Aliens Versus Predator 2

"Captures the ambience of the movies really well"

This is the game that I've been waiting for ever since seeing Aliens. There had been other games based on the movie (the arcade game was the only good one), heck, Doom was originally supposed to be based on Aliens. When I found this game for only five dollars I instantly bought it. I also bought that crappy Primal Hunt expansion pack, but this is the one to get.

Story: (9/10)
The story just feels like it was taken from Aliens, or Alien Ressurection (or maybe the comics of Alien vs. Predator).

Humans: (9/10)
You play as Andrew "Frosty" Harrison, a marine in the Colonial Marine Corps. The crew on board of a military ship receive a distress signal from a Weyland Yutani complex on planet LV-1201. Since they're the closest ship to the planet they get volunteered to check it out. When they arrive there seems to be no activity in the entire complex. When Frosty is the first to go in the facility the entrance is blown up and the other marines assume he's dead. As Frosty and the others investigate the facility they begin to notice how devoid of life the facility is. Then the aliens attack. Then it basically just becomes a battle for survival against the aliens and some traitorous humans.

Aliens: (9/10)
The aliens storyline is initally set two weeks before the Humans story. A transport is carrying a lot of alien eggs. One of the containers containing an egg breaks open and a lone face hugger is released (so far anyway) and so you go to impregnate a human with the alien seed. Then it turns into an attempt to kill all of the humans on the planet to protect the Hive.

Predator: (9/10)
Shortly before the alien infestation a few predators went to the planet to hunt. After killing a dozen or so humans the Predators realize that the aliens are on the planet. So they begin hunting them and some of the stalwart marines.

Graphics: (10/10)
Back in 2002 when this game was released the graphics were absolutely phenomenal (I think). Now the graphics don't look so good. But nice none the less. It's eerie walking through an acid drenched hallway, where there's bullet holes in the walls and holes in the metal grating of the floor. It was Doom 3 before Doom 3. The weapons in the game look exactly like they did in the Aliens movie. So do the aliens and Predators. A vast majority of the game (like Doom 3) is in shadows. Unlike Doom 3, the marine in this game actually can and does tape a flashlight to his helmet. Unfortunately the flashlight's battery dies rather quickly. The game uses it's shadows well and does a really great job of making you scared (just like Doom 3).

Sound: (10/10)
The sound is implemented greatly in this game. You'll be walking down the halls and hear on your radio your teammates saying how they see nothing, just empty corridors and the occasional boot. Then when you flip on the power you'll hear them screaming that the aliens are coming out of the walls and how they're everywhere. The weapons sound just like they did in the Aliens movie. The aliens sound great with they're death screeches and the predators growls. The music is an ambient score that really only picks up when you're in a battle with the aliens, or predators, or humans and aliens, or humans and predators, pending on which race you're playing as. The voice acting is quite good in this game. It's not great by any means but it's not too bad either.

Gameplay: (10/10)
This is one scary game. I actually screamed out of fright at this game. It's a typical first person shooter, but it's scary when it has aliens jumping out of vents, from behind some pipes, or computer consoles, or busting through doors after banging into it a few times. It's really frightnening because something will fall down, or a steam pipe will hiss so you'll turn around and waste about fifteen bullets on nothing. There are of course the occasional fetch quests the designers send you on. Find some random key, go flip this switch, that sort of thing. The game even does attempt to have a few stealth levels. But they're not like normal FPS stealth missions in the sense that oh you got caught start over again. No if things go wrong you just have to fight your way through the waves of enemies. The game also has a multiplayer mode which is really fun. You log in and you can start blasting away at someone (usually an alien or predator). It's really fun but the real meat of the game is in the singleplayer.

This was a really cool game that combined two great movie series in a great way. Not that the Alien vs. Predator movie was bad, but this game is so much better. It's impossible to recommend this game enough now that it's actually less than ten dollars. It's also good for people who liked Doom 3, and want to play a game that's a lot like it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/16/05, Updated 08/18/08

Game Release: Aliens Versus Predator 2 (US, 10/31/01)