of this generation, instead it's a hot mess.

The multiplayer was purported to be the better half of the game, but it's essentially the same thing. The Colonial Marines are way too overpowered, and the Aliens are more akin to canon fodder than the deadliest predator in the universe.

It's not the graphics I mind, it's not even the story ( which is ok, if you can overlook plot holes and unresolved questions), It's the gameplay. The game design is also worth mentioning. Your marine somehow manages to carry around 3 different assault rifles, 3 different shotguns, a sub machine gun, a sniper, and about 4 different pistols. Why? I don't get it. Make ammo scarce, let me carry only two weapons, make this game scary! Also the pulse rifle? Yea, it's got the iconic sound. But it sounds like they have on sample of it on loop.

All in all, this game is just too broken to truly justify buying it. I'm keeping it simply because the power loader figure is pretty cool, and I already used the DLC codes.

For true Alien fans, buy it when it's a bargain bin title. Perhaps by then, Gearbox will have patched the most glaring issues.

The sad part is that it isn't unplayable, it's a perfectly mediocre shooter.

Read Best Reviews of Aliens Colonial Marines Collector's Edition Here

There's not enough here to justify a price over $15.

My initial thought was 'Best New FPS of 2004,' but that would be an insult to Half-Life 2.

I heard some initial bad-mouthing of this game, but, loving all 5 Alien Movies (sorry, no AVP included,) I figured a little nostalgia would suffice, so long as that it was playable.

Well, it's not.

Once the novelty of the original movie sound-effects (like the Pulse Rifle) gets old, and it won't take that long, there's nothing there. I don't understand how the game can add to the canon when there's so much contradictions, the gameplay is overall boring, the graphics and gameplay are VERY dated, and I was left at a loss on how in the hell a wonderful company like Gearbox, that brought us so many good games, could attach its name to this.

If you MUST buy this game, despite the plethora of online consumer negative reviews, game blog/magazine reviews, and the fact that a week later, opening-day buyers were already returning a game to stores (Gamestop, etc,) at a LOSS despite supposed 'DLC forthcoming' and 'Multiplayer' features, that should tell you something.

It'll be less than $10 in a few months, used. Buy it then if you must.

In one word, I was MORTIFIED with this game.

I honestly cannot tell you how long it has been since such disappointment in a video game.

EDIT : I just found out in addition to my gripes, all of the 'gameplay footage' advertised is known now to be pre-rendered and 'simulated' gameplay, entire storylines, places, and such in the demo and E3 preview (including the pre-order advertisements) did NOT make the game, the 'new lighting engines' were not implemented, and had far-sub-standard lighting instead, and many interviewed promises, expectations, and explanations were not in the product we all bought. So, it turns out, it was all marketing lies to get one to pre-order, that, or a colossal intentional misdirection that failed on every level, and became untruth-in-advertising.

I bought this on faith of the series, however many, angrier people bought this FROM PLAYING DEMOS, RESEARCH, AND DETAILED EXPECTATIONS FROM ADVERTISEMENTS AND INTERVIEWS and feel LIED To. That should round this edit out satisfactorily.

Want Aliens Colonial Marines Collector's Edition Discount?

I really wanted to like this game. I pre-ordered a couple months ago, and I was really looking forward to it. When it came out, I started hearing the bad reviews and hoped beyond hope that it was all just haters talking their talk. Unfortunately, they have it nailed. It looks deceptively good until you play it. Characters teleport about the room; you can get stuck on the smallest piece of the environment; the story is weak; on and on.

Wait for the bargain bin! It's worth $10, maybe $20 if you're feeling good.