Aliens vs. Predator Again

[FullAuto]

And the reviews are in.

 

The single player in particular sounds like a disappointment. The multiplayer modes like Survivor and Infestation sound great, but I'm not going to buy the game just for them.

 

Why do companies constantly sell games, relying on the well-known IP to sell the game, instead of just making it well? Do they not realise there's more money in that? Do they think running a franchise into the ground is how you make the most money out of it? While I can see how it would produce short-term profits, surely you're going to reach less and less people with each successive game, as people realise how poor they are?

 

And then they write the IP off as no longer commercially viable and move on to the next...

[Space Voyager]

Yes, I guess this one will need a fast and serious add-on.

[Pete]

That's a shame - I was planning on buying it as well

 

The first one was fantastic, despite the graphics from back in the day making your eyes bleed when you enter an alien hive (seriously, you don't know what's a wall and what's a gap in a wall ) and the second one was a damned good game - loved the pointless mission where you go in to rescue one of your team from an alien hive, she dies anyway and then you have to run like hell to get out. My bro played that level and just waited for the aliens to stop coming, figuring they wouldn't be on infinite respawn -he ran like hell when he exhausted all of his ammo, and he had a lot

 

I call it a pointless mission, as when the dialogue kicks in at the beginning of that mission and the macho marines say they're going to rescue their comrade I shouted at the screen "why the ^%* would you want to go into a hive? She's dead already!". And I was right. But it was still fun!

[FullAuto]

We can see the situation represented in text in Pete's post.

 

One sentence on the shitty game, two paragraphs reminiscing about the good games. Time to buy or install them again...

[Azrael Strife]

I don't trust reviews completely anyway, I'm installing it as we speak, I couldn't resist will write comments later.

 

Liked the first AvP, LOVED the second. The pointless mission I believe was highly climatic, in fact, I enjoyed it a lot

 

Mind that I'm probably biased towards loving this game because James Cameron and Scott Ridley forced me to love the Aliens universe by making two of the greatest Sci-Fi movies ever made.

[Azrael Strife]

I was wrong.

 

This game is mediocre at best, and this is being forgiving.

 

My computer can run Crysis with a decent framerate, a game known for looking gorgeous. I had to turn off every single graphics option and reduce resolution to a measly 800x600 for the crap to run; and it still moves a bit sluggish, we're talking a game that is being heavily critisised by its poor graphics (and they are poor).

 

Where to start? there's so much done wrong in this game that I don't know where to begin. First the music is virtually non existant so far, I seem to recall some nice scores from AvP2. Then the voice acting is both horrible and ridiculous; there are aliens tearing apart your team mates and yet when a fellow marine tells you to go help them, she remains perfectly calm; even when the aliens are about to enter the room you are in and she's trying to help you, no sense of urgency, no sense of danger, nothing.

 

Graphically it's just bad, that's it, even the alien models look kinda strange when moving towards you, nothing like AvP or AvP2.

 

Next, the Aliens move kinda weird when attacking you. They do stalk you like in the movies, moving slowly towards you crawling in a wall, which is kinda cool, but they seem to do the exact same thing when in the floor and right next to you, sometimes even after an attack, that is a bit weird.

Also, be ready to meet the super aliens, the idea is that the aliens are quite weak to weapons, most rifles and such tear them apart in like one good shot (AvP, AvP2, movies), but here they can take multiple Pulse Rifle blasts and keep coming at you; they can even take a full-on pulse rifle grenade blast and still jump at you. And these are aliens from the first screens, I don't want to think what Praetorians or Predaliens are in this game

 

The colony artwork is also mediocre; I loved in AvP and AvP2 walking through the colony, made me feel like I was in the movie Aliens actually, but here I am perfectly and painfully aware that I'm playing a very mediocre game.

 

And what the f**k is wrong with the name? Aliens vs Predator? it's called the same as the first game? how do you know which is which? I know they probably did it because an AvP3 on consoles that never had 1 and 2 would probably scare some retarded console owners who would rampage through the city in rage because they don't understand why they don't have 1 and 2, but come on.

 

This is just the marine campaign, I feel more and more like playing AvP2 again and forget about this

[FullAuto]

Several reviews have mentioned that they think the Marine campaign is the best one...

 

[Azrael Strife]

Heck, this game is very very boring, and the Marine campaign is very crappy. I can barely survive thanks to my not so trusty unlimited-ammo pistol. I quit the game after being chased by no less than 5 or 6 aliens all at once and I had nothing else than my pistol. Bear in mind the pistol has about a 8 shot clip (or was it 10?) and the average alien takes about 10 direct hits to be killed, so you have to fire around one and a half clips to kill it, not counting the shots you continuously miss because the thing moves around (like it's supposed to, of course).

So you're pretty much facing certain death most of the time this is in normal difficulty.

 

Ah, and the motion sensor is as useless as it can be.

 

Environments are incredibly dark, annoyingly dark I'd say, you have to rely completely on a crappy flashlight and the unlimited flares (only one working at a time).

Dark environments are to be expected, but this is too much.

 

The real bad part of having such a crappy AvP game is that, IIRC, Aliens Colonial Marines depended on AvP on being successful

[Tycow]

Stuff

 

Completely agree mate. I had high hopes for this but never mind. Roll on A:CM!

 

I've just posted this on my clan forum:

 

I'll be honest mate, I'm regretting buying it (and I'm one of the biggest Aliens fans I know - you only need to look at my book shelf to see that!).

 

Graphics are pretty, the settings are spot on but the game is severely underwhelming so far. Running around as the Alien isn't as fun was it was in the original and second AvP game... you have to press a button to attach yourselves a surface like a toggle. Doesn't feel as fluid as it used to.

 

Playing the marine campaign and I dunno... something isn't sitting right. They ripped set pieces straight out of Aliens (right down to the lines you hear other marines screaming in the background) which seems lazy to me.

 

The alien AI is weird. They seem to stalk you across the ceiling and stick to the shadows (which is pretty cool), but then when they come to attack, they're... slow (it's hard to explain). When they do pounce, combat becomes a rock-paper-scissors affair. Alien got the drop on you and about to headbite you? No worries, just punch him in the face! Why use superior fire power when you can spam melee attacks!

 

The aliens seem to be able to survive a grenade to the face. You can only throw one flare at a time, and the torch you can use is so useless I forget to turn it on!

 

Can't comment on the Pred campaign; I haven't started it yet but after playing the other two campaigns I'm not hopeful. sad.gif

 

On the plus side, the main menu is quite well done.

[Matri]

Oooh, main menu!

 

[Tycow]

Oooh, main menu!

 

 

Had to put something positive in there!

[Azrael Strife]

I didn't believe it possible, but the Alien campaign is indeed worse.

 

It's a shame really, there are some nice ideas around, especially for the alien controls.

[Pete]

I didn't realise they'd made the aliens tougher - are console owners that whiney that they'd get loads of complaints about being killed in one shot? That's all the alien ever needs - a well placed shot. Their strength is in numbers and raw power, not their high explodability characteristics.

 

I think the remaining servers out there that were still running AvP2 multi-player are still going to be running it for a while to come by the sonds of all this.

[Matri]

I didn't realise they'd made the aliens tougher - are console owners that whiney that they'd get loads of complaints about being killed in one shot?

Yeah, you're talking about console owners here. The same console owners who consider Halo to be the be-all end-all of FPS gaming.

[Space Voyager]

Well now, I've waited for this game for a loooooooooooooong time and reading this it seems my wait just got even longer. No buy.

 

There still is hope for Alien(s) fans though - Aliens: Colonial Marines (ACM) is in the making. No preds there, just us and Aliens...

[ShadowFox]

Well now, I've waited for this game for a loooooooooooooong time and reading this it seems my wait just got even longer. No buy.

 

There still is hope for Alien(s) fans though - Aliens: Colonial Marines (ACM) is in the making. No preds there, just us and Aliens...

 

I also read them, but I didn't believe them, and now I half wish I didn't buy the pc version of it at all. In my opinion the graphics are so so, and I kinda liked the game play, but I found that the marine level is too bleeding hard, eventhough I am playing on the easiest difficultty. I am in the mines as a marine, and keep on getting killed when I start the hack. I have tried many things, and none of them works.

Also I seem to think the missions/levels seem to be too short.

 

I hope Aliens: Colonial Marines is much better then AvP (3).

[Space Voyager]

Zero Punctuation review

[Pete]

Love those reviews