Aliens vs Predator review

Why are people so obsessed about Aliens fighting Predators? Not happy with the previous games that were never seen as true masterpieces, Sega now publish this latest version once again made by Rebellion. You get to play short campaigns as a Marine, an Alien or a Predator, each with their own abilities and attacks.

The Marine is the most familiar. You have the great sound effects of the radar and the pulse rifle and have to fend off Aliens running at you from all angles, mostly in the dark. Thankfully this campaign isn’t as tough as the old PC game but everyone insists on calling you Rookie which is more than just a bit annoying and after just playing through Bioshock 2, it really does feel like a bog-standard FPS compared to today’s standards. There are moments though that lift the experience, I just wish there were more of them.

As the Alien you rely on melee attacks and can jump onto the walls and ceiling which is just as disorientating as it’s always been even with the help of a cursor in the centre of the screen which tells you where the floor is. However, it is fun ‘harvesting’ poor unarmed humans by letting a facehugger jump onto their head and picking off marines one by one in a sealed room which sort of feels like you’re playing Arkham Asylum in first-person.

The Predator relies on stealth so you can cloak at the push of a button and use your shoulder cannon and other weapons to punish the Aliens and marines from a distance. Both the Alien and Predator campaigns also feature grab moves which result in a particularly gory ending to your foes. Unfortunately, whilst these moves are cool to do, they leave you vulnerable and you can’t cancel the move once you’ve started it and often end up taking damage or being killed yourself.

The game’s also no great shakes when it comes to graphics. Again, compared to games such as Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect 2, this doesn’t come close despite being not as long or complicated.

So the single player campaigns are mediocre at best but what about the multiplayer? Surely this is where the game must shine right? Well, deathmatch mode just doesn’t work, team deathmatch fares a little better but thankfully there are some much better game modes.

Survivor is a take on the now popular horde mode in games where as marines you must fend of waves of Aliens whereas Infestation mode pits marines against one Alien. When a marine is taken out they also become an Alien and so on. Thankfully these game modes and others involving the Predator save the game a bit but you’re still struggling with the clunky melee combat which works well in slower games such as Condemned but not so well in games where things are sprinting towards you faster than Usain Bolt.

When it all comes out in the wash Aliens vs Predator is an average FPS with some fun highlights which push it towards a good 6 out of 10.

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