Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

Wow. Where to even begin with the messy, mixed bag that is 'ALIENS vs. PREDATOR' (AvP)? ……I guess I'll start by giving some thoughts on the game overall and then break it down by each campaign in the order I played them. Bear with me, because this is going to be a long review. Partly because of how I review things, partly because this is like reviewing 3 separate games. Please keep in mind a few things : 1) I am a HUGE fan of both the Aliens and Predator movies (well the good ones at least!), with 'Alien' being my favorite movie of all time. 2) I played through each campaign on hard mode, so I fully realize some of the beefs I have may be due to difficulty level. 3) Despite the MANY issues I had with the game, I did enjoy it very much, overall. See #1??

The Game In General
THE GOOD : A fair amount. First off, the simple fact that you can play as either a marine, a predator, or an alien is very cool. It's nice to be able to step into the 2 iconic monsters' skins and see the world through their eyes. Additionally, the settings and environments for each level all look very good and are different enough from each other so that it doesn't make them all monotonous. Even though you play through each of these levels in each campaign, you experience them from different perspectives and methods of moving around which also helps keep things fairly fresh. Normally I don't pay too terribly much attention to the story in a video game because I'm not playing a game for the literary value. If a story is horrendously bad, it won't stop me one bit from enjoying the heck out of a game (see 'BAYONETTA' which possibly has the worst story ever, but is also my favorite game ever). However in the case of AvP, the story was actually quite good and when seen from the 3 different perspectives, it's even better. As well, all of the sounds, weapons and even 'ol Carl Bishop Weyland himself (voiced by the actor from the movies, Lance Henriksen - definitely a nice touch!) are straight out of the movies. And all of the weapons, ammo and health are scattered about appropriately enough so you never really run out, but at the same time, you have to be careful to conserve your resources. Another point of interest that I realize some might find irritating, but I found refreshing, was the sense of realism when it came to 'special interactions', as I call them. For instance, when you harvest a civilian as an alien, reload as a marine or recharge your weapons as a predator, you're still very vulnerable to attack and can even die during these brief interludes. There are other examples in each campaign, but many of the games I've played give you a bit of an 'invulnerability window' while doing things like this. Not AvP. Sure, it ticked me off every now and then, but in hindsight, I actually respect this design choice. It just makes logical sense. As one last thought for the good in general about this game, in addition to the 3 different campaigns, you can also play a survivor mode where you're a lone marine fighting off ever-increasing waves of aliens and there's also various online modes to play as well. In fact, it's the online modes that are really the strong point of this game. They're a blast to play and it's especially fun considering, again, you can be and be facing off against 3 different species.

THE BAD : Also a fair amount here, too. The biggest glaring weakness is the entire Alien campaign, but we'll deal with that soon enough. Otherwise I'd have to say the controls are for crap. I played this game after playing a few other first person shooters (RESISTANCE 2 for instance) and AvP was a stark contrast against them in terms of ease of control. To be fair, I don't know how else I would have done it because there's a lot to take into consideration across 3 different species (although the marine and predator are similar), but I still found it problematic. As I mentioned above, all of the weapons and sound effects seen in the movies also appear in the game, but there were a few things I found myself asking "was this really necessary?" For instance, were androids REALLY necessary in this game? Wouldn't human stoolies for the company have been just as purposeful without cramming these artificial soldiers in? And I don't recall ever using the Predator's mines other than just to see how they worked. Plus, his heat visor was absolutely useless (though cool) except in one or two spots. As for the sound effects, it was absolutely laughable (and grating) to hear the marines utter pretty much only 3 different sentences throughout the campaigns, unless there was a specific programmed conversation or line relating directly to what you were doing. Something else that was laughable was the AI. It was astoundingly bad. You could literally kill a marine standing right next to another marine and they just might not notice! And talk about stupid – some of the characters would actually run and hide in a corner with their faces in their hands, if you approached them! I mean, really!?!? It was almost refreshing when some of them chose suicide over whatever you had in store for them. Tacking right on to the blisteringly dumb AI, was also a severe lack of logic on things. For instance, why can the predator jump 20-30 feet in some areas but not 2 feet in others?? Why do marines and others go TOWARDS the sound of an alien hissing? There were many other things like this throughout each campaign but I'll leave it to you to discover them. Something else that should be noted, though I don't know whether it was a good or bad thing, is each of the campaigns is relatively short, with each having only about 5 or 6 different levels and each level taking about an hour or more to play, depending on your skill level. As one last thought for this 'bad' section, (and I realize this depends on your gaming style) the PS3 trophies / Xbox achievements can be VERY tough to complete 100%. The lack of checkpoints in Nightmare difficulty and a few of the online trophies (anyone who has read my other reviews knows I hate online trophies) can make this a really difficult game to get a Platinum Trophy or 100% completion on. Just something to consider if that's your thing….

Now for the individual campaigns…..

The Marine Campaign
THE GOOD : This was overall the best of the 3 campaigns and the one you really should start off with. The familiarity of a 'human' FPS is a nice way to ease into the game and the first 2 levels, especially, contain some genuinely creepy moments that will make you feel like you're watching the better of the 'Aliens' movies. All of the weapons are fun to use (especially the smart-gun) and each has their place in the story. Even the motion tracker with it's constant clicking and pinging added to the atmosphere, even though I know may others just found it annoying. I guess, for me, what made this the best campaign was the ratio of good versus bad in the campaign. It's just not as pronounced as it is in the others. All in all, it's a pretty standard FPS that has some great moments and a few under-whelming ones…

THE BAD : Unfortunately, like all the other campaigns in the game, the marine campaign has its' problems. Beyond some of the general problems with the game that I've already mentioned, and that apply here, the most glaring problem with this FPS campaign was….. the shooting. Your main weapon tends to be the pulse rifle. And its' sight / target is not easily visible like some of the other weapons are and it requires absolute pinpoint accuracy. All in all not bad if you're going for realism, but try shooting an alien as it jumps from floor, to wall, to ceiling, to wall, to floor, to wall, to…..well, you get the idea. Not exactly easy. Now try it with a swarm of them! And for all the good the bullets seem to do against either the aliens or the predators, you may as well be shooting rock salt. It's not that they don't die eventually but you'd certainly expect them to die a little faster against a rapid-fire barrage of hot metal. Good thing there's a 'wash-rinse-repeat' tactic that works fairly well against them: hit 'em to knock 'em backwards and shoot 'em. Too bad this needs to be used as much as it does – it just makes it unnecessarily repetitive.

The Alien Campaign
THE GOOD : Barely anything. Seriously. Other than being able to control (if you really can call it that) this iconic creature, there just isn't much good here. I suppose it's kind of cool to be able to walk on any surface and through vents, etc., but that in and of itself becomes a problem, which we'll deal with shortly. It was fairly fun to play this campaign because it's definitely something different from both a standard FPS and from the other 2 campaigns in the game, but there was so much frustration involved here, it just sucked a lot of the fun right out of it. It was nice though to be able to absolutely haul @$$ when needed because the marine and predator, even at a sprint, aren't anywhere close to as fast as the alien at a sprint. It's just too bad you'll need to retreat from danger as much as you will. This is supposedly a pretty tough critter, right? At least that's the way the movies make it look. The game has other ideas. Then again, the alien, is a big space insect, so maybe its' strength is really it's numbers?? …One last good thing about the alien campaign is the 'finishing moves'. They are brutal, bloody and just what they should be. Whether it's harvesting a human by putting a face-hugger on them, spearing your tail through their chest or mouth, or giving their cranium the 'ol run-through w/ your second set of jaws, the aliens finishers are quite satisfying indeed. At least they got something right here.

THE BAD : Oh, so much. So much so, it made me wonder why they even had this campaign in the game other than they had to, because, well, it's AvP. The most glaring problem with the alien campaign is the controls and the aliens' inability to transition to surfaces as smoothly as it should. The alien can move pretty fast, as I've previously mentioned, so it's downright dizzying crawling all over the place 360 degrees and discombobulating being upside down. So when the alien doesn't transition to surfaces as smoothly as it should, it makes for a genuinely frustrating experience. The aliens' target / crosshairs / whatever, which is shaped like a teeny, tiny 'T' is supposed to help you keep track of what's up and what's down, but it 's so small and, again, things can move so fast, it's not easy to tell what's what sometimes. All in all, I found myself staying on the ground as much as possible, to make things easier. Kind of defeats the purpose of being the alien, doesn't it? Another glaring weakness of this campaign was the aliens' attack strength. I know that a game can't make things TOO easy, but for one of the most fearsome creatures in the galaxy, as another reviewer elsewhere said, "you may as well be tickling your enemies". It's noteworthy that the same applies to the predator, but it's funny that this isn't the case when you're playing the other creature's campaign. That is to say, as the alien it's damn tough to take down the predators, but when you're a predator, the aliens can take you down rather easily. And the same applies in reverse. This just gets back to my 'lack of logic' beef I mentioned in the 'general' section. Also, as I mentioned in the previous section, the finishing moves are quite satisfying and rather brutal, but there was one in particular I couldn't help snickering at each time I saw it. It involved the alien grabbing a marine and then gently caressing their face with its' tail before lopping their head off. Bloody and vicious to be sure, but, just seemed …. odd…. considering the other finishers. Anyway, enough of the bad w/ this campaign. Suffice it to say, I hope those of you who play this particular campaign end up liking it better than I did (though I did enjoy it in small doses), but overall this is just downright abysmal.

The Predator Campaign
THE GOOD : A decent bit actually. If the marine campaign was the best overall, this one was definitely the most interesting. The first thing that impressed me was the predator's visor. Not the heat vision (which as I've already noted was basically useless for the most part), but the way in which it highlighted all the items of interest in your surrounding environment. This made it much easier to form strategies in terms of where health or weapons could be recharged and what path you'd need to take to get there. It also allowed you to see where you could or couldn't jump and highlighted the collectibles. A rather handy tool all the way around! In addition to the visor, the various weapons were all fun and easy to use, plus their controls all made sense. Another thing about the predator campaign that made it fun was the blend of approach it took. By that, I mean it had elements of the marines' run-and-gun approach and elements of the aliens' stealth approach and it was balanced rather well. It was also quite cool, at lest from a story perspective, to see a little bit more about the predator's 'hunter' culture. Though this mainly played out in cut scenes, it was also prevalent in some of the scenery and things you interface with. Speaking of the scenery, while it was possible and at times necessary in the alien campaign to view it from above, the predator did so without making you wish you were back on the ground. From this perspective it was nice to see the previously played levels from the treetops and rooftops and added a whole new dimension to the action. As I mentioned in the few good spots for the alien campaign, the predator campaign also has some devastating, bloody and wicked finishing moves. Beyond just plunging your blades through a marines' chest, you could also rip their head off, pulling their spine out with it. Easily the best finishing move in the whole game!

THE BAD : Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to predator campaign to be the best in the game, it just wasn't. Partly because of some of the things I mentioned in general, like the game's bad logic when it came to where the predator could or couldn't jump, but partly because of where it strayed from the movies when this game did everything it could to incorporate as much from the movies as it could. For instance, anything you do other than jumping while you're cloaked, caused you to un-cloak. Want to use the plasma caster? It causes you to drop your camouflage. Want to attack someone with your blades or throw the battle disc or spear? Same thing here. And as anyone who's seen the movies knows, this wasn't the case in the cinematic presentations. In fact, that was partly what helped make the predator such a lethal and fearsome ….. predator. If the game really wanted to put you at a disadvantage while cloaked but keep its' continuity with the movies, why not un-cloak just the blades when extended (which is always)? I guess what I'm getting at (and this applies to all the campaigns) is, for a game that strived so hard to stay true to and incorporate as much of the movies as it could, why such glaring inconsistencies? Another inconsistency that just made me go "HUH??" was that while you could finish a marine off by plunging your blades through their chest via the finishing move, why is it that it took many numerous swipes of your blades at close range to do so in melee combat? Just made no sense whatsoever. Overall this is a pretty good campaign, but it's not without some significant and glaring weaknesses.

THE BOTTOM LINE : This is a game that I dearly wanted to love. I truly did. I was even trying to be forgiving about it after some of the horrendous reviews I'd read. But despite that, the game has some significant and glaring issues with it, and the alien campaign itself drags the overall rating of this game down a notch or two on its' own. Still, the game has some redeeming points and is overall a good bit of fun to play. Especially if you're a serious fan of the respective franchises, as I am. The online mode is a lot of fun and the single-player campaigns make for some good variety. Buy at a discount if this kind of thing is for you otherwise rent it. Just don't pay full price for this.

UPON FURTHER REVIEW….. : From time to time I'll come back to my reviews and re-read them and re-play the game a bit, just to make sure I didn't leave anything out or see if there's anything I want to revise. In the case of AvP, I guess I have to say that despite my criticisms, the undeniable fact that this game is flawed in a good many ways, and the sheer amount of frustration I experienced with aspects of the game (Nightmare Marine Mode & some of the online trophies, anyone?), I actually enjoyed this game A LOT! I really did. And as blasphemous as this probably is to say, I liked this game better than 'Call Of Duty : Modern Warfare 2' (which, incidentally I played right after AvP). But I guess that just goes to show there's no accounting for taste, right? In looking back, I found this game to be VERY challenging and just a ton of fun. Even the Alien campaign I sandblasted in my review, I enjoyed a lot more when I went back and played it in Nightmare mode. Maybe it's because I knew what to expect? Maybe it's because I had my expectations already properly adjusted to be low? Who knows? But I can definitely say, that out of all the shooters I own (including Dead Space, Resistance 1 & 2, COD : MW2) AvP is my favorite. Go figure……So I'm bumping up the rating I gave it, because, ultimately, a videogame is measured not on it's technical or aesthetic merits, but on how much FUN you have with it. And again, I really enjoyed the hell out of this game despite all it's flaws.