I get what Gearbox Software was trying for. I really do. Taking the Alien franchise back to LV-426 for a Fanservice-laden romp through familiar locales and setpieces was an amazing idea, but it's clear that the production team were either tied down by development timelines or they just didn't seem to know how to marshal all the disparate elements together in a way that was fun or interesting.
If you are familiar with the AVP games, you already know the story. Colonial Marines are dispatched to a backwater planet to investigate "strange signal x", and come across a massacre and eventually discover the titular xenomorphs before trying to escape. It's bog-standard, even with the heaping dose of continuity nods and references.
The first level alone is proof enough of this. "Distress" has you entering the USS Sulaco and finding a xeno hive, then having to fight through the infested decks with your wingman, Keyes. Despite the fact that the dev team took great pains to replicate the design and interior of the ship from production sketches, it's still a corridor shooter with bullet-sponge xenos that have laughably pathetic AI and run at you with seemingly no regard for stealth or intelligence.
Despite the attempts to give the Marines characterization, it never works and they never come across as anything more than one-note caricatures. You don't care about Bella, especially because you know she's dead meat when you first meet her. O'Neill is equal parts annoying and infuriating, with his AI pathfinding deciding to take a holiday every so often. Ashly Burch's attempts to give Reid some "badass" moments come across as half-hearted. Keyes is the gruff authority figure from any war film you've seen in the last three decades.
Having human enemies wasn't a bad thing on paper, but they're prevalent far too much, and the entire Wey-Yu subplot really has nothing to do with anything beyond Hicks' survival. They act at the speed of plot, somehow setting up an operation where they harvested a Queen and are pumping out eggs, yet are casually dismantled by a handful of grunts and are never explored in any detail until the final cutscene.
There are a few amusing elements (gun customization, the hidden weapons, some of the Easter eggs), but they're so few and far between that it just feels like a chore to play this.
Hot Garbage (spoilers)
I get what Gearbox Software was trying for. I really do. Taking the Alien franchise back to LV-426 for a Fanservice-laden romp through familiar locales and setpieces was an amazing idea, but it's clear that the production team were either tied down by development timelines or they just didn't seem to know how to marshal all the disparate elements together in a way that was fun or interesting.
If you are familiar with the AVP games, you already know the story. Colonial Marines are dispatched to a backwater planet to investigate "strange signal x", and come across a massacre and eventually discover the titular xenomorphs before trying to escape. It's bog-standard, even with the heaping dose of continuity nods and references.
The first level alone is proof enough of this. "Distress" has you entering the USS Sulaco and finding a xeno hive, then having to fight through the infested decks with your wingman, Keyes. Despite the fact that the dev team took great pains to replicate the design and interior of the ship from production sketches, it's still a corridor shooter with bullet-sponge xenos that have laughably pathetic AI and run at you with seemingly no regard for stealth or intelligence.
Despite the attempts to give the Marines characterization, it never works and they never come across as anything more than one-note caricatures. You don't care about Bella, especially because you know she's dead meat when you first meet her. O'Neill is equal parts annoying and infuriating, with his AI pathfinding deciding to take a holiday every so often. Ashly Burch's attempts to give Reid some "badass" moments come across as half-hearted. Keyes is the gruff authority figure from any war film you've seen in the last three decades.
Having human enemies wasn't a bad thing on paper, but they're prevalent far too much, and the entire Wey-Yu subplot really has nothing to do with anything beyond Hicks' survival. They act at the speed of plot, somehow setting up an operation where they harvested a Queen and are pumping out eggs, yet are casually dismantled by a handful of grunts and are never explored in any detail until the final cutscene.
There are a few amusing elements (gun customization, the hidden weapons, some of the Easter eggs), but they're so few and far between that it just feels like a chore to play this.