Recently, I downloaded the multiplayer demo for the newest AvP game. And the result? Meh.
It was an okay demo. I started off playing as a marine (because all the other players picked aliens) and it was pretty atmospheric. You had to keep an eye on your motion sensor, so not to get offed by a stealthy predator or alien, and I found that shooting an alien in the face while in mid-lunge was very satisfying, when you weren't being shot at by other marines. Basically, I quite liked it.
The next game, I managed to secure a position as a predator in the pre-game lobby. But once in game, I found that controlling a predator was actually quite frustrating. Having to constantly switch between visions was a little annoying to begin with, but the real annoyance came when I creeped up behind an unsuspecting marine, an alien suddenly dropped behind me and stuck its tongue through my face. And this is before I could even attack! I found myself bested by the controls, and whether to do a 'weak' attack or a 'strong' attack. Soon all my fights descended into button-mashing of the bumpers in order to even hit my enemy, so I ended up coming about 5th or 6th. I hadn't quite got it.
The last straw came though, when I played as an alien. I mean, what the hell. Am I upside-down? Am I in plain sight? All I had to answer these questions was a little green bar in the centre of my screen. Plus you move so goddamn fast it's hard to actually plan a stealthy attack. Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but still, I found playing as an alien annoying and unintuitive.
While I did like being a marine, and having to live in constant fear of being killed, I think that the titular classes are not as much fun. Also, the fact that the AvP demo was a free-for-all didn't really work with the game's strengths. If they'd included the Infestation mode, where one alien picks off and infects a bunch of marines, it would incorporate the kind of gameplay advertised. And I refuse the fact that if I'm griping about this it's because I'm terrible at at games.
It was an okay demo. I started off playing as a marine (because all the other players picked aliens) and it was pretty atmospheric. You had to keep an eye on your motion sensor, so not to get offed by a stealthy predator or alien, and I found that shooting an alien in the face while in mid-lunge was very satisfying, when you weren't being shot at by other marines. Basically, I quite liked it.
The next game, I managed to secure a position as a predator in the pre-game lobby. But once in game, I found that controlling a predator was actually quite frustrating. Having to constantly switch between visions was a little annoying to begin with, but the real annoyance came when I creeped up behind an unsuspecting marine, an alien suddenly dropped behind me and stuck its tongue through my face. And this is before I could even attack! I found myself bested by the controls, and whether to do a 'weak' attack or a 'strong' attack. Soon all my fights descended into button-mashing of the bumpers in order to even hit my enemy, so I ended up coming about 5th or 6th. I hadn't quite got it.
The last straw came though, when I played as an alien. I mean, what the hell. Am I upside-down? Am I in plain sight? All I had to answer these questions was a little green bar in the centre of my screen. Plus you move so goddamn fast it's hard to actually plan a stealthy attack. Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but still, I found playing as an alien annoying and unintuitive.
While I did like being a marine, and having to live in constant fear of being killed, I think that the titular classes are not as much fun. Also, the fact that the AvP demo was a free-for-all didn't really work with the game's strengths. If they'd included the Infestation mode, where one alien picks off and infects a bunch of marines, it would incorporate the kind of gameplay advertised. And I refuse the fact that if I'm griping about this it's because I'm terrible at at games.