Review: Aliens vs Predator

Incidentally, some of the best moments in my personal FPS file sprang forth from Alien Trilogy, the classic shooter seen originally on the PlayStation, PC, and Sega Saturn. As the infamous marine Ripley Scott, I blasted my way through LV426 in order to establish contact with a colony infested with nefarious aliens. Knee-deep in a Weyland-Yutani corporation, a prison, and a plethora of other dubious locations, I ensured that the scourge was wiped off the face of the planet. I purged areas of the infected. I reloaded often. The first time a face hugger set up camp on my own delicious countenance, I must have jumped a foot in the air.Dark corridors and even darker corners were so inviting, but what waitedbeyond the ominous last bits of light in a cleared area?

Familiar and intuitive controls, superb production values (for back then), and excellent sound direction flirted shamelessly to create the perfect Alien shooter, and to date I still revisit it as often as my personal favorite System Shock 2. Upon the announcement of 2010′s Aliens vs Predator, I was hoping to be greeted with something much more akin to this lost gem instead of a rail-shooter or uninspired shooter a la Star Trek: Elite Force. Unfortunately, this year’s Aliens vs Predator is quite broken. In moments where all the pieces come together, it can be an awesome experience, but it just can’t measure up to the hits ofthe past.

The game’s been marketed as a must-play for any fan of the storied franchise, and die-hards will find plenty to enjoy about what Aliens vs Predator aspires to do. Split into three separate campaigns, you can assume the role of an alien, a marine, or one of the vicious predators. Each campaign is tailored to the specific strengths of each archetype, so you’ll be exploring locations and taking on enemies that will change according to whose side you’re on.

For instance, should you choose to complete the game as a lowly marine, you’ll find yourself smack dab in the middle of a wholly creepy and unsettling exercise in survival horror akin to the early days of Alien on consoles. Fumbling around in the dark as you attempt to escape your almost certain death is deliciously terrifying. The faint blips of your motion tracker act as a chilling mantra to keep moving lest your spine be ripped out right through your neck. And it will happen, time and time again, if you’re not careful. That’s what makes playing as an alien so engrossing. Taking a chunk out of a marine’s head never ceases to satisfy, though crawling around through various vents and tangling hallways can become downright disorienting. Still, there’s plenty of fun to be found in the fact that you can traipse along each and every wall and ceiling in your immediate surroundings — freedom that you don’t often get. Similarly, the Predator’s campaign offers its own quirks to liven up an otherwise mundane first-person shooter. Performing death-defying leaps and acrobatics all the while stalking your prey is exceedingly engrossing, and serves as a personal favorite aspect of the game. Nothing beats going in for the kill, and the Predator has several tricks up his sleeve to make it all the more savory, especially if you like gratuitous violence.

Unfortunately, even with all the frills such as fantastically gritty kills via the Predator or an appropriately atmospheric marine campaign, Aliens vs Predator somehow manages to hit quite a few sour notes. What it gets right in terms of thrilling implements ripped straight from the blockbuster movies, it gets horribly wrong in terms of standard shooter game design. The levels suffer from poor layouts, and the jump from the darker more atmospheric levels to nondescript jungles and similar locations is a bit of a shock to the system. I’ve seen enough jungles in my gaming history to know that it doesn’t make the game any more exotic. It just adds an element of “been-there-done-that” that you shouldn’t be getting when exploring the Alien universe.

Combat easily becomes cheap and forgettable despite the admirable attempts at keeping it afloat. Much like BioShock’s Winter Blast! plasmid technique, you can follow a simple set of maneuevers with every enemy to ensure certain death awaits. That kind of predictability doesn’t keep gameplay very fresh, and when you know exactly how to tackle every baddie who wants you for lunch (or a trophy) it takes much of the urgency out of the situations you’re placed in. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but a good portion of the enemies can easily be thwarted in this way. At least in the grand scheme of things the marine campaign is the most playable, devoid of the problems that plague the Alien and Predator.

If you choose to tackle the Alien story, you’ll be granted the ability to slither onto, well, just about anything, which gives you the fleeting sense of freedom of going anywhere and everywhere, except when it’s all said and done you can’t help but liken the experience to assuming the role of a Monitor in Halo 3′s Forge, flying around the map as a spectator rather than a xenomorph. The Alien’s wall-walking is finicky as well, requiring a little getting used to, but even when you have conquered it, the fact remains that you feel less like one of the snarling beasts and more like you’ve just enabled a cheat to allow you free reign of the environment. As a character who relies on precision and exact movement to enact one of its wonderously violent kills, you’ll find that the clunkiness of the Alien is what ultimately holds it back.

The Predator relies on stealth much like the Alien in order to carry out gruesome kills, and possesses the most satisfying slaughter animation in the entire game, iconic of the creature’s bloody film history. It is not to be missed and remains the reason I particularly enjoy playing as the Predator. An obstacle to the required stealth elements for the Alien and Predator is unfortunately the linearity and downright broken feel to each of the levels. There may be an object in your path that might call out for you to bound over it, but the game has other ideas. It’s so disappointing considering the supposed freedom you should have as a xenomorph, able to go anywhere and everywhere. But in reality, you can’t go anywhere you want because the game wags a shameful finger in your face and says “NO!”

Coupled with some truly insipid AI who you might see simply turning their backs to you after they see you approaching, or the befuddled citizens who do little more than run away screaming pitiably, you have an experience that while workable is wholly disappointing. And it’s a shame that the most cohesive part of the campaign is the marine option, which still succeeds on its own two legs mainly as yet another cookie-cutter FPS that makes sure to hit all the high notes of all the shooters of the past, right down to your role as a rookie. Still, choosing to traverse the Alien universe is much tidier if you take the human path, but I suppose that was to be expected.

For some truly uninspiring gameplay, there are some equally boring visuals to match. Plenty of muted grays, jungle greens, and landscaping typical of shooters abound. Fortunately, even within this exercise in the mundane, there’s some enjoyment to be had with the gruesome deaths you’re able to enact as your choice of “protagonist.” Nothing beats ripping an entire spinal column out of a man, and you know it. Sadly, the audio doesn’t quite stack up to the level of giddiness achieved by slaughtering countless enemies in the way that only Aliens vs Predator can. Really, not much does, unless you count the fun to be had in the game’s multiplayer modes.

You’re still confined to the same issues that plague the mediocre single-player campaign, but taking the action online is where most of the fun lies. Team Deathmatches serve up a melting pot of Predators, marines, and Aliens in a free-for-all where you’re free to explore each character’s skill set. It becomes easier to overlook the game’s flaws when chomping on the head of the kid in England who continually drags out the “burger-guzzling American” guns while he’s on the losing team. The online modes are just as clumsy as playing the regular game, but without the confines of a mission to annoy you, it’s possible you’ll have much more fun hanging out with buddies in the various gametypes. There are quite a few different ones to explore, one of my favorites being Predator Tag, so if you have a few friends and you just happen to be an Alien fan, you’ll enjoy hopping online for a few rounds.

Aliens vs Predator certainly isn’t perfect, and even as far as the license goes, you can do much better. It’s a shame to see so much wasted potential here, as the components are present to craft a much more engrossing game. Unfortunately, what’s done is done, and this entry is really carved out of mediocrity. There are a few shining moments of greatness, but once you’ve eviscerated a few hundred poor saps, the magic fades fairly quickly. Alien fans will want to give this a rental, but I can’t imagine that buying the game is the best idea.