Aliens Versus Predator

"A PC great overshadowed by its squeal"

A few years back the worlds first 64bit system the Atari Jaguar was introduced to the gaming market. The system did support 64bit graphics but its very limited 3D support as well as a drought of any really good games caused the system to fall under the lights of the approaching Sega Saturn, and Sony Play station. But there was one game on that system that seemed to be one of its redeeming points. As with the Dark Horse comics (That I actually own more than a few of.) Fox Interactive released a dream battle of sorts called Aliens versus Predator, when compared to several of the rave 3D shooters of that time ''Mainly the Doom series'' AvP offered some very welcomed twists to the genre. In 1999 a much awaited remake of the original game was released exclusively for the PC, I remember it well because it was the first time I bought a new computer so I could play a game hah. Well with the release of Paul W Anderson's ''Aliens versus Predator'' slowing beginning to creep its way into the movie theaters and swarms of news about the film swamping the internet, I was reminded of these two gaming gems that never seem to have gotten the credit they deserved. Aliens versus Predator 1 & 2, in my opinion two of thee very best first person shooters ever conceived on the PC. Both games giving you the ability to play and control the actions of three of the most dangerous species in the universe a Marine....An Alien......or the monstrous Predator. Each of the three had its own unique attributes advantages and disadvantages. At the time of its release this was a very innovative approach to a first-person shooter, but while all at once there were other things in the 1st AvP that set it apart from standard shooter fair. I'll start with the first AvP.

Graphics: 8 Even at the time of the games release the graphics in the game were not nothing to really rave about, besides the fact that it was one of the first game I owned were you HAD TO HAVE a 3D accelerator card to play. Yet overall the graphics were very nice and stayed 100% true to the movies! None of the character design was really tampered with in any way that would piss off a fan boy. I was really amazed at the detail they placed into every single character in the game, despite the fact that the models had few polygons which seemed to be the only flaw the graphics harbor. But this was for the purpose I believe of adding dismemberment, every single enemy or character in the game can be sliced and diced every which way possible you could even cut off fingers and hands. Each limb would bleed and twitch and squirm after being amputated and the sight of it was enough to make even me cringe at times. I'll never forget within my first 15 minutes of playing as the Predator slashing a Marine with my Wrist Blades and watching his hand fly from his arm across the corridor, then the Marine grabs the numb as blood flows from it right before he slowly falls to the ground. This was pretty much meant to be as nasty of a game as possible. The levels themselves are the real highlight of the graphics seeing as everywhere from the Gateway space Station to the Hive, to the Alien Bone ship all look wonderful and completely capture the feel of the films. My only problem is that you never really get to see any of the Predators Territory ''The jungle, The Predator Clan ship''. The game is extremely dark! Levels were purposely made dark for the fright factor of the game which was very well pulled off at the time even though that only seemed to be the case with the Marine hehehe. But the lack of light is when each of the characters different vision modes become useful all of them done very well and provide a nice graphically twist to the game ''They got the Predators inferred vision perfect, besides the fact that Marines are just drawn with rainbow textures in that vision mode'' All of the weapons are completely faithful to the movies and only a few are present that have never been seen. The graphics are pretty good with only a few minor flaws.

Sound: 10! The sound is thee BEST thing about the entire game, everything from the music to the sound effects is done to its fullest potential. The Predator roars as well as that eerie clicking sound that it does while hunting are perfect, that crazy thumping sound that is heard when it changes visions is there! Even the almost trademark laugh from Billy in the first Predator movie can be heard when they activate they're self destruct device. All the Aliens trademark hisses and screams can be heard, my personal favorite being the sound they make when they get hit! ''The same sound from Aliens'' The Marines mission is filled with audio detail as well, the sounds of the pulse rifle, and smart gun being my favorite as they too are ripped right from the films, including the trademark beeping sound from the Motion Tracker when enemies are within range. Although there is a optional second disc that contains audio tracks which are new but fit the game extremely well, I think the overall experience of the game is better without the music. It just seems to make the game a lot creepier than it would be with music.

Control: 9 The controls are your standard 3D shooter fair which is great as this made the game very easy to pick up on after the likes of Quake 2 or even Unreal. The only reason the controls didn't pull a 10 rating is for the fact that getting used to the various buttons for the vision modes is hard to get used to. I still to this day do not have the hang of shooting the flares with the Marine to lighten up hall ways. I just turn on my Image intensifier and shoot out all the lights lol.

Story: 6 I'm not sure exactly what the story of the game is actually, it seems to vary between the characters however. The story was not very well done simply for the fact that its never really clear what’s going on, not to mention the FMV's that are well done but extremely short are only seen at the start and after beating the game with one of the three species. Their are in game FMV's of USCM members on monitors and so fourth that keep you up to date on your characters progress through the levels ''or rain of terror for that matter'' that do help just a bit, but are more funny than anything else. The funniest thing I seen was the guy with an eye patch on the Predator levels, appearing in the Alien levels without the patch a pair of glasses and a slightly different voice posing as someone else. From what I understand The Alien was sleeping in the Bone Ship when it was awakened and now it has to get back to the Hive and get to Earth. The Predator is on a sort of rescue mission to save one of his clan members that has been captured by the Marines. And the Marines mission seems to be to just make it out of this place……..Alive.

Game play: 10 The game play is the main thing that made AvP so different from most 3D shooters. The game had a strange kind of arcade style feel to the entire thing, all the action was so fast paced and so challenging that it made things seem different. Well instead of the basic 25 plus levels of run and gun puzzle solving game play with a moderate challenge, your given 5-6 levels ''Not counting bonus missions'' of EXTREMELY challenging game play with no preset enemy locations ''only the location of enemy Predators are preset which makes sense seeing as one or two hits from one and your dead!'' not to mention a nearly endless amount of enemies. The puzzling solving is pretty basic find the switch open the door type stuff, but the fact that Aliens or Marines can latterly pop out of nowhere at any time makes accomplishing these goals a little more difficult than you think....not to mention it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Oh and don't forget this isn't Quake or Unreal where you can just save your game whenever you like, even with the latest patch that adds a save game feature the amount of saves are very limited especially if you want to unlock everything. In order to unlock all the cheat codes each level has a target goal at the end of each level such 80% accuracy, collect 20 human heads as a Predator, complete a level within a certain time limit. Only by completing these goals on the ''Realistic'' or ''Directors Cut'' difficulty levels can they be unlocked. AND only by defeating each level on the hardest difficulty can you unlock the 4-5 bonus mission for each character, which also have their own cheats to unlock. This makes actually playing the game to its fullest a rather difficulty task indeed. The three species of creature you can play are all for the most part extremely different from one another. The Alien unlike its two enemies has no long range weapons, it can simply attack with its claws, tail and head bite ''The attack where its jaws snap at a creatures head'' this forces the Alien player to be rather sneaking in his approach. However the Alien is nearly as strong as the Predator and has unmatched speed and agility, it also has amazing ability to wall crawl. The Alien can crawl along walls ceilings at lightening fast speed, thus making it easier to get away from or sneak up on unwelcome guests and head bite for an instant kill! Also another advantage of the Alien is it simply needs to kill to increase its life, it feeds on dead and living enemies. A live head bite gives you the most health, dead head bite giving you less, clawing at a dead body giving you the least. The Predator is the tank of the game, he has the strongest melee attacks and his all around toughness is unchallenged. His various vision modes ''one for hunting each race'' are very useful and make his two main long range weapons The shoulder cannon and the disc ''both from the films'' lock onto an enemy if your in its desired vision mode making it easier to take out enemies. Yes you can cloak and go semi-invisible on your enemies this isn't nearly as effective as you might think seeing as if you move or get to close to Marines they'll still see you, but at a distance its very effective. However cloaking is totally useless when fighting Aliens as all of they're enemies are surround by a blue ''for marine'' or green ''for Predator'' aura that makes them visible at all times. Also the fact that his blood glows green can cause you to be sighted. But the good news is that a Marine hardly stands a chance against a Predator in combat alone, and even if your surrounded by 6-7 Aliens and have only your Wrist blades at your disposal its still very possible to survive close encounters of the wrong kind. He’s also slightly slower than the Alien, and the Aliens speed makes them hard to track. The Predators Shoulder Cannon, Plasma pistol ''the ideal weapon for Aliens'' as well as his ability to cloak and heal himself ''ala Medicomp as seen in Predator 2'' all are dependant on his energy, that although recharges very slowing when not in use gets used up very quickly. Healing yourself takes up nearly half of your energy, and even as tough as the Predator is, you'll be healing a lot. Not to mention energy power ups are very rare to come upon. The Marine is the cannon fodder of the game, he’s unable to survive hand to hand combat with an Alien and certainly not a Predator he’s only slightly tougher than the Alien ''and that’s only because he has the ability to use armor'' and he has no direct method of healing himself so he must find heal packs to heal which are rare. He’s also the only one that takes damage from long falls and he’s the slowest of the three. This makes playing as the Marine a challenging and overall frightening experience, seeing as his most common enemy is the Alien which is 3 times faster than him and killing one can be just as bad as letting it live seeing as it bleeds acid. BUT on the upside of things the Marine certainly has the fire power to make up for his sort comings. Although ammo is limited the Marine has a weapon for every possible situation, including a SADAR missile launcher that can kill a Predator with a single hit, not to mention clear out a room of unwanted Aliens even the more powerful ones. The smart gun which tracks its enemies all over the screen and does more than decent damage is also very handy at times, and nothing can stand in the way of the mini gun and live. Also on the upside, the Marine has his motion tracker from Aliens that allows him to track all moving objects. This makes him the only one of the three that can really track down enemies or know if he’s walking into a trap, or if troubles heading towards him. These vast differences between the characters make for an overall fun and innovative experience that few games can match.

Replay Value: 9 You'll certainly be playing the game long after you've beaten it with all the species for the sake of unlocking everything and testing out all the cheat codes that you've unlocked. Not to mention as you can imagine the Multi player on the game can cause for some very serious and fun Death Matches and so fourth giving you the ability to play as any of the three characters in species team death matches along with an almost endless amount of possible battles. But even after the Multi player has lost is luster, and the game itself is long been beaten you'll come back and play it once again, even if its just for the sake of slicing up enemies at a mind boggling rate lol. I did......but maybe that’s just because AvP the movie hits theaters this year hehehehe.

I think its kind of of a shame how overshadowed the game has been by its squeal AVP 2, as I have them both and they almost don't feel like the same game seeing as I've played through both and I was never frightened while playing AVP 2. The second although a large improvement in graphics and story and multiplayer just doesn't seem quite as fun as the first was.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/16/04