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I think the races are actually pretty well balanced. The marines will own anything that makes the mistake of showing it's head. I've won several games as the marines, especially when I play with friends. The Marines especially excel in long straightaways, and when they can put their backs to the wall. The marines just take a little bit more teamwork than the other races -- it's really hard to dominate as a marine if you're running around by yourself.
Predators who aren't tactical are going to get owned. The predators are slow in melee combat, and they'll lose on outright firefight with marines if they don't score the first blow. Their advantage is that they're invisible and they do a shit ton of damage--so they're the Ninja's of the AvP universe.
Aliens are pretty fragile too, though it seems like the absorb more bullets than the preds do. I love the aliens who think they're going to kill me by running right at me though. Good aliens stick to the cielings, moving slowly so they're off motion detectors, and they own from above.
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Personally, I think the game is getting bad reviews because it's being compared too closely with "other shooters." Like I think the IGN review was bitching that you can't unluck perks or new weapons by ranking up in multiplayer.
But it isn't a straight up shooter--it definitely won't feel like one when you're playing as an alien or as a predator. So it shouldn't be set up in comparison next to the Call of Duties of the world.
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As far as the crappy reviews, first know that the game has received everything in between a 5.0 and a 8.5, and that user reviews tend to be much more favorable then the crappy reviewers at gamestop and IGN.
It has a 69 on Metacritic. And a 7.7 as far as user reviews go. [http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/aliensvspredator?q=aliens%20vs%20predator]
Second, know that it's getting crappy reviews mostly because people were disappointed with the single player. I haven't gotten far enough in the campaigns to comment on that, but the multiplayer is universally considered the games saving grace even in crappy reviews.
Third, know that reviewers are full of shit. If you compare the professional reviews, which ***** about how it isn't enough like Call of Duty, to the user reviews, you'll find something starkly different. And no, there are not enough AvP fanboys to drag those ratings from 5.0's to the 8.0's where they now sit.
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The demo was shit. It gave you a taste. Making generalizations about the game from the demo would be like making generalizations of all cuts of beef when you were fed an appetizer of steak tartare. I would not complain about the game being crap based on a demo -- rent the full game before you make a judgment.
Matchmaking takes so long in the demo because no one else is playing the demo but you. The only gameplay mode in the demo is mixed species FFA, which is probably one of the least fun modes in the game. And the demo didn't offer much in the way of a tutorial to help you learn stuff.
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In summary, I reject the following criticisms:
-No unlocking of weapons or perks
What is this? Call of Duty?
-Races are unbalanced in team death match
No, you just don't know how to play your race, or you don't know how to counter the other race. Predators are easy to kill as marines because they're so damn slow. Watch for fuzzy motion blurs, watch for dust clouds when they super leap all over the place, use your motion detector. When in doubt, open fire. If you've played the campaigns and know each race inside out, and you still want to come to me and complain about how one is way more powerful in multiplayer, then I will talk to you.
Right now, I see no evidence to suggest that one race is way more powerful than the other.
-Matchmaking takes forever
I usually get in a game within 2 minutes. I guess I can't comment if you're in Europe or New Zealand or something, but I've had 0 issues with match making taking forever.
-Auto-aim! NOT PURE SHOOTER!
The auto-aim is very, very slight. All it does is ensure that if you were going to miss the alien by 1 inch, you instead are now facing it. It is not an "aim bot" that snaps your gun straight to the target---believe me, you will need to aim.
And you could probably complain *if* the game was *at all* similar to MW2 or Halo. As it is, you're shooting at enemies that are nearly invisible, or are jumping on top of you from the cieling, and if you don't kill them in 2-3 seconds they will one shot you when they get close enough. Trust me, you'll appreciate the slight help to your accuracy considering that you won't be fighting in a convential firefight that comes down to who is the most skilled at putting their cursor over the oponents head.
Finally, it seems to me that one would only complain about the auto-aim if it took skill out the equation for who wins what fight. And this is not the case: trust me, the better man/woman will consistently come out on top of newbs.
-The graphics suck!
The graphics are not top notch, but they're not that shitty either. They're also slightly stylized, if you haven't noticed--like a much subtler borderlands. Things tend to have outlines and the colors are off.
-The movies sucked!
Regrettably, this game borrows a little something here or there from the movies. However, the game stands more heavily on the foundation laid by the classic AvP games of the 90's. Which inspired the movies to begin with!
