"insert witty alien/predator pun here"
Aliens vs. Predator Review
Well, what a missed opportunity we have here, a run of the mill shooter campaign, a clunky melee shooter campaign and a not so clunky melee campaign. This game had the potential to be amazing, but it’s apparent that for whatever reason, the developer just didn’t have the resources to pull this one off.
You can choose to play the campaign as a marine, an Alien or a Predator. All three are very short but I found the Alien one to be the most fun. There’s just something really satisfying about picking people off one at a time with gory stealth kills. The Predator campaign is largely the same, with the occasional kill coming from some exclusive Predator gear. The marine campaign has some decent atmosphere and level design, but unfortunately that’s all, although the weapons for the marines pack serious punch and are fun to use. The Predator campaign is easily the weakest of the three, they just don’t take advantage of the fact that you’re a Predator. You have to be so cautious you don’t feel all that dangerous; this really goes against the entire idea behind being a Predator and leaves a lot to be desired.
The game has multiple difficulty settings, but the mechanics just aren’t polished enough to warrant numerous play-throughs. The Alien campaign is the only one I revisited, just because of the stalker feel you get from playing it and it feels the most true to the character/creature. The idea behind the triple mix of the campaign is (unfortunately) the best thing about them.
I haven’t played a great amount of the multiplayer in the game. However, what I played was rather fun, the stalking while being stalked aspect builds a good amount suspense and dispatching an un-aware foe is entertaining. You have light and heavy attacks when playing as a Predator or Alien and you have the standard firearms when playing as a marine. The guns in question pack a lot firepower, which makes the fact that you’re laying waste to hordes of Aliens and or Predators a little more believable.
It’s unfortunate that AvP falls short on all the potential it should have. But the sad thing is, it doesn’t really seem to have much potential anyway. The Alien campaign is the only thing I can recommend, as it serves as a pretty good first person stealth game, but other than that, AvP doesn’t offer up anything of significant quality or lasting value.
