Aliens: Colonial Marines is Getting an Internet Smackdown

I guess we can all forget our dream of an awesome Aliens game experience for now, because Colonial Marines will likely not be the title that offers it. There are a lot of bad games released every year, but few have received the ire of the online community like Aliens: Colonial Marines has in the past 24 hours.

To preface, it is not our intention to “pile it on” and add to this internet shaming (although much of it is quite humorous), we are just huge fans of the Alien franchise, along with Gearbox as a developer, and are simply disappointed with the game….kind of like this seemingly despondent Xenomorph from A:CM. Yeah, that just happened.

Lets start from the beginning. One of the first qualms players voiced were the obvious differences between the demo that was shown last year and the actual game. Here is a good analysis of the before and after of the PC version:

The other major issue that many have voiced has to do with the terrible A.I. and buggy experience. There was immediate backlash, and, as you can see in this hilarious user video, they have a pretty strong case…

And thirdly, is the game even fun to play? Considering you can run through levels without shooting ANYTHING, is the game even worth completing?

I dont want to speak for others, but that doesn not seem like the type of experience anyone wants.

The backlash got so bad that employees at Gearbox have felt obligated to explain what exactly happened on Reddit. When developers are apologizing (or rationalizing) it is usually a sure-fire sign that there are deep problems with the game. It does look like SEGA and TimeGate had a great deal to do with the lackluster finished product, but Gearbox is the one that has to answer for it.

We may wanna just stay away from LV-426

This type of negative response usually does not happen for bad titles, but a company like Gearbox should be (and is) held to a higher standard. You’d think they would have learned after Duke Nukem Forever, but at least that game was generally expected to be bad. Aliens is a much more cherished IP, so even with the development hell that this game has gone through, a broken game is unacceptable. Especially from the company that brought us the glorious Borderlands franchise.

Even top developers deserve the people’s wrath at times, and I guess all this negative press is just the interweb’s way of letting them know that Aliens: Colonial Marines simply does not cut it as a $60 purchase. But it is a bit easier to rip a company that you know has made a serious amount of money over the past few years. At least A:CM wont bankrupt Gearbox! Lets just hope they learn from this experience.

Have you been able to play Aliens: Colonial Marines yet? What are your thoughts on the game and why Gearbox was willing to release a game that was substandard?