Aliens Versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt Expansion Pack

"As much as I love the series, Primal Hunt was a huge dissapointment"

Who could forget the terror of something as simple as walking down the halls in the original Aliens Vs Predator? Every *blip* of your motion tracker would startle you. Several years later, Aliens Vs Predator 2 came out and carried on that atmosphere of fear surprise. Aliens Vs Predator 2: Primal Hunt simply does not offer the same fun as its predecessors did, because it simply lacks enough substance to keep me entertained for more than ten minutes; its crap.

Graphics: ... 7/10

There has been essentially no change in the graphics from Aliens Vs Predator 2 (AVP2). Because of that, you can bet that for the most part, this game looks like crap. Up close, everything looks like a bunch of lego blocks with smoothed surfaces. To AVP2: Primal Hunt's credit, though other recent games have been more pixilated, so it is slightly above average in comparison.

Aside from that, I have one minor irk with the lighting system (the same problem with AVP2): the environment is dark to spook you, but I can very easily increase the brightness and gamma and - oh! There's that hidden alien *bang*

Controls ... 9/10

I have no complaints here. The controls are you basic set up of W-A-S-D for movement and 0-9 for weapons. I did, however, find that several of the miscellaneous keys where in spots that were quite uncomfortable, but it's no big deal since there was room to move it to another slot.

Story ... 2/10

In AVP2:Primal Hunt, every race has there own campaign, but it revolves around one thing: the artifact. 500 years or so prior to AVP2, a predator sealed himself and an artifact, with the powers to control the mind of the hive in some sort of anti-sexy force field.

Corporate:
In the corporate campaign you play as Dunya, a young mercenary that is sent to obtain the artifact and get out of there. Unluckily for her, a predator and a poo-load of aliens follow her back ...

PredAlien:
You start off as a facehugger that face-hugs a predator. Simple, no? It is, and so are most of the predalien missions. They consist of the following: break a vent, kill someone, break a vent, climb up a wall, kill someone, repeat. Blarg. The predalien is, as you'd expect, bent on finding and destroying the artifact, before the predator does. And boy, oh boy, does he kill a lot of in between.

Predator:

After the artifact was taken, the ancient predator woke up and decided he wanted revenge. And the artifact. You find yourself wandering all over the hive and ship searching for something that seems entirely unobtainable! Arg. It's about as exciting as watching Madeline Albright run a marathon.

Keep in mind that each campaign consists of 3 missions, each of which are about 15-20 minutes long if you know where you are going. I, like most people, was expected much more from such a good series.

Gameplay ... 5/10

Corperate/Marine:

The corporate missions are a bit frustrating, but once you get the hang of it, there's no problem at all. As soon as you realize that the smart gun is your friend, you're set for the rest of the game. The corporates may now wield two pistols instead of one, but who cares? My pulse rifle is all I need, thanks. There are also sentry guns you can pick up and place around the map in multiplayer, which is cool, but they're easy to kill, and even if you do kill someone with it, it won't count towards your score.

Predators:

The predator missions are probably the most boring missions of all. The hardest part was figuring out where to go once you've reached a fork in the road (or, as the case may be, the hive)
The predator was given a new class in AVP2: Primal Hunt, the ancient predator. He's pretty much the same as a normal predator but he's been given the energy flechette AKA ''useless''. This weapon is simply useless! It does practically no damage, and is far too inaccurate to hit enemies right in front of your face. What a waste. The predator was also given another completely useless tool: the self destruct button. You know, suicide. There's absolutely no reason to use this weapon. Ever. It's far too weak, it kills you and it has a laughable radius.

Predalien:
There's not much to say here except that the predalien was given a bad-ass headbite. Pure genius. Now, someone tell me why this had to be put into the expansion and couldn't simply be put in a regular AVP2 patch!? Aside from that, nothing has changed about the aliens.

And, to top it all off, most of the campaign missions consist of revisiting places you were in AVP2! How original.
Sound ... 10/10

ROAR! RIP! TEAR! SCREAM! Classic Aliens Vs Predator sounds, terrifying and pants-soiling as ever. True, it'll lose its effects after awhile, but what game doesn't do that?! Besides, what's cooler than the sound of someone being eaten?

Replay Value Single player: 0/10 Muliplayer: 8/10

No one would ever want to play the single player missions more than once. No one. It's just too depressing, and brings back memories of everything you hate about the game.

Muliplayer, on the other hand, can be lots of fun if you have a good connection, and the people on the server you're playing on are nice. Too often, though, people will play in the cheapest way possible, taking away from a lot of potential fun.

Buy? Rent? Smash?

Buy it only if you have $15-$20 bucks lying around. Remember, you get what you pay for. Beware

Final Score: 3/10 (Crap)

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 09/22/02, Updated 09/22/02