Well, finally finished the campaign part of the game. As I stated in the other thread, my sister and I (both in our 40's) played together on PS3. At first we'd meet up to play campaign together but kept arguing as I wanted to explore every nook and cranny while she wanted to race through it, she's a fan, just not as big a fan as me. So we decided to just play through the campaign separately and then meet up later on, when we'd both completed campaign for some co op. We both REALLY enjoyed the campaign! and I'm glad that I didn't race through it all in one go, I've enjoyed having a game to look forward to playing as and when I can.
Now that I have finished the campaign here are my thoughts on the game itself:
I loved the mash up of ALIEN themes in the soundtrack, right from the start I felt like I was in the Aliens universe.
I didn't care much for the characters or story, a lot of the dialogue had me cringing in places "Ooh Raa" Personally I don't see the point in elaborate character development/story within a game. I prefer a 'premise' rather than a fully fledged story (not that you could call it that) When I buy a game I do so because I want to PLAY a game, not because I want to see a story. That said, I didn't hate the story, it was mildly entertaining, just unnecessary in my opinion.
Loved all the weapons, and the upgrades for them. sound effects are fab! everything from doors opening/closing to tracker/guns/welder etc. The only disappointment was the powerloader effect, rather than the familiar solid whirr/THUD....THUD....THUD that we all recognize it was like tottering along in a pair of stilletos! I also expected to hear the occasional familiar ALIEN screech that was used several times in ALIENS, you know which one I mean. These aren't complaints, just my observations. I don't know if I had my settings set up wrong but I don't think I ever at any point was damaged by acid blood? I'd have liked to have seen more eggs and facehuggers too, perhaps a whole horde of facehuggers! There were some moments within the campaign that were really scary/creepy, the whole sneaking about section in the sewers, great fun! I played through on Soldier difficulty, some moments were really hard that took me ages to get past. Whereas the finale with the Queen was so easy.....I don't know whether I fluked it but it was a piece of piss...wasn't it? There was nothing difficult or challenging about it, yeah, I was a bit disappointed there.
I really didn't like the fact that throughout most of the game you're accompanied by a character. It really started to get on my nerves when exploring and 'securing' an area that O'neil would go over and open the bloody door before I was ready!
To sum things up. despite the odd niggle I really loved playing this game, I felt that it captured the feel of the film, both in atmosphere and action. As a big fan of ALIENS it was a dream come true to play, being able to explore Hadley's Hope was nostalgic for me and there were a lot of nice touches thrown in for the fans. Last night I played along with my sister on HARDENED, it was great! Aliens everywhere! "they're comin' outta the God damn walls!"
looking forward to getting into the online co op now