Not great, but not bad either.
Remember the movie Aliens? Remember how the marines were outnumbered and running low on ammo? We'll AVP will give you the same pucker factor. Lets go over the strengths and weaknesses of this game on both the single and multiplayer fronts.
SINGLE PLAYER:
Each campaign builds off of the other. You can play them in any order and still understand the storyline. This is good because each species can be frustrating at times. The storyline is nothing spectacular. The humans have found one of the predators pyramids and activated it a search for the "Hunter's" technology. This unleashes the xenomorphs on the planet, and triggers the predators to come for the hunt.
Predator -The predator feels like you would expect one to feel. They're powerful. They're stealthy. They're badass. You have all the cool weapons from the movies. (Plasma caster, spear, mines, cloaking, claws, throwing blade) And they are so much fun to use. As the predator you have the "leap" ability which allows you to jump into trees (and much more). The predator employs a combination of stealth and straight forward combat.
Aliens - Stealthy and fast but weak up front. The aliens are the fastest race in the game. They have the ability to crawl on every surface in the game. (Just like the movies) Sneaking around on ceilings and lurking in dark corners is fun. They can attack with claws and tail. The aliens are able to "see" with their sense of smell. This highlights enemies with a red outline. The alien campaign must be played with a little bit of patience. Marines and predators can cut you down in a second if you attempt to attack head on.
Marines - The single player campaign is scary as hell. The ominous "blip blip blip" of your motion tracker is always there for you. As you turn around that dark, blind corner you notice the tracker begins to whine. The blips become higher pitched...now there's two signals...no three...four, OPEN FIREEE!!!! The marine campaign is easily the most challenging and frightening. You feel like a space marine would. Out numbered, low on ammo, and terrified. It's a pretty straight forward shooter as the marine, but its dark and scary.
MULTIPLAYER:
Multiplayer highlights the strengths and weaknesses of all the races. They are not equal and each race has their own play style. There are multiple modes of play.
Classic Death match (free for all)
Species Death match (aliens vs predators vs marines)
Domination (zone/point control)
Infestation (aliens vs marines - 1 alien attempting to infect X number of marines. As the marines dies, the alien numbers increase)
Predator Hunt - (marines vs 1 predator)
Survival - Marines vs waves of aliens (computer controlled)
They're all very fun to play and I recommend you try them all.
OVERALL -
Strengths
- 3 Distinct Races with 3 distinct play styles
- Races are NOT equal, this is a good thing
- Multiplay can be fun when it works
- Decent graphics
- Close combat kills are brutal
Weaknesses
- Single player is pretty linear
- Bosses are lame (sorry, they are, but it doesn't ruin the game)
- Alien climbing ability can get wonky in areas
- Close combat kill animations take forever and leave you open for attack
- Multiplayer leveling is somewhat lame (unlocks others skins...thats it)
-Multiplay match making on XBL takes forever, I don't know if its a programming problem or no one plays. I would assume a programming problem. It can take 5-10minutes to find a friggin' match.
OVERALL:
If you liked the originals you'll probably like this.
