Aliens Vs Predator

Hack, slash and plasma

The two alien campaigns are a bit more rewarding, especially the Predator's. While the Xenomorph is a purely melee and stealth specialist, the Pred mixes tough hand-to-hand and stealth with some of the most powerful ranged weapons in the game. The ability to get up close to even raging xenomorphs makes Predator play feel really something - there's nothing quite like being able to take down a whole swarm with your bare hands.

But as fun as the gameplay is, there's still that issue of the basic story being the same. Humans wake up ancient evil (the xenomorphs), predators clean it up, but wait, there's a twist.., which of course we won't reveal, but it's the kind of thing you'd expect if you've seen any of the films.

Is this the only story we can have in this universe? You have to wonder how Weyland-Yutani is still managing to operate after so many massive failures and xenomorph-husbandry - surely it's stock has plummeted on the galactic exchange and no one is willing to work for them anymore! Why are the Predator's always portrayed as some kind of alien Batman, quietly waiting in space for their alien-phones to ring and for a fight to get into?

And, finally, there's the matter of every Marine campaign opening with a bad drop - is there any other kind? Or does the Colonial Marine Corps expect a 90 per cent fatality rate for every mission? There's some great mechanical aspects to the game - good engine (though prone to some frame-rate issues with the motion blur effects), some nice touches in the alien campaigns - but there's no emotional heart.

Friends make it better?
But what about getting together with some live players and causing some mayhem?

Well, don't hold your breath. The Quickmatch option, looking for any game type, got us into a server lobby with three other players, all waiting for another four. And waiting... so we thought we'd try looking for any dedicated servers. It's great that AvP does support this... but we couldn't find any.

And by the time we got back to that lobby with the three other players waiting, they'd gotten bored and buggered off. Which seemed like a really good idea to us. By all reports, AvP multiplayer just isn't that good, and while we've not been able to judge for ourselves, the deafening silence of the game's online presence speaks eloquent volumes.

Oh well, maybe Gearbox's Colonial Marines will bring something fresh to the franchise. Assuming it ever hits release... in the meantime, you'd be better off revisiting Rebellion's earlier AvP 2. As of last year it was still getting love from the modding community. In fact, we're in the mood for that now...