I'm a snob when it comes to my Alien franchise stuff. I dislike most of the movies. Alien and Aliens are the only ones where I didn't get a crippling attack of the cringe at some point in them if not most the way through. Worse still is almost all of the games. This game surprised me very pleasantly. I base my rate of the game primarily on the story it told and how well it told it. I would say it failed a little bit as far as never really making anyone you pick up along the way any part of the story with the exception of one guy. Like you pick up a marine you find in a jail who has a cool voice personality, a bit of a back story and would have made for variety in your squad line up if they had just given him some lines to say when you include him in a squad. There are many such cases, but you only get the same 4 people repeating the same 8 lines. So what you get really is a fairly fleshed out and compelling story told by 2 people with 4 supporting stretched out over the whole game. Still, it is a great effort solidly done.
Game wise it is pretty damn good. There is a fat amount of game here, more than enough variety in environment, decent graphics and animations, smooth running with a level progress that makes sense. Hats off to the artist here. There wasn't any feeling of copy paste drag. The alien environments were nicely modeled and textured and it couldn't have been easy.
I encountered a few bugs that made me restart from the last save, but only the type where some action conflict caused it, so it could be avoided. No mystery crashes.
I only wish that the alien spawns weren't so generic. The warning symbols for where the spawn point are makes it seem cheap, and it would have been more hectic not knowing. I could have done without the notifications of onslaughts coming other than Harper and the motion tracker going ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Fewer aliens with less situational awareness would have been better.
The tool system wasn't really cool either. Example being that having a hacker should have exempted you from needing a key card or code you would otherwise need to find on a body or in a computer. He serves no point other than having the drone as long as you have a smartass in the squad. Either way it's gonna cost you a wrench. This is not evident the first time you play. The welder should have had X amount of charge that is depleted every time you make or cut a weld.

My only real complaint is the frequency of too few voice lines. If I hear that dude say "easy squad, stress kills you just as well as a bullet" one more time I may throw a hammer at something. I dispute that claim. Better to just say nothing rather than repeat it every time a trigger is reached. The game already borders on tedious and this only amplifies it. At first I really felt it when the sarge ask me If I felt as though you need to stay sharp for the field, but now I feel nothing. I'm dead inside. I'm not gonna look up any Latin to determine if the psyc councilor is in fact right. Amarite? Still, it's ok.

My summery is that I think the devs did everything they could with what they had and made a game that is very good.
It captures the universe and feel of Alien very well.
The voice work, score, sound and story they tell is great.
The restraint they showed by keeping it self contained is very wise.
The game play is ample without overstaying it's welcome.
It's very challenging.
It's somewhat replayable.
It grasp what makes the franchise good.
It's a good game all around and made me want to play it to the end. I give it 6.5 of 10.

I'm a snob when it comes to my Alien franchise stuff. I dislike most of the movies. Alien and Aliens are the only ones where I didn't get a crippling attack of the cringe at some point in them if not most the way through. Worse still is almost all of the games. This game surprised me very pleasantly. I base my rate of the game primarily on the story it told and how well it told it. I would say it failed a little bit as far as never really making anyone you pick up along the way any part of the story with the exception of one guy. Like you pick up a marine you find in a jail who has a cool voice personality, a bit of a back story and would have made for variety in your squad line up if they had just given him some lines to say when you include him in a squad. There are many such cases, but you only get the same 4 people repeating the same 8 lines. So what you get really is a fairly fleshed out and compelling story told by 2 people with 4 supporting stretched out over the whole game. Still, it is a great effort solidly done. Game wise it is pretty damn good. There is a fat amount of game here, more than enough variety in environment, decent graphics and animations, smooth running with a level progress that makes sense. Hats off to the artist here. There wasn't any feeling of copy paste drag. The alien environments were nicely modeled and textured and it couldn't have been easy. I encountered a few bugs that made me restart from the last save, but only the type where some action conflict caused it, so it could be avoided. No mystery crashes. I only wish that the alien spawns weren't so generic. The warning symbols for where the spawn point are makes it seem cheap, and it would have been more hectic not knowing. I could have done without the notifications of onslaughts coming other than Harper and the motion tracker going apeshit. Fewer aliens with less situational awareness would have been better. The tool system wasn't really cool either. Example being that having a hacker should have exempted you from needing a key card or code you would otherwise need to find on a body or in a computer. He serves no point other than having the drone as long as you have a smartass in the squad. Either way it's gonna cost you a wrench. This is not evident the first time you play. The welder should have had X amount of charge that is depleted every time you make or cut a weld. My only real complaint is the frequency of too few voice lines. If I hear that dude say "easy squad, stress kills you just as well as a bullet" one more time I may throw a hammer at something. I dispute that claim. Better to just say nothing rather than repeat it every time a trigger is reached. The game already borders on tedious and this only amplifies it. At first I really felt it when the sarge ask me If I felt as though you need to stay sharp for the field, but now I feel nothing. I'm dead inside. I'm not gonna look up any Latin to determine if the psyc councilor is in fact right. Amarite? Still, it's ok. My summery is that I think the devs did everything they could with what they had and made a game that is very good. It captures the universe and feel of Alien very well. The voice work, score, sound and story they tell is great. The restraint they showed by keeping it self contained is very wise. The game play is ample without overstaying it's welcome. It's very challenging. It's somewhat replayable. It grasp what makes the franchise good. It's a good game all around and made me want to play it to the end. I give it 6.5 of 10.