Alison and Colleen Forever is the last installment in the Alison and Colleen series. It was developed by Cor-Son Games in association with High Voltage Software and was published by THQ. It was released in 2007 for the XBOX 360, PlayStation 2,PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. The game was controversial at the time it was released, due to it calling out various game series and publishers by name, but it has gained a cult following from gamers who were critical of said series and publishers.
Plot[]
Alison and Colleen are ordered by the boss of their development company (the fictional W2M! Productions (We Want Money!) to take part in a game restructuring where the girls would be part of a First Person Shooter game to compete with the likes of Call of Duty and Halo. The girls object to this and their boss punishes them by trying to turn into mutants, but they escape. Unfortunately, the power that did get to them heavily altered their body structure and skin-pigments. They take refuge at an abandoned construction site, and they seek help from Green Jean, who helps them tap their inner powers and decides to help them return to normal while destroying the portion of the game industry that led to their afflictions.
The game has two endings, depending on whether or not you collect the antidote near the end. If you don't, you keep your powers and a fake trailer for a new game involving the girls plays while an end-credit sequence has you beat up the developers. If you do get the antidote, we get a cinematic of the girls reading a report on how the FPS industry is in disarray and that the girls have retired with a satisfactory settlement. It leads to a level where Alison and Colleen play and fight in an arena during the credits.
Either ending unlocks customizable outfits and player pieces. One cheat enables you to play the game with the models of the girls being in their tattered outfits, and another has the mutant forms replaced with the girls in their normal forms. You could also unlock Green Jean, a character from an older Cor-Son game.
Gameplay[]
Akin to many games in the series, you play as one character and the other tags along. Each has their own energy meter and you could switch between characters to conserve energy, send one to fight enemies while you try to do a different challenge or test each to see which is more adept for certain areas in the level. Within the game, you could collect various energy orbs which form after defeating enemies, and when you have enough of them, you could transform into an animal-based monster, and depending on the form, it could help you traverse through the level easier. For example, the gorilla power-up enables you to climb up walls quicker and inflict more damage on crawlers, the wolf power-up increases your speed and accuracy and the fish power-up lets you stay underwater longer, but your energy drains when you stay on the surface for too long. Once you get enough energy, you could transform into a beast and progress further into the level, but certain forms work better than the other and the wrong form could make the level harder to finish.
Levels are accessed in an open-world you could explore. You could practice your moves and find hidden collectibles which are also present in the level.
Reception[]
The game was met with immense controversy. Throughout the game, companies like Activision, EA and Ubisoft are heavily mentioned by name, and there were attacks on the Call of Duty and Halo series. Cor-Son never responded to any of the complaints.
Game-wise, it received fair reviews with critics praising the graphics and variation that wasn't as noticeable in the previous installment, but reviewers noted similarities to the 2005 game Altered Beast. The game later earned a cult following from those who were critical of the current state of the gaming industry.