10 Lies Video Games Could Never Recover From
2. Aliens: Colonial Marines - A Game So Bad It Got Sued
A game based on the legendary 1986 film Aliens shouldn’t be that hard, but Gearbox also made Duke Nukem Forever, so...
Gearbox’s attempt at an Aliens game was Aliens: Colonial Marines. Moody, atmospheric, and what seemed like pretty tense firefights with a dogged creature hell-bent on killing you, your friends, and anyone who may have ever heard your name in passing. But what we got was...a moody pile of garbage. When it worked it was underwhelming.
When it worked.
Because it didn’t. The Xenomorph AI was so poorly done that the game’s difficulty was more like a Mario Bros. title with moody lighting. And said lighting wasn’t as good as promised, either, due to a marked downgrade in graphics compared to tech demos.
Years after its release it would be discovered the AI impairment was due to a simple typo in the code. But the damage was already done. Sega canceled plans for a Wii U port, and any hope of a sequel died quicker than a space marine in a Xenomorph fist fight. More pressing was the class-action lawsuit over false advertising that resulted in Gearbox throwing Sega under the bus and leaving them to pay the plaintiffs $1.25 million.
Play Aliens: Fireteam Elite, instead, if you really need a space marine fix.