TheAce Reviews: Alien Vs. Predator (2010) Review

[TheAceTheOne]

Note: This is an earlier review of mine, not a new one. It came from my old site, which isn't being updated anymore. It is shorter because it was an earlier review, but I hope it's close to as informative as the others. Signed: TheAceTheOne

Movie games. They're always out there, crawling in vents, jumping through forests... wait, no that's Aliens and Predators. But movie games have a tendency to attempt to rape your wallet worse than a facehugger. From the great (Spider-man 2), to the freaking terrible (Terminator: Salvation), movie games have had a rough ride. Some do it right. Some do it so bad it makes you want to cry. Recently, Alien Vs. Predator has come out, like that alien in that one dude's chest, and it's time for me to take the mighty task of reviewing it. Should it stay in the vents? Or should it be in your gaming library? Listen up, and make your choice.

Gameplay Mechanics: 8.75/10

Alien vs. Predator features three First Person campaigns, the Marine, the Alien, and the Predator. The marine's campaign plays like most other first person shooters, and the one annoyance was the motion tracker's consistent beeping. The alien campaign is stealth focused, with melee combat pushed aside. It's relatively easy, once you know what to do. The alien's controls can disorient you sometimes, but I found the gameplay to be a refreshing change from the normal shoot-'em-up of the marine's campaign. The predator's campaign is first person stealth combined with melee and ranged combat. I found the Alien and Predator campaigns to be much better than the Marine's. That being said, the game is relatively solid all around.

Graphics: 9.75/10

Alien vs. Predator set the staple for monster movie mash-ups. The movie broke spectacular ground in terms of graphics and special effects. The game follows in it's footsteps. Everything is well presented. The one thing about the graphics I didn't like, is the boatloads of gore. People die in very VERY VERY brutal ways sometimes in this game. If you can tolerate the gore, it's good to look at.

It gets gorier, too.


Sound Design: 9.25/10


The sound design in AvP is solid. Voice acting is surprisingly well done, with each character, except the Rookie (The Requisite Silent Marine Campaign's hero), being fully voiced. They're well done. The sound design in multiplayer, especially the Predator Hunt mode, make your pulse race. The sound in the game is kind of staple though, which is the only reason for the 9.25.

Overall: 9/10

Overall AvP delivers a solid experience, especially in terms of multiplayer. However, some things in the game are pretty basic or need to be refined. Perhaps the next installment will be perfect. So far, though, it's a solid, pretty fun game. Pick it up, if you can.

In case you missed it, this review is much shorter than my newer ones. Even Torchlight and Alpha Protocol have longer reviews, I believe, so I apologize if you're offended by small reviews or something. I'll post more reviews later today, since I don't want to flood the forums with them.

Thanks for tuning in to my review, and I'll probably be doing more from time to time. TheAceTheOne also known as TJ Hamil , is a gamer and amateur reviewer from Illinois. Contact me at my Escapist Profile to give me feedback and review requests, should you have one.

 

[TitanAtlas]

....No... didnt felt like it.... Alien controlling was too difficult, the sound had glitches and sometimes didnt combined with the elements on wich they should belong, graphics were good (i admit that), and the multiplayer was a pain in the behind to acess, with a way too confusing mechanic...

i think this game is more like a 7/10.... never a 9/10...

 

[Laughing Man]

Overall AvP delivers a solid experience, especially in terms of multiplayer. However, some things in the game are pretty basic or need to be refined. Perhaps the next installment will be perfect. So far, though, it's a solid, pretty fun game. Pick it up, if you cann.

The conclusion is way off. It isn't a solid experience each of the sub games Alien, Predator and Marine are far too short. Most of the movement is spoon fed to you with OSD icons showing where to jump and where to go, you have kills and attacks that require a single button press and the game takes over to show you some mass gorefest which gets tiresome after the first two times. As a Predator you spend more time killing Marines than you do Aliens and as a Marine you spend more time killing Aliens than you do Predators and as an Alien you end up wondering how the poor movement mechanics of the first game made it in to this game. The game suffered from a horrendous stutter issue for anyone that used Dx11 or rather Dx10.5 this was jarring in the extreme and the multiplayer was a massive joke trying to connect to a PVP server and when you did finally connect it turned out that the Predator was seriously imbalanced when compared to the other two characters.

This game was a 5 maybe a 6 at a push but nothing more.

 

[TheAceTheOne]

Hm. I'm not sure how to take the negative comments. I could edit the review, but I lost my copy of the game some time back. The review was old, like I said, and it was one of my earlier ones. That's no excuse for not noting the bad as much in the game, though. I hope that this review will go into the dustbin of history and stay there, and everyone will check out my other reviews, which are more accurate, longer, and better written.

 

[TheAceTheOne]

Overall AvP delivers a solid experience, especially in terms of multiplayer. However, some things in the game are pretty basic or need to be refined. Perhaps the next installment will be perfect. So far, though, it's a solid, pretty fun game. Pick it up, if you cann.

The conclusion is way off. It isn't a solid experience each of the sub games Alien, Predator and Marine are far too short. Most of the movement is spoon fed to you with OSD icons showing where to jump and where to go, you have kills and attacks that require a single button press and the game takes over to show you some mass gorefest which gets tiresome after the first two times. As a Predator you spend more time killing Marines than you do Aliens and as a Marine you spend more time killing Aliens than you do Predators and as an Alien you end up wondering how the poor movement mechanics of the first game made it in to this game. The game suffered from a horrendous stutter issue for anyone that used Dx11 or rather Dx10.5 this was jarring in the extreme and the multiplayer was a massive joke trying to connect to a PVP server and when you did finally connect it turned out that the Predator was seriously imbalanced when compared to the other two characters.

This game was a 5 maybe a 6 at a push but nothing more.

I never had any trouble with multiplayer balance, there was no stutter issue, and connection went just fine. The "conlcusion" wasn't "way off" because it was a personal opinion of the game. The fact is that I had none of the issues you're describing, and I found the game to be enjoyable. I mentioned the gore as being over-blown, didn't I? The animations were tiresome, but I found them to be bearable most times. I enjoyed the Alien's campaign *because* of the movement. Okay, maybe it didn't always work as well, but it was fun to see something new. PVP was balanced when I played it, with the Predator standing out a little ahead of the Alien and Marine. Do address the DX11 issue, I had no problem with it.

To end this, I'd like to say that if you consider the game was a 5, maybe a 6 at a push, then you should write your own review. My opinion at the time of writing landed it a 9, though if I played it again, I'm sure I would change that opinion.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well I know some people are easily impressed, but seriously that game was shite.

All I can add is go pick up AVP1 and 2, if you think this was good those two might just make you jizz your pants.

 

[cainx10a]

You can't even play as a Predator or an Alien in survival mode. Disappointing. The campaign was way too short, and multiplayer, let's not go there, I didn't buy the game for the multiplayer.

 

[Sinoda]

I haven't finished the game yet, but I like what I've seen so far. It seems like the devs focused more on making the game fun to play and look cool, like the over detailed gore, than they did on the story or they did on perfecting anything. Reminded me of a typical 'summer movie'. When you think about it, I think that is suiting for a game based on two REAL 'summer movies'.

 

[TheAceTheOne]

Well I know some people are easily impressed, but seriously that game was shite.

All I can add is go pick up AVP1 and 2, if you think this was good those two might just make you jizz your pants.

I'm not easily impressed. I admit: I didn't look at the bad as much as I should have. The review was written in like five minutes. Perhaps you should read my other reviews, they're more detailed and much better.

If I had a copy of the game right now, I'd be one-hundred percent glad to re-review it and take more time, ensuring that I'd cover everything more accurately.

 

[Rad Party God]

Well written review, I was actually replaying this game on hard difficulty.

Well, I guess that all the harsh criticisms this game had originally gotten were the console versions, because I don't seem to have any "sound glitches" at all, also the gameplay is quite solid in itself. I like to play this game with a 360 controller, not because it's easier or better, it's more of a personal taste and, well, I gotta admit that it's a bit easier to control the Xenomorph with the 360 controller.

Same with multiplayer, since it's release, the PC version got a lot of post-launch support, even adding dedicated servers to the game and unlocking your XP gain in a non ranked game (as it's called in the game).

The graphics, well, I always wonder why doesn't more developers keep this level of quality/performance on PC games in general. I don't have a powerful rig and my graphics card don't even support dx11, BUT it's a damned pretty game, even on "Normal" settings, it looks great and it runs very smoothly.

BUT, I just can't hide the sun with a finger, as the game has a couple of noticable issues, mostly with the AI of both humans/androids and xenomorphs. Yes, the game can be quite frustrating in some places and the human campaign is almost a "by the numbers" experience, even with your typical and even cliche'd set of weapons. Also, as impressive as the game engine is, the environments felt a bit flat and even uninteresting. There's a huge difference between graphics and aestethics in this game.

Not getting into much detail, as this is not even my own review, I'd give this game a 7, just because in itself is quite fun, even if the story is quite crappy and the multiplayer (PC version) is quite solid, but it won't replace other online shooters.

Just keep in mind that this is a lot more fun than the movies.

 

[TheAceTheOne]

Well written review, I was actually replaying this game on hard difficulty.

Well, I guess that all the harsh criticisms this game had originally gotten were the console versions, because I don't seem to have any "sound glitches" at all, also the gameplay is quite solid in itself. I like to play this game with a 360 controller, not because it's easier or better, it's more of a personal taste and, well, I gotta admit that it's a bit easier to control the Xenomorph with the 360 controller.

Same with multiplayer, since it's release, the PC version got a lot of post-launch support, even adding dedicated servers to the game and unlocking your XP gain in a non ranked game (as it's called in the game).

The graphics, well, I always wonder why doesn't more developers keep this level of quality/performance on PC games in general. I don't have a powerful rig and my graphics card don't even support dx11, BUT it's a damned pretty game, even on "Normal" settings, it looks great and it runs very smoothly.

BUT, I just can't hide the sun with a finger, as the game has a couple of noticable issues, mostly with the AI of both humans/androids and xenomorphs. Yes, the game can be quite frustrating in some places and the human campaign is almost a "by the numbers" experience, even with your typical and even cliche'd set of weapons. Also, as impressive as the game engine is, the environments felt a bit flat and even uninteresting. There's a huge difference between graphics and aestethics in this game.

Not getting into much detail, as this is not even my own review, I'd give this game a 7, just because in itself is quite fun, even if the story is quite crappy and the multiplayer (PC version) is quite solid, but it won't replace other online shooters.

Just keep in mind that this is a lot more fun than the movies.

Thanks for the feedback. A mini-review of both a game and a review :3

Yeah, I have other reviews up. Mount and Blade: Warband and Red Dead Redemption + Undead Nightmare. If you want to see more, you can check them out.

Thanks again for the detailed reply :33

 

[TheAceTheOne]

The Alien campaign is a stain on an otherwise solid title.

I personally disagree. The campaign may have been a mess, but I liked the attempt at innovation with the presentation of the Alien's powers (sticking to walls, stuff like that).

I believe Yahtzee once said "I have more respect for a game that tries to innovate and fails than one that doesn't try to innovate and stays safe and bland." or something of the sort. Sure, the Alien's campaign may be a mess, but I have to respect the innovation behind the first person wall-crawling.

 

[Drtfgf5]

Personally it's a 8.7.
Just my opinion!

 

[b3nn3tt]

I feel that more should have been put into the Alien and Predator campaigns than the Marine; for a game called Aliens vs. Predator, the longest campaign shouldn't be a straight-forward FPS in the role of a human.

That being said, I really liked the Alien and Predator campaigns, once I got used to the movement. The Predator especially had a nice mix of stealth and action, against Marines and Aliens respectively.