Way back when I used to watch the Alien and Predator Movies. They were something that was just fun to watch and pretty entertaining. After Aliens 3 I pretty much lost most interest in the Movie Franchise and was almost exclusively a PC Gamer. My buddy was a bigger fan then I and told me I just need to pick up Alien vs Predator for the PC. I went ahead and did it and pretty much had a blast. For it’s time it was pretty impressive. Well it’s a new era in the FPS genre and there is a new Alien vs Predator. With games like Dead Space and Bioshock the bar for the FPS has certainly been placed pretty high. How does the new game compare to existing FPS.
Gameplay
If you are unfamiliar with AVP you get to select from 3 races. The Alien, Predator and Marines (Humans). Each race has it’s own unique gameplay mechanic. Aliens are super fast and can climb on everything, Marines are well rounded and the Predator are super strong.
Marines
I started the game off as a Marine. Your character is a Rookie going for his first flight. Much like most rookies in the newer Next Gen Games you are the silent type. The game is a tad difficult to just pick up and play, the control scheme works around the concept of Melee combat. For an FPS this is a little strange to get used to. Generally Melee is used as a spice. Something you don’t rely to heavily on but is fun to use. For the Marine in particular RB is used for Melee while LB + RB is used to block and attack. When you block the attack the Enemy is stunned for a minute and you can usually finish them off. While the Melee is an interesting concept, the final product seems a bit chaotic. It works fine when it’s 1 on 1 but Aliens tend to hunt in packs. This tends to usually end in what you would call a cluster $%^@! I really did like the use of Flares in the game. Flares are used to light areas that it’s difficult to see in. This really added to the environment. Though it seems you have a unlimited amounts of flares. My biggest complaint about the game was the lack of limited resources. That generally adds a bit of tension in the game. Your pistol has unlimited ammo and it’s not to difficult to kill an alien.
Aliens
The Alien was probably the campaign that I enjoyed the most. The Story plot for the Alien was pretty interesting and actually developed a pretty unique character. AVP just seems to suffer with a really bad control scheme. Aliens can climb on just about every surface in order to transition from wall to floor you have to hold RT. There is a way to turn that off and just do auto transitions. I tried to do this but became disoriented pretty quickly. Auto Transitions work pretty well in corridors but in the jungle environments it becomes very confusing. The overall concept for Melee combat continues with the Alien. For the Alien LB is reserved for a strong attack while RB is for Light Attack, LB+RB again is Block. To break a block you use a strong attack, which takes longer to perform. I found I rarely used the Melee combat a relied heavily on the Grab technique. Essentially to perform the Grab you need to sneak up on a Human. Or you can lure the human out by making your patent hiss noise. Now when you grab a person you have to watch a 3 sec kill move. It was kinda fun at first but got very tedious. Each kill then took about 3 secs each and while your performing a kill you can be shot. So make sure you do it stealth like with no one else around.
Predator
Out of all the characters I felt the Predator was the most difficult to use. Starting with a very confusing HUD . The HUD displays your health ammo and health packs. Though it’s done in Predator Language so it doesn’t exactly make sense just looking at it. Eventually you do get used to it but for the first hour of game play I kept second guessing myself. Again the Melee combat transitions over though you do have a variety of weapons. Most weapons require you charge them in order to use. You very limited charges but can replenish them by located and draining power nodes. Though they seem to be rather sparse. I found this to be a interesting gaming choice considering just how much unlimited resources the Marines had. This makes you rely on your Melee combat. Again it works the same as the Alien with LB being Strong Attack and RB being light attack. You also have the Grab Attacks but you usually have to lure a person out. This is done by taunting a character. To do this you first select the character then tell them where to go. It doesn’t always seem to work but it’s possible. You also have the ability to do Focus Jumps which are very long distance jumps. The Predator also has Invisibility though it becomes disabled once you try to kill someone or walk in water. The controls work okay with limited amounts of baddies but again once you get to many it becomes a game of luck. The story for the Predator seemed about the worst out of all 3.
Graphics
This was one of the areas where the game shines. The graphics are stunning and they really get the whole AVP environments down. There is a variety of lighting effects that really add to the atmosphere. My favorite was the night club scene where as a Marine you fight Aliens with strobes on and some club music. You can barely hear the aliens coming and seeing them becomes difficult.
Sound
The environment sounds were excellent. Though the voices became a little repetitive. This was evident when playing the Alien and attempting to pic off a Marine. “Stay alert Marines stay Frosty!” The cut scenes though had pretty decent voice acting though the writing was a little bland. My favorite sound effect were of the chains. Much like the Alien movie they had chains draping from the ceiling with it’s patent SFX.
Overall
The game leaves a lot to be desired. With the current Next Gen FPS AVP feels a little outdated. It’s certainly not the worst FPS I’ve played, though the controls are a little difficult to get used to.
