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"[GAME] Aliens vs Predator"

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Tue 27/04/10 at 13:27
Regular
"And in last place.."
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Who would win in a fight between the nasty from the Alien films, the nasty from the Predator films and a space marine? Aliens vs Predator (vs Space Marine) presents you with the opportunity to find out.

This has all the right ingredients for a great video game but wait a minute, it’s also a film franchise and one which is not a patch on the 1st 2 Alien films or the original Predator. Proceed with caution.

Unfortunately I will only be able to cover the single player aspect of the game since I’m all out of Xbox Live Gold at the moment... hey come back!

I was expecting the story of the game to cover the Aliens vs Predator film but it seems to be a bit of Alien/Aliens with a bit of AVP bolted on at the end. It’s not a classic by any means but you’re not playing this for the story, you’re playing this to be a brutal killing machine in the shape of the xenomorph from Alien or the Predator.

The single player portion is split into 3 separate campaigns, a marines campaign, an Alien campaign and a Predator campaign. The stories in each of the campaign cross over, it’s not completely like playing the same story from 3 different perspectives though.

Marine Campaign
The Marines campaign is a first person shooter which kicks off on a space colony similar to what is seen in the Alien films. Full credit to Rebellion here, they have absolutely nailed the setting.

You are in control of the new guy who doesn’t appear to have a name and is affectionately called Rookie. Things get off to a bad start for Rookie, a crash landing in the space ship knocks him out cold. When he comes round he finds himself somewhat deserted. You are not alone on the colony but fortunately not everything that lives wants to see you dead. One of your fellow marines is safely in a secure room and would like you to join her. It’s always the way isn’t it? Why do you always have to risk your life?

If you are familiar with the Alien films then you’ll appreciate the setting. Dark corridors, steam coming from broken pipes, sparks from damaged electrics, damage to the floor and ceiling panels and a general lack of good lighting. Your marine starts off with a pistol, a torch and some flares (not the trouser variety, this is set in the future). Other weapons can be collected, each with its own secondary fire. Your marine can carry 3 weapons at a time so you need to decide which tools are best for the job and keep an eye on your ammo. A better torch would be welcome but not being able to see everything clearly is all part of the atmosphere. The flares do a grand job of lighting up the place although the easily spooked might be best proceeding with their eyes closed.

You know the drill here. Carefully wander along. It’s all quiet except for the voice in your ear telling you to get a move on. But you are not to be rushed, take your time, check all around you. Nothing to be found. And then PING... something sets off the motion tracker. It’s close and moving fast. You throw a flare, you check behind you but nothing. The blip on the tracker vanishes. But you know there is something about somewhere and you know it has not come to give you a warm welcome. It’s excellent stuff, totally unsettling. You feel like you are being stalked and could be attacked at any moment but you don’t know if the attack will come from infront, behind, above or below.

There are plenty of classic Alien moments in the game. You’ll meet some other marines in a secured room, turret outside monitoring movement and then one of your colleagues gets grabbed from above and dragged into the air vent. There is no safe place in the colony, no safety in numbers and you will quickly realise this.

The Aliens themselves look the part and their behaviour is spot on with the films. You’ll catch a glimpse of a tail as one creeps along the wall, they will pounce out on you, they will sneak out of air vents , they will attack on their own or attack in numbers. The times when it does fail a little for me is when they run at you on their hind legs. It doesn’t look quite right and they don’t seem as daunting or as tall as I think they should be. In fact, at one point one of them jumped over a box and it almost looked like some deformed kangaroo. Regardless of how they look, when they run at you they still need dealt with. One on its own is usually ok although they do move fast but when they come in numbers then it can be tricky. These are creatures with a brain, they are going to come at you from all angles, the motion tracker shows movement all round you but you can’t see them all. It’s shoot and hope time. No time to breath, no time to blink. And you come out with a sense of relief which is exactly how it should be when you are outnumbered and getting surrounded by an enemy like this.

The Aliens can take a fair bit of firepower to stop them in their tracks. The shotgun can stop them with a single shot but you have to be close up (which will happen often) and then take a damage hit from the acid blood. Walking over a pool of Alien blood is damaging as well. The blood does rot its way through the floor which is a welcome bit of attention to detail although it’s not always consistent.

It’s all going ok. A few scares along the way and you might have run about in a frantic panic at times but that’s standard marine training and the main thing is you are still alive. And then you catch glimpse of a human corpse, skinned and hanging upside down and remember you’ve still got the Predator to meet.

Like the Aliens, the Predators look and sound the part. You will hear their clicking growl, you’ll know they are nearby but you can’t see them. The unsettled feelings start again. The first time you come face to face with the Predator is a good moment, it’s just shame it is a cut scene rather than a playable moment. Sadly it goes downhill for the Predator from here. The face off against the Predator is dull and a wasted opportunity. You can’t see where he is but his laser targeting gives him away. It all starts off well enough but before long you’ll find yourself camped out in a good position, shooting at him as he jumps from platform to platform taking no fire in return. Repeat until he is dead. It’s basic, it’s boring and it’s such a waste.

A frustrating aspect is the health packs. Taking a health pack involves a little animation as the marine administers the health. This takes a few seconds and when you have a room full of Aliens moving at a rapid speed you can find yourself dying when trying to boost your health. The Aliens aren’t going to stop and wait. It’s a minor point but one which can frustrate later on.

The Marine section is the best of the 3 and the lengthiest. But whilst I found it got off to an excellent start it sadly couldn’t maintain that for long. The campaign is at its best when it is unsettling you with a ping of the motion tracker but some of the head to heads against numerous Aliens aren’t quite as atmospheric or as enjoyable , they become and bit of an out and out shooter but pales in comparison to the best of that genre. The Predator portion is a non event. It’s decent but it could have been so much more.

Aliens Campaign
You start off the Alien campaign imprisoned by the humans who want to study you. There is a little human sacrifice section which acts as a tutorial but scientists willing to lead other humans to their death just to watch the Alien isn’t the most convincing. Nevermind, before long you are on the loose and causing havoc.

Like the marine’s campaign, the Aliens campaign is viewed in the first person. The screen distorts a little around the edges, a similar effect to looking into a fish tank. A nice little reminder that you are not human.

The first thing you will notice is how quickly the Alien can move and the sprint is almost uncontrollable to begin with. You’ll find yourself charging about like a lunatic, running up walls, across the ceiling and down the other side in the blink of an eye and you’ll be completely disorientated in the process. It does take some getting used to, particularly with the speed the Alien moves and I’d have to say I preferred to stay on the ground as often as possible, at least then I knew what way up and I was and what way I was facing. The frustrating thing is that sometimes the Alien will scoot off up a wall without any bother, even if you wanted him to or not and other times it is a battle to get it to do so. It certainly could be more flowing.

The Aliens campaign is a stealth game but this is no Splinter Cell. To keep hidden all you have to smash some lights with your tail. It doesn’t exactly go much darker when you break a light which leaves you wondering if you are hidden but it doesn’t matter much as the marines are not the best at spotting big Alien life forms right next to them. You do have the ability to hiss to draw in your enemy but it’s never necessary. The air vents are readily available to aid your sneaking about and the ability to run along the ceiling allows for some moments where you can drop down to say hello to an unsuspecting target.

The outline of humans out of sight help you plan your attacks. Sneaking up behind a human offers you the chance to execute them in some graphic ways, the highlight being the view of the tongue with the teeth going through your victim’s skull. Very messy. The downside of the executions is that they take a few seconds to finish during which time you can be taking damage.

As well as the executions you can get into a bit of fisticuffs when close to the enemy or higher damage tail lashing when a bit further away. Later Marines learn to block your attacks but rarely do they offer much in the way of an obstacle and you can maul them with relative ease.

You are not just left to run amok, your Queen gives you the missions via some sort of telepathic communication but it can be a little silly at times. Mission briefing like escape from your captives are fine but other missions like take out the telecommunications seem a little far-fetched. How does the queen know about the communications tower when she is in a chamber somewhere just laying eggs?

As well as the marines, you will come across unarmed humans. Instead of mauling these characters you can harvest them. The Alien grabs the character, a face hugger magically appears and hey presto, the mating ritual begins. It does feels a little like an excuse to get the face huggers into the game. One always appears at the right time no matter where you are and despite there being no nearby egg that they hatched from. The other disappointing aspects of this is the lack of variety in the victim’s faces, there are only 3 or 4 different faces but the biggest let down is their stupidity. Firstly, they are deaf. Whilst the game wants a bit of stealth, none of the kills are quiet but even if you are a few feet behind one of the humans, they do not hear you kill their colleague. Secondly, if they do see you they will run away and slightly cower close by. While in some areas there is no escape, in other areas there is plenty of room for them to leg it or at least attempt to hide. It hardly makes you feel in control of a fearsome killing machine when the humans can barely be bothered to escape.

As with the Marine campaign, you almost forget the Predator is part of this. You come face to face with 3 of them towards the end and again, it’s the worst part of the campaign... hit the Predator a few times, get hit a few times, run off to generate some health and repeat. Very disappointing.

The Aliens section grew on me once I was used to the controls but it is short, a little shallow on stealth and generally nowhere nears a s much fun as I thought it would be. And again, a complete wasted opportunity with the Predators.

Predator Campaign
The Predator campaign makes up for the fleeting appearance the Predator race has in the other 2 campaigns. You are a young Predator on the hunt for ancient artefacts of your race and ensuring the technology from dead Predators does not fall into enemy hands. As with the other 2 campaigns, the story isn’t going to grip you, it’s more of an excuse for the action.

This campaign is again viewed in the first person. From the tutorial stage you would be forgiven for thinking this campaign is a bit of a brawler as you pummel alien after alien with the spikes protruding past both hands getting used to the brutal moves on offer. As with the Alien, the Predator has the ability to grab an enemy and finish them off in a brutal manner, the highlight being ripping that nasty tongue out of an Alien’s head. The spikes will be stained with blood after any attack which is a nice touch and the spikes are impervious to the acid from the Aliens which comes in handy.

In addition to the spikes, the Predator has 4 weapons available. The shoulder cannon with triangulating aim is available from the start but needs charging from some of the human devices so you aren’t going to be blasting your way through this campaign. The other weapons are picked up as your progress but only the spear comes close to being as effective as the cannon.

As the campaign properly starts you will soon realise that stealth is way forward. The Predator has the ability to cloak himself which turns him almost invisible however once you are spotted you seem to remain spotted. The motion tracking sentry units also have no issue in spotting you so you may find yourself not bothering with the cloaking at times. What is more useful is the heat sensing vision. As with the films, the screen turns blue and your human enemies positively glow making them easier to spot. The Aliens don’t give off a heat signature so you will have to wait till later on to get the ‘Alien’ vision to be able to spot them easily. There are several times when you will be watching the humans only for an Alien to sneak up.

In the Alien campaign the Alien could hiss to distract the enemies. This campaign takes the distraction a little further. You can highlight an enemy to distract and then set the distraction location. The Predator then sends out a distraction noise and your chosen enemy then moves off to your chosen location to investigate. It’s not exactly convincing how this works but it does come in very useful for taking enemies out quietly one by one. Well I say, quiet, the execution moves are far from it but as with the Alien campaign, nobody seems to be listening.

The stealthy approach is helped by the Predator’s ability to leap big distances although at times he does seem to struggle getting over small jumps that your average human could make. Keeping to the trees and high ground can be a much more effective way of getting to the mission objective.
In the films the Predators had a fondness for ripping off heads with the spines attached. This has been incorporated into the game but it’s more of a token gesture. Some doors have retinal scanner security so no prizes for guessing how the Predator gets his hands on a key. As with the Alien campaign, there is a distinct lack of variety in the faces, less so this time as each ‘key’ I have used have all been identical. It’s a minor point but not one that escapes your attention.

You will go head to head with one of the Alien big boys. This happens in the same area as the marine fought the predators and where the Alien fought the predators. As with the other occasions, it’s not the best example of a boss fight that gaming has to offer.

The Predator campaign is longer than the Aliens campaign but also lacks the atmosphere of the early stages of the marine campaign and is a little disappointing.

Summary
The Marine campaign gets off to a good start but then fades. The Alien campaign gets off to a bad start and then grows a little but it is very short. The Predator campaign is fairly consistent but sadly all three campaigns are just a little disappointing. All 3 campaigns suffer from being a little repetitive.

On the whole it is a reasonable effort but it could have been so much better. The Predator is woefully underused outwith its own campaign and the brief moments in the marines and Alien campaign are not worth the wait.

Fans of the films will get some pleasure from the game but it’s not going to be anywhere near as much fun as you hoped for.

6/10
Wed 28/04/10 at 16:03
Staff Moderator
"Freeola Ltd"
Posts: 3,299
The films won't really change what a letdown the game was but meh..... :D

Incidentally I'm just about to open a thread on the new movie coming out. COme join in ;)
Wed 28/04/10 at 15:43
Regular
"And in last place.."
Posts: 2,054
Warhunt wrote:
> Anyway sorry mate I've thrown the topic off your guide, which is
> a bad thing on my part.

No worries. It's made me want to watch all the films again and see if I have been a bit harsh in the review. It won't change the overall gameplay experience but perhaps I'd appreciate a couple of parts a bit more.
Wed 28/04/10 at 15:33
Staff Moderator
"Freeola Ltd"
Posts: 3,299
I know, but at the same time it was one of the best moments of the series for me (traitorous aliens- clearly being commanded by the Queen), and then followed closely by the worst (the Alien going against it's nature to force it's intelligence down our throats :S).

Anyway sorry mate I've thrown the topic off your guide, which is a bad thing on my part.
Wed 28/04/10 at 15:27
Regular
"And in last place.."
Posts: 2,054
Warhunt wrote:
> Yeah I agree. It would have been better (but then become a
> blatant rip off :D)

Or a clever use of the Alien license?

I'll have to admit that I can no longer remember how the Alien escaped in the game and I only played that section on Saturday but it certainly didn't involve dropping down on guards and spraying liquid nitrogen which is a shame.
Wed 28/04/10 at 14:09
Staff Moderator
"Freeola Ltd"
Posts: 3,299
Yeah I agree. It would have been better (but then become a blatant rip off :D)

The scene had 3 aliens in one particular "cell". There were inhabited 12 cells in total (if I remember, although the platform stretched out to many cells, giving the impression of dozens more) and then the Queen was held 3 levels down.

The 2 aliens turned on the other, in one of the only scenes to display the awesome intellect of the big headed xeno-fools. When the security guard goes to investigate the alien drops down in the control room and then sprays liquid nitrogen at him. Crazy....
Wed 28/04/10 at 13:42
Regular
"And in last place.."
Posts: 2,054
Warhunt wrote:
> Yeah I see your point Dav. Will replay that bit again to see
> again. But it was more or less the exact same as Resurection from
> what I gathered (or meant to be) as once more humans
> underestimate their captives.

It's been a long time since I've seen Resurrection. My hazy memory recalls a bit in one of the films where the humans had captured 2 Aliens and thought they were secure. One kills the other, the acid rots the floor and the Alien makes its escape. Is that Resurrection?

That was a good example of the humans underestimating how clever the Aliens are but the game scene is not up to the same standard. If you were to kill a 2nd captive Alien, make a similar escape and then practice your moves on the unarmed scientists as the tutorial then I would have been happier.

Perhaps I'm being harsh. If I had been enjoying the game more I probably wouldn't have given it a 2nd thought.
Wed 28/04/10 at 13:08
Staff Moderator
"Freeola Ltd"
Posts: 3,299
Yeah I see your point Dav. Will replay that bit again to see again. But it was more or less the exact same as Resurection from what I gathered (or meant to be) as once more humans underestimate their captives.

Incidentally a new Alien and a new Predator film are coming out soon. BANGING!
Wed 28/04/10 at 12:53
Regular
"I like turtles"
Posts: 5,368
Just posted a link for the PS3 version of Aliens Vs Predator in the Games Bargain thread.It's £17.99 @ HMV (online) if anyone was after a copy.
Wed 28/04/10 at 11:41
Moderator
"possibly impossible"
Posts: 24,985
Like the review Dav.

Played the game on rental and was quite disappointed by it. The multiplayer was fun in short bursts though, especially as the Alien, hanging off the roof and making noises!
Wed 28/04/10 at 09:27
Regular
"And in last place.."
Posts: 2,054
The tutorial mission was probably the only way to do it. Learning the ropes against an armed enemy wouldn't quite work. But judging by the fact the scientist knew the Alien infants burst out from the human body it was clearly not the first time they have come across them and therefore surely not the first time they have seen how deadly they are. They know enough about the Alien to not just imprison it in a room but keep it effectively chained up. They then send in a human and gasp at how the Alien hits the human... I just didn't buy it.

I must admit to not having studied Alien culture to the same extent :) and what you say would certainly make it feel more solid but from an outsider's point of view the game doesn't indicate any of this. And since the Aliens seem to like to destroy all other life forms by killing or impregnating I would have thought they would want the communications left open so the humans could call in for backup... more potential mothers.

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