Aliens: Colonial Marines has been a long time coming. The game has been through development hell and finally arrived on current gen platforms, but has the wait been worth it?
The reviews have just gone live, and the game currently sits at an awkward Metascore of 49, 50 and 46 out of 100 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC respectively.
Over on Gamerankings, the anticipated shooter holds scores of 45% for both Xbox 360 and PC, with the PS3 Gamerankings score yet to be aggregated.
Well, it looks like Quinton called it, as Gearbox’s revival curse (which saw Duke Nukem suffer the same fate) looks to have hit Colonial Marines.
But what are the critics saying?
IGN – 4.5/10
“Aliens: Colonial Marines is an uninspired and unfinished game, and not remotely worthy as a sequel to the Aliens film.”
GameSpot – 4.5/10
“Colonial Marines is tone-deaf to what makes the Alien franchise what it is–and what makes the best shooters so exciting.”
GamesRadar – 2.5/5
“Gaming owes a lot to James Cameron’s Aliens films, but despite having its DNA present in just about every science fiction game ever made, Aliens has struggled to get a proper one of its own in the past decade. Aliens: Colonial Marines continues this disappointing trend, making for an experience that’s more Aliens: Resurrection than it is Aliens.”
Aliens Colonial Marines
CVG – 6.2/10
“Sure, it looks like the film on the surface, but you don’t have to dig far to find a game that fails to live up to the license. Surprisingly, it’s the competitive multiplayer that impresses the most.”
OXM – 6/10
“Colonial Marines can’t trade on nostalgia alone, in other words. It needed to offer intense combat against an unstoppable force, deft storytelling that matched the cinematic flair of the films, and some new ideas that could have rejuvenated an overexposed franchise. It needed, in short, to be a better game.”
Eurogamer – 3/10
“Even if it were polished to an acceptable, 2013-standard AAA shine, Colonial Marines would still only be a generic effort coasting on borrowed iconography. Weighed down by so many grindingly obvious mechanical issues, it never even gets off the ground. For a game all about exterminating bugs, it’s a fatal irony.”
OPM – 6/10
“Something playable and occasionally atmospheric, but never extraordinary.”
Aliens Colonial Marines
VideoGamer – 3/5
“Colonial Marines is an uninspired, cynical cash grab with Syd Mead’s and James Cameron’s legendary designs propping it up.”
Edge – 5/10
“The final result is a familiar mismanagement of a rich and potent set of ideas and images. They deserve brighter and more sensitive custodianship than this.”
PC Gamer – 48/100
“A middling shooter with a wildly inconsistent tone. Decent multiplayer is hindered by questionable longevity.”
Aliens Colonial Marines
Destructoid – 2.5/5
“A disaster. Any good qualities it might have had are quickly swallowed up by glitches, poor design choices or a plethora of other issues. The desperate or the gullible may find a glimmer of fun hidden somewhere in the pit.”
NowGamer – 5/10
“Though Aliens: Colonial Marines is technically rough with graphical glitches and lacklustre combat, it’s the waste of the Aliens licence and terrible additions to the canon that really rubs salt into the wounds.”
Polygon – 3/10
“Aliens: Colonial Marines plays like a budget title from early in this console generation. The end result feels craven and exploitative of its source material and the fans that will hopefully know better.”
More on Aliens: Colonial Marines:
Aliens: Colonial Marines PC system requirements revealed
Aliens: Colonial Marines adds female characters to roster
Aliens: Colonial Marines adds a Marines vs Xenomorphs multiplayer mode
Fans start petition to include female soldiers in Aliens: Colonial Marines multiplayer
Aliens: Colonial Marines gets a release date
Aliens: Colonial Marines screenshots crawl in
