Aliens vs. Predator

The most stunning achievement in AvP is that it allows for three totally separate styles of gameplay. As the name implies, you can join the fray as either an Alien or Predator. But you can also opt to take on the other-worlders as a Colonial Marine. Each character has it's own unique levels, objectives and game stylings. This variety of characters and gameplay is incredibly refreshing in a genre that is flooded with clones and remakes that are hardly worth the shelf space they occupy.

Each of the three races has there own advantages and disadvantages in the game, as is outlined below:

Alien
By far the fastest of the three races, the Alien uses its speed to outmaneuver it opponents. The Alien also has the ability to cling to any surface and jump incredible distances, making it one tough bug to corner. Unlike the other two characters the Alien is a weapon unto itself, armed with razor sharp claws, a deadly tail whip and lightning fast jaws which can kill an opponent in one strike. The jaw attack will also replenish the Alien's lifeforce, not to mention it makes for one hella messy show. Since the Alien has no ranged attack, it will require more strategy and cunning to play as you'll often have to lay in wait (or hang in wait on the ceiling) for your opponent rather than making a headlong rush from a distance.

When looking from the Alien's eyes, its field of vision is much wider than the Marine or the Predator. This makes the Alien hard to ambush. Another advantage the Alien has is the ability to spot enemies from quite a distance. Through the Alien's eyes, opponents are highlighted with a glowing aura making them easy to see from afar. There is also a secondary vision mode which allows the Alien to see in the dark, although this mode sacrifices the targeting aura and makes it so the Alien can only see objects that are extremely close. This mode comes in particularly handy if you're playing against Marines and you've managed to knock out the lights or the power generator on a particular level.

Oddly enough the Alien is the weakest of the three races, and is easily taken out by a well-placed spear shot or smart gun burst. You'll have to keep on your toes and use your maneuverability to your advantage when playing the Alien.

Predator
The Predator is the universal hunter, and he has the firepower to prove it. Armed with wrist blades, an energy pistol, a spear gun, a shoulder mounted plasma caster, and a disc launcher, the Predator is a formidable foe indeed. The Predator also carries a medicomp which he can use to heal itself. This combined with an awesome arsenal, his cloaking ability, target specific vision and a long-range zoom helmet makes the Predator one tough cookie.

Like the Alien, the Predator has several different vision modes. Under normal circumstances, the Predator's vision is similar to that of the Colonial Marine, but the Predator can also switch into human or Alien tracking mode, which colors your target so you can see them from afar. However, this targeting vision can also work against you if you're fighting multiple targets of different types. As well as it works to track specific races, it makes the other race invisible to the Predator. So when tracking Aliens, the Predator cannot see humans, and vice-versa.

Of course, the Predator's greatest advantage is his cloaking ability. With the press of a button the Predator can disappear from sight. The only major disadvantage the Predator suffers is that nearly every action he makes requires energy. The game designers have made a point of including only a few energy power-ups in each level, so you'll have to be conservative when using the Predator.

Colonial Marine
As a simple human going up against two gruesome extra-terrestrial races, you may think that the Colonial Marine would be at a distinct disadvantage in AvP. That'd he'd be a wimp, a real do-nothing, a turd in the toilet bowl of life, a stinky momma's boy with $#*% for brains ... son, hit the deck and give me twenty!!! On the double!!! Whoops ... brought me back to my military days. Well, he's actually a pretty tough G.I., falling somewhere between the Alien and Predator in terms of staying power. The Marine is a formidable foe as he has the greatest variety of weapons. The Marine's arsenal includes a pulse rifle, an auto-targeting rapid-firing smart gun, a flame thrower, a rocket launcher, a grenade launcher, and a minigun.

When playing the Marine you'll want to keep your opponents at a distance, picking them off with your pulse rifle or smart gun. If they get in close set your flame thrower to extra crispy and watch your opponent burn baby, burn! Marines also carry flares which can be used to temporarily blind the Alien or Predator.

The biggest disadvantages to playing the Marine is his weak constitution as compared to the Predator and inability to naturally see in the dark. However, the Marine carries a light intensifier which lets him navigate darkened hallways and a motion sensor which gives the location of moving targets before they're on top of you. Of course these moving targets could be your buddies, so don't just go on a rampage if a few blips appear on your screen in the distance. You could be filling your own team with lead.

While the game certainly breaks new ground when it comes to gameplay, all of the basics of the shooter genre are apparent in AvP. The object in most shooters is to run around and kill everything in sight while looking for an elusive switch/key that unlocks the next level, and AvP isn't one to break the mold. Other than the distinctive vision modes and a few small offerings such as the Alien's ability to crawl around on any surface don't expect AvP to deviate from the FPS formula much.

What this game is overflowing with is atmosphere. In the Alien and Marine missions you'll feel like you're in the middle of the Alien movies. And, while the proprietary engine used in AvP isn't quite as pretty as you'll find in Half-Life or Unreal, the art designers did a good job of capturing the dark, dirty ambiance, right down to the Giger-inspired Alien architecture. There's not much underlying story, but you will get into the feel of the game through the environments, from the twisty passages of the Alien systems to the hard cold steel of the Marine bases. And the characters look pretty good too, even at close range, with full facial expressions and animations. Unfortunately, the art direction in the game is inconsistent and the Predator levels aren't nearly as impressive or immersive as those found in the Alien and Marine settings. But you'll be playing most of the Predator side of the game in hunt mode where the environments are basically all one color anyway, so it doesn't detract from the game too much.

As good as the settings look, level design is nothing spectacular. The levels are huge, but you're basically lead through each level with very little decision in which path to take. Because you can pick from three entirely separate species in the game, each of the campaigns is a bit short for my taste. But, to add to the longevity of each campaign, Rebellion decided to eliminate a save feature during the missions, instead opting for an automatic level save after completion of each. Sure, it's one way to increase playability, but it's also something that some PC gamers may find annoying since mission may take up to thirty minutes. It's incredibly frustrating to die after playing through 90% of a level only to have to restart at the beginning, and the high difficulty of some missions nearly insures that you'll give up and move on to another campaign more than once while playing the game.

While AvP offers a fairly well balanced and entertaining single play experience, multiply is more troubling. The Predator is by far the best of the pack and it seems that whoever picks to play the Predator around the office has a marked advantage over the Aliens or Marines. The Alien also seems a lot more hearty in multiplay than it does in the single player mode. The Marine is basically fodder in the multiplay matches and most of the games around the office end up as either a smattering of Aliens against Predators or just an arena full of cloaked, heat-sensing Predators out for each others blood. It's a shame more balance couldn't have been struck between the three species. There is a nice variety of gameplay types (deathmatch, species deathmatch, co-op, tag and last man standing), but the game doesn't lend itself to being that much fun if you're a fleshy pink Marine surrounded by other-worlders.

All in all I was pretty impressed with AvP, at least the single player game. It doesn't take a dramatic turn away from the other FPSers out there, it's not incredibly pretty, it's not incredibly innovative, but it is fun and terrifying at the same time. It's definitely worth checking out, but it could be better.

-- Tal Blevins