A superb action adventure title, with a great bunch of exciting campaign's, exciting game play and a solid presentation.
The campaign is broken into three separate smaller campaigns. It's a neat idea, and can allow the player to experience each character differently. Through these campaigns you will play as the Alien, the Predator, and one of the Marines. It's a clever idea to grab our attention and burn holes in our wallets, and it actually does it well, with the campaigns as tense and exciting as each other. They are all connected somehow, but they do have their separate scenarios outside of the main story line. The marine campaign is a traditional First Person Shooter. It's a claustrophobic experience, and catches the essence of the films right. You'd expect the usual from a shooter game based on the films. You can carry two weapons at a time, which does make it a bit more realistic. These weapons include a handgun and a larger weapon (either a assault rifle, a shotgun, a flame thrower, and so on.) with some of the larger weapons having an alternate fire. The Marine campaign is by far the weakest, but it's still a great experience. The game is mostly set in the dark, with your character navigating through narrow hallways, small shafts and cramped control rooms. Every campaign also starts out with a simple tutorial, which allows you to get to grips with your character, which is a poor attempt at a welcoming, because the tutorials are poor and uninspired, and will simply bore the living daylights out of you. It's typical of this sort of game, but it could have been improved. The Predator campaign was my favorite campaign of the three. The Predator's attacks consist of the standard close combat, the Predator's trademark long range attack, and quick kill attacks. The quick kill attacks are prompted when either behind an unaware enemy or if you have an enemy stunned. The attacks consist of a quick blade through the chest or the more elaborate decapitation with the spine still attached. Without a doubt, Aliens Vs Predator isn't for the faint hearted. It's gory, it's violent, but it's fun all at the same time. These quick kills play an interesting role in the campaign when you run into frequent retinal scanning doors, which are very common, by the way. The long range attack can be shot quickly for a stun effect or charged to explode the enemy into chunks. Unfortunately you do not have unlimited long range attacks and must charge them at one time use power stations sprinkled throughout the level, again, fairly typical of a shooter like this one, and does get annoying after a while. The Predator does have a few distinct advantages over his enemies including the ability to quickly jump to and from objects as well as the ability to switch to an infra red view. The campaign is a stealth outing that requires you to stick to the treetops and ledges and pick your attacks wisely and not alert surrounding enemies. This does take some time to correctly master, but once you get the hang of it, it's a fun and addictive experience. The Alien campaign was the most difficult to control and the more frustrating of the bunch. In a constant struggle to have a close combat game this campaign falls short. For me, the control scheme just does not work. In order to move onto vertical walls or vertical objects and then back to the floor you need to hold down a button otherwise you will just keep moving on that object in a different direction (it's hard to explain, and very frustrating to understand and control). The attacks are close combat that just get tedious after the first few missions and a task to just finish. Much like the Predator, the Aliens do have the ability to perform quick kills as well. Out of the three, this campaign is a forgettable experience, but still is far superior to the Marine campaign, which is rather standard and uninspired compared to this campaign.
Even though the Alien campaign is hard to control, the overall control system is spot on. Navigating has never been so easy, and it's a simple controls scheme that is easy to pick up, even if the Alien campaign has some trickier controls. Graphically, the Marine missions look the best, partly because they take place in dark corridors that are only illuminated by your flashlight. This campaign experience can't hold up to some of the other First Person Shooter games on the market, but it is a fine looking game in dark, dense locations, and the small hints of light are fascinating, and look superb. Detail is fantastic, as ever with any Aliens Vs Predator title. Weapons are detailed, environments are not that big, but they do pose some fantastic looking statues and what not. The lush, green jungles are by far the best looking this in the game, while attention to detail on the various Alien creatures also look superb. Aliens Vs Predator is also a fun game to play. You'll never get tired of decapitating Marines in the Predator campaign, or sneaking through vent shafts to hunt down Predators in the Alien campaign, and even playing as the Marine has it's moments, like running away from tons of scuttling Aliens in dark, damp and dense corridors. The multiplayer holds the package together overall, and from what I experienced it has a solid online mode (I have to use online at other friends houses, due to my home problems). There are six modes and six maps that are tailored to the Alien and Predator universe. There is also an inclusion of a survivor mode that plays much like the horde or fire fight modes of other games. This mode places up to four players total in a confined area where they must fight off swarms of Aliens for as long as possible. Tension is high considering that these Aliens can come from all angles and a frantic pace will ensue, it's a rememberable experience.
Overall, the Predator and Marine campaign are the most exciting, but the Alien campaign is no where as good. The multiplayer offering brings the package together and provide a reason to keep playing after finishing the three campaigns, but the campaigns do have plenty of re play value. But, it's worth a look, and any fans of the films or the older games, will love this title. Who will you play as? A Alien, a Predator or a Marine?