ALIENS VS. PREDATOR - Games - http://maxpages.com/strategyforum/Aliens_vs

OVERALL: 86%

The Basics:
Fandom can take many forms, and sometimes even manage to create in its worship of a thing something better than that which spawned it. From two movie dynasties, one of which you can truly call a bit of film history and the other really just a two-chapter curiosity of the 80's spawned a whole new short-lived but vibrant comic genre: the Vs. series. It began with the brilliantly drawn, well-written pop masterpiece that the Aliens versus Predator comic book really was, and then grew to cover such extremes as Batman vs. Predator before slowly dissipating into the fandom from which it emerged. But the concept would be one many would be unable to forget, and has shown its face in many other products since.

Years later, and over a series of systems, the Aliens versus Predator theme would emerge again and again, itself something so dynamic, so insanely cool that despite its origins in mere fandom, it had created something more than itself. Rebellion took a stab at the game concept a few years earlier, creating one of the best games for the doomed-to-fail Jaguar, which unfortunately didn't allow a lot of people to experience the game. Now, combined with the inherent flexibility of the full-fledged PC gaming setup and the graphic and auditory capabilities of today's systems, a new and improved version of Aliens versus Predator has arrived… and is worthy of its origins. Rebellion's console-to-PC crossover title is a wonderfully spooky, adrenaline dripping adventure of a First Person Shooter, a triumph of originality in a generically ho-hum market. It walks the same brilliant line as Half-Life and Thief, but manages to fall slightly below either not because of anything of plot, or of the many other assets of storytelling, but because of some technical difficulties that mar its perfection.

The Plot:
Three races: the doughty humans, the xenomorphic terrifying man-do-they-mean-it Aliens, and the sturdy, quick, vicious alien hunters known as the Predators. But what, oh what, could bring them together, other than some careful licensing and creativity?

Well, to be honest, it's pretty murky. Not that I mind, since none of the movies exactly were prize-winners in the 'why, oh why, is this happening' department, and for most of the game you're too busy playing the game to notice that you're not exactly sure WHY you're doing what you're doing. It's enough for most people (including me) to know that A. that thing (be it human, Alien, or alien) wants to make you dead and B. you've got some kind of weapon, and you don't have to be Einstein to know you're gonna use that weapon to stop A. from happening.

But when I put my Sam Space movie-watching plot-finding hat on, I managed to dig up something like this: The USCM, being, as they are, pawns of the Just-Can't-Figure-Out-That-Aliens-Are-Bad-News-And-Like-To-Do-Expirements government provide security to various breeding grounds used to mess around with Aliens. At one point or another, the humans do two things: first, they capture a Predator, which causes another Predator to come and try to free the previous one (while doing what Predators do, hunt all other races because it's good sport) and second, they discover a strange and weird temple seemingly dedicated to Aliens. Now, the poor hapless We-Just-Signed-Up-Because-We-Wanted-To-Go-To-College USCM are trapped in the middle of all of this, doing the bidding of the JCFOTAABNALTDE (say that three times fast) and just trying to stay alive. It's all intermeshed (sortof) and sometimes you don't know why Mission A leads to Mission B, but for the most part you're not really worried about it. You've seen the movies, right? Aliens equal vicious, killing machines with acid for blood, Predators are Space Hunters who really dig Conrad's "The Most Dangerous Game", and humans… well, we just don't seem to be smart enough to leave the Aliens alone and are good fodder for the Predators. So go with that, you'll dig the game, don't ask too many questions and let the game do to you what the best movies of both series did: suspend disbelief, stall questions, and let you have a grand ole time.

Graphics:
Shiny. Pretty. Good on the eyes, full of color, vibrance, and most importantly, scary, scary stuff. Yep, folks, we're talking about a game that managed to hit, at least graphically, the hammer on the nail. It's not Q3A, but it's better than Q2, on par with Redline, Requiem, Half-Life, and Unreal. It's not always perfect, but it's good and fits the gameplay and the conceptual game like a glove.

Most of the weapons, weapon effects, models, and the textures on those models all qualify somewhere in the neighborhood of great. Sometimes it might seem like the organic weapons (the claws and tail of the Aliens, and the weapons which show the Predator's hand) might be a bit flat and might cause some visual hiccups from time to time, but otherwise the weapons themselves look top notch and most importantly FEEL right. The USCM's arsenal is especially impressive, full of some killer weapons with some awe-inspiring booms and blasts. These are weapons that you feel, folks, weapons that give you that big ole Splat Smile when you use them to destroy.

The levels themselves are all top notch - scary lighting effects, realistic textures, the acid burns and environmental effects like blood stains and explosion debris all let the player become one with the game. Another nifty spectacle is the inclusion of FMV frames into the levels themselves. Throughout various levels, the face of a human will occasionally display on wall screens, giving instructions or attempting to communicate before they are killed. Given all that, what really takes that a step further, and makes AvP's graphics so top notch, is the distinct graphic feel for each of the races.

If you choose to play as a Colonial Marine, you'll step into a HUD that feels pretty standard for an FPS game. Ammo's visible, as is health, and weapon changes make sense and feel right. Movement speed's check, jumping is okay, and everything fits right in, with some occasional minor differences. The ability to switch to Intensified vision mode (basically night vision) is a cool touch, especially when the developers took into consideration the white-out appearance of a light source - explosion, lens, flare, whatever - onto that night mode. The motion tracker (ala Aliens) that appears in normal vision mode is a nice touch, and can provide some useful information when you're tracking a cloaked Predator or preparing for the next wave of Aliens.

Step behind the mantle of an Alien, and it's a different world. Designed around the fish-eye camera shots from the third (I think) Alien movie, the view from an Alien's perspective is a different experience. Add to that the amazingly simplified HUD (one bar, signifying health) and you know you're in a different world. Being an Alien is a difficult but thrilling experience, which we'll discuss in the Gameplay segment, and graphically the game lets you know that. Aliens have two distinct vision modes: navigation and hunt, both of which add significantly to the just plain weirdness of being an Alien. In Hunt, you see the various pheromone emissions of your targets (which renders the Predator's Cloak ability to nada) and in Navigate you can see perfectly in complete darkness, albeit at the cost of your pheromone-sniffing and only for a short distance around you.

Being a Predator is at least more like home; you're humanoid, after all, and you use standard bipolar vision. But the HUD is all in the Predator non-base-10 numerical configuration; and while it's easy to get a close approximation of what's going on, it's hard to get real numbers, letting you know that despite the view, you're still somewhere lightyears from your normal human life. It's also a nifty feature that while you can cloak, it does put of field of slight static over your screen - it's not a hindrance, but it's nice to know it's there. The Predator is lucky enough to sport four spiffy view modes: normal, Infrared, Electrical, and PredTech, the ultimate in night vision technology. With Infrared, you can see those pesky humans with ease, with Electrical you can see various machines and all Aliens with ease, and with PredTech you can just see really, really well.

Gameplay:
It's good, good, good, said three times because each race is really a different play experience.

For the humans, if you've played Quake II or the DOOM series, you've got it handled. You're a gun-toting, meat-eating, I'll-get-those-recruitment-bastards-later Marine, somehow lost from the rest of your battalion, receiving orders to do various things so you can Save The World And Go Home. The feel fits exactly right into a normal FPS game, and beyond the abundance of cool weapons (including the Pulse Rifle, Grenades of multiple sorts, the Smart Gun, the MiniGun, and one heck of a rocket launcher) it's a standard FPS experience, at least from the control department. Inventory is also pretty standard… you find health, armor, weapons, etc, lying around the levels (presumably dropped by fallen comrades). The game itself is a bit different than one might be used to… Aliens are viciously fast, Predators are annoyingly deadly, and the levels themselves contain occasional jump and/or navigate correctly puzzles. It's not easy being human, because beyond those big, often very flexible weapons, everyone is either faster, stronger, or more deadly than you. Aliens, when they die, leave big puddles of searing acid blood, so killing them often involves making sure you won't pin yourself with no place to run except through their corpses.

Aliens, on the other hand, are a completely different story. You're fast, and I mean FAST - compare the speed of a DOOM Marine with the standard human, and you've got the kind of speed I'm talking about. You can also cling to walls, jump insanely high and far, and can fall miles without suffering a bruise. It's not all a walk in the park, however… as an Alien, you don't wear armor and can be cut to ribbons pretty easily by everyone, and you're not much of a tool user, so range weapons are out. To play an Alien effectively, you have to learn to move quickly, sneak in, destroy, and often feed on your prey to restore your health. It's a difficult way to play, and requires a very real adjustment period, but there is nothing quite so cool as sneaking up on a Marine and then using those inner jaws to make him a snack.

As a Predator, it's pretty much a middle ground between the two. You're faster than a human, but not as fast as an Alien, nor can you climb across the walls and ceiling. Your main advantages involve being able to cloak, being able to use your different views to auto-target and quickly identify enemies, and having a collection of weapons that might not be as adaptable as the USMC's but is certainly serviceable. The Predator is, for the most part, a nice mix between the two other species… adaptable, quick, and strong. The only disadvantage to the Predator is that its weapons are designed primarily as a hunter's would be… to take down a target, collect the trophy, and then move onto the other. When Aliens swarm, as they love to do, the Predator must move quickly or be overrun.

Multiplayer itself is fun, with a fair amount of support for non straight Death Match, including some really great co-op battles. The unfun bit of multiplayer is that you must unfortunately connect to the fun game by the LagMaker **ahem** Mplayer game service. It's not all that one could hope for, but after Diakatana at least I know how to use the service, and if you have a specific target and know the IP of who you're going to play with, you can connect directly to them from the service. It's a shame that GameSpy or Kali can't support the game at this time, but even with the sluggishness one can experience on Mplayer, it still works out.

And now for a word to the would-be purchasers of the game: if you play the game right out of the box, and aren't the greatest FPS player in the world or this isn't the first game you've played after years on a console without a memory card, you're going to go mad. It's horrible, it's terrible, and thank goodness it's fixed via a patch you can download from Fox Interactive, but in the beginning there was no in-level save. If you died while completing a level, no matter how far you were, you previously had to start from the beginning of the level. Needless to say, my little cordless mouse met the wall in a few WHAT THE F@!$ moments, but due to some heavy counseling and the installation of the patch, my little Logitech is fine. Now, there are some who liked this (including the developers), and claimed that it made the game for real, but for me, running through the same great-then-amusing-then-tired-then-tedious easy areas of a level so I could finally get back to whatever killed me over and over again had nothing of joy in it.

Sound:
Oh, to play this game, to hear the glories of the cries of Aliens, the shrieks of a wounded Predator, or the thud-thud-thud of the Pulse Rifle! What a joy, what a truimph of sound effects, even if you have to have EAX to be able to hear it in 3D-capable sound, but it's still some great sound effects that fit the game or one of the movies perfectly. The soundtrack is also brilliant - moody, dark, sweeping, melodramatic, all that goodness that reaches out and sets the ambience just right. If you turn out the lights, and crank up the speakers, it's almost better than the movies.

Bugs and Performance:
Let's see: we've got good graphics, great gameplay, a neat idea and what looks like a killer game. Did we forget anything? Let me be the voice of all the collective owners of sound cards equipped with 3D Audio not made by Creative Labs when I say: YES!!! I mean, it's understandable that not every technology will get supported, so when EAX was the only supported sound standard for the game I shrugged by shoulders and moved on. A3D is nice, and a good number of people have bought Diamond soundcards equipped with it, but you can't get support from everyone. So, moving on, I first installed AvP withthe High-Quality for non-EAX cards sound option, thinking that even if my Monster MX300 couldn't be 3D, the PCI transfer rate and good sound processing would allow me to get the most out of the game. Sounds reasonable, right?

Wrong. On each and every Diamond Multimedia sound card product, which is usually one of the more compatible and support products on the market, you must disable the DirectSound acceleration for the game to run. This cuts into processor overhead, increases transfer time, and in general slows things down for a non-Creative equipped gamer. The recently released patch still doesn't fix this, but we can only hope…

Performance itself can get sluggish sometimes on a 350Mhz K6-2 with a Savage4 running 640x480x32, but in most scenarios lacking a lot of explosions or large areas (the later of which aren't abundant in this game) it ran smooth as silk. On a 400Mhz Celeron with Voodoo2 SLI, the game ran fine in all areas, though I suspect both the decreased colors and the triangle-pushing might of the Voodoo2's had more to do with that then the processor, since the game supports 3Dnow out of the box.

Final Thoughts:
Aliens versus Predator is a unique, interesting, and fun FPS in a market that still stays relatively the same. By allowing for three very races to be controlled, and for a variety of gameplay and graphical advantages (as well as a great soundtrack), Rebellion has crafted a game truly worthy of the license and your notice. It's a shame that both failures in the QA testing process and in design can distract from the game, but they combine to hold the game back just short of the full glory it deserves.

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Page Updated Mon Nov 22, 1999 8:40pm EST