Modders Fix Aliens: Colonial Marines

Aliens: Colonial Marines is a bad game. Not in that ‘heavily flawed, but still defend-able in the right contexts’ kind of way that Resident Evil 6 is, or the ‘maybe it just isn’t for everyone’ way that most of the Western developed Silent Hill games are. Aliens: Colonial Marines is an ugly, barely functioning mess that spits in the face of fans of the Alien franchise and average gamers alike. Sold entirely on lies and misleading fake “gameplay” screenshots and videos, Aliens: Colonial Marines is one of the worst games I’ve played in recent memory, and it sealed the deal for me never giving a dime of my money to Gearbox ever again.

But there may be light at the end of the tunnel for those of you who purchased it way back in 2013 on PC.

Modder TemplarGFX has released a mod titled ACM Overhaul, which does exactly what that name would imply. Overhauling the Xenomorph AI (which was comically bad in the original release) to be faster, more aggressive, and with tweaked health to make up for it. Overhauling the in-game visuals to create better atmosphere, and more realistic environments. Bodies no longer disappear instantly, and blood stays as well.

TemplarGFX went into more detail about ACM Overhaul on Moddb, stating:

“Experience Aliens: Colonial Marines how it should have been when it came out. Heavily balanced and play-tested for exciting, suspenseful and most importantly, FUN gameplay. Xenomorph’s have seen the most work fixing their behavior and mechanics to make them truly terrifying foes to face, dramatically shifting the tone of the entire campaign. This State of the Bad-A** Art modification for ACM reworks, reprograms and rebalances Xeno AI, Human AI, Weapon Mechanics, Ballistics, Animations, Shaders, Particles, Decals, Lighting, and engine features to get the best out of the game possible.”

This is awesome news for a game that should have been great- or at the very least not the disappointing (or rage-inducing, depending on how much you bought into the marketing) mess that was sold on store shelves. I really love the idea that even the worst of games could see new life through dedicated modding on PC, perhaps the same could be done for even legendarily bad games like Ride to Hell: Retribution 1% or Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing. Although honestly, those games are almost a spectacle that doesn’t need changing.

[Source]