I am finding myself running in circles whether I am fighting a marine, predator, or alien and barely landing any bullets. I can't manage to land very much bullets and when I do it just doesn't seem to have enough damage to equal my effort. I've tried backing away (helps me survive), but its just so mentally straining to work so hard to land hits. Not to mention they are so fast, especially the aliens.

Is this why the game is mostly tight corridors?

Any tips?

You're having trouble because pulse rifle bullets don't hurt very much. They're almost not worth using at all, to be honest. Use the pulse grenades. Those can kill a marine and alien in one direct hit, or multiple AoE hits.

does this mean the pulse rifle is only useful so long as the pulse rifle has grenades? sounds like its not such a great weapon...

It is actually quite good if you have a decent aim, it will only be sub-par against preds.

Well, it's your starter weapon. It's good but not great. You're not going to get many kills with bullets alone, however, my go-to marine is actually the pulse marine because he starts off with 15 pulse grenades. You can still dominate with the pulse rifle if you can use grenades well. Bullets should really only be used as a last resort or if you know you got two substantial AoE hits on an alien or marine.

Watch this video to see a very good player (not me) win with the pulse rifle in a 1v1 against a good alien: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTiD3SXwbCg

Wait wait, it takes THAT long to kill someone or be killed in advanced play? if thats the case then this seems like a game I really won't like. Its just to tedious!

Well, you're looking at one of the best players of this game. He dodges most of the alien's attacks, so if you're not used to moving the way he does, you'll die a lot more. XD The pulse marine has a distinct disadvantage in that map. But don't write this game off just yet. You might find your niche playing as the alien, predator, or minigun specialist.

This is when two very good players play together and don't make any (or minimal) mistakes, making them both harder to kill. From personal experience, skorpion (the person in the video), would be able to kill much faster with the minigun. That was just an example of a player who uses the pulse rifle and is also good with it.