In Aliens vs. Predator, a central story plays out through the eyes of three very different species. Mysterious ruins on a distant planet harbour a secret, which you must discover as either a rookie human Marine, a novice Predator hunter, or a young Xenomorph. The three stories have their own individual plots, but an overriding story remains the same throughout. You may play in the same environments, but due to the separate plots, and unique playing styles of the species, playing through each of the campaigns feels fresh and interesting.
Each of the species have their strengths and weaknesses, which helps to balance them out so that no species is superior to the others. Marines may be weak physically, but their motion sensor means they are always prepared for an attack, and their ranged weapons mean that they can see off their foes from afar. A quick spray of a pulse rifle can get them out of trouble quickly, are soon overpowered by a group of Xenos. Predators rely on stealth, and although they are pretty handy in close combat, they are slow to escape, and it's preferable to become invisible and lure targets away from the pack to attack them. Xenomorphs are fast and nimble, and can cling to any surface. They have no range attack, save for a swift whip of their tail, but their speed and regenerating health make up for this.
There are also weaknesses with the way in which each species is controlled. As mentioned, the Predator gets in trouble if it wants to escape the battlefield. This is mainly due to the awkward jump system, whereby you have to enter the "focus mode" by pressing one of the shoulder buttons, selecting a landing zone, and hitting jump to get there. This is fine when stalking prey, but if you're caught in the middle of a gun fight, you're as good as dead if you try to jump out of it.
Each of the species has these little quirks, which at times ruins the gameplay. For example, in order for the Marine to block a melee attack, you have to hold down the two shoulder buttons, one of which releases a flare when used on its own. Incorrect timing leads to throwing a flare at the Alien, rather than blocking, and getting a faceful of claw as a result. The Aliens may be fast, but the ability to climb walls and walk on the ceiling has its downfall. Not only is it disorientating, but you often find yourself climbing walls when you don't want to.
These may be annoyances, but they do a great deal to even out the playing field, intentional or not. The Predator has always been about stealth, and stalking his prey, and making him as agile and nimble as the Alien would be wrong. A Marine shouldn't be able to stand up to an Alien one-on-one, and quite rightly can't. The Alien is supposed to be the ultimate killing machine, and once you have mastered the transitioning, he lives up to this. As a result of the control issues, AVP is not a game you can pick up and play instantly, and it takes time to adapt to each of the species.
It is worth persevering, however, and fans of both films will enjoy playing their way through AVP. Rebellion have managed to capture the feel of both franchises, from the close, claustrophobic corridors of Alien to the jungle and height of Predator. Repeating the same environments should get boring, but it doesn't because each species approaches them from a different perspective. The sound effects, in particular, are superb, and from the Marine's motion sensor beeps and pulse rifle bursts, to the Predator's visor and luring sound bites, everything brings memories of the films flooding back.
Unfortunately all is not as good, and the game does have many flaws. The game is also very dark, and although this is atmospheric, is can be quite hard to see the action at times, especially when playing as the Marine with their puny flashlight. Each species suffers from some lengthy character animations that seem unnecessary; an Alien cannot enter a vent without going through a climbing animation, and Marines can't open doors without taking a few seconds to prise them open. Although the Marine's health system is good (Gamestyle like the semi-regenerating, semi-manual heal method), you have to hold down a button to activate it, bringing another long animation. This takes time and leaves you vulnerable to attack, which is not helpful when you're most likely to use the health pack when taking damage.
The game is very linear, and there's little incentive to explore, save for collecting Marine audio recordings, Predator trophies, or Alien embryos, which reward you with a trophy. Even if you stray off track, you constantly get reminded of your objectives, which gets annoying if you want to find the collectibles. Gamestyle didn't mind the linear nature of AVP, but things did get repetitive, especially playing as a Marine, which uses the "fend off Aliens whilst guarding an object" set piece a little too often.
The game's biggest flaw, however, is that the experience playing as each species contradicts the AI species when you play against them. As a Marine, you'll be able to outrun a Xenomorph, even though you know the speed of their sprint when you've been an Alien. Playing as a Marine, you can block Alien attacks, and even take a few hits before taking serious damage. Playing as an Alien, you know how lethal your strong attack is. Also, when you're the Alien, the Marines motion trackers don't appear to work, and you can run around hangers undetected. These maybe little things, but this lack of consistency does adversely affect the gameplay to some extent, although Gamestyle understand that to make each campaign entertaining, certain creative licence has to be taken.
A nice distraction to the single campaigns is the online multiplayer, which offers a decent variety of game modes. Not only are the standard deathmatches, and team deathmatches available, but there are some novel modes designed with the AVP theme in mind. Gamestyle's favourites are the Predator Hunter, where one person becomes a Predator, hunting down Marines until he is killed, and Infestation, where an Alien stalks Marines, converting all those he kills into other Aliens to assist him. Not only are these online modes fun to play, they manage to keep the same level of suspense and atmosphere that the main game has. This is also seen in the Single player survivor mode, where you play as a Marine, trying to survive wave after wave of Alien attack.
The control gripes aside, Aliens vs Predator is a good game, but it will certainly appeal more to fans of the two franchises. It shouldn't be compared to other First Person Shooters, because this is only a part of the game, and the different combat styles of the three species make it both challenging and entertaining. The single-player campaign may not offer much in the way of replay value, but the decent multiplayer modes go some way to rectify this, and Gamestyle defies any fan of the films not to enjoy their time spent mutilating Marines or hunting bugs.
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