Information

Platform
Coop Players	4
Max Players	12
Developer	Gearbox Software
Publisher	Sega
Engine	Red Ring
Release	Feb 12, 2013
Genres	Action, First-Person Shooter, Survival Horror

Ratings

Features

	Cooperative Campaign
	Drop-In/Drop-Out Multiplayer
	Local/Split-Screen Option 2 players, console only
	Online Multiplayer

On Steam

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Aliens: Colonial Marines

The Alien movie series is well known for its particular tension. The humans are the prey. They run and hide from monsters that are quicker, deadlier, and maybe even a little more cunning. Colonial Marines had a long development cycle and spent a lot of time trumpeting itself as a true successor to the Aliens movie. This generated some high expectations. Namely, that ACM would make you feel like you were a marine in an Alien movie. It didn't do that.

In Aliens: Colonial Marines, the monsters are not quick or deadly. They are as dumb as bricks and distinctly less than lethal opponents. This is a linear zombie shooter with monsters slower, stupider and far less dangerous than the zombies in Left 4 Dead. There are also far fewer noisy switches to mash. If you are looking for a game like L4D but significantly easier to carry some of your fattest, least coordinated, and chubby friends through, then this is a purchase to consider. Keep in mind the campaign only lasts 5 hours before you buy.

As an easy low-budget zombie shooter this game delivers. Unfortunately, it's billed as a high-budget Aliens sequel.

Things We Didn't Like:

• The alien AI was comically bad. In one not very exciting phase of the game, we were disarmed and had to sneak by a bunch of explosive aliens. It was tense until we realized that even if you stood in front of the alien and constantly blocked its path, it still wasn't going to do anything. When we were armed, the bad guys would frequently run around aimlessly while we shot them.
• The enemies were not deadly. It was almost impossible to get killed in this game, and it was virtually impossible for the party to wipe. In the rare event an alien decided to attack a player, the alien ran forward far slower than a marine back-peddled.
• It was hard to tell if we were in a "run for our lives the enemy is invincible" scripted boss fight, or if we were in the "finally we're going to stand our ground and shoot the boss for a long time" boss fight. We were slow to figure out we were in a "run" boss fight at one point. The huge alien monster kept slowly running around and one-shotting us. We were able to resurrect each other faster than it could one-shot us though. So, we sat around rezzing and shooting for several minutes before we realized we were on the wrong track. This brings up the next issue.
• All the monsters took way too much fire to bring down. The basic alien that you have to kill by the hundreds took about 30 rounds to kill. It would sit there hopping around and walking aimlessly while we unloaded on it.

Other Reviews

• Ratings Overview by Nick on Feb 16, 2013