Aliens Vs Predator is as you know, a sci-fi FPS from Rebellion developments, the team behind the original 1999 PC game. The game features both singleplayer and multiplayer components, all of which based on a combonation of characters from the Aliens Vs Predator franchise.

The concept for the singleplayer is basically the typical aliens scenario. There's been an alien outbreak at a mining facility, and the marines have been brought in to clean up. What's different here, and what brings in the Predators is that the organisation on this planet is basically getting dangerously close to some of the predators technology and secrets, so a team of predators is sent in to clean up, and as an alien... the story is essentially to escape, and between you and your piers, kill everything.

Now whilst this 3 way conflict is going on, there is also another entity involved, android robots have been employed to defend the mining complex, and they appear to consider everything hostile.

Gameplay

Marine
The Marines play out as a pretty standard FPS, the gameplay adheres to more oldschool shooters, mainly in the sense that you cannot look down the irons. Personally I prefer this for this type of game as hip-fire means you can have a much better view of the action, and this is especially important when tracking aliens which run... everywhere, or Predators which are often invisible.



There are a variety of weapons, and the gameplay sees you going round... clearing out infestations and whatnot. Whilst pushing the story forward. You're often stuck in enclosed areas, with a whole load of aliens after you, and I personally... found it the most fun I've had in a SP fps in a whole long time. Hearing an aliens head burst under the pressure of your gunfire is endlessly satisfying.

Adding tension, marines have a flashlight, and a motion sensor. Often the game likes to mess around with you, with aliens bleeping on the motion sensor, and you not seeing anything on screen (they're in the vents ) it's all pretty creepy, and keeps you on your toes.

That being said however, in the latter sections of the campaign you find yourself against armed, humanoid enemies. Which feels a little lackluster. It wasn't bad, but all I could think about was getting back to killing more aliens.

Predator
The predator. Is centric around stealth mechanics, basically the predator can go invisible, and generally won't be seen by marines until you're actually attacking them. So against marines Predators see themselves focusing on stealth, waiting for marines to seperate, picking off stragglers and avoiding automated defenses (turrets).

Whereas against the aliens, it's a very much melee game. The difference with the aliens is that they can see you, at all times. So you just have to either fend them off, or run. Spawns of aliens are often infinite so often it's a matter of just surviving till you can get away from them.

As the alien you gain abilities (in the form of new equipment) as you progress. Which helps keep things interesting. This includes items such as the combi stick, vision modes, and disc blade.

Alien
The alien gameplay is similar to the predators, although I felt it was more stealth focused. You're weaker than the predator so you need to consider your approach to the marines more carefully. The aliens controls are also quite a bit different, they travel fast, and close to the ground. There also unbelievably agile with the ability to jump large distances, and traverse across almost any surface.

Aliens seek comfort in darkness so a lot of the gameplay is centralised around ensuring the enviroment is blacked out, and suitable for you and your species. If the lights are on marines are much more likely to see you on the roofs, if they're off - you're practically invisible.



Honestly, I found the alien a little more satisfying to play than the Predators. It's really fun stalking and dispatching marines, and almost at times playing with your prey.

Graphics
Despite what other critics are saying, the graphics on this game are pretty damn good. The lighting helps a lot too, but personally this is one of the better looking titles in my FPS collection, and certainly more impressive than titles like Resistance 2 and Modern Warfare 2.

The graphics retain a gritty feel to them throughout, which I guess could be a turn off, but this is just retaining HR Gigers artstyle. There were some weird visuals, like when the predators attack a target they're close too they kind of slide rather than steping forward with a natural animation, but this isn't noticable in the singleplayer, and doesn't detract from the experience in multiplayer.

At least graphics are really the one component you can judge for yourself before playing, so just take look at some of the screenshots in this review.



The game also features plenty of gruesome trophy kills, which are really fun to watch. I personally couldn't care less if a marines innards aren't textured quite as well as his face!

Sound
Everythings authentic. By that I mean you're getting the same quality of sound, same quality of voice acting that you have gotten in the past, from the films. Which is by no means bad, in fact it's all pretty good.

Story
For what it is... and alien vs predator story... the story here, is probably more interesting than either of the films. I enjoyed the story on each of the campaigns, and it was something which kept me pushing forward wanting to know what happened. I was however a little disapointed in some of the endings to some of the campaigns, but mainly because none of them really failed to surprise, although each of them do have an interesting twist at the end. Albeit predictable.

Also whilst I enjoyed how the storys are simultanious, and almost intertwined, by that I mean as the predator you see some of the effects of the marines campaign, going from the marine to the predator you understand why some of the stuff is happening, at one point all the power in the facility was drained, releasing the aliens near you... and going over to the predators campaign you see that it's actually you causing that to happen. However! It was a shame that they didn't really have any direct interaction, when playing the campaigns I did really think I'd meet myself from the other campaigns, it's a shame they didn't take that opportunity.

Multiplayer
After all that there is also a multiplayer component to sink your teeth into, including both co-op and competative game types, 7 of which all in all:



Survivor (Co-op)
Basically, you just have to survive for as long as possible, as marines, against hordes of aliens which are released in waves. The maps are small with pickups dotted about, which helps keep things interesting. It's a lot of fun and the only problem I observed was that you can team kill, whilst I didn't meet any idiots... I did notice it was a little too easy to accidently team kill someone, especially with anything explosive..



Predator Hunt
7 Marines 1 Predator

Infestation
7 Marines 1 Alien, each marine that dies, becomes an alien

Species TDM (Aliens vs Marines vs Pred)

DM (Aliens vs Marines vs Pred)

Domination (Aliens vs Marines)
3 Objectives, control of these objectives earns your team points.

I think I've missed one out, not sure what that is. Either way, both competative and co-op is a load of fun. The only problem I observed is that as a party, on competative you can't play Infestation or Predator hunt, which I thought was a little disapointing, since I have to play these on my own I can't see myself playing them regularly, despite them being enjoyable.

Lifespan
Despite the 3 campaigns, each only consumes around 2hours. The marines took me 3, and alien and predator around 2 each. Overall it's not too short for an FPS, but not too long either, on the bright side there are plenty of collectibles which could keep you coming back, as well as variable difficulty settings. However the bulk of the game is in the multiplayer, from where I was the multiplayer was a lot of fun, the multiplayer features a ranking system and leaderboards which some may enjoy working there way through, no real upgrades aside new characters though.

Overall, considering the multiplayers more than enjoyable, and the single player isn't bad either, and is pretty decent for pick up and play, as each campaign is short you can just get the urge to play through one of them again at any time, without it consuming too much of your time. The lifespan is pretty damn good.

Overall
Really, all in all... it's hands down the best FPS I've bought this year, the contenstents in that catagory are of course Bioshock 2, and MAG. Both of which great titles in there own right, but I found it mighty refreshing to get into a game which was very unique. Great stealth, survival, FPS and melee... this game offers a lot which other FPSs don't.

Interesting review and great read. I might have to Gamefly this afterall

Agreed, very nice review. This might have to go on my gamefly queue after all. +Rep for such an in-depth review and great picture+video integration!

I myself am very disappointed. I feel like I wasted my money with this game. Online its like near impossible to find a game and insted of waiting for a full 18 people to join the match starts anyways with only 4 people well thats no fun. I also find that almost eveyone likes to be predator online and spam the one hit kill throwing disc. So being an alien is pretty much worthless cause you lunge at the predator and hit him and he stands there like a brick wall then turns around and discs you. Same with the marine you lunge at him and he stands there and blasts you before you can get another hit in to kill him therefore you pretty can only kill people by sneak attacking them and that gets boring. Also alot of the time your sneak attacking and someone will wait right behind you for the animation to finish then one hit kill sneak attack you. I'm not just basing this on playing the game for 30 minutes or nothing ether I am rank 21.

Hm. Can't say I've had that problem. Sure you have to be stealthy with the predators but that's only them. If it's Predator Vs Marine I can usually take them out in a standard gunfight. I never have any problems finding a game though, takes about 1 minute. The game sold really well so there are a lot of people online, I did get a game once which only had 4 people in it, which was a bit weird, but for the most part the games are either full or close to it.

Btw, if you meet a predator in CQC, you can win so long as you get the first heavy attack off. Predators have no sensors or anything like that at all. So as an alien, you can see them ALL the time, yet they have to see you directly. So not only is it pretty easy to get a stealth attack off, if you are in 1 vs 1 melee you can just keep heavy attacking, the first heavy attack will stun them so you can do another and they should die on the second or third.

I've had plenty species DM where we won as aliens or marines, and plenty of normal dm where the predators lost. Actually predators don't do very well in normal DM cause they can't find people as easily as the marines/aliens can.

Preds are supposed to be the strongest. But the disadvantage is that they have no means of indirectly detecting anyone.

Not a bad review... Bout to go and get this game.

these waiting long times and only having 4 people in a match is all directed toward the ranked matches. I know alot of people play friendly match but I want the skins.

great review i agree in alot things you said and i really enjoy playin this game +rep man

this is a great review, nice picture and a great video to go with an awesome review +rep