For those of you that bought Aliens: Colonial Marines and have enjoyed the multiplayer (as I have), I thought I would throw together a list of tips. When first entering the world of the Aliens multiplayer, you may feel like, no matter which side you’re playing as, you’re getting decimated. You probably are and for good reason, especially when playing as a Xeno.
Playing as a Xeno can be tricky. Which class is best for my play style, which upgrades are best and what are the most efficient ways of beheading a marine, may be a couple of your questions. Play style, is a huge factor. I can’t tell you how you should play, but I can point you in the direction to becoming the deadliest hunter in the galaxy. The easiest way to do this, would be to tell you how I’ve managed to get the most out of my Xeno classes. With that, let’s get into the first class which is also my favorite, the Soldier.
The Soldier class feels very differently from the other two classes. It doesn’t have a gimmick like spitting acid or pouncing. The Soldier class relies on lighting speed and ferocity of attacks, neither which you start off with. But, that can be worked around. When first using a default Soldier class Xeno learn to stalk you prey, which is the opposite of the way the Soldier is supposed to be played, but we’ll get to that in a moment. You’ll want to stalk your prey and wait for that moment when you’re just within striking distance (which is fairly close for a default Soldier.) When moving in for the kill always combo together your attacks as a Soldier. Use Slash then immediately use Impale, then slash again. More often then not, this is sufficient enough to steam roll through a marine. Now as time goes on, you get more kills, level, then the perks for Xeno start to open. Now the fun begins. Speed, speed, speed. Make your Soldier as fast as possible. With the set up I have for my Soldier class, I can get up in the face of a marine before they even know I was there. Couple that together with Heavy Slash and Whirlwind, I just run through marines and keep moving. I also use Adrenaline Rush, which heals you. So even if a marine gets a couple of rounds into me, I’m able to recover before decapitating the next marine.
The Spitter class can be quite fun, especially if you have teammates playing aggresivley as Soldier classes. I use the Spitter class as more of a support class. I tend keep attached to high ceilings if possible or the sides of higher ground. Depending on how the team is playing, I may use Acid Trap ability or the default Acid Spit attack mainly. I have seen excellent players using Acid Spray with Acid Strikes and just annihilating the other team, but I can’t seem to pull that off with the Spitter. The default Acid Spit is surprisingly deadly, two direct hits and you can pretty much kiss that marine goodbye. Acid Trap allows you to spit acid onto the ground and when marines get near it expels itself as a gas, this does less damage but works wonders for engaging a group of marines. My best advice for playing as the Spitter class, is use the perk that allows you to climb walls faster, then spit away. If you pick your spits right, marines will have a tough time spotting you, which will allow you to drop on them for a fatality.
I have a love/hate relationship with the last class, the Lurker. The Lurkers mode of operation is to pounce on marines and rip them to shreds. This is such a satisfying act of violence when A) it works as intended and B) you land the pounce. I say work as intended, because the technical flaws of Aliens: CM keep it from being performed properly sometimes. Sporadically, as you’re flying through the air the Xeno starts the landing attack animation. Only to land in front of your target, just chillin, juuust chillin. The other thing is landing a pounce. Should be easy, you have a yellow glowing target on the floor showing where you’re going to land. All you have to do it aim it at a marine and viola! Nope, unless you’re dead on accurate many times you’ll just skim right past them, sometimes bouncing off. This horrible complications have led me to abandon the pounce all together and go for shockwave. Shockwave has proved to be immensely more useful. Although sometimes you’ll still have the problem of the animation being performed to early (rendering your shockwave useless), more often then not you’ll land next to your target knocking them down and giving you enough time to decapitate them. On numerous successful occasions I’ve taken out no less then 3 marines when timing the attack just right. So my advice for the Lurker, is treat it like a Soldier, make it super fast, then use shockwave and heavy strikes. You’ll shred through numerous marines every time.
