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| Aliens
vs. Predator 2 |
Reviewed
by Chris 'Gwynhala' Burke |
Developer - Monolith
Productions
Publisher - Sierra
On-Line
Release Date - 10/31//01
 What
could be more fun than a video game that pits the Thomas brothers' stealthy Predator
against Ridley Scott's acid-dripping Aliens?
It's been done before - both as a side-scrolling arcade fighting game (Alien vs.
Predator, Capcom, 1994) and as a first person Quake-like adventure/shooter for
the Atari Jaguar (Alien vs. Predator, Rebellion, 1994). A PC version of the Rebellion
title came out in 1999.
Monolith Productions' Aliens vs. Predator 2 is the fully-3D sequel in which you
play through the same series of 23rd century events from three perspectives: that
of a Marine, that of an Alien, and that of a Predator.
In single-player mode, Aliens vs. Predator 2 provides three decent adventure stories
interlocking as the paths of the Marine, Alien, and Predator cross during a failed
bioengineering experiment on planet LV-1201. In the six multi-player modes, the
game becomes a tense shoot-em-up battle in which each species has its own tactical
advantages and disadvantages.
Storyline
 In
Aliens vs. Predator 2 you begin the single-player game by choosing a species -
Marine, Alien, or Predator - and a difficulty level. Each species has its own
perspective on the storyline, its own sequence of game levels and objectives,
and unique special abilities and weapons.
The species are different enough that you'll play the same level very differently
for each. AvP2 takes advantage of this, interlocking the stories by having you
play on some of the same levels as an Alien, a Predator, and a Marine.
Each species' story is divided into a set of missions (one per level), each with
its own objectives. The stories are completely linear: your actions never determine
what level comes next, you just move automatically from level to level by completing
objectives. Each story has its own ending, but there are no alternate endings.
If you die before completing all objectives of a mission, the game simply drops
you back to a menu to play the level again.
Once you've completed a level as a species, the level is unlocked so you can go
back to it at any time from the Single Player menu.
Note: This feature is tied to your player profile, which is named Player_0 by
default. If you create a different profile for multi-player games, be sure to
switch back to the Player_0 profile to play unlocked levels.
 Marine
Storyline
The Marine story begins with a botched landing on research planet LV-1201. You're
part of a team of Marines investigating loss of contact with the research facility.
Your first objective is to find the place you were supposed to land - but Command
forgot to tell you the planet is infested with insect-like, acid-dripping, head-biting
Aliens. Your body armor and starting weaponry (a combat knife, a pistol, and a
pulse rifle) are enough to handle the little ones. In addition to your weapons
you have a shoulder lamp, flares, a nifty radar display giving range and position
of friends and foes, and computer hacking gear.
The situation soon gets worse when you are separated from the team and have to
fight and think your way to the rendezvous.
 Alien
Storyline
The Alien story begins with your Alien embryo escaping from a smuggler's egg shipment
in a cargo bay on LV-1201. Your first objective is to find someone to face-hug
so you can gestate in his or her body. Once this is accomplished, you get to burst
from his chest and hunt small animals and people for food. As you eat, you grow
into a more and more powerful Alien.
You discover that human scientists are exploiting your hive for military research.
Once they capture the queen of the hive, you have more to worry about than just
eating and avoiding flame-throwers.
 Predator
Storyline
The Predator story begins with a communal hunt for human researchers and their
security escorts in the lush canyons of LV-1201. As one of the Predators on the
hunt, your arsenal includes wristblades for close-up decapitation, a spear gun
for distance sniping, and a cloaking device that makes you nearly invisible. You
get various new and more powerful weapons as the hunt progresses.
The hunt goes bad when you run into a party of Marines collecting Alien specimens,
and they capture some of your Predator buddies (who you have to rescue).
Gameplay
Aliens vs. Predator 2 features three single-player games and six built-in multi-player
modes, for a lot of variety.
Controls and Combat
The Alien, Predator, and Marine have different abilities, but they're all basically
humanoid. Most of the controls are familiar to anyone who's ever played a first-person
shooter. In addition to a set of shared control bindings for common actions like
walking, running, looking up and down, and attacking, AvP2 provides separate control
setting options for each species.
Because of the difference in gameplay for various species, the Gameplay Tips section
of the manual includes three sets of tactics. These are presented clearly, without
introducing cheats or spoilers - worth the read especially if you are playing
one of the species for the first time.
You can maneuver using any combination of keyboard, mouse, trackball and joystick
that you find appealing, and can adjust the sensitivity of each type of control
within a comfortable range.
 Special
mention goes to the Alien's "wallwalk" controls, which new players might find
hard to use and very disorienting. These controls let you run anywhere on a level,
including across ceilings and along walls, so prepare yourself for some very strange
perspectives on the world and some confusion about exactly which way you're heading.
The on-screen "up" indicator helps - if you have time to look at it. Make sure
you look straight ahead and level before wallwalking. Without this trick, it seemed
that the on-screen view sometimes didn't match the actual direction of travel
of the Alien when wallwalking.
Overall, the controls are intuitive and allowed good freedom of action and movement,
without getting in the way of the game. Check out the fun 3D animations on the
control options windows.
The various vision modes (thermal, night vision, etc.) for each species are very
useful in game, whether for deathmatch or single-player. Each has enough built-in
drawbacks to balance its advantages and make you think about what vision mode
is best for a given situation.
Single Player Games
The single-players games in Aliens vs. Predator 2 are typical of any 1st-person
shooter. You watch the opening cinematics, find the exit from an area, kill some
enemies, jump between moving platforms, dodge flying debris, pull switches, and
avoid getting killed.
 Marine
Gameplay
If you want fast action and a familiar game strategy, play as the Marine. Marines
have the same variety of weaponry as in any space-marines shooter, and they shoot
things. What could be more traditional? The Aliens come at you really fast, and
the Predators sneak up on you cloaked, so you find yourself making a lot of split-second
decisions, turning and firing, and worrying about your ammo and health.
To find your way, just walk around until you overhear characters discussing some
new plot point - it almost always means you're going in the right direction. You'll
also find plenty of documents such as maps and tablet computers, some with game
hints, others just for atmosphere.
The puzzles in the Marine game mostly have to do with jumping into narrow spaces,
finding secret stashes of ammo or weapons, finding ways to electronically hack
doors open, and shooting things. The biggest challenge of the Marine game is the
Aliens and Predators who have many advantages over you despite your superior firepower.
I found two slightly annoying aspects of the Marine's game. First, at every level
change you switch back to your default weapon automatically, even if all you did
was walk around a corner. Second, the Alien AI seems primitive (at least on the
normal game settings) - you'd think hive creatures would coordinate their attacks,
instead of just rushing you from one or two directions.
 Alien
Gameplay
Playing as the Alien is weirdest. The heads-up display is greatly simplified (just
a health bar at the bottom of the screen), but movement is more complicated because
you can crawl on walls and leap broad chasms. The Alien has no armor or equipment,
just claws, a tail, and your jaws, so you don't have to worry about ammo or changing
weapons. You heal simply by eating your victims.
Initially the Alien is very weak, but from birth it can see in the dark, jump
very far horizontally, and climb effortlessly on walls and ceilings. It attacks
using claws or a vicious "head-bite". It has no armor (other than its exoskeleton)
and no weapons.
Playing as the Alien mostly involves remembering that you can go anywhere on the
level, and using that to surprise your enemies. Find unusual ways to move secretly,
then attack quickly without getting shot. The Alien's leaping attacks are lethal
to both Marines and Predators.
It's fast-paced, but in a different way than the Marine's game. The puzzles in
the Alien's game often challenge you to think differently about strength, height,
movement and vision. To solve them, you must walk on walls and ceilings as if
they were floors, use your night vision or thermal vision to spot exits and enemies
invisible to your normal vision, and tear through gates and gratings with your
claws.
Our only real annoyance in the Alien's game was the control issue mentioned above:
make sure you level out your vision before wallwalking.
 Predator
Gameplay
The predator seems at first like a very powerful player. Part of the fun of playing
as the Predator is to take on his mindset - that of an honor-bound big-game hunter.
This means, for example, that it's not good enough just to kill your enemy - afterward,
you must move in close and take his head!
Your visor provides normal, thermal, electromagnetic, and night-vision modes.
The thermal mode easily pinpoints humans (including Marines) even in dense brush
but hides Aliens; the electromagnetic mode makes Aliens stand out as bright white
outlines but hides Humans; the night-vision mode highlights Predators, synthetic
humans, and also, for some reason, gun turrets. Many advanced predator weapons
have deadly auto-targeting modes when used with the visor.
A Predator has no armor, but can heal his wounds using energy stored in his body.
The advanced Predator weapons and cloaking device also use this energy. When your
energy supply is used up, you can get more by decloaking and using your energy
sifter, a device that gathers energy from the world around you. Be sure to hide
before you do this, because the energy sifter is noisy, creates a bright light
that attracts enemies, and prevents you from running or using other weapons.
 The
Predator's game features huge outdoor maps and platform jumping puzzles, because
the Predator is a wilderness type who is excellent at jumping both up and down
great distances without getting hurt. Greatly outnumbered in every situation,
the Predator relies on stealth, self-healing, and smart weapons to survive.
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