Is it perfect? No.
Is it a bit wonky? Yes.
Worth the 50€ pricetag? It is fun and has quite a bit of content, but it certainly has a lot of very rough edges. Comparing it to other games, that come at lower price points, I would say "it is not". Everyone has to judge by themselves, how much 50 € is to them and what they would be willing to spend it on or not.
Animations look stiff like hell.
Voice acting seems to be done by one man and one woman and for some characters they shifted the pitch. I look at you Asian woman with the Mickey Mouse tune in the voice. Really awful.
There is quite a bit of framedrops, even if it runs pretty well in terms of average FPS. The usual Unreal Engine framedrops.
The controls feel a bit like from 20 years ago.
The menus are a ♥♥♥♥ show, totally unimmersive and really hard to read the more important information from the stuff showing on your screen. As if total amateurs made the game and had no time to put much thought into it.
And the god-awful "conversations" and cutscenes, that try to tell something, that I would not call a "story"... They should have simply left those out. Better story would have been: "You're a badass marine in a desparate situation and now go slay loads of Aliens". Done. Would have been miles better. Better than having to push the skip-button 100× between each mission. But I guess Hotshots have to be punished in between each mission.
Drop in and out during missions does not work on PC. When someone leaves the game, you have to finish with bots until the end.
In general it does feel like 4 people made the game and had too little time and resources on their hand.
Buuuut: The gameplay is fun! Once you are out there with 3 others and slay Aliens, it does work. It is simply fun. Good presentation of Aliens vs Marines. Classes are distinctive and meaningful, guns are diverse and pack a punch, there are many mechanics, which all have good reason for existence and which contribute to success or unsuccessful mission outcome. Difficulties are well tuned, mission modifiers are cool, lots of variety in missions, even if most of them look and feel pretty similar.
Many different kinds of Aliens. Big tank ones, small crawly ones, exploders, spitters, mini-bosses, facehuggers and so on and so on. And the androids are enjoyable too and break up the constant Alien action.
Weapon stats are cool. Each stat has a reason and meaningful impact.
And I have to tell, the options are great! You can tune many, many things to your liking. Interface, controls, camera, everything. I wish more games did that. That is such a small thing, but it has such a great impact on making the game enjoyable.
I never played the first game, so I cannot compare. But I do like this one. Not perfect, but with a couple of patches they could remove many of the negative points.
I recommend to anyone, who enjoys WWZ. But be warned: WWZ is MUCH, MUCH more polished and a LOT smoother experience. But it soothes my itch for more.
