AlienGate: The Dark sides to Aliens Colonial Marines

Aliens: Colonial Marines.  It was suppose to be a game done by the same team responsible for the Borderlands games.  It was suppose to be a game of high quality.  But, what happened?


As for Aliens: Colonial Marines, as a total package this should be a solid enough shooter to appease all sorts of fans of the series, but it's also a retread of many outdated and familiar gameplay mechanics. Maybe some day, Gearbox will make an open-world thriller of a game based off exploration of LV-223 in Prometheus. But until that time, I believe that if nothing else, Aliens: Colonial Marines will at the very least be a decent franchise tie-in that continues the canon of the series.

So far, so good, according to Destructoid's Casey Baker.  It seems the game was labeled as a solid game.  But when the game finally came out, the reviews didn't take kindly to it.  Jim Sterling has this to say.


Multiplayer raises the game's stock, but not by much. Certainly not enough to be worth the time of any Aliens fan, when there are cheaper, more professionally produced alternatives on offer. This feels like an amateur's dalliance, not a high profile mainstream release that's been in production since 2006 and heralds itself as an important addition to science fiction history. It works, just about, and it comes across as a game developed to attain that one lowly goal -- to simply work, to achieve the bare minimum quality required to escape being labeled unplayable. The result is something that is, indeed, playable, but nonetheless heartbreaking in its awfulness.

At first, Colonial Marines surprised this lifelong Aliens fan with its ignoble crudity. Then it angered me. Now ... I'm just very, very sad. I don't even feel like ending this with an obligatory movie reference.  (Score: 2.5/10)



Very disappointing indeed.  And it's not just Destructoid.  But other sites like IGN, Gamespot and Game Informer that cited a disappointing review, though EGM gave it a positive review with a whopping 90.

You can find them at Metacritic

But what about the Wii U version?  Well some say that game is the superior one.

However, what alot of people don't identify (again because of general concensus) is that the Wii U version (still very much on the way), done exclusively by Demiurge studio's, is the big version; the joint venture was banking on.

I know what you're thinkin right? "WTF!?, how stupid, no ones adopting the Wii U, what were they thinking?" and you'd be right if it wasn't for the fact that SEGA's industry analysis favoured the U version, in fact the entire joint venture did.
This is because that version ports to the new consoles by Sony & MS (in the future) and thus has the tightest longevity of the product. Instead of a few months in the dying period of current gen systems, they favour a product that will last (potentally) 2-3yrs and allow for sequals.

Moving on, alot if not all the pre-production of the title was handled by Demiurge studio's before they went onto work exclusively on the Wii U version from the ground up.

Sounds kinda fishy if you ask me.  But one tester claims the opposite.

“Oh wow. Yes okay. I was hoping someone would ask this. I have played the WiiU version. The one that is supposedly the best of all of them? It is not. It is the worst. It is a bit of a joke. The WiiU is basically the same game as the console version but with framerate issues, worse texture loading, and horrendously misguided minigames thrown in. You get a ‘scanner’ to scan enemies and get bonus points that aid your harming them. When you cut open doors (which happens a lot in the game) you have a game where you have to keep the heat ‘optimal’. They just add frustration, and take away even more from the fun. We don’t know if it will come out, Sega are conisdering canceling it, but right now its still going.”

The worst version.   As if the 360, PS3 and PC versions were bad enough, the Wii U version happens to be worst.  And you thought the mud on Gearbox software's face wasn't bad enough.  But it seems rumor has it that Gearbox pulled Aliens developers out to work on Borderlands 2


"Gearbox was taking people off the project to put them on Borderlands 1," he says of his time on the job. "This was before the big art style change happened on Borderlands. Our team was getting smaller by the month, making it very difficult to get the game made. Ironically several of the team members were ex-3D Realms people who were saying [paraphrasing] 'Finally, we're going to Gearbox to make Aliens, and we're going to ship a fucking game!' Hah."

According to our man with the inside track, it was later learned that SEGA actually canceled Colonial Marines, deciding to cut its losses after such a long development cycle. 

"At some point in 2008, SEGA temporarily pulled the plug on the game," he said. "They caught wind of Gearbox shifting resources (despite still collecting milestone checks as if the team were full size) and lying to SEGA AND 2K about the number of people working on each project. This led to the round of layoffs at Gearbox in late 2008."

Did Gearbox go too far in destroying the reputation of Aliens: Colonial Marines?  Were both SEGA and 2K games lied to?  Why is Randy Pitchfork of Gearbox software not talking about this game?  AlienGate: The rise and fall of Aliens: Colonial Marines.  What really went wrong?

Works Cited
http://www.destructoid.com/hands-on-with-aliens-colonial-marines-240418.phtml#PhlLvjdrhqOv3xzd.99">Destructoid: Hands on With Aliens Colonial Marines
http://www.destructoid.com/review-aliens-colonial-marines-244276.phtml#PTZTOwJi6Fw0LUDL.99"> Destructoid: Aliens Colonial Marines Review
TimeGate Studio Forums
DSO Gaming: Aliens Colonial Marines Tester Spills the Beans: SEGA were well aware the game sucks
http://www.destructoid.com/developer-gearbox-lied-to-sega-2k-over-colonial-marines-245986.phtml#PqUdHCCO4SV1wtbe.99 "> Destructoid: Developer: Gearbox lied to SEGA, 2K over Colonial Marines