SINGAPORE — At the end of the movie Aliens, the 1986 sequel to Alien by director James Cameron, protagonist Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) kills the alien queen and escapes in the USS Sulaco spacecraft.

Ignoring Alien 3, the third instalment in the movie franchise, Aliens: Colonial Marines picks up where Aliens left off. Here, you are Marine Corporal Christopher Winter who has been tasked to conduct a rescue-and-recover mission aboard the Sulaco.

This is not the first game to be based on the much-loved Alien film franchise — nor will it be the last.

While it has received a ton of negative reviews since its worldwide release, the latest offering from Gearbox — famed for their work on Borderlands 2— will still satisfy the bloodlust of gamers willing to overlook the game’s poor presentation.

From the start, it is clear this game was made with Alien fans in mind. You can cut open and seal doors with welding torches. Your main weapon is a pulse rifle and you can hunt down weapons that pack a bit more punch, such as Corporal Hicks’ shotgun and Lieutenant Gorman’s pistol.

The devil’s in the details and the crafting of the ships and vehicles mirrors those in the movie.

You can also customise your weapons with upgradeable add-ons such as extended magazines, grenade launchers and laser sights once you have acquired enough experience points by gunning down Xenomorphs.

Players will have access to a motion tracker to find friends, foes and enemies and characters from the films, such as the android Bishop — voiced by original Aliens actor Lance Henriksen — who makes cameo appearances throughout the game.

Developers Gearbox have also got the combat mechanics right: Hunting for Xenomorphs and watching hordes of these vicious killing machines burst into florescent green goo was a real joy, especially with help from three other players in co-operative mode.

But the game fails to make the cut when it comes to its graphics. The actual game looks nothing like the spectacular demo trailer unveiled at E3 video game trade show last year. The animation of your team-mates is also awful and they frequently clip through objects, which is simply unforgivable.

The friendly artificial intelligence (AI) is also one of the least clever I have experienced. Team-mates will take cover in places you found first and often get in the way of your shots.

For a game that took six years to build, Aliens: Colonial Marines is a lot less polished than I had expected. But if you discount its appalling visual quality, you will still be left with a great story and entertaining combat scenes that will please shooter fanatics and fans of the Alien films.