Aliens: Colonial Marines Tester Sheds Light on the Game’s Dark History
Hardly a week since its release the internet has been swept up by the behind-the-scenes controversy encircling Gearbox Software’s licensed abomination, Aliens: Colonial Marines.
Following the anonymous allegation that Gearbox outsourced the majority of the title to different studios, namely TimeGate Studios (Section 8, F.E.A.R. Files), a recently yanked Reddit AMA with a “confirmed” Sega employed tester has been brought to light. Obviously breaking their non-disclosure agreement in two, user “soetester” not only says Colonial Marines was handed over to TimeGate early on, but also claims Gearbox was using Sega’s Aliens financing to secretly fund both Borderlands installments.
More shocking, soetester says the title didn’t degrade from the promising E3 2012 demo that sent fans’ hopes skyward. In fact, the tester alleges Sega never got their hands on anything like that demo, that the gameplay shown wasn’t even running on Unreal 3 (like the final game), and lambasts the footage as “100% false advertising.”
While the AMA was removed – giving it an air of inadvertent legitimacy – you can still view a capture of the session here. Below are some highlights:
- The game wasn’t released under the pretense it was anything more than awful. By the time Gearbox turned its attention on it “the damage was done.”
- Sega only received it to test in the middle of last year. Unwilling to delay it further (and lose more money), the game released as you see it today.
- soetester posits Sega may take legal action against Gearbox.
- The Wii U version may very well be “the worst” of them all. Framerate issues, slow texture loading, and poorly conceived GamePad mini-games may keep the Wii U A:CM from seeing the light of day.
- Gearbox “did much more of the game than [TimeGate]” evidently. soetester admits TimeGate’s contribution left the game in a horrid state, though.
- Cutscenes better explaining some of the game’s shittier plot choices were cut; interactive parts of the game including a proper, playable introduction to the marines and the Sephora were folded into cutscenes.
- In response to how much the tester enjoyed the game: “I hate it.”
In more hopeful news, the Sega tester also claims they’ve seen a build of Creative Assembly’s Alien game which is intended for next-gen hardware. The tester says their game’s shaping up to be dark, atmospheric, and “slow paced (in a good way)." I think after this disaster, the gaming public would openly embrace more horror and less horrible.
If you need another stern warning against Colonial Marines, check out my review.