Ever since the original “Alien” and “Predator” movies came out all those years ago, fans of both series have been dying to see them do battle against each other. In 2004 it finally happened in a rather lackluster movie and once again in 2007. Despite the movies not being that great, the team behind the original 1999 Aliens vs. Predator game are back to take their game to the next-gen level.
Aliens vs. Predator has three story campaign for you to play though and “enjoy” I say “enjoy” because for me, they scored a 1 out of 3 in what campaigns were fun and enjoyable to play though. So lets start with what I actually enjoyed, the Marine Campaign. Unlike me, you should actually start off your Aliens vs. Predator gaming experience with this campaign. It’s simple to come to terms with because it’s just your standard First Person Shooter. I wouldn’t call that a bad thing about the game but it isn’t exactly a good thing either as there are many other First-Person Shooters out there. I’m sure people would rather be stopping “Modern Wars” in Call of Duty or saving the world as Marquis Phoenix in Gears of War rather than playing a fun yet simple campaign of Aliens vs. Predator.
Now, maybe you’re like me and will pick the Alien or Predator campaign first (Predator for me) because you think it’ll be a lot cooler than just running around as a Marine with your guns. Instead you’d rather be ripping them in half and just killing everything in your sight. Right? While this is fun for at first, it just gets redundant after a while.
Once you learn the controls for each species of extra-terrestrial, you expect to get straight in to the action and just easily start killing marines but it doesn’t work like that. The camera shakes all other the place making the area seem more clustered than it already is and your main form of attack is melee combat. I don’t know if it’s just me or not. But when I’m playing as a Predator I’d expect to get one hit kills when I slash a marine, and not for him to simply just block it. You have two melee attacks, a light attack and a strong attack. While the marines can’t block the strong attacks, they take far too long to charge and you’re usually as good as dead before pulling it off.
While this game has quite a few flaws it also has its positive aspects as well. I enjoyed using the Predator’s ability to distract marines with voice clips causing them to walk towards the noise separating them from their allies to allow you to kill them off one by one. This is really how the game has to be played because if you try and rush the marines, they will slaughter you.
The invisibility aspect of the Predator is also fun to play around with, however I seem to find if you get too close to a Marine while invisible they will somehow see you and start shooting. Fortunately, the Predator’s combat system does improve when you get your hands on the “Combi Stick”. Until then though, his campaign is far too stealth-like to my liking for what is meant to be such a badass creature.
In my eyes, playing as one of the Aliens is a real pain. It’s all about speed with them but sometimes this speed can be hard to control, especially with the sprint and when you’re climbing the walls or upside-down. Now that I’ve talked about the campaign mode of the game, which in my opinion didn’t fully deliver, lets talk about what did. The online multiplayer.
Maybe it’s just because I’ve been playing other recent online multiplayer games for a tad too long but I really found Aliens vs. Predator online to be a real breath of fresh air. Just like in the campaign you can play as the Marine, the Predator or the Alien. You might have the option to pick your character, but if you do I haven’t figured out how and I’m always just randomly assigned a species. While I may have complained about the game mechanics and camera angles earlier in the review, at least now everyone you’re playing against is going through the same issues. You have six maps to play along with six different kinds of games.
You might have noticed that with every positive thing I’ve mentioned in this review I seemingly follow it up with a negative and I have to do it again. While the multiplayer is fun and rather different from the current other online FPS’s, it does lack one thing that other games seem to have, and that is customization of your profile/characters. Some might say this keeps the gameplay balanced but when the only thing you can unlock is skins it just gets boring rather fast. I know when I was playing Modern Warfare 2 a lot, the goal to level up kept me playing hoping to unlock that AK 47 and when I finally did, I chose prestige and did it all over again because it was FUN!
At the end of the day, if you play this game in short bursts of time and you find it for a lower price than advertised somewhere you might actually quite enjoy the game. While it has great sound affects, it also has poor graphics. Graphics aren’t everything but in the year 2010, the level of expectation is rather high and I can’t say Aliens vs. Predator delivered in that area. The colours are bland and there are some minor frame rate issues. The campaign is decent at best with only the Marines campaign really delivering for me. The online mode is the game’s best feature but even that seems to lack freedom in customization which becomes a downer after playing for a while.
I really don’t like hating on the game because Sega have been kind to me but I can only share my opinions and listen to yours. My next review will be another Sega game in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. Unlike with Aliens vs. Predator, I’ve really been enjoying the game thus far and you’ll definitely see that in the review when it is posted.
Aliens Vs. Predator Grades:
Presentation: B
The menu screens are simple to make your way through and are even pretty to look at.
Graphics: C
Frame rate issues and poor colours really let the graphics down, it’s 2010 not 2000.
Sound: B+
By far the best part of the game, it’s just everything you’d expect from something involving these two classic movie characters.
Gameplay: C
Despite some issues with the extra-terrestrials, the species are fun to play as and you should enjoy using each species unique differences in forms of attack.
Lasting Appeal: C+
Once you complete the campaigns, you’ve got some fun online multiplayer to play around with. But the lack of game types, maps and customization slips it down from getting a higher grade.
Overall: 6/10 – The game certainly does have it’s moments and can be quite fun with a unique take on multiplayer action. But unfortunately with such a short campaign mode and not a lot of variety in the multiplayer scene we would have to recommend this as a rental. At least until the price drops down.
