A rough look at the differences between the final game and the demo

A critical light has been cast on the industry in the past week as both consumers and press have felt cheated by Aliens: Colonial Marines. The game, released on February 12th, received mostly negative reviews from the press. Most outlets criticized the game for its lackluster campaign, underwhelming graphics, and broken nature.

Normally this wouldn’t be a huge issue – we see previews of games all the time before they are released and are able to gauge a game before it hits store shelves. Even here at eXophase we have previewed a number of games well before they are released, especially around E3.

However, Aliens: Colonial Marines has played a rather deceptive game on us. Several news outlets were provided with closed-door previews (hands-off) of the game ahead of its release. These outlets would then return and write a preview of the game based on their experience. The reporters were told they were seeing “alpha” game code which was not representative of the final game. Whenever we hear this we always assume that the game may change, most likely for the better. This was not the case with Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Videogamer’s detailed looked at some of the differences

The demo provided to the press was apparently pre-scripted and pre-rendered footage. It did not represent accurate in-game footage like they were deceived to believe. The game’s particle effects, lighting, fog and shadows all portrayed a dark and tense atmosphere. In the final version of the game, many of these were either dialed down or removed completely  The game’s lighting was radically different, presenting an entirely different atmosphere than what was shown previously. Many particle effects were eliminated entirely as well.

Did you also know that you can clip through characters? Just walk right through any NPC in the game and you will find yourself inside of them. This is unacceptable, especially when coming from a veteran game development studio such as Gearbox Software.

In a growing industry which demands players to pre-order games to receive bonus in-game content, content that many think should be included with all purchases, deception like this is unacceptable. How do we know that the game we’ve been following for 5 years is going to deliver its promises, even with something as basic as the game’s fundamental atmosphere. We can’t even rely on the press previews to correctly represent the game.

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