Aliens Vs. Predator: Your thoughts?

[Xyphon]

Well I just rented it today and have so far gone through the Alien and Predator campaign and I'm maybe a little more than halfway through the Marine campaign(just passed the swamp).

The Alien campaign was fun, but it felt WAAAAY too short. I got to the end expecting more, but all I got was the feeling of "that's it?" when I finished it. It was fun, but it was a let down at the same time.

The Predator campaign was even more fun than the Alien. It seemed longer than the Alien campaign, which is a plus. The only complaints are that you get the spear way too late in the campaign for it to be much fun and the AI is all-seeing when you wield the disk. Even if the laser is pointing at the ground BEHIND the human, they still see you. Plus it was useless seeing as it didn't do much damage, even when it hit them in the head(for me, at least).

I haven't completed the Marine campaign yet, but I'll tell you one thing. It's pretty creepy(not scary) at the start, but that feeling dies down quickly as you enter the more well-lit areas. Plus it's too easy to kill the Aliens with just a pistol. Block -> melee -> burst fire at it a few times and it's dead.

I've only played in MP once so I can't really comment on that.

I like the game, but it's not worth buying to me.

 

[Canid117]

I played the demo and I have to say that I disliked the wall crawling system. It also seemed a bit tilted towards anyone who wasn't a marine.

 

[clutch-monkey]

the marine campaign is completely run of the mill, nothing new there.
a lot of, "go here, activate something, hold out til elevator comes" sort of thing.
what makes it bearable (and still enjoyable) is
A) the atmosphere (it's an AVP game)
B) killing aliens (rather than cookie cutter henchmen)
really gets wild as you try and figure which sutface they're on.

 

[fender]

I thought it was great, I've really had lots of fun with it so far. The only downside is I have the PC version and the Predator campaign is fucking up for me at the start of one of the missions, totally crashes every time...

 

[NoriYuki Sato]

i'm glad to see that i'm not the only one who thinks that Rebellion has been redeemed from Rouge Warrior. they actually issued a public apology for RW, for those that don't know. i'm near the end of the Marine campaign, and i love it so far. it's creepy when it needs to be, and it keeps you on your toes the whole time.

MP isn't the greatest, but it really isn't all the bad. i hated the MP demo, but the MP on the actual game is much better.

all in all, i'm surprised at how well this game was executed by Rebellion. i'm happy to say that i own this game.

 

[ldwater]

I liked the game, but it was waaaaay too short.

It feels like (yet another) game that is gimped from the start because its focus is on multiplayer and the single player game is just a bolt on extra.

All 3 game types (Alien, Marine, Predator) use the SAME 5 maps, but in a slightly different order, taking different paths and with some graphical changes in places.

Yeah its pretty cool to play through the Alien, kick marine ass and then play as the marine and witness the (ie, your ) carnage throughout the level. But apart from that it just feels lazy.

Combat is cool, although its the same old thing for the AvP games: Alien is too cool, Predator is too easy and marine starts hard, but then gets easy.

But seriously, a marine 'blocking' an alien?? You ever see that in the films? A marine bashing an alien over the head? Again this seems more of a mechanic for the multiplayer people so they don't complain about the marine having no melee abilities and being easy pray for the alien.

So yeah - I thought the game was really good, just wayy too short.

 

[Always_Remain]

I only played the multiplayer demo and it was mediocre. I did however enjoy the horror atmosphere.

 

[Chipperz]

The only MP mode I have played so far is Predator Hunt - that was amazing. I have played CoD MW2 online pretty much since release and have rarely seen non-clan players working as a team the way folks were in AVP. That said, I don't exactly play MW2 every day (or every week for that matter) but still, it was somewhat refreshing to see a shooter that had players doing something different from day one.

Try Infestation if you want teamwork, the Marines either huddle up into one or two large masses or die horribly. Also, I managed to get into an 18 player game, and it ended up with me and one other Marine, holed up in some ruins, desperately fighting off sixteen Aliens coming from all directions, which was terrifying, desperate and really, really fun. It does suffer from rage quitters if they get picked to be the Alien (it's REALLY hard to start off with), but if you get past that... Wow.

I played the demo and I have to say that I disliked the wall crawling system. It also seemed a bit tilted towards anyone who wasn't a marine.

It IS Alien Vs Predator. We have a joke in my circle of mates that the random assignments in multiplayer are Alien, Predator and free points. This is actually untrue, because a player who knows how to use the Marine is scarier than an Alien or Predator player any day of the week.

Also, for everyone who's worried about the Pulse Rifle not burst firing, it's called holding the trigger for a second and letting go. If you panic and let off an entire clip in the first few seconds? Well, at least you did better than 90% of the squad in Aliens...

 

[JS ibanez]

Most of whats been said here I agree with. overall I love the game. Probably because I'm a fanboy to the franchises.

So heres what I liked that hasn't been mentioned.

I think the focus jumping is excellent. It irritates me when I know I can jump to a place in a game but collision detection and non responsive controls mess it up. I had this issue alot with Farcry2.

As the alien I love the fact that I can see the tail sweeping around if I turn around quickly, just made me feel a little more like the alien.

The alien movement was done very well, they look very graceful and theyre fast but I still fail to notice them on the ceilings sometimes.

 

[Starbolt-81]

Played through the marine and alien campaigns, so far not bad.

Still, i cant help but think from a single player story perspective, the old Aliens Vs. Predator 2* was a much better game. Each story (marine, Alien and Pred) was lengthy and enjoyable, and each was part of a much grander overarching story. Ultimately playing through them all will help you understand the chain of events that occurred on the planet LV-1201 and the Weyland/Yutani research complex there.

The new AvP seems to try and mimic that same story vaguely, while borrowing story elements from the recent (and imo, rather mediocre AvP movies).

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_versus_predator_2 for more info

 

[Vigilantis]

I love the game, but the single player was too short for my taste. Even on Nightmare mode I ran through the levels fairly quickly without any difficulty (the predator is pathetically easy I didn't die a single time to make me restart the mission) The multiplayer is amazing however, it needs patching very badly, it takes sometimes 20 minutes just to find a game and when you do find a game chances are you or some of your teammates will be disconnected, making you start the matchmaking search all over again. Another problem I've found is lag on the full 18 player games, its terrible. As for balancing the classes, I think the only thing I have a problem with is the predators disc, and not the fact that its easily used as a cheap 1 hit kill, but more on the fact that you can throw it and run around a corner and it will eventually follow the path after you cleaving anything in its way. What I think should happen is if you toss the disc and run out of sight of it you have to go pick it back up. Beyond that, and a few patches that fix all the lag, glitches, and host leaves, I think this is easily going to remain one of my favorite games of this year.

(I too have jumped and screamed when I've turned around to see drooling alien teeth in my face)

 

[clutch-monkey]

the alien movement is disorientating and will remain so (we're fucking bipedal animals damnit! we walk upright!)
the camera should stay upright the entire time regardless of what surface you are on imo. like some sort of gyro stabilized twisted neck.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

My thoughts?
"Oh my [Deity]! They're coming out of the Fething walls! Aaaaahhhhhhhh!"
That and:
"Ahhhh! The flamer won't kill them! I'm gonna die! Waaaaaah!"
The flamer seems ineffective on Multiplayer, but that is probably because you are meant to use it as a deterrent. But that doesn't work against humans playing as aliens who know that it does very little damage.
So you just get a wall of flaming xenomorphs running towards you...
Apart from that little flamer problem, I am loving this game

 

[Catchy Slogan]

I only played the multiplayer player demo. Can you attack people from inside the vents, or do you have to drop out first?

 

[iLikeHippos]

When a game publishes an add of a newly released game, saying that you can win a 40" HDTV, that is the point where I lose all of my interest.

'Nuff said.

 

[Chipperz]

I love the game, but the single player was too short for my taste, 3 missions? come on even pacman has more than 3 levels.

3 missions? It has 3 campaigns which, from my memory, splits up as 8 Marine, 6 Alien and 7 Predator missions. It's still not a massively long game, though. I wouldn't have minded a few more Alien missions (a prologue mission where you play a random Xenomorph that harvests a load of colonists before the Marines get there would be great fun...), and more build up with the Predator in the Marine campaign.

When a game publishes an add of a newly released game, saying that you can win a 40" HDTV, that is the point where I lose all of my interest.

'Nuff said.

Do you mean the Escapist's one? The one that The Escapist is doing has nothing to do with the game itself...

If it was Rebellion, it'd be open to more than the US

 

[S.R.S.]

Potential GOTY for me. Don't bother telling me what's wrong with it I'm a huge fan and the only way this game would suck if a real facehugger jumped out of the tv and killed me (actually that would definitly be a cool way to die). Yes it is true the campaings are criminally short but in it's defense you don't want a game that drags on for hours and hours ('cept in RPGs) and it never gets dull and repetitive, especially in the Predator campaign I won't spoil it for you but those missions alone were worth the price of admission.

Oh and by the way: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Aliens-vs-Predator-vs-escapist-group you know, if you want to discuss anything further...

 

[TheEarlOfGrey]

From the jungle level I played as the Predator, I found it hard to sneak up on anything. Im in stealth jump down just to the side of a marine, out of his sight, and he instantly spins and spots me.