Last week SEGA Nerds was invited to an exciting Aliens vs Predator event, courtesy of SEGA Europe.  The day was filled with fun activities, such as Laser Tag (basically Laser Quest/ Quasar), food, drink (lots of drink) and a lot of Aliens vs Predator gameplay.

I previously had a quick go on the multiplayer mode at the Eurogamer Expo back in late 2009, but they had some problems while I was playing;  like some serious lag issues and the game crashing at one point, which is why I never did a write up about it - seemed a bit pointless.

But while the brief gaming session I had on the AvP multiplayer was full of problems and bugs, I definitely saw a lot of potential with the game. 

Fast forward to present time and I have a bit of a better play on not only the multiplayer, but also two of the Single Player campaign modes the game has to offer.

They mostly come at night, mostly:

Firstly I played as the Alien, I really wanted to see just how they would actually get the Alien species to have a 'story'. Because as far as I can tell they just go around biting, spitting and knocking up poor humans (yeah Alien babies) - they don't give off the sense as being intelligent creatures, more reacting on instinct.  So just how could they get a proper story out of it?

Essentially, without ruining it too much for you, you play Alien "6" that was involved in one of Wayland Industries' experiments and showed signs of promise.  However, before you (the player) really gets to understand what Wayland is doing with the Aliens you manage to escape - freeing some of your other captive Alien buddies.

Throughout the game's levels you are given orders by your Queen.  I think the general idea is that you need to rescue her - however, I'm not 100% sure, due to time restrictions I had to skip most of the cutscenes.

Hide 'N Seek, in the dark:

The levels that I played only featured the Humans as your enemy; it seems that the Predator comes into the game a little later on.  Without a badass Predator on my tail (literally) it meant that the Alien gameplay mainly consisted of stealth tactics.

Being a lone Alien means that you are faster, stronger and more agile than any Human, but you are also very vunerable to lots of Humans shooting you. So you have to pick them off one by; either by luring them into a trap or by sneaking around and picking off the last member of a party.

The best way to take down your enemies, I found, was to stick to the shadows and crawl along the ceiling, being as quiet as possible.  This gave you the opportunity to scope out your surrounding area and any hostiles present.

You then need to decide on the best order to kill your prey.  Just dropping down from the ceiling, or taking a stab at an enemy at random will most likely result in the rest of the Humans spotting you; as they generally take the "shoot first, ask questions later" approach to Alien lifeforms, that's not a good idea.

~One of the Alien death moves; You pin down your foe and let a face hugger have some fun~

All about the tail attack:

On the whole the Alien gameplay mechanics work wonderfully.  Crawling on any surface, stabbing enemies with your tail and using your little mouth (inside your big mouth) to perform the awesomely-lethal death moves makes you really feel like you are watching an Alien movie, from the perspective of an Alien.

The controls all work great, crawling, jumping, running really fast - it all comes naturally after a couple of minutes.  It can, however, get a little disorientating at times, especially when running away from gun fire and scrambling along walls - you can lose where the ground is and sometimes, accidentally, get turned around and just end up running back into the sights of the marines.

Thankfully though, Rebellion has given you a small indicator your HUD, that tells you where the ground is and at what angle you are currently moving along at - a bit like what planes have.  It's just easy to ignore/ forget about it when the action really heats up.

Keep it together Marines:

The Human campaign feels alot more cliche than the Alien's.  If you've played any sci-fi based FPS in the last... well since DOOM really, you should know the general feeling of the game. 

You wake up, alone, your comrades have all buggered off and died enmass, leaving just you to find any survivors and take on the Alien horde all by yourself.  Oh yeah,  and you are meant to be a "Rookie" too, one that seems to be able to take down all the Aliens that your commanding officers couldn't handle - nothing new there then.

But that's ok. It's clear that Rebellion have tried to keep the Marine single player campaign as normal as possible; it's the Predator and Alien that have all the new skills and different outlook on the FPS genre - some new things that some gamers might not appreciate too much.  So it's better to have something familar for gamers to get their hands around.

Mummy, I need a night-light:

Of course being based in the Aliens/ Predator universe, most of the game involves dark corridors and mysterious cases of widespread blackouts all over the place.  Well, it would be silly to have the game looking something like Mirror's Edge - you'd see the Aliens from a mile off and that would ruin all the fun.

However, the bits that I played really weren't too scary at all.  Nothing as creepy as the Condemned games at least, but the levels I played in were very atmospheric and once again you felt like you were in one of the Aliens movies.

But the stupidest thing about playing as a Marine is the flashlight that you are given.  Ok this might sound like a ridiculous thing to complain about - but there is literally no point to the flashlight.  It's so dark that you desperately need a flashlight - but the light is so weak that it doesn't help you see at all - it's easier to walk around without it on and watch for movement in the shadows.

It would have been better if they made the torch light stronger, but limited in use.  EIther needing batteries (yeah that's done to death and a bit annoying), or maybe by having it only available on one or two weapons.  I dunno, just the way it is, there is no point in such a useless torch.

And with the Alien missions, my biggest complaint is the overuse of the same sayings the Marines use throughout the levels.  Across three levels I played, I heard the Marines use and re-use about three lines of script.

RIght now I can only remember one; "Keep it together Marines."  At one point I overheard four Marines in a row, in the same room, say that same bloody saying.  Things like that can really ruin the atmosphere and it just seems very lazy - I don't expect Shakespearian style silioques from a game like this, but it's not hard to come up with a few vaguely original lines of script for the AI to use.

If it bleeds, we can kill it:

As I say, the Human/ Marine gameplay is very similar to most modern FPS titles.  There is little for me to go into that you wouldn't already know.  Except that you might be surprised by how good the Marines actually are against the Aliens. 

The key ability for the Humans is that they have great range in their weapons, where as the Aliens really need to get up close for all their attacks.  The Predator does have some long range weapons, but fewer than the Marines and they tend to take longer to fire.

You also have the added bonus of technology, such as the motion trackers and the auto-turrets, which help you in your fight against the Aliens.

You are one ugly Motherf*&er!

Unfortunately due to time restrictions I was unable to get any play time on the Predator's single player campaign.  I did however get a little look at some others playing as the dreadlock'd badboy. 

In a similar fashion to the Alien, the Predator uses a lot of stealth when fighting Marines.  Being spotted by a group of Marines will most likely end up with your untimely death - due to being outnumbered and out-gunned.

So, by keeping yourself cloaked and using high up platforms/ tree branches to keep yourself out of the eyeline of gun turrets and Humans, you are able to sneak up and take down your prey one, by one.

One great thing is that Rebellion didn't make your stealth ability too limited.  I hate it in games when certain characters should be able to use an ability (like stealth) as much as they like, but the player is reduced to a time limit.  Halo 2 is a good example of this; Covenant AI Elites can use stealth all day, but playing as the Arbiter you are given cloak powers for about 30 seconds. It sucks.

Anyway, you can stay cloaked for as long as you like, unless you are spotted (because you do shimmer slightly) or you attack someone - then your cloaking power deactivates.  But you can turn it right back on.

Pah! Who needs a night-light?

One of the Predator's best abilities, over that of the Aliens and the Marines, is being able to use different vision modes to spot your prey before they spot you.

You have the standard vision, which is generally easier to move around in.  You have a heat-vision, which makes it easier to spot Marines hiding.  But you can't see turrets or Aliens in this view - because they don't give off heat.

To spot Aliens you need to switch to another 'Alien-view,' which makes the screen all green, but lights up the Aliens like Christmas trees.  Again though, if there are also Humans around - you won't be able to see them clearly in this view. But it's great when you get to an area full of Alien foe, because they can be sneaky buggers and are much faster than the Predator.

What's the matter, been pushing too many pencils?

One thing that is hard to comment on in AvP are the visuals.  It's odd - playing the game I was thinking; "This game looks great."  But then comparing it to other recent games, it's clear that AvP isn't as visually impressive as some might hope.

But that said, the graphics definitely are not bad.  Thinking back (and looking at screens) one thing that stood out for me was just how much stuff there is on screen and in each level.

Ok a lot of it is just environmental mess, which don't move or affect the visuals much directly, but they do add something to the onscreen experience.

Rather than just being an empty corridor like in some games (DOOM 3, Dead Space, Halo - for example), you have corridors full of Marine clutter; boxes, hanging wires, computers, cups, other small random objects etc..  - Where it actually looks like some serious fighting has gone on and the whole place has been wrecked.

One of my favourite moments was playing as a Marine and you go into a Night Club.  Bodies are everywhere, the place is in ruin and some weird Alien stuff is all over the walls... I won't go any further into the description on that - because it is a great moment early in the game.

The point is, despite the graphics not being of the highest quality available, what Rebellion has been able to achieve is a good sense of environmental carnage and atmosphere that some modern FPS/ horror titles seem to be missing out on and the character models, especially for the Aliens and Predator(s), do look great still.

Multiplayer:

What is a bit of a grey area, for me, right now is the multiplayer.  That's partly because I wasn't able to get a go on many of the game modes (again due to time) - really just the standard death matches.  But also because I didn't fall in love with it as much as some other previewers have done.

It's fun, that's for sure.  But I'm not entirely sure just how long it can keep players attention for, before they get over the uniqueness of playing as three very different species.

You see, while some games tend to have very large open multiplayer maps and different weapons to get used to, AvP really just seems to throw everyone into a more cramped space and just tell them to let loose.

Who the hell chooses to be a marine?

Playing as a Marine just means that you fire as soon as you see something moving in the distance.  You can't wait and take aim, because if it is an Alien or Predator, they will be on you within a matter of seconds and up close there really is very little competition.

However if you have more than one Marine (on the same team) you can do some serious damage to your enemies.  Predators and Aliens are more efficient on their own and even when trying to team up as Predators/ Aliens, you will find the extra help pretty redundant most of the time; you will either kill in the same way as normal or both die together.

Aliens vs. Predator:

Most players will no doubt want to play as an Alien or Predator in the multiplayer.  It's hard not to be enticed by the two strongest and deadliest creatures in the game.

Alien gameplay changes a little from being super stealthy (in the single player) into just running around as fast as possible, dodging bullets and pouncing on the Marines or Predator like a Velocoraptor.

You can try to be more stealthy, but the multiplayer levels tend to be a lot brighter than the single player missions, so trying to hide in shadows becomes tricky when so few areas have much shade.  Your best bet for stealth is to climb up a wall and check your area; if you see anyone chasing after you - keep running.  If you see some players fighting in the distance you can try to sneak around while they are distracted, or just wait for them to come to you.

But if you do wait, remember that Predators can see you quite easily and there could be other Aliens crawling up behnd you.  On of my favourite experiences in multiplayer was when I was playing as an Alien, fighting another Alien:

We were chasing each other over bits of scenery and up a wall; having a claw-swipe battle on a verticle surface is a pretty exciting and unique experience.

Playing as the Predator means that you can try to be more stealthy.  You still get your main abilities; jumping really far, the different visions and (my favourite) stealth mode.  So you are able to stick to the higher terrain and watch for your prey to come near, as you remain in your cloaked form.

However your main downfall is that you only have one weapon to begin with, your claw; which is only good for close combat.  But dotted around the maps are weapon pickups, so you can go searching for the better weapons, such as; the throwing blade-disc thing (which can richochete along walls) and your badass plasma cannon (famed for its three dots) - plus some more.

Impairing your vision:

One of the most noticeable things about the multiplayer is that the visuals take a bit of a downgrade.  On the whole they are still pretty decent - nothing is blurry or looks horrible.  But a lot of the environment and certain objects just don't look right or quite as good as in the single player.

For example, one of the maps is set in a sort of jungle environment and the trees seem to be more square-shaped than the more natural rounded approach you might normally find. 

Also, the lighting effects take a bit of a nose-dive.  As I mentioned the multiplayer maps are generally brighter than the single player levels, but where you do get some shadows and lights the effect of the light source just doesn't look like natural light - more like an area that has been coloured a bit brighter compared to the surroundings.

Preview Summary:

I have been very excited about AvP coming out and I still am.  Elements of the single player mode feel very cliche these days, especially the Marine's story. 

But what I played was a very solid FPS (as the Marine) and a really fun, interesting and ultimately unique First Person experience as the Alien.  The Predator also looks like it's going to be just as fun as the both the Marine and Alien campaigns.

The only thing that I can see ruining the game's chances are if the campaigns are too short.  We weren't given much indication on how long the single player modes will last - but even if each campaign lasts only four hours, you will be getting a decent length of 12 hours gameplay over the three species.  Any longer and it will be like you are getting three different games bundled into one.

The multiplayer features plenty of game modes (unfortunately we didn't get to play them all) and what I did play on was enjoyable.

The different species have their pros and cons, which keeps the multiplayer very interesting.  And even though it feels like the Marines are at a disadvantage, if you learn to use them correctly you can often come out on top.  Hey, just remember it's the Humans that always win in the Aliens and Predator movies.

By all accounts it seems that Rebellion are on to a winner with the Aliens vs. Predator franchise once again.  Let's hope the final product can keep up the pace throughout.

~G~

[Edited By Moderator]