Aliens vs Predator

It's been a very long time since either Aliens or Predators made any big effect on the game market. Since Rebellions original AvP games on the Atari Jaguar and PC in the late 90s which inspired the 2004 movie, all that's been made is a long list of poorly-made and low-budget spin-offs which barely saw any attention. Has Rebellion's attempt at a comeback paid off?

On face value, the game appears to have a lot going for it. Three whole campaigns (one for each species) lie ahead and are accompanied by a variety of multiplayer modes which incorporate every species' strengths and weaknesses. As such, one might think that this is a game with a lot of play time and replay value. Unfortunately, this isn't the case.

To begin with, the campaigns each manage to completely flop in their own way. The Marine campaign is the first played and will take roughly 4 or 5 hours, the Predator campaign cutting down greatly to about 2 hours, and lastly the Alien campaign at about an hour and a half. With these being successively shorter it seems all too clear that Rebellion were rushing to finish this for a deadline and needed to make some serious cuts to the single player aspect. To add insult to injury, it's also very clear while you're playing the campaigns exactly the type of gameplay that Rebellion intended in each, and it's all riddled with mistakes. The Marine's campaign starts off in a dark room armed with nothing but a torch and a pistol, being stalked by a Xenomorph and there is little doubt that the campaign is meant to be scary. However, while this works well in the first moments of the missions and there are certainly some chills to be had, it quickly wears off as environments get bigger and lighter - some of it even outside in sunlight, which seemed the dumbest of ideas - and the weapons you have get increasingly stronger. While some of these weapons are particularly fun such as the Scoped Rifle and the Smart Gun, the fact is that the game quickly becomes more of a Sci-Fi shooter than a survival horror, and simply doesn't have the thrills to work as a shooter in its own right. The character you play as also feels slow and clumsy, and having the weight of a Gears of War character in first person does not work at all. Next is the Predator campaign, which is perhaps the best of the lot. It's generally a mix of action and stealth, staying true to the films, and it's definitely a lot of fun stalking enemies from treetops whilst camouflaged, then striking just at the right moment. These moments are perhaps the best in the game but, when this campaign gets bad, it gets really bad. The Marines you hunt are an odd mix between too stupid and too sensitive; sometimes you'll be able to stealth execute and enemy with him screaming just a few metres from his squad member without him noticing, and sometimes one of your prey will magically spot you with your camo on whilst watching him from a rooftop. There's also a big problem with the difficulty, as you start with nothing but your blades. This would be fine as they do the job for those marvellously disgusting stealth kills, but get spotted and you'll need to fight your way out, and for normal close combat the blades share the Marine's clumsiness, and you'll more likely end up flailing your arms in your enemies' faces. The difficulty then becomes hideously easy about 75% of the way through the campaign when you get your hands on the Combi Stick, which, believe it or not, is a 1-hit-kill on ANYTHING, doesn't remove your camouflage, and is in infinite supply. You can't lose. Lastly is the Alien campaign and frankly there's very little to say on it, due to there being very little of it. The basic jist of the campaign is staying in darkness, walking on ceilings and executing enemies whilst not in view. The health system is just right for this as you are very vulnerable to enemy gunfire, making stealth a necessary tactic, but while the executions are just as gloriously grisly as the Predator's, the combat is also very weak and the transitioning between floor-scuttling and wallrunning is extremely disorientating and you'll most likely never get used to it.

All three campaigns are tied around the same storyline. I would explain what said storyline is but to be honest I still don't actually know; it appears you're expected to already know what planet you're on and who Mr Weyland and what scientific experiments are going on, but I didn't and as such was utterly clueless about what it was all based upon. The other notable thing about the story is that it means all three campaigns visit the same places. And I mean the EXACT same places. I'm sure the idea is to give you a feeling of 'oh, so that's when THIS happened here', but generally it seems like an excuse to not make new environments and more often than not I was confused as to which species actually visited each area first, or if it all happened at the same time. However, apart from the storyline issues, the game manages to stay very faithful to the films, with Predator having everything you ever saw in his first two films, the Pulse rifle sounding and looking absolutely spot on and the Alien being able to 'harvest' humans with Facehuggers.

After this array of disappointments, one is drawn to the multiplayer. It's definitely impressive how many game types are available, including standard deathmatches and free for alls, and some more original modes. Infestation is similar to a 'zombie' game, starting out with a bunch of Marines against one Alien. If the Alien kills a Marine, the Marine's player becomes an Alien too. This continues till all the Marines have become Aliens and the pace picks up as numbers of survivors decrease. Predator hunt is another success, with a squad of Marines facing one Predator, who must kill as many in one life as possible. Kill the Predator and you take his place. Most overall kills wins. One mode which could have been much greater than it was would be Survival which is, unsurprisingly, another Horde mode (though it should be known that it was the old AvP games that invented it) but one that unfortunately is too slow and isn't as scary as it could have been. It's also a shame that the clumsiness of the game in general does carry over to multiplayer and it feels like it could have done with another few months in development.

Aliens vs Predator is, in short, a big disappointment. If you were a huge fan of all the films then you may get some kicks out of this, but if you play a lot of the games of today you'll know there are better places to get your scares, or your super stealthy moments or your shooting thrills. This one simply doesn't cut it. 4/10.