Aliens Vs. Predator: Your thoughts?

[Kirbymike]

Picked up AVP right when it came out and I've been playing it fairly avidly since. I think it's a very solid game.

The three single player campaigns are all great (Alien is my favorite) and unique; the only thing I could gripe about is that combat when you are using alien or predator feels almost identical for both races. Other than that, I think it's really great. The Human campaign is straight up survival-horror. I think it's great to see a transition from the stealthy-actiony adventure game that the Alien and Predator campaigns are to the on-the-edge-of-your-seat Marine campaign. Each campaign is an experience and each is unique and a blast.

Then there's the multiplayer. Holy crap I think it's a masterpiece. I didn't play the demo much because I have the PS3 version in which matchmaking got fragged. But on the full game.... damn. It is FUN. Straight up FUN. Almost everything about it for me.
What blew my (fuckin') mind was that for what I saw as the first time; a horror aspect in multiplayer. The first time I had an alien leap at me to rip me apart as I was a Marine I jumped and screamed. It seemed so fluid as if it was scripted; but it was in real time and a real player. It is actually quite horrifying moving through claustophobic halls expecting aliens to leap out from the darkness; especially scary as you hear the sounds of violence and hissing all around.
Playing Alien is the best; climbing on walls, ambushing humans in the darkness, it's all so natural and makes me FEEL like an Alien. THAT is hardcore. On a side note, I *LOVE* the "Trophy Kills." For those of you who may not be aware of the mechanic, trophy kills are special situational moves where you can grab your opponent and finish them off gruesomely with only one shot. It's awesome whether you're the one pulling out someone's head, or getting it pulled off yourself. It's truely a cinematic experience. The only complaints I have about AVP online is finding a game. Matchmaking can take forever and there NEEDS to be a better filter when browsing through games. Not much lag, but when there is, it's annoying. Also, NO FEMALE MARINE MODELS WTF

In the end, I found AVP to be a VERY enjoyable game thus far; tell me what you think.

 

[acklumos]

I liked the single player but haven't played the multyplayer. I liked the predator campaign the best. I had a hard time with the alien though. I could never get through a damn vent without a problem. Overall it's a great game, and I intend to play the multyplayer soon, but I have too much homework right now.

 

[Kirbymike]

Try it; the multiplayer is surprisingly balanced for the most part.

It's just finding the right game that takes some work.

 

[FactualSquirrel]

I don't have it yet, but the multiplayer demo was solid, although I had a few problems.
1) That the alien controls sometimes got fucked up, and maneuvers which should be part of the repertoire (like dropping off the ceiling on top of someone) were difficult to pull off.
2) The melée combat didn't feel meaty enough, because it has to be fair to other players. Should be good on single player though.
3) The lag, which I'm told wasn't just me, although this is proabably fixed in the full game.

 

[tobot]

I don't have it, and i don't intend to get it (at least for a while yet). A few reasons:

1. I don't typically buy games when the tag is over 30-40 dollars,

2. I, being the sad little person i am, haven't seen AVP yet, and

3. The ads. GOD, the ads. I mean, if I'd seen the trailer maybe once or twice, I'd think it might
be worth a look, but seriously, The Escapist, 5 ads before the video is even started? damn.

Also, @ kirbymike, this isn't the first time horror has been brought into multiplayer; remember L4D?
Oh, wait. you have the PS3 version; excuse me while I start a forum bitching out system exclusives.

 

[Kirbymike]

I don't have it, and i don't intend to get it (at least for a while yet). A few reasons:

1. I don't typically buy games when the tag is over 30-40 dollars,

2. I, being the sad little person i am, haven't seen AVP yet, and

3. The ads. GOD, the ads. I mean, if I'd seen the trailer maybe once or twice, I'd think it might
be worth a look, but seriously, The Escapist, 5 ads before the video is even started? damn.

Also, @ kirbymike, this isn't the first time horror has been brought into multiplayer; remember L4D?


Oh, wait. you have the PS3 version; excuse me while I start a forum bitching out system exclusives.

lol, yeah, for that reason I hate my PS3 and Valve. XD
I meant in competitive online, not co-op. The co-op survival horror I was well aware of.

 

[mikecoulter]

I've never personally bothered with anything AvP. I should take a look at the demo really.

 

[awsome117]

So far, the campaigns are a great big meh for me. They're fun, and the marine's was terrify as hell (I actually screamed a few times). Can't wait to try the multiplayer though.

Fun game, but campaign(s) are meh.

 

[SpireOfFire]

much better game than i had heard. great single player. i'm not going to bother with multiplayer.

 

[srm79]

I'm loving this game! I played through the Predator campaign first, am working my way through the Alien one at the moment and have only had time to do a couple of the Marine missions so far, but all in all I like it better than most reviewers apparently did.

I found that once I switched off the "ADS -> Squeeze -> Guaranteed Hit" type of mentality drilled into me by years of CoD/MoH style shooters, I really enjoyed myself. I've said this in another thread already, but considering how notoriously difficult first-person melee combat is to pull off properly, I reckon Rebellion have done a pretty good job.

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.

More maps would be nice though. Wonder how much that DLC is going to cost?

Cynical? Moi? Yes, but then at least I am always either right or being pleasantly surprised.

 

[Deus Encarmine]

It's satisfying, but brief. Very brief. I was just getting into playing as the Predator when the "Continue with Predator" in the mission lobby was greyed out, and I could only choose between Vertigo Joe (those who played the game will know what I mean) and the marine. It broke the flow of the game, very badly I must add. But the game itself is somewhat entertaining, hunting with predator and lurking from treetops is fun (Jungle <3), although the downright idiotic AI makes the game extremely easy in any other game mode except Hard and Nightmare. Gore, on the other hand, is unmatched by many games, seriosly, if they did anything proper then it would be gore and violence. To see the Predator leap on the marine and rip out his head together with his spinal column, and to see the eyes of the marine - to see his/her fear was priceless, and it brought tears of joy to my eyes.

Each experience is different, although I had the most fun with the Predator and the Alien. The marine gameplay was not as scary as it used to be. Alien - and because of him I still feal dizzy, was quite fun to play as. Predator kills for honor, but this mindless beast kills for pleasure. While I was playing as the Predator/marine I always came across hordes of these beasts, wich did not occur while I was playing as the Alien, except in the training level. But the most irritating thing in this game is the marines motion detector, it goes on, and on, and on, and on... Oh, God! Make it stop! I still feel the "beep" ringin' in my ears, and it won't go away. Oh, yes, the puzzles are laughable and simple, but that isn't the focus of the game so I don't take it as a very abd thing.

Multiplayer somewhat accounts for the shortness of singleplayer, but that is the most cheapest excuse since "The beauty comes from the inside". Bull****, beauty comes from the outside, from inside comes character. Sadly, this is true for this game, it has a nice packaging but the game itself leaves a lot to be desired. Like lenght, and variation in levels (the detailing is fine, but it needs variation). I expect some expansion, with bonus levels. Muy pronto.

 

[rhyno435]

I haven't played it yet (I downloaded the demo for PS3 but NOBODY played it online), but from what I've seen, the trophy kills seem awesome.

 

[Daedalus1942]

Picked up AVP right when it came out and I've been playing it fairly avidly since. I think it's a very solid game.

The three single player campaigns are all great (Alien is my favorite) and unique; the only thing I could gripe about is that combat when you are using alien or predator feels almost identical for both races. Other than that, I think it's really great. The Human campaign is straight up survival-horror. I think it's great to see a transition from the stealthy-actiony adventure game that the Alien and Predator campaigns are to the on-the-edge-of-your-seat Marine campaign. Each campaign is an experience and each is unique and a blast.

Then there's the multiplayer. Holy crap I think it's a masterpiece. I didn't play the demo much because I have the PS3 version in which matchmaking got fragged. But on the full game.... damn. It is FUN. Straight up FUN. Almost everything about it for me.
What blew my (fuckin') mind was that for what I saw as the first time; a horror aspect in multiplayer. The first time I had an alien leap at me to rip me apart as I was a Marine I jumped and screamed. It seemed so fluid as if it was scripted; but it was in real time and a real player. It is actually quite horrifying moving through claustophobic halls expecting aliens to leap out from the darkness; especially scary as you hear the sounds of violence and hissing all around.
Playing Alien is the best; climbing on walls, ambushing humans in the darkness, it's all so natural and makes me FEEL like an Alien. THAT is hardcore. On a side note, I *LOVE* the "Trophy Kills." For those of you who may not be aware of the mechanic, trophy kills are special situational moves where you can grab your opponent and finish them off gruesomely with only one shot. It's awesome whether you're the one pulling out someone's head, or getting it pulled off yourself. It's truely a cinematic experience. The only complaints I have about AVP online is finding a game. Matchmaking can take forever and there NEEDS to be a better filter when browsing through games. Not much lag, but when there is, it's annoying. Also, NO FEMALE MARINE MODELS WTF

In the end, I found AVP to be a VERY enjoyable game thus far; tell me what you think.

I will get it eventually, purely for the single player campaign, but I played the multiplayer demo from steam and was less than impressed. They completely changed the gameplay from AvP2. You can't even burst fire the assault rifles now, and the smart gun's gone. At least they kept the radar, but really, without the smartgun, Marines don't stand a chance.
Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't spend alot of money on the collector's edition.

 

[Deus Encarmine]

At least they kept the radar, but really, without the smartgun, Marines don't stand a chance.
Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't spend alot of money on the collector's edition.

You don't need the smartgun, trust me.
The marines are overpowered as it is, and they can easily rival any Predator and Alien in a Deathmatch.

 

[Daedalus1942]

At least they kept the radar, but really, without the smartgun, Marines don't stand a chance.
Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't spend alot of money on the collector's edition.

You don't need the smartgun, trust me.
The marines are overpowered as it is, and they can easily rival any Predator and Alien in a Deathmatch.

How overpowered? Because I played the steam demo, and they seemed very useless (granted it was team deathmatch and I didn't start with any weapons besides the rifle (that can't burst fire).
How is it different in the actual game? Because the Marine being crap really turned me off the game. I love playing as the marine, where you crap yourself whenever you hear a noise, but I couldn't get one kill as him. I only had the shotgun and rifle though.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

I've commented in a few of these threads, but I've completed the game since then, so I'll revise some of my earlier statements. Bear in mind that I really enjoyed the original AvP that came out in 1999, and AvP2 is one of my favorite FPS's of all time, so I really can't help comparing them.

Note that my comments are largely based around single player. I will say that I'm bummed that they decided to strip down options overall, rather than include a few too many and then have classes to play as online (i.e. playing a "heavy" marine might give you the minigun or the rocket launcher, whereas a more basic might carry the shotgun, pulse rifle combo).

The marine:

The marine has lost the ability to carry all of his weapons in single player, bowing to the current console trend of two guns plus a pistol. While in a way this does allow for more tactical play, I found myself picking my two favorite guns and always using just those for every problem, rather than having the arsenal answer to many different situations, which used to be the marine's strength. Also, is it just me, or do the marine campaigns get less scary every time one of these games comes out? And one more FYI: Motion Trackers do not know the difference between an ally, an alien, and a door that keeps opening and closing. Having the tracker go off because chains were swinging in the wind was good fear fuel in the previous games. Don't get lazy about it now.

The predator:

Having the wristblades equipped all the time and your choice of an "off" weapon is very different from the previous style, and I think I would've been a lot more okay with it if I liked the off weapons a bit more. The fact that you only get four is also a shame. I really liked the new jumping mechanics and thought they made the predator seem appropriately mobile without being a direct copy of the alien. What I didn't like about the campaign is the fact that, until you get a few more weapons that don't use energy, you spend most of your time playing the "pick off one human at a time using the grab move in the dark" game, which is basically just like the alien, and gets old fast. I also think that, while they did a fine job on thermal vision, the loss of "predtech", and the replacement of electric with "alien vision" didn't work for me. It's also way too hard to see the world around you when you're in alien vision. And I'd thought electric was bad...

The alien:

This is the one they royally screwed up, which is a shame because it's also my favorite. The wall-sticking mechanic tends to switch itself on even when you don't want it to, making it tough to drop down behind an opponent if there's some stuff in the way and occasionally causing you to scale walls you don't want to. Having to target vents to slither through instead of just crawling through them is... well... why? The rock paper scissors of the melee combat is boring and not at all suited to this race. The alien should NOT have a block button. It also shouldn't take two seconds from the time I hit the button to the time my heavy attack fires, and having a one-second break between each quick attack is criminal. You're basically forced to keep using the grab move in the dark, which is cool, I'll grant you, but after 5 minutes you've seen all the different animations, and they do get old, believe me. Also, the fact that I can hit a normal human with a heavy attack more than once and have him live as the alien is flat out broken. It's bad design. I'm also kinda pissed that I finished the alien campaign in under two hours.

Overall:

I have it on the PC, which means I also get to play with the frequent graphical lag, non-loading textures, lockups, frame stutter, and screen tearing. We'll overlook that because I hear that the consoles don't have that issue.

The grab move, as I said above, is stupid. It's not a bad idea, but the total reliance on it that's imposed for the alien and the early predator levels gets boring way too quickly, and frankly, the animation takes too long. Losing control for five to ten seconds at a time every time you kill something isn't as awesome as rebellion seems to think it is.

The general melee combat isn't fun. Dress it up however you want. It's not fun. Attacks are blatantly telegraphed with plenty of time to react, and even if you aren't playing the rock/paper/scissors game with someone, it's simply too underpowered. The alien especially needs to be able to rip shit up quickly and then get back to cover. Making the tail move a stun for the bigger targets like the predator in AvP2 was great, but that's gone too.

Overall, it's not as bad as I initially thought, but it's still the worst entry in the series by far. I'd say this is a rental at best.

- J

 

[Ontoue]

At least they kept the radar, but really, without the smartgun, Marines don't stand a chance.
Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't spend alot of money on the collector's edition.

You don't need the smartgun, trust me.
The marines are overpowered as it is, and they can easily rival any Predator and Alien in a Deathmatch.

How overpowered? Because I played the steam demo, and they seemed very useless (granted it was team deathmatch and I didn't start with any weapons besides the rifle (that can't burst fire).
How is it different in the actual game? Because the Marine being crap really turned me off the game. I love playing as the marine, where you crap yourself whenever you hear a noise, but I couldn't get one kill as him. I only had the shotgun and rifle though.

The Smartgun is still there, isn't it?
Thats the big minigun that auto-aims, right?(I never played the original AvP's.)
Because that's most definitely there.
And i'm not entirely sure what burst firing is, is it the 'nade launchers? because thats there too.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Picked up AVP right when it came out and I've been playing it fairly avidly since. I think it's a very solid game.

The three single player campaigns are all great (Alien is my favorite) and unique; the only thing I could gripe about is that combat when you are using alien or predator feels almost identical for both races. Other than that, I think it's really great. The Human campaign is straight up survival-horror. I think it's great to see a transition from the stealthy-actiony adventure game that the Alien and Predator campaigns are to the on-the-edge-of-your-seat Marine campaign. Each campaign is an experience and each is unique and a blast.

Then there's the multiplayer. Holy crap I think it's a masterpiece. I didn't play the demo much because I have the PS3 version in which matchmaking got fragged. But on the full game.... damn. It is FUN. Straight up FUN. Almost everything about it for me.
What blew my (fuckin') mind was that for what I saw as the first time; a horror aspect in multiplayer. The first time I had an alien leap at me to rip me apart as I was a Marine I jumped and screamed. It seemed so fluid as if it was scripted; but it was in real time and a real player. It is actually quite horrifying moving through claustophobic halls expecting aliens to leap out from the darkness; especially scary as you hear the sounds of violence and hissing all around.
Playing Alien is the best; climbing on walls, ambushing humans in the darkness, it's all so natural and makes me FEEL like an Alien. THAT is hardcore. On a side note, I *LOVE* the "Trophy Kills." For those of you who may not be aware of the mechanic, trophy kills are special situational moves where you can grab your opponent and finish them off gruesomely with only one shot. It's awesome whether you're the one pulling out someone's head, or getting it pulled off yourself. It's truely a cinematic experience. The only complaints I have about AVP online is finding a game. Matchmaking can take forever and there NEEDS to be a better filter when browsing through games. Not much lag, but when there is, it's annoying. Also, NO FEMALE MARINE MODELS WTF

In the end, I found AVP to be a VERY enjoyable game thus far; tell me what you think.

I will get it eventually, purely for the single player campaign, but I played the multiplayer demo from steam and was less than impressed. They completely changed the gameplay from AvP2. You can't even burst fire the assault rifles now, and the smart gun's gone. At least they kept the radar, but really, without the smartgun, Marines don't stand a chance.
Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't spend alot of money on the collector's edition.

The Smart gun is still there, I used it to track those stupid bastards as they tried to climb up the wall.