Aliens Vs Predator

The human race caught up in the worst battle of their lives.

Developers: Rebellion Developments

Publisher: Sega

Engine: Asura
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PS3, Xbox360
Release date: February 19, 2010
Genre: FPS, Action, Survival  Horror
Modes: Single/Multi-player
System requirements: CPU- 3.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4/Athlon 64 3000+ or equivalent
'Graphics Card- Nvidia Geforce 6600/ATI Radeon X1600 or better RAM 1GB(XP) or 2GB(Vista/7)

It didn’t take long to combine the two deadliest enemies human kind has ever faced. The “Predator”, a technologically advanced alien race, hunting to gain honor and trophies, and the “Aliens”, bug-like life forms, gifted with strength, speed, skill and hunger for blood (yes we do consider hunger for blood a sort of gift, in video games of course). Those two combined were meant to create one of the best titles in the gaming industry. With the latest effort in 2010, after the magnificent AvP 2 in 2001, Rebellion tries to give new breath in this “ancient” and magnificent series.

Plot

There are 3 types of characters that can be used: the Colonial marine, the Predator and the Alien. Each one of them has a different story to narrate, which sometimes they “meet” each other, in the same way as in the previous title. So you can actually see your actions as an alien while you are playing as a Predator.

Luckily we don't go up that building!

The Colonial marine’s plot begins with a spaceship launching drop ships full with marines to the surface of a planet which has several colonies there (were many human colonies are located), which have been attacked and annihilated by the xenomorphs and the predators. Our character, unfortunately; doesn’t have a name thus he is referred as Rookie. However, soon after the lunch of the shuttles, a Predator battleship emerges from cloaking and destroys the human battleship and then starts attacking all drop ships. Our character’s ship crushes on the ground, leaving barely anyone alive with the exception of a few soldiers. What our marine is going to do is all but try to find other marines, who just before you find them, they all die. After all marines being killed, Rookie will try to meet with Tekila, a fellow marine (the 2^nd and last survivor) and save her from the xenomorphs who have captured and harvested her. Upon her rescue he finds out that Weyland (the CEO of Wayland&Yutani Corporation, the mastermind behind the whole operation) wants to use the xenomorphs and study them, in order to find their home-world for reasons we don’t know yet.

Dejavu?

The alien's plot is about a captive alien drone, which is being tested by human scientists. It will manage to escape due to a power failure and cause havoc in the human facilities. The xenomorph will try to save the Alien queen, as it is her orders, killing marines and predators alike, but it will fail, since the queen dies before it gets there. Without a leader it goes to hibernation, until it wakes up in an orbital ship where it kills the crew and establishes a hive, and later it becomes a queen itself.

The predator’s plot is about a young elite predator who is being sent to investigate what happened to the predators that were sent and died in that planet and destroy any evidence of their existence. He then is ordered to take vengeance on behalf of their ancestors upon the humans because of their breach to their holy pyramids. After finding a special mask (capable of detecting the aliens) and a spear like weapon, he fights a hybrid of a predator and an alien. After killing this abomination, he sets a countdown sequence to destroy the Pyramid.

Gameplay

AvP is a typical FPS and it is not hard to imagine how the gameplay will be.  Each character you will control can block some attacks when prompted to do so; an indicator will inform you when to block, thus allowing you not to lose any health. However, predators and aliens can do heavy attacks which can’t be block by any character. The colonial marine can carry two weapons besides the pistol, or the smartgun only with the pistol. The marine’s weapon variation consists: a pistol, a pulse rifle, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, a flamethrower and a smartgun. All weapons have alternate firing modes which are respectively: a burst of bullets, a grenade (which does low damage to the alien swarms), double shell firing and an acidic firing mode. The smartgun automatically tracks enemy movements and as long as you keep the enemy inside the smartgun’s sensors your bullets will automatically find their targets. The sniper rifle when in scope mode will have all enemies shown; even if they are behind objects. Furthermore, the marine heavily depends on the motion tracer, in order to find where the enemies are lurking. The marine can block light attacks from the aliens and predators and then can counter attack by bashing his weapon on them. This bash will knock them on the ground or temporarily stun them leaving you time enough to reload or give the killing blow.

The predator can go in stealth mode, leaving him undetected to the eye, yet not from the motion trackers or the alien’s vision. The weapons used by the predator are the wrist blades, a flying disc, plasma cannon, bombs and a combat stick. The plasma cannon when fired disables the cloaking from the predator but if fired correctly, the marines will never now what hit them. With the flying disc you can dispatch many opponents with a single throw, since you can control its trajectory. The combat stick is a big spear which the predator throws at his enemies instead of thrusting it or using it in close range combat, unfortunately. It is capable of killing each enemy with a single hit, but it is very slow to fire, leaving you defenseless for quite some time. The wrist blades will be your main weapon, since they do not need ammo or energy to use. Sneaking behind enemies results to stealth attacks and stunned opponents can lead to finishing attacks which are of extreme violence since they cause decapitations, spine removals, stabbing and eye removals. The predator has also 3 different visions: normal vision, heat vision (useful against humans but totally ineffective against aliens), and alien vision which shows the aliens but not the humans. Stealth mode and the plasma cannon consume energy, energy that is useful for the predator’s gadgets operation, but it can be replenished by hacking powernodes. Both predators and marines use health stims/shards to replenish their health, also, when not counterattacking a heavy attack, will be grabbed by their opponents (aliens/predators), thus, receiving great damage or even instant death.

The alien on the contrary uses its natural weapons: its claws, jaws and tail to kill its enemies. It locates its enemies by their pheromones (red pheremones depict armed humans, blue pheremones indicate unarmed humans and green pheremones represent the Predators), making it easy to see their locations even in areas of complete darkness. That is why darkness is its greatest ally. By breaking any source of light the marines will be unable to see you, making it easy to approach them for a stealth kill. However, darkness will not hide your moments from the motion tracker or the predator’s mask. The alien has the great advantage of walking on any surface. Most marines don’t expect an attack from the ceiling. Frontal assault is not advisable to more than 2 marines; being a drone means that the exoskeleton is not capable of accepting a great deal of damage, thus a few pulse rifle bullets or a shotgun shell or two will definitely kill you (at hardcore mode). If discovered it is better to use the great speed advantage of yours and sprint to safety. After that, patiently take out your enemies one by one. The alien heals only by biting the heads of fallen enemies, with the exception of the androids, because they don’t have any blood. The alien can also grab its opponents and perform some violent finishing moves too.

A survival mode has been implanted to the title, where you control a marine and try to survive as long as possible. The longer you survive the more aliens come and stronger they become. It won’t be long until you become their dinner.

Graphics 

All we can say is that graphics are of pure pleasure to the eyes. By using DirectX 11, the sceneries, the character details, the weapons and the various visual effects are totally great. Everything in the environment is highly detailed, with the exception of the Pyramid mission where somehow, there is a feeling of displeasure. Definitely, in this level, not much attention was given. The human facilities, however, are something of a Hollywood horror film: dark corridors, with few dim lights, cables torn apart, pieces of metal all over the place, bullet holes and dead marines. The atmosphere along with the motion tracker beat is of pure horror.

The character design and animation is also extremely nice. Finishing and stealth moves are also a gift to the eyes cause there hasn’t been such “live” gore in any videogame. The character movements are carefully designed, making them very realistic. It is also one of the few games in which you can actually see your legs when walking.

Oh crap, they don't have "balls"!!!!

Sounds

They only part where the game totally sucked. There is a horrible ambient all the time which technically it is considered as different for each mission, but if carefully heard there is nearly no much difference. The alien’s sounds are quite decent, not a match however for its predecessor, so as for the predator. The most annoying part is when fighting marines. Your head literally will want to mute the sound. All the time you will be hearing something like: “Don’t let your guard down” or “This isn’t over yet, marines” and such, and even where there is only one marine left!!!! Totally annoying. Furthermore, in AvP 2 we could hear long conversations between the enemies and get an idea of their actions, plans and strategies, sometimes such conversations could last for more than 10 minutes!! Now, a 15 second conversation is the max you can find. Finally, all marines have exactly the same voice, one for the male and one for the female. That is pretty disturbing too. The music soundtracks are not of anything significant, turning them mute there would also be wise.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer part is the best part of the game, if played like a horror movie, and not rushing for kills. There, making a movie with such graphics can really become a Youtube hit. The single-player laws are in effect here too, with the exception of the predator’s healing, which consumes energy instead of health shards. About 16 people can join in a multiplayer match. For the PC this may cause some CPU lag if the game is at maximum graphics or burn a few cables.

There is also a cooperative survival mode, where with 3 of your friends can stand your ground against the alien hordes.

Summarizing, this is a decent game, with major flaws to the acoustic part. This title is meant to be a survival horror game; but it gets repetitive after the 2^nd mission. The marine is of inhuman strength; what human can parry an alien or predator attack and then knock them back!!! Predators although in cloak can be easily seen or heard when silently closing in from behind or flanks. Aliens will tire you with the constant stealth killing.

They never check the ceiling!

Prons: Graphics, atmosphere, multiplayer, (co-op) survival

Cons: AI, sounds, some backgrounds are gloomy, repetitive

Plot                 7
Gameplay      6
Graphics        8
Sound             4
General          6

In my opinion buy it; it is a decent title for your collection. It doesn’t have something new to offer in terms of plot and game-play but it would make a decent multiplayer game. But buy it when it gets lots of cheaper, its today price is not worthy of what it offers.

And i command you to buy my game!!!