Aliens Versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt Expansion Pack

"An average game, just don't blink or it'll be over..."

Aliens vs. Predator 2 - Primal Hunt - 6/10

Introduction:

Without much exception, Aliens vs. Predator was the scariest PC game in history, and AVP2 was one of the best first-person shooters ever. Anybody who liked the Predator and/or Alien series appreciated both games' attention to detail and source material, the gameplay, the sheer fright the games caused, and excellent gameplay for their day and age (especially multiplayer in AVP2). Hunt as either the Predator or the Alien, or try the survive as the prey as a Colonial Marine. Pure genius. AVP introduced PC gamers to the concept and scared the hell out of them; AVP2 turned it into a legitimate and respectable franchise to even hardcore Quake and Unreal gamers.

And now there's the AVP2 expansion, Primal Hunt. A prologue to the core AVP2, it tells the story of an ancient device that can control the Alien Hive, and pits three separate species (Alien, Predator, Corporate) trying to gain control of it. While this sounds all well and good, I found it far too short and far too unfair. There are only three new missions per species (whereas the core game has about 8 per character), and with quicksave, you can finish them in about a weekend.

But, even with the relative shortness of the expansion, there are other flaws that Sierra overlooked or just plain ignored to churn out this slightly below-average expansion.

Sound - 8/10

The sounds are as dead-on as they were for AVP2, which I believed had one of the best sound libraries for a first-person shooter to date. Like AVP2, all the Alien, marine, and Predator weapon and character sounds are faithfully taken from the multitude of films. Every weapon and action sounds real, even the Pred's new Energy Flechette. The voice-acting is pretty well-done for a game of its type, but Dunya's cutscenes could have used a better voice-actor (or at least a better script).

While AVP2 has the clearest sound of the series, I still disagree with the loss of the taunt in single-player missions. Especially for the Predator, who can taunt his foes invisibly from anywhere, it was a great joy to roar and see a group of Marines shiver and quake in the original Aliens vs. Predator.

I also don't recall the Predator theme play even once in the expansion. Probably the best theme in the whole first AVP2 doesn't appear once. Any music is few and far between, even incidental, ''moody'' music; it chimes it when Aliens are around, and immediately drops when they're dead. It kinds of clues you in to what might happen next? Moody music, but no Aliens around? Oh, wait, eggs! (Snatched by face-hugger a second later)

Even the music is rehashed from AVP2, and there is no real driving music to get the players pumped up. Not bad overall, just lacking when compared to the source material. With better music, it would have easily scored a 10.

Graphics - 8/10

I'll begin by saying that my comp isn't the best around: Pentium 933 Mhz, 512 SDRAM, and 64 Meg Nvidia card. But it played the core AVP2, single and multiplayer, on high visuals settings without much trouble. In Primal Hunt, there seems to be more slowdown, especially when more than five or six enemies appear onscreen. The environments are much bigger, and each level isn't broken down as much into separate segments, so perhaps that's the answer. There isn't much improvement over the graphics from AVP2.

In Primal Hunt, you'll cover a lot of ground that you did in the core AVP2, especially the Pods. There are three new creatures on LV-1201, but they only exist in the outdoor missions and aren't as smart or threatening as Aliens or Predator. They're more a nuisance than anything.

The environments themselves, on opinion, don't seem to fit the motif we expect of AVP games; we hardly see any places where the bugs have been through and caused massive havok. There's a lot of sci-fi atmosphere, but little terrifying mood. Good, but not as good or well-implemented as the core game.

Gameplay/Interface - 8/10

Technically, Primal Hunt isn't an ''expansion.'' Since the interface, once installed, is on its own and doesn't tie in with the regular AVP2, Primal Hunt is actually akin to a separate game that uses the AVP2 Lithtech engine; more like a mod than anything else. The two should have been intertwined so we only had to click on one icon and have one enhanced game, like Diablo II's expansion pack.

As far as control goes, if your machine plays without slowdown, then everything is dead-on when it comes to aiming, shooting, jumping, moving, interacting with switches and sentry guns, and so forth. While I said before that the environments are big, the area you can actually interact with is quite small; often you'll be caught in very narrow halls or on very thin platforms/walkways/mountain paths, and so forth. So backing up to fight dozens of Aliens is dangerous because you'll often fall off the edge and to your death, or get caught between the wall and your enemy and get torn apart. This gets old pretty quick.

Corporate Missions:

Most of the challenge in Primal Hunt stems from the inability to find items that you need. Ammo, health, armor, they're all few and far between. So if (and when) you get swarmed by bugs, you'll spend a lot of ammo and lose some health; when this happens again and again, it gets harder and harder to survive. It makes the game slightly realistic, but not much fun in this aspect. For example, the Smartgun would probably be the best weapon for most of the levels, but odds are you'll never have the ammo when you need it. As well, most of your Alien enemies will pop out of literally nowhere (they just materialize behind you for cheap hits), which makes it hard to have fun when enemies unfairly appear from thin air. In the core AVP2, there was a logical way they appeared: from ducts, up canyon walls, our of caves, etc.
In the first two missions, especially, there will be a multitude of eggs that will hatch and try to face-hug you (and will succeed on newcoming gamers), and if you have no grenades, you'll probably be screwed. Also, several facehuggers seem to hatch not on your proximity, but as you push a switch or get into a certain room, which is not only unfair, but makes the game more redundant and the story forced. The only new weapon you get is dual pistols, which isn't really new since it was in Aliens vs. Predator Gold, which came out in 2000. Finally, there is no point where you fight a Predator in the Corporate missions, which makes the three-way crossover kind of pointless.

Ancient Predator Missions:

For the Predator missions it's all about energy; having enough when you need it and finding a place to hide to recharge (and heal). Much of the fighting is mindless in the single-player missions; it stays the same with the Predator. The only new weapon you get is the Energy Flechette, and it's rather weak. Then again, how many different weapons does the Predator need?
There's really no stalking around and hunting that is so ubiquitous with the term ''Predator.'' They're too much like the Corporate missions since the best Pred abilities are useless; most of your opponents are synthetics, and they somehow see right through your cloaking even from great distances. They needed a lot more work and better level design. The same problems with Aliens appearing out of nowhere and eggs applies to the Pred missions, too. It also doesn't make any sense that in the missions you don't even see the Alien queen once(outside of a video clip). So who the heck is laying all the eggs?

Predalien missions:

You'll spend most of your time as the Predalien avoiding/destroying traps and sentry guns, instead of duct-crawling, sneaking around, and ripping marines apart. Also, you'll not fight one Predator as a Predalien; you only see them as a Facehugger. The challenge with the Predalien is just like the Corporate; not enough health. When you have more than enough health, all you'll see are humans. When you need health, however, all you'll see is synths (who are all dead-on at aiming and you can't get health from them). The only new thing the Predaliens get is a headbite (which would be really useful in Multiplayer).


Replayability - 5/10

The urge to replay the single-player missions is pretty low, almost nil. The missions aren't all that long, just really uneven against you. Most of your time you'll spend going back over the same area again and again until you get it right. All the stories stem from having to find one stupid Artifact that can control the Alien Hive. So instead of survival, it feels more like Tomb Raider. And when you beat all the missions there's really no resolution to that part of the story; in fact, it's downright depressing.

Even as I write this I have almost no urge to replay the missions I beat just yesterday, mainly because of the cheap egg placements I've mentioned before. AVP2 single-player missions were replayable; Primal Hunt's aren't. There really aren't any characters to root for, especially in the Corporate missions, since Dunya is technically one of the bad guys who, if you play the core game, you'll see try to screw the Marines over big-time.

I honestly expected Primal Hunt to wrap up the story where AVP2 left off, entailing whatever the Corporates did after they left LV-1201. Instead, it's a prologue, which wraps up before the ''incident.'' The loose ends might be setting the series up for Aliens vs. Predator 3, but I'm not a fan of prequels. I was expecting a certain story, and didn't receive it (aren't most expansion packs technically sequels, anyway?)

Final Word:

If you can find this expansion for around five to ten bucks and you really, really want it that bad, by all means get it. Don't expect anything stellar, of course; the lack of the story wrap-up and the insertion of a whole new and unnecessary element (the Artifact) disappointed me. Of course, you'd be better off getting AVP2: Gold Edition, which has the original (and much superior) AVP2, with Primal Hunt included for $20. Just don't expect to take weeks to beat all of the missions; I beat all three missions for each character in about 24 hours, even with taking long breaks in between playtime. AVP2 is worth $20 on its own; Primal Hunt is not.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/03, Updated 06/22/03