Aliens Versus Predator 2

"Average 'n' Pretentious 2."

Omniscience. It's a bugger, isn't it? Back in the days of Quake, bots used it to try to display a cheap form of AI. They'd know where you are, due to the fact that the game indeed, does and they'd shoot there. Plain and simple, due to the fact that the game knows exactly where you are, the shots would always be spot on.

It's not quite that bad with Aliens VS Predator 2 but almost. You're playing the Alien, crawling along the ceiling. Immediately, the Marine that's just come into view below you knows where you are (even though you may be a good way up on the ceiling), a spray of bullets is aimed up towards you. Then, suddenly all the other nearby marines know exactly where you are too without no communication. This is no Medal of Honour.

However, the thing is is that in an attempt to try to disguise the clear 'omniscience flaw' that the game has incorporated so very thoroughly, they make the marines miss often. So if you use standard on ground tactics with the Alien, you'll complete its game within a matter of hours. The same goes for the Predator and the Marine.

In other words, play this game like you would with any other and you'll have it completed in a day. Which kind of defeats the point really, doesn't it? One of the joys of Aliens VS Predator (the original game) was that you had to do certain things, the Predator's Night vision was actually a help, rather than a hindrance. In AVP you couldn't complete the game without it. Unlike its 'successor'. Wherein, you'd have numerous viewmodes to cycle through to find the right one, possibly in the heat of battle.

So, here we have a game where all the cleverness of the original has been brutally torn away, leaving only three semi-average shooters, barely at the level of Quake with bots play-wise. What else do you have? Is it really scary? Er ... no. Both the Predators and the Aliens look like modified human models, the Aliens look like men with tails and the Predators haven't been changed much at all. It's more like a Universal Studios ride than a game.

So, are there any redeeming features? Not really. The AI is poor for all the enemies. The weapons are unimaginative and the 'grand story' isn't even worth speaking of. Do yourself a favour, play the demo and see how dire this is then go and pick yourself up a copy of the original instead. You won't regret it, since that was and is a clever and scary game. Unlike this trash which is quite, in my opinion, unworthy to carry the same name.

Graphics 4 / 10

Modified human models. Unpolished locations. Unimaginative locales and weaponry. A 4 is being fair since the game does have graphics, of a sort at least. They're not totally dire and the Marines actually look decentish (though not as good as the original's) ... but still, it's bad. Real bad.

Sound 7 / 10

This scores highly here because mostly, the sounds here are of course rips from the original game. Which were rips from the movie and so on. It gets a 7 and not anything lower since the game does at least incorporate its own voices. Which is something I suppose.

Game Factor 3 / 10

A game like this needs a decent story, being a film license. A game like this needs to be scary. A game like this needs to be imaginative and clever to convince you you're actually playing different creatures and not cheap mods. The game IS a decent cheap shooter. For a fiver, this may be worth picking up. It's not totally irredeemable. The marines are, again, alrightish but it could've been so much better and the original game is cheaper. Charging so much for this is a scam. So many reasons to mark points down.

Game Life 5 / 10

This depends on you. Get disgusted by how bad it is and go buy the original or endure a few online games. It does have the occasional cheap mod thrown in (like the fact that you can collect skulls, oh joy, I can go on an item-hunting sub-game, whee!) which makes it slightly more interesting. I suppose you could bare coming back to it for a while. It's down to your tolerance. If you can handle a cheap shooter. Sure. 5 it is.

19 / 40

If this game hadn't used such a fine license and had concentrated on the marines (instead of adding in cheap mods in an attempt to fool gamers into thinking they were getting extra -- note to developers, not ALL gamers are stupid), I might not have been so hard on it. Had it not been the sequel to a game which makes its shallow nature obvious, I wouldn't have been so hard on it. After the wait though, AVP2 has left me underwhelmed. Thus I can only thing of one word to describe it; Average. Cheap, dull, boring ... average.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/15/02, Updated 01/15/02