In one form or another, Aliens: Colonial Marines has been in development for over a decade; initially starting out life as a PS2 FPS that was eventually cancelled, it's been a long journey to arrive at Gearbox Software's final product. One of the year's most hyped shooters, Colonial Marines aims to differentiate itself from the glut of uninspired movie spin-offs by boasting a seal of approval from 20th Century Fox, and therefore apparently having a legitimate tie-in to the series. However, Colonial Marines is one of the most disappointing games in recent times; as a huge fan of the Alien universe, it's dispiriting to see it treated in such a lazy, bare bones manner, for though the game manages to capture some of the atmosphere of the movies - specifically the admittedly fitting sound design - it's severely malnourished in almost every other area. Essentially, execution is the problem; this is a great idea for a game, albeit one that needs a more delicate touch than its frantic action setting might suggest. Here are 10 reasons why Aliens: Colonial Marines sucks...
10. Dated Graphics
To be fair, Colonial Marines is by no stretch of the imagination a
bad looking game, but given its long gestation period (sorry, couldn't resist), it's clear that little has been done to keep the graphics up to date in the last few years. Locations, though ably scouted from the movie sets themselves, are blandly textured and lacking detail, while character animations lag severely behind what even other FPS games were offering near the start of the current generation. PC gamers will benefit from the slightly added kick that added graphical options allow, yet one need only observe videos of the console version to see how even on its own standing it looks sub-par. In 2012, with the next generation of gaming fast approaching, games should be pushing the existing hardware to the limit, but sadly this seems to be a lazy case of settling for whatever graphical outfitting they decided on a few years ago.