Aliens vs Predator

[Steven W]

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This is your chance to tell us your opinion on AvP. I've just rated it 7/10 check the front page. Do you agree?

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[Lowe]

Having been a fan of the original games, for me the next instalment of AvP was a long time coming. Essentially the idea is the same with the 3 species going hammer and tongs and knocking seven shades of stuff out of one another. I've finished both the Predator and Alien campaigns and whilst on the whole they're fairly short I feel that they're just about right. If they'd gone on for much longer the game play would have began to feel a little stale. I'm about a third of the way through the Marine campaign, but this is taking a little bit longer due to the tense, claustrophobic atmosphere the game creates.

There's nothing new in here for any FPS or AvP game fan other than a fresh lick of paint, but that said it's no bad thing. For the price its available at on the PC, I wouldn't expect any more. Some people complain about the visuals, but it's more than functional (some areas look fantastic) and on a fairly modest PC it runs very smoothly.

Long term playability will be firmly with the MP, though the matchmaking system leaves much to be desired. I know matchmaking is the 'en vogue' thing to do with PC games but it's not practical compared to a proper dedicated server. Supposedly there's a dedi on the way, but with limited functionality for the time being. The MP modes are all pretty good fun and the balancing isn't that bad. There are a few things that I wish were tweaked though...

In Predator Hunt mode a group of Marines find themselves stuck in a map with a Predator who is obviously looking for blood. The game randomly picks a player to start with who becomes the Predator. He is then given a time limit to hunt down and kill a Marine. This is my issue - the whole point of the Predator is that it stalks, taunts, freaks out and then dispatches its quarry. The Predator should not be forced to have to run into the middle of a group of Marines desperately trying to kill one. Most games I've played have had the Marines (rightly) grouping up in a nice wide open area letting rip with all kinds of weaponry at the slightest suggestion of movement. Since the Predator spawns with no weaponry to start with the first few seconds are a rapid cloak, run to find a decent weapon the run to find something to kill. It's just not particularly fun - or as fun as it should be. Devs, for a perfect example of how this game mode should be have a look at 'The Hidden:Source'. I'm guessing it's done for balance and to give everyone a fair crack at being the Pred. Hopefully when the dedi arrives it will give us options to turn these kinds of things on and off.

All in all, it's a good no brainer shoot em up. For fans of the series it's worth buying regardless but for non fans have a rent first and see how you get on. Just remember it's all about the MP...

Score for me 8/10.

[Stephen C]

Developed at Rebellion by the team that brought us the original 1999 classic, in Aliens vs. Predator we're given the chance to see the world through the eyes of the Colonial Marine, Alien and Predator in three very distinctive path crossing campaigns.

As many fans of the film will know, the story line is based around a colonial mining corporation stumbling upon an ancient pyramid and unleashing its deadly suprise.
Upon activation of the pyramids proximity alert system, a race of deadly warrior hunters race across the galaxy to keep the evil within from escaping.

First and foremost the Marine campaign, while the game does somewhat capture the atmosphere of what made this title in the first place it fails to deliver as an involving experience.
It's a case of shoot anything and everything that moves, melee a bit, move forward through an almost identical looking enviroment and once you're there, repeat everything you've just done.
Sadly, I found this campaign to be the most bland of the three and was glad it ended.

Next in the Predator campaign, you'll be greeted with a feeling of dominance, the true feeling of a hunter. I felt this campaign offered the most involved and varied gameplay, for instance you can dispatch with your prey by means of stealth, melee or rush in all guns blazing with deadly weapons we all recognize from the movies. This adds greatly to the experience, wether it be switching to infrared vision, charging your shoulder mounted plasma caster or dropping heads with the smart disc, the fun comes from deciding how to take out your next target.

Thirdly the Alien campaign, again just like the Marine campaign sadly this falls short and follows a very bland style of gameplay. While stealthy kills were aparrently one of the ways to take down foes I had trouble getting it to work consitantly and resorted to just spamming a single button through the entire campaign, not a huge amount of fun. As an alien you can run on all surfaces be it walls or the celing, on paper this sounds great but in reality getting stuck upside down on a wall in the middle of a fight with a marine popping shotguns rounds into my acid oozing shell isn't fun at all. Not much else to day about this campaign, very much the same through and through from the first 10 minutes of gameplay.

Lastly I'll take a light touch on multiplayer and its flaws.
As of this moment in time for the Microsoft Xbox 360 version most multiplayer gametype modes become unplayable due to players exploiting certain flaws, you'll often find yourself against a grouped bunch of enemies all blocking in a certain area and this makes it impossible to kill them forcing you to just leave the game. However! If you play multiplayer with friends then there's a great load of fun to be had, my favourite of which being Predator Hunt.

Overall the atmosphere is there but the gameplay just doesn't cut it, 6.5/10.