Let’s get straight to the point: CM is broken, and it’s broken because it’s designed with blatant marine bias. If you’ve played enough, you’ve seen it. The game is built to make marines feel like unkillable gods, while xenos get nerfed into the ground. Don’t even try to argue that the game is “balanced” because it’s not.
Marines are the heroes, the ones the game seems to bend over backward for. Marines literally get free rein to rush into a hive with minimal tactics, and STILL win because the game is designed to make sure they win, no matter how badly they screw up.
You can say it’s all about “coordination” and “teamwork,” but no, the real issue here is that marines have tools at their disposal that should never, in any sane universe, be given so freely. Mortars, orbital strikes, incendiary grenades, automated turrets, grenades that hit harder than some xenos’ full attacks, all of that is designed to push the scale in favor of the marines, even before they start acting like a horde of PvE God-Mode players.
The game is clearly designed with the idea that marines should feel powerful, and it’s done at the expense of actual fun and challenge.
Now, let’s turn our attention to the other side of the fence, xenos.
Xenos have to earn every bit of ground they take. Every pounce, every attempt to strike is often met with a guaranteed counter, whether it’s some marine popping a stim, or just the sheer overwhelming force of the marine army. One xeno might kill one marine, sure, but then he’s back nearly uninjured just 3 minutes later.
And then, after all of that, comes the “nerf after nerf” cycle. Every time a xeno caste starts getting a little bit of traction or starts becoming even remotely useful, it gets gutted by the devs. Take lurkers, for example. You nerf their health, then you nerf their damage, then you nerf their utility until they’re reduced to glorified speed bumps for marines. Don’t even get me started on how often those nerfs are applied after one week of marines getting annoyed that a xeno caste is “too strong” (and by too strong, they mean they got killed once).
I’m not saying playing as a marine is easy. It takes coordination, communication, and a team that knows what they’re doing. But let’s be real here: marines are not ever in a position where they’re truly struggling. When’s the last time you saw a marine squad wipe without them doing a major mistake? It doesn’t happen unless they’re literally doing the dumbest possible thing imaginable.
There’s no way around it, CM is designed to make marines feel powerful. The mechanics are stacked in their favor, and it’s obvious every time you get into a round. Yes, we’ve all had our fun playing as marines, but it’s become clear that the devs have slowly shifted the game to make sure that no matter what happens, the marines will win the majority of the time.
Xenos, on the other hand, have to fight against a system rigged to keep them at a disadvantage. And when they actually do win, it’s often because the marines made so many mistakes that even the dumbest hive mind could take advantage of it.