Aliens vs. Predator

Compared to Colonial Marines: this looks like goddamn Bioshock. It's got problems in terms of visuals (at times they look okay, other times they're hideous), the focus on melee combat takes much of the suspense out of the game as you can simply push yourself up against a wall and hold the "block" button, and the story leaves a bit to be desired. But this truly captures the aesthetic of the universe: no other game makes you truly feel like you're playing as the Predator or the Xenomorph like this one does. It's so much fun to play as the alien terrorizing colonist and helpless marines: only wish the campaign was a bit longer. The survival mode is also a fun time waster. Overall: give this one a try if you're a fan of the franchise. It's available on the Xbox store and is backwards capatible, it's worth it if you love these movies like I do.

Predator - The game developers were clearly inspired by the settings and ideas AVP (2004) helped established, which is why much of it's design in this game resembles those from the actual film, which in IMO was a bad route take. Now it's not all bad, as a matter of a fact, some of the concepts are actually quite interesting, like for example the ability to jump across long distance, from platform to platform, and the fact that the disc actually requires skill to eliminate your opponent unlike it's predecessor which featured a lock-on tracker system allowing killing Humans and Aliens to be far to easy. The sound bites were arguably the biggest disappointment about playing as the Predator, because literally all the sounds the Pred makes have been re-recorded, leaving the player with no famous roar, or screech but instead a mutated horse which doesn't in the slightest sound anything like a Predator should. The single-claw approach along with the updated sound effects almost makes for a different creature, and therefore doesn't leave you feeling like your controlling a Predator, which overall is rather disappointing. The campaign was rather flat story-wise, but I did enjoy the expansion of the Predator culture, and slashing Aliens never gets old especially since there's many trophy kills and normal strikes to choose from. The lack of the combi-stick and/or net gun was also disappointing..

game-play - 8/10 story - 6/10

Alien - One thing I must say that they improved on with the Alien game-play in terms of realism, was that they finally fixed the heat bite feature. In all 6 of the Alien films, it's clearly established that the 'little mouth' pokes a hole right through the center of the human forehead, which is exactly what the Alien does here. In lets say, AVP2; the Alien completely bites the head off, which whist looks cool doesn't fit in with the logic of the Alien's capabilities -- so I was glad to see this fixed up. The controls look and fell accurate to how the Alien moves and behaves, but having said that the pounce is no longer in tact which I found disappointing considering stunning enemies and then attacking them when there most vulnerable in terms of movement, was one of the funnest things to do in AVP2. The sounds have once again been modified, and apart from a death scream, all the original sounds have been replaced, but in this case, I actually don't mind 'em as much as the awful re-made roars the Predators make. I'm about half-way through the single player campaign and while I heard a lot of positive reviews about it, I was quite underwhelmed; mainly due to the fact that you don't start as a face hugger and work yourself up through the life cycle which I really enjoyed in the AVP2 Alien campaign.

game-play - 7.5/10 story - 4/10 (so-far)

Marine - Quite possibility the most underrated single-player campaign out there. I really enjoyed the dark and creepy atmosphere of the Marine, and IMO, it really captured the fear of the Aliens again, since there really wasn't much light and you had to use your motion tracker and flares to get an idea of where they were located. The weapon selection was a bit of a let down considering there was no rocket launcher or mini-gun to choose from, and the sniper whist understandably toned down from its 'overpowered' approach in AVP2, doesn't do near enough damage as it should. Overall I found the Marine to be quite entertaining; and it was easily the best single-player experience in the game.

game-play - 8/10 story - 9/10

Being a fan of both universes, it was a pleasure to play this game. I didn't play the old version of Aliens vs Predator, so I'm only evaluating this one.

The plot here is banal, and not particularly important, you get high from the gameplay itself.

There are 3 campaigns here - for a human, a predator and an alien (I will write in the sequence of my walkthroughs)

A human (paratrooper) is the very first and most interesting campaign among all. At first, there was even horror in the very first chapter, then, although there was a sense of danger (there would be constant sounds of monsters nearby, both alien and sometimes predator), it was not so scary anymore because you found a weapon and got used to throwing flyers in the dark. There is some kind of plot here too (unlike the trail campaigns). Well, his episodes are the longest in the game. Rating : 7/10

Predator is a pretty interesting campaign. Here you will feel like a real omnipotent hunter (and this is cool, because the Predator is one), there are no special difficulties (but there are challenging levels), you have a large arsenal and many enemies, in general, it's a complete action movie. It will take less time to complete than a human. Rating : 6/10

Alien is the shortest campaign, which is no worse than Predator episodes. There is a very interesting gameplay here, you will finally be able to feel yourself secretive (because everything here is based on stealth) and a nasty enemy for humans, just like a predator does not have a special plot, and it is not needed. Rating : 6/10

Overall, it's a very good game to play once (but with a buzz), where everything is built on - go from point A to point B, break it and so in...

I heard about this game before it went into production. But it seemed like no time passed at all from Pre-Production to release. When I heard Rebellion was making this one as they did the original (still my all time favourite game) I was very excited. The trailers for it made me all the more optimistic. When it was released, it was very close to what I imagined, though it was clear that the time-frame and/or budget they had for this game was lacking what they needed. The graphics were decent, but seemed unpolished and other than the execution kills, they seemed rather cartoonish. especially during the cutscenes. As for the multiplayer, that's where it got really frustrating. if you try joining a quick match sometimes you'd be waiting 10 minutes before it found a game. Also, if you tried to join a specific game type (say Predator Hunt) it would often join a death match or Infest game. On the rare occasion you could join a Predator Hunt game, you'd only get a maximum of 4 people playing which got very boring. When it's supposed to be up to 18 people in a match, I don't think I once played with more than 10 people. Also the campaigns were wayyyyy too short. I think you got like 8 hours of game play from all 3 campaigns? I'm not sure but I beat all of them ridiculously fast.

I heard rumours that Sega pushed Rebellion to develop the game quicker than they wanted to and practically forced it out before it was finished. I also heard a rumour that Sega was pulling their support for the game (meaning no game servers) if this is the case, I don't blame Rebellion, I blame Sega. I hope that Rebellion is given another chance to make a sequel to this game and are given the proper respect and tools to do their job properly.

I still gave this game a 10 because I was completely disappointed in the Sierra-Developed AvP 2 that pretty much removed everything I loved about the original 1999 AvP game. So this game, was definitely trying to go back to its roots and properly capture the atmosphere of the original films and for the most part I think it was a success and I look forward to the sequel...as long as Rebellion makes it.

I'm not really a big fan of First Person Perspective games. I do think that Aliens vs Predator would have been better as an over-the-shoulder third-person actioner, even the 1994 side-scrolling beat-em-up version was better than this. But for what it is, it's still a worthwhile game.

I wasn't immediately hooked, to be honest. I found the combat system to be clunky and difficult, though once the first level was cleared things got better (this applies to all three campaigns). Some of the gameplay and tense moments actually reminded me a lot of Condemned 2: Bloodshot. You play as either the Predator, Colonial Marines, or an Alien in three individual stories that all tie together, each with their own set of pros and cons.

The story follows on from those utterly awful AvP movies, but connects it with the Alien and Predator franchise in a more cohesive way than those cinematic travesties managed. But the video game franchise of this particular crossover has been stuck as a First Person actioner since 1999 and with this next-gen incarnation I think that Sega and Rebellion should have tried a new approach.

Despite the flaws, it's an enjoyable game that's very easy to play, if not finish, with plenty of trophies available.

Graphics B Sound B Gameplay B- Lasting Appeal B-