The Alien franchise has seen some really cool things come out of it, and that only makes sense. The setting is perfectly suited to suspense, action, mystery, and horror all in equal measure. Games like Aliens: Colonial Marines have an excellent starting point to work from. Sega has announced another game for the franchise, but I cannot help but ask… why anyone should care?
Unfortunately, most of the good things it has seen are in graphic novels and (a couple) movies. The vast majority of media bearing the Alien(s) name end up being garbage for a multitude of reasons, of which ‘terrible writing’ is only the first.
The most recent foray into the Alien universe was Aliens: Colonial Marines, and saying it was a disappointment is about as close to definitive as understatement gets. The game was put together under Gearbox’s name, with lots of people coming out and pointing fingers every which way once it became clear what a shit sandwich the game actually was. There is one thing a great many people seem to be overlooking when talking about the new game Sega is doing for the series.
Colonial Marines was bad, but the scandal wasn’t in the game itself.
No one likes buying a game with one expectation, only to get home and find a completely different experience. Aliens: Colonial Marines was a bad game, but it was not Gearbox’s failure to craft a decent shooter that caused a media uproar leading to actual legal action. If the game had just been bad, the noise would have died down within a few days. The real problem was how the game’s advertising had used an earlier build of the title utilizing vastly superior graphics with the claim of being in-game footage.
Gearbox (or whoever you want to point the finger at) may have screwed the pooch making the game, but it was the way the game’s launch and advertising was handled that was a true betrayal of the fans. We can handle bad games–it is not exactly the first time even just this one franchise has been served up a terrible offering. We should not have to worry about being lied to about it until we pay up.
Sega was the company called to court to answer for the advertising, and Sega was the company legally forced to change the ads. We have already seen proof the company is willing to lie to us slightly more than they are legally permitted to in order to get our money. Why should anyone be willing to forget that for literally the very next game the company brings to the franchise?
I will wait until the game comes out and we can see for certain what it is like before I get my hopes up.
Published: Dec 9, 2013 07:25 am