I've been watching the first few unofficial reviews of the game on YouTube as the street date was broken in Australia..... and it's not looking good. It also looks like the magazine gamesTM here in the UK are giving it a mighty 4/10 The mainstream press embargo lifts tomorrow upon the game's release... rather suspiciously.
I'm a little disappointed, but I was sort of expecting this. After watching the videos on YouTube some parts look terrible. NPCs seem to sort of glide along whist walking, it's most noticable when they're going up stairs. There's complaints of shockingly low resolution textures, NPCs walking through each other, aliens disappearing into walls.... the list goes on.
Overall it's nowhere near the quality it should be considering the development time and the resources available. It may offer a huge amount of fan-service, but that doesn't mean it's a good game.
I'll just sit patiently and wait for Lego City: Undercover.....
Now I'm scared...of buying the game
I didn't see the Games TM review, but this blog had a summary:
blog post
This one comment had an interesting perspective on the strengths/weaknesses of the game (potential spoilers?):
"CurtJohn
February 11, 2013 at 3:49 pm Reply
Ive played it for a week now, and I have to say I just about completely agree with these review points, sadly. Ive been a massive fan of the franchise my whole life, and I was expecting a promised slab of Kobe beef here, but received a McDicks cheeseburger.
The points I will disagree with are these
Firstly, the Pulse Rifle is a joy to fire. It sounds wonderful and has a good amount of umph to it. But this is moot, since connecting the Alien is very unsatisfying. They dont crack and shatter apart, they just kind of fall over and vanish.
Also, wtf is with the weapon system its stupid. You unlock weapons by leveling up, and you can select from ANY weapon at any time. Which is unnecessary anyway since the Pulse Rifle gets the job done well enough and all the other guns are lacking feeling.
Second point the story is actually excellent. Its set after Alien3, not between Aliens and 3, and it makes 3 a better movie by existing. That was cool. Its populated by very bad voice acting and direction though.
Overall its a very bland point A-to-B shooter on rails. The game never stops holding your hand, like the devs just had no trust that you can figure it out for yourself. Objectives flash constantly, such as Get on elevator. Turn elevator on, find switch. Cut elevator switch free. Pull elevator switch. Get on elevator. Plus youre always with AI that you have to follow, besides one cool sewer level. (What does it tell you that the sewer level might be the best in the game!?)
Very disappointing. Play it on the hardest difficulty and you might get a little fun and challenge out of it."
I guess I too will pass this buy and wait for Lego City: Undercover. This is really really sad