Aliens vs. Predator

Posted 3 years ago By - Joe Law

Humans and xenos and preds, oh my! We aren’t in Kansas anymore, or Oz even. Nope, instead we embark on a journey to an unnamed world with where Marines, Predators and Aliens are competing to survive. And it’s certainly not big enough for the three of them.

Gameplay

There are four parts of the single player mode: the Marine Campaign, the Predator Campaign, the Alien Campaign, and Survivor, which is also available for up to four player co-op play. To start off, yes, each campaign is fairly short and can be beaten, on the easiest setting, in about 2-3 hours each for a good 6-9 hour game.

The story behind the Marine campaign is fairly basic. The Marine campaign stays in tune with the movies, particularly the movie Aliens, in both feel and theme. To me, though, having a simple, straight-forward story is welcome alongside the plethora of games which attempt and fail at creating more complex and deep story telling. Frankly, asking the developers to give you a deeper, more involved story when you’re a grunt on a “bug hunt” is just silly.

Whereas the Marine story feels like your typical shooter with a horror twist, the Aliens and Predator campaigns deviate from the FPS norm. The Alien campaign is also a fairly basic story and yes, the first time you play as an alien you will get a bit disoriented. But after about ten minutes I had the Alien’s wall crawling nailed. The one problem I did have with the Aliens campaign, though, is that it feels like it can’t decide what it wants to be: action or stealth. Due to the twitchy AI, playing anything stealthy is tricky, if not frustrating at times.

The cream of the crop, however, is the Predator campaign. The jist of the story is that you’re a Predator trying to prevent your species technology from falling into the hands of the humans. But the story isn’t what makes the Predator campaign amazing, it’s the gameplay itself. While you still get the trademark stealth and claws, you also recieve your Plasma Caster, Proximity Mines, Throwing Disc, and Combi-Staff (the spear the Predator uses in Predator 2). The stealth gameplay in the Predator campaign seems much more seamless than in the Alien campaign as well.

While the single player is fairly good the game really shines in online multiplayer. Not including the aforementioned Survivor Mode, which pits up for four players against wave after wave of Aliens, there are six other multiplayer modes: Predator Hunt, Infestation, Death Match, Species Death Match, Mixed Species Death Match, and Domination.

The multiplayer, in and of itself, is the meat and potatoes of the game and provides many hours of fun. The game currently supports up to 12 players online. My only real complaint about multiplayer is Species Death Match because you don’t get to choose your race. Instead, the game randomizes which species you will play as. Otherwise, the multiplayer is the most fun I’ve had since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and if you’re looking for a really good online multiplayer game that isn’t Modern Warfare 2, look no further.

Graphics and Sound

Thanks to DirectX 11, that is if you’re the lucky owner of a PC with Windows 7, the game does deliver the goods and has something not seen before in previous games. The lighting and shadowing in this game is far superior to any other game on the market, boasting penumbra effects among other features. The textures in the game also benefit greatly from DX11, providing a fine level of detail that you don’t notice at first, or at least until you rip off somebody’s head as a Predator and see the gore in disturbing detail. At a distance, the texture changes from DX11 aren’t noticeable to the untrained eye, but up close things like rivets don’t look grainy or part of the metal and actually have a greater level of depth and definition.

Sadly, the same can’t be said for the console version. It’s plagued by slow framerates, poor textures and a lack of detail. If you absolutely can’t play this game on a PC, get ready for a huge disappointment. There are worse looking games than AvP, but, to be honest, I expected far better.

As for the sound, if you’re at all a fan of the Aliens and Predator movies, than you are going to enjoy this game. While nothing special to the non-fan, it’s the trademarked sound effects that really immerse you in the game. The Aliens howling as they’re injured or killed, the Predators clicking as well as his voice emulation, the sound of the Pulse Rifles and Smart Guns, the sounds of the Motion Detector and even the music feel like they’re ripped right from the movies. Additionally, having Lance Henrikson perform the voice of Wayland’s descendent is awesome.

We love you, Lance!

Value

For $55 on PC and $65 for the console version, the game is $5 cheaper than most new games, and in my humble opinion, is worth every penny if you play the multiplayer. If you don’t have access to a decent internet connection or aren’t into online gaming, the game is still good, but with the campaign lengths, the low-to-moderate replay value makes it a rental at best.

Conclusion

Frankly, I don’t know why other publications have been giving this game a hard time. Yes, its not an A-List game by any stretch of the imagination, but it is still extremely fun for what it is. Given the garbage most fans have had to go through in recent years, including one luke-warm Aliens vs Predator movie, and the lack of any kind of game attention since Concrete Jungle, AvP is a welcome addition to the series.