Aliens: Colonial Marines *spoilers*

[Neo]

I was honestly surprised at the level of hate this game has generated. I must be alone in the fact that I loved it. The game does a great job recreating the atmosphere of Aliens, and to a lesser extent, Alien. The amount of effort the developers took in making the locations match those from the movies was nothing short of amazing.

I'm obsessed with the first two movies, so getting to actually visit the same places that Ripley and co. were at was really fucking cool. The level of detail and fan service is insane. For example, they had the correct number of rounds remaining on the sentry turrets, for God's sake! (It was 4 and 0, in case you're wondering). They show the grate pulled aside from where they escaped into the ventilation shaft, there's the spot where Hudson got pulled under the floor, you can see the marks from Bishop's knife trick, etc. I felt a sense of reverence at getting to see these places and collect the fallen marine's dog tags and weapons.

But most importantly, Hicks lives! They finally corrected that absolute travesty known as the beginning of Alien 3. And the reason for the egg getting on board the Sulaco makes more sense now. True, the fact that Newt is still dead is retarded, but I can live with that. It was the sin of killing off of Hicks that could never be forgiven.

People say the motion tracker is useless, but I disagree. I used it all the time, especially against the mercenaries. It's good to know how many of them there are and what their positions are. Otherwise you're going to get your ass shot.

Now, there were a few crappy elements that I didn't like, and that led to most of the bad reviews. Your AI teammates are incredibly dumb. They would let a xenomorph run right past them and attack me. A little help, please! Also, because they were important to the story, they could never die. That was a little weird. There would be times when one would get stuck in front of an auto turret, taking round after round while continuously grunting until I found a way to shut the thing off.

The upgrade system is cool, but the presence of the "legendary" weapons was confusing. Was I supposed to be using those at certain times or are they just for nostalgia? How does their firepower and accuracy compare to the standard weapons I have? Who knows.

Oh and the animations weren't as smooth as the trailers lead me to believe. Umm, I think that's about it. Other than those things the game is BAD ASS.

Multiplayer: No comment, didn't try it.

7/10