Combining more modes of play than all of our reviewed titles of February, Aliens vs Predator is all about the embodiment of the franchise, doing it justice in the videogame realm. Does it succeed, or does it blunder as many pundits have expected?
The promise AVP brings is one of every possible solution the movies have offered, from every perspective. Play as a human marine, the hunter Predator, or the huntee Xenomorph. Three single player campaigns, all relatively short at 4-5 hours a pop, are intended to deliver the experience of each species. It almost works.
As a human, big guns and well lit rooms are the second greatest motivator against the alien menace, right behind fear. The “Rookie”, a Silent-Bob character whose face we see at the end yet managed to out-survive even the greatest of threats, is the players’ avatar, one who wields any weapon at the ready. His arsenal is large, from a weak pistol to an auto-aim machine gun, there are more tools of the trade than you need worry about. But when situations get dicey, it’s best to run, because a pack of Xenomorphs will rip the physically puny homosapien to shreds quickly. This campaign is the most standard and easiest, and undoubtedly the one most players will enjoy because of the familiarity with being human.
The Predator is similar; walk on two legs, have access to weapons, albeit fewer but more powerful ones, and physically the strongest force. Yet while the human campaign is riddled with poor acting, it’s at least fun to play because you’re the lowest of the low, and it’s a struggle to survive, especially on harder difficulty settings. As the Predator, all players get is a low-on-ammo supergun, the ability to cloak, and giant mitts. Picking off unsuspecting humans is easy, but there’s no hiding from the Xenomorphs, and fisticuffs is not enjoyable in the slightest. There is nothing about the Predator that makes players feel like the big, bad hunter. Instead, the entirety of this campaign is spent hopping about quietly like an unarmed Sam Fisher, prancing around so you don’t get your skirt wet.
Finally, playing as the Xenomorph is absolutely spectacular. Physically powerful but also easy to kill, the Xenomorph can crawl on any surface, and does so quickly. Sneaking up on unsuspecting humans is satisfying at first, but gets old because it really is too easy, and more suited for multiplayer (where that satisfaction returns with each concurrent execution). This campaign also revolves mostly around hand to hand combat, but as a fast moving and weak creature, it’s much more exciting because any mistake can lead to a quick death. This campaign also happens to be the most interesting in terms of the plot, but no one’s going to win any awards for the writing or acting.
Multiplayer is really the boon of AVP, which becomes apparent in the campaigns when things get tiresome, undoubtedly one of the reasons for their brevity. Using the same levels as seen in the single player, multiplayer pits all the species against each other in a selection of different gametypes. Balancing is done surprisingly well, where all the strengths and weaknesses of each species is apparent and easy to take advantage of. Flying around levels as the Xenomorph is incredibly exciting, especially when your adversaries pick up on your tactics and are prepared shortly after, allowing for a never ending tug of war struggle for points. This experience is mostly unique to multiplayer in most first person shooters, and it’s a relief to get something new and fresh like it.
The catch is that matchmaking is garbage. While initially just broken, it’s currently slow to find any game, especially specific gametypes when searching for a quick match. The lobby itself comes from some pre-internet age, and it takes so long to get a game that, in my tired state, I literally fell asleep waiting for a game to start. I was not laying down, but sitting upright, mind you. Often it takes so long to find a game that people will just drop, and there are no dedicated servers to join or host on PSN. This almost makes the exceptional multiplayer void, because who wants to play when it takes forever for the game to get going?
The Lowdown
6.0
Final Thoughts
Aliens vs Predator isn’t going to win any awards, but it will certainly win some hearts. The campaign has some clear faults, at times being just plain dumb in terms of gameplay, plot and fairness, but it also succeeds at times. The multiplayer is incredibly potent, but without a foundation of a reasonable matchmaking system, you might as well go play some game that actually works. AVP is a good game, but until Sega fixes matchmaking, wait for a patch before buying.
