I disagree with you big time. I loved ACM. I'll explain why. I do not think the game was perfect, but its closer to trying to get the feel of Aliens more than any AvP game. It certainly isn't anywhere NEAR as bad as its reputation. I've played far worse games that weren't treated with the amount of hostility this got. That said,
Kept you alone for 95% of the game.
Which is a big problem. In Aliens, all the marines were kept together. There should be no contrived solo stuff in an Aliens game. I've always hated that, & it turns the game into more of a generic shooter.
Kept the focus on Aliens 90% of the time, You only fight the Predator once and you fight robots around the end.
Actually, no. It is focused on aliens solely for the first two & a half levels. Then on level 3, it focuses on those extremely cheesy robots that self destruct for quite a bit until I think the last level. This game is just as guilty as ACM.
Had an intense battle with the Alien queen.
Which was quite ridiculous to have at the start. And although these are more aesthetic problems, the blue frozen looking style really looked stupid. And the Queen doesn't move if I recall correctly. I also don't like how the game referred to it as "the matriarch" or whatever.
Alien AI was smart, they don't just charge you, they use the shadows, walls, ceilings, and they try to sneak up on you.
I've seen numerous instances of the aliens moving really slowly on walls & ceilings, & I've seen them charge. It was nothing special.
It's not canon to the films and even if it was, it would of been a way better story in the film universe because at least it doesn't change the lore of the film series.
Firstly, it is would've, which is a contraction of the words "would have." "Would of" makes no sense & is stupid. Secondly, the story was crap. More Paul W.S. Anderson inspired nonsense than Ridley Scott/James Cameron inspired. Plenty of awful & bland level designs. Pyramids? Temples? If I want this historical setting, I'd play Uncharted. In an Aliens game, I want derelict space stations & planets.
Decent Marine characters.
What decent characters? Your character never spoke, had no name (Rookie doesn't count), & virtually ALL the marines had no character to speak of. Anyone you came across pretty much died in scripted situations only seconds later. Tequila is the only character that was remotely developed.
About 40% of the game is Alien focus, the remaining 60% is fighting HUMANS.
Actually, its about 50/50. I think its about 3 levels of only aliens, 3 levels of only humans, & the rest were mixed. Not too different really from AvP 2010. I understand the criticisms of human enemies, but AvP 2 did the same thing, where you were imprisoned & had to escape by killing humans. Nobody criticises that game. If I want The Shawshank Redemption, I would watch it.
You have a partner for most of the game (O'Neal) who has terrible AI
It makes sense to be part of a marine team. No where in Aliens did Apone order someone like Hudson to go in alone. As for the A.I. I thought it was decent. Helpful to me as being around other marines put me at ease in tense situations, & there was one instance where I just ran ahead. An Alien was sneaking up behind me, & O'Neal called out my name. I turned around & noticed it about to attack & we both killed it.
There was one time Cruz ordered me to press the switch in Operations, but I just stood there looking at the hole Hudson was dragged down through in the movie. I was about to go activate the switch when I saw Cruz did it for me. I've also seen a couple of times the group of marines taking a different route to the objective point (the start of No Hope in Hadley's in particular). Minor things, but I liked it. It does give a bit of difference, whereas in AvP 2010, any marine you come across dies in the same scripted manner.
They made it a Call of Duty clone, this should not happen with any Alien game, period.
I don't play those rubbish games, so I can't comment. Sorry.
Besides The Raven portion of the game, there is zero build up, terror, and respect for the xenomorphs.
I disagree. The Hope in Hadley's level I found rather tense, same with the second time you're in the Derelict.
In the film, I always get caught up in the intensity of the first battle in the Atmosphere Process that after they escape & put up barricades in the colony, I get a slight sense of relief, that things are safe (for the time being). No AvP has ever recreated that feeling for me. In ACM though, on my first play through (I played on Ultimate Bad Ass mode in a dark room at night with the sound up), I had so much trouble escaping on the dropship in level 3, so when I finally got past it & reached Hadley's Hope, I had that same feeling I just talked about.
These AvP games don't show respect for the aliens either. Frankly, it comes off as rather arrogant to me that creators of AvP products seem to think that neither license is good on its own, so they have to combine them in such a stupid comic book like manner to make it better. And the films by Scott & Cameron are NOT comic book like at all. Some people whinge about Cameron dumbing the aliens down, but its actually comic book nonsense & AvP cross over nonsense that does it.
The Xenomorph is one of the scariest & most disturbing monsters in film. It is such a slap in the face to combine it with another movie, except this one is just a dumb, brainless, boring, derivative, unimaginative piece of tripe.
No, Predator is not a good film. Its such a stupid monster, & the movie has no imagination. I loved it as a kid, but now, I can't stand it. This cross over should never have happened.
The story is cannon and is insulting to the films lore. First LV-426 is not destroyed (which it was in Aliens), Second, Cpl. Dwayne Hicks is ALIVE and ON THE PLANET, and for those who don't know, it was shown in Aliens that Hicks left on the ship with Ripley, Newt, and Bishop. Also in Alien³ it was confirmed that everyone besides Ripley died in the ship crash.
While LV426 not being completely destroyed is understandable, it is no worse than the egg on the Sulaco bullcrap that Alien 3 created. Not to mention, the game based on Carpenter's The Thing had Outpost 31 not being entirely destroyed. It was a creative decision as a starting point, & I found it was a really unsettling place to be.
I had the same feeling with this. I found it easier to swallow that the colony wasn't entirely destroyed than the idiots that made Alien 3 putting an egg on the Sulaco, even though Aliens made it very clear that the Queen had no opportunity to lay one. It is insulting the intelligence of the audience.
As for Hicks, the Stasis Interrupted DLC does give an explanation for his survival, which I thought was reasonable. Again, I can understand your criticism of LV426, but I loved it. I loved being in that unsettling colony. It was brilliantly recreated, as were all the locations seen in the movie. The new parts were also very fitting IMO.
AvP 2010 had almost nothing like the movie, except for the first level or two. I also didn't like the reddish look of the planet you see in the first level. Then you get stupid places like forests, temples & pyramids, which are not scary environments & do not fit the Aliens universe.
There is no reason to pay attention to the motion tracker due to the fact that Aliens just charge at you and barley use the shadows or surrounding areas.
The lurker A.I. was actually very good. Facehuggers I thought were a pain in the ass to see. And at least this game actually had a proper motion tracker, unlike the generic HUD one in AvP games. And, the one in AvP 2010 I thought was terrible due to its transparent nature. It was hard to see what was going on on it.
Alien queen battle is so anti climatic.
For me, I found it really intense. Again, I played on the hardest difficulty on my first playthrough, & as I don't play shooters much (they bore me), & I play away from the TV (makes it harder to see distant enemies), I died a lot. So when I got to the Queen, I was really unsettled in having to go out there & press the switches.
You are entitled to an opinion, but how is this any worse than the final boss fight in AvP 2010? Lance Henriksen in some pyramid thing? Really stupid. This game was a love letter to Paul W.S. Anderson's rubbish, rather than being faithful to the good films (Alien & Aliens).
ACM was no where near as bad as its reputation. The game suffered from extreme hype (Randy Pitchford bragging about it being THE game fans had been waiting 25 years for), an extremely greedy company (Gearbox outsourcing the game so they can focus on Borderlands & Duke Nukem. The latter which is what should have been outsourced) not bothering to do any proper work, & Sega being too incompetent to handle it properly.
Obviously, it was a troubled development cycle. How is this any worse than Alien 3? This rubbish gets a free pass these days, particularly from pseudo intellectual Fincher fanboys. Fincher deserves some blame. Studio interference is not an excuse for a boring, derivative mess of a film. To praise this awful film, but slag on ACM, is a bit hypocritical.
Other things I liked about the game:
No AvP nonsense. None of those games actually bothered to get the feel of Aliens. This game did succeed in parts, with the visual style (I'm not talking about graphics, but the actual visuals like colour schemes, designs etc), & certain levels like No Hope in Hadley's, The Raven, Hope in Hadley's really were fantastic sections that did quite well in recreating the feel of the movie.
The sound. With the exception of the lack of the iconic alien death scream, the sound & music were incredible.
The attention to detail for movie stuff. Things like the Hadley's Hope sign, & a red bandanna on Vasquez'z smart gun. Fan service obviously, but just small touches I loved.
Playable movie characters in multiplayer. I had always dreamed about being able to play as marines from the movie, but didn't expect it to happen. I had plenty of awesome games of Escape mode playing as them. And of course, playing Bug Hunt on the tribute level (which is a highly detailed & faithful reproduction of Hadley's Hope) is pure joy, especially when playing as one of the movie characters.
Now, although I did enjoy the game, like I said at the beginning, I don't think it is perfect. The story wasn't as good as it could have been, but it is certainly better than Alien 3.
Some of the later levels after The Raven aren't that interesting, but once you get back to Hadley's Hope & explore the Derelict the second time, it picks up at those parts IMO.
I enjoyed having Hicks as part of my team. This is obviously subjective & controversial as they brought him back, but like I said, I thought the explanation was reasonable enough. And in defence of Gearbox & Sega, they were required to keep Alien 3 canon. So, having to create an Aliens sequel with this joke of a film in mind was going to be extremely challenging to work properly. If Gearbox actually bothered to work on the game like they bragged to be, then they could have done a better job.
Playing as the aliens being mandatory in multiplayer. I've never enjoyed playing as the aliens. I find that knowing their abilities & how they see really decreases their fear factor. Making them mandatory to play as was a big pain.
I hated how in Escape mode (I've had some awesome & intense games), being teamed up with low level marine players up against high level aliens that exploit rupture. It is unfair & bullcrap.
Dumbing down the power of marine arsenal for balance. This is a joke. With rupture cheats, the weaker weapons make it worse.
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Snake_MacReady82
8 years ago
While I enjoy the AvP franchise (except for the bulk of both movies) and this game, I also really like A:CM. Still don't understand the hate for it. Watched the E3 trailer and demo after completing the game and thought "So what? This is everbody's excuse for being butt hurt over the final product?"
In addition to what most of what you stated above, two more problems I had with the Marine campaign in AvP was that 1) you cannot crouch, despite the fact that your enemies can. And 2) you can only shoot from the hip, instead of properly aiming your gun.
Overall, I'd have to say I like AvP 2010 slightly better than A:CM. What can I say? Being able to play as the Alien or Predator is cool! But A:CM is way better than the Marine Campaign on it's own. Weapon customization and selection alone makes it better, in addition to being a true to the core Aliens game. And since I not actually very good with FPSs, playing as an Alien in Versus is the only way I can get a decent kill/death ratio.
Thit and thpin!
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