See those four stars above this review? I fully expect to
receive a right royal kicking in the comment section below this article
for that rating. The reason being is that, if one were so inclined, one
could point to several imperfections in Sega's new shooter as evidence
that it deserves a lower score – not the least of which is the legacy of
the film this game purports to be a sequel to, and which is a millstone
around its neck.
The fact is, Alien Colonial Marines doesn't
stand a chance if you compare it to James Cameron's seminal 1986 flick.
Aliens is filed and receipted as one of the greatest horror films ever
made, one of the best sequels ever made and an iconic entry in the canon
of science-fiction cinema. Aliens Colonial Marines is a patchy shooter
standing on the shoulders of a giant.
But here's the thing; if we
take it as read that this review is simply a lengthy opinion proffered
by a thundering nerd, all the score rating rests on is whether or not
the person writing consistently enjoyed the game they were covering –
and on that scale, Aliens Colonial Marines is a success. It actually
feels like a product out of time; one of those scrappy FPS
games
mid-tier publishers could boot out between Triple-A titles back in the
day, when Metacritic didn't exist and a studio wasn't shut down if the
game they made failed to sell a bajillion copies.
Picture imperfect
First, the bad news: Aliens Colonial Marines could have done with a
massive visual polish. While environments evoke the universe in the
James Cameron film and are beautifully lit, they suffer on closer
inspection. Textures look blotchy close up and positively last-gen in
some instances.
Similarly, the character models don't look great.
When the player is charging through a heated gun battle or fending off
snarling beasts in dank corridors, they may notice jerky movements or
poor running animations in their human compatriots. Some cut-scenes look
horrible; in some instances, contour lines and facial details pop in an
out and break the spell of the story completely.
The xenomorphs,
for their part, look convincing and their animations are well rendered –
provided they're on all fours. When they stand erect on two feet, they
have a tendency to bob towards the camera with their arms outstretched
as though they're about to give the player a hug. Admittedly, these
visuals ticks and glitches are more pronounced on the console version
that I played than on the
PC
version. If you have a high-end PC, the odd texture looks lousy, but
the characters look decent and there are fewer instances of alien 'jazz
hands'.
Visual issues aside, however, Aliens Colonial Marines has
an awful lot going for it. The developers have absolutely nailed the
look and feel of the James Cameron film; each environment – be it aboard
the deserted Sulaco space cruiser or the dilapidated colony Hadley's
Hope on the rain-and-windswept LV-426 – could slot comfortably into the
Aliens universe.
Gearbox also uses rather effective lighting and a
fairly worthy musical score to create exactly the right mood for every
set-piece they toss at the player. Even better, they vary the level
design significantly to make use of the game's choking atmosphere and
prevent everything from becoming one-note. In one tense, white-knuckled
moment, for example, the player has to make their way, unarmed, through
some sewers without disturbing any hibernating xenomorphs, while in the
next, they're frantically setting up a perimeter of remote turrets to
turn a loading bay into a turkey shoot before a ton of slavering aliens
come crashing down from the ceiling.
The weapons all feel weighty
and they're sonically on the money. The standard issue pulse rifle
sounds exactly the way it did in the film and it's an absolute blast to
use it to riddle xenomorphs with bullets – even if its undercarriage
grenade launcher feels a little underpowered.
Over the eight or so
hours in the campaign, players will get their hands on several pieces
of the film's iconic weaponry including flamethrowers and – best of all –
the smartgun, which allows them to tear apart multiple targets by
dotting a reticule around the HUD.
The campaign's plot is also one
of the better stories I've seen in a shooter in a while. In it, the
player takes on the role of a marine called Winter who is part of a
military operation to find out what became of the soldiers who
accompanied Ripley to LV-426 on the Sulaco. Once aboard, they quickly
find themselves trapped on the ship with a pack of aliens. They also
discover that the shady corporation who financed the mission – Weyland
Yutani – has been tinkering about with xenomorphs and would rather no
one back home on earth found out about this.
The plot's also
populated by characters who are a cut above the usual one-note
testosterone-fuelled types one tends to find in games featuring soldiers
these days. Yes, there's a certain amount of macho posturing at the
start, but it's interesting to see how quickly that descends into
terrified panic and cowardly self-preservation once the aliens pitch up.
There are also a couple of tragic notes that players can pre-empt if
they're familiar with how the xenomorph birthing process works.
Every
enemy the player kills in the campaign earns them XP, which feeds into a
"marine" profile they take into the online mode once they've blitzed
the single-player. They also earn XP for picking up dogtags, audiologs
and legendary weapons – such as Hicks's shotgun or Vasquez's smartgun –
they'll find hidden about the different levels. They can then spend the
XP on weapons augmentations such as reduced kickback for machine pistols
or firebomb grenades for the pulse rifle.
Online … oh my
This means that by the time they're ready for the online mode, their
marine profile will be rather seriously tooled up, which is useful,
because multiplayer initially favours the players who control the
aliens. For a start, their HUD are in infrared, enabling them to see
into every nook and corner of the map, which appears shrouded in shadow
to the players controlling the humans. Second, the aliens' vision seems
to be based on sonar, meaning they can see their opponents through
walls, floors and ceilings. Finally, the aliens are able to climb on any
surface, enabling them to come at opponents from pretty much any angle.
What
this all means is that the players controlling the aliens have a lot
more freedom in how they tackle their opponents and, unless they're
battling experienced opposition, teamwork is optional.
The
marines, however, are on the back foot unless they work together.
Controlling the marines is very similar, tactically speaking, to playing
a quick round of Left 4 Dead; success hinges on watching each other's
backs and lone wolves shouldn't even bother joining a game (unless
they're actively looking for people to annoy).
The maps and
match-types compliment this asymmetrical style of play. The maps
themselves put the players at close-quarters and apart from Team
Deathmatch, the multiplayer's match types require the players
controlling the marines to complete mini-goals, whereas the alien
players are always simply tasked with wiping out their opponents.
The
objective-based gameplay keeps the tempo moving and forces players to
be creative; marines are advised to bottle-neck any well-lit areas and
keep one eye on their motion sensors, while xenomorphs should feel free
to make use of the map's infrastructure – including the air vents.
Both
sides have special weapons that spawn somewhere in the map; alien
players can climb into the husk of an acid spraying boiler or
armour-plated crusher while marines who brave the odd darkened corridor
can be rewarded with a smartgun or sentry turrets. Both sides also gain
XP for kills and objective-based gameplay, which they can use to unlock
further weapon augmentations (for the marines), new attacks (for the
xenomorphs) and visual customisation options.
Playing as the
marines is a hair-raising experience; players will invariably fall into a
pattern of anxiously checking darkly-lit corners as the motion sensor's
pinging sound ratchets up the tension.
Siding with the aliens is
far more fun; believe me when I tell you there are fewer things in
gaming more satisfying than creeping above a frantic marine and biting a
hole through their face just in the instant they turn in your
direction. It never gets old.
That's the game's trump card in a
way: Aliens Colonial Marines continues to be enjoyable for hours on end.
It plays so differently to other online fragfests that it constantly
feels innovative and fresh.
It's not perfect and its visual issues
hold it back from unqualified greatness, but Aliens Colonial Marines is
consistently fun to play throughout. It's also the first game in ages
to elicit a cry of genuine shock from yours truly the first time a
face-hugger came surging towards the screen …
• Game reviewed on PC and Xbox 360
