Really enjoyed the game, tells a good story and has a great setup!
It goes a but crazy with some of the plot at times, which may turn off some of the more purist Aliens fans out there, you might even say it would alienate some fans. Yes, pun intended. Personally i like that the story took a bit of a spin from the same-old-same-old,. I still think it stuck within the limits of whats possible and expected in the Aliens universe, seen crazier things in the comic books, so didn't phaze me. Wouldn't want to spoil the experience, but i want to say that I was initially surprised, but honestly liked seeing where it was going!
The gameplay itself feels tight, and the tension is high! It has just the right amount of unit and equipment management without making you exhausted from micromanaging absolutely everything, and the combat feels fluid and challenging. Shooting is mostly determined by the AI of your troops, with some exceptions like special abilities, while majority of your actions are how and when they use their equipment and where to position them, and feels very rewarding once you get the hang of it. The maps tend to throw you into enough situations to get into an unfamiliar setup that you must adapt to, like moving from cramped corridors to open areas with little to no bottlenecks, or places with patrolling enemies forcing you to scout and keeping an eye out to get an edge. It does a good job not just repeating the same flow each time, although there naturally will be more than a few corridors, but they're fun and i don't think it ever overstayed its welcome before moving on to something different.
But all in all, i was honestly left with wanting more..
Wish the game had an easy to use map editor for the community to play around with and share creations with one another, would have loved to see fans recreate familiar settings, or get creative with new ideas, and see how far they could push the editor to its limit! would have made for a great sandbox skirmish experience too!
Well, it is what it is, but i can still highly recommend the game, whether you're an Aliens fan or not, it's great fun getting attached to your troops, and the feeling of losing the ones you fought to keep alive and strong hurts, but the consequences are part of what makes it so compelling to try harder, and actually make losses matter.
If i had to put it into fewer words, i think it's a game that had more potential than it ends up with in the end. Would have loved seeing custom maps and missions shared by players, maybe even dabbled into it myself! But maybe there's room for that in a sequel if one ever comes around, which i hope!
Would recommend picking it up on a sale, and also leaving an honest opinion on this page to inspire and give feedback to the devs, because i think they desearve to know what they did well, and what feels missing!
To the dev team, Thanks for a great experience, loved the cutscenes! I can tell you love the world and the setting of Aliens, love seeing more colonized worlds that aren't just small towns but actual cities! Hope you're all doing well, and that another game comes around one day!
