... weell.. i went to redbox and plunked the 2$ for this bugger..
and ive a few things to say:
btw, SPOILER ALERTS, and some harsh language.
Graphics:
upon getting through the menu (and watching a draw in error on the planets surface
)
im greeted by a scene that looks... well like sheer hell.
like much in the game, SOME of the models were promising, but the textures in general were just plain horrid...
HOWEVER, looking close at them, you could tell there was care and detail put in, especially in the displays, but just compressed down to such a low resolution for consoles it looks like crap. (does it look better on PC like BF3 is? someone get back to me on this)
"organic" structures had such a horrid overkill gloss to them, it reminded me of the shit looking growths that were in doom 3.
other than a few draw in issues when outside (just a blank purple sky... REALLY??) everything else was ok
characters were as bones said... crap.
endless flap jaw dialogue with no facial expressions whatsoever, even in the high-er res cutscenes it was like watching robots have a conversation.. there was only ONE character that would have been acceptable...
Story:
Wasnt bad, but i couldnt bring myself to care about the characters, including when Bella died, because again... no facial expressions from the other characters.. that lacking element just KILLED any storytelling... bring Hicks out of the dead was a stupid idea.. but hey, if your gonna actually hire Michael Beihn to do the voiceover, you might as well magically bring the character back
Sound:
felt like i was watching "Aliens", so that helped take some of the edge off the fact my eyes were being raped by 7 year old texture resolutions and animations..
i dont get what everyone is complaining about on the "too much profanity" thing.
hell, i hear more f-bombs from the characters in firefight in a 45 minute Battlefield3 match than i did in the 6 hours it took for me to polish off the campaign for A:CM
besides, given the extreme circumstances that those marines were in, it would bother me if while under attack, NPCs were saying things like: "oh golly gee! look there, start shooting" as opposed to "Holy F*ck here they come! Light those motherf*ckers up!"
Gameplay:
now comes the ranting...
CLIPPING ERRORS, CLIPPING ERRORS,
DAMN CLIPPING ERRORS!!!!there is NOTHING i hate more in a shooter these days like getting hung up on f*cking geometry and getting lit up in the process.
NUMEROUS times during Wey-Yu engagements did i get caught on waist size to smaller objects, going cover to cover, that were static and could not move, but then again thats what you get for using HAVOK physics instead of springing for the steam engine... hell throw those crap graphics into the steam engine from half life2 and then well have a decent damn game for 8 years ago.
controls were smooth, after making a few adjustments to mimic my BF3 controls, i like how seamless and easy it was to pull the motion detector, and quickly switch back to your weapon, that NEVER got me damaged and i applaud that mechanic.. however i didnt like the fact that i had to lose a dedicated button for grenades.. but ill brush this one off as there wasnt another option.
the lack of a destructible environment was a big let down... let me break something besides facehugger cages and the RARE display panel.
the AI was dumber than a bag of hammers... thats as far as i go on that...
Overall:
Beneath the layers of smudge.. shit.. rushed finalization.. shit beta testing.. and a total disregard for MODERN gaming..
is a decent game.
mostly my gripes are just the graphics, had this been released 6 or 7 years ago, it would have been PERFECT, i enjoyed it to be honest.
we were duped again with flashy awesome trailers that looked NOTHING like the finished product, just like we were with "Did Not Finish".
now i DID NOT get a chance to try out multiplayer, i MIGHT rent it again or just wait till i actually buy it...
YES im actually gonna sink the money to buy it... but in a month when the used copys go for 20$
all in all i give it a solid C+ .... for effort.