Even though I am a big fan of the Alien Vs. Predator universe I was not really looking forward to playing this game. I was even debating putting it in my Gamefly queue at all. Then about two week ago Rebellion posted a video of all the sweet kill moves one could pull off in the game. That video alone changed my mind. The graphics looked awesome, and it looked like it had the game play to match.  So I ended up buying the game because I had nothing else to play. It turns out that one should never buy a game based on a 30 second clip off the Internet…who knew!?

Is Aliens Vs. Predator a bad game…no. It is however a game that was full of promise, a promise that is yanked out from under you quicker then your memory of the Winter Olympics. There are a few things this game does right, and those things save the game from being a downright stinker. So what does the game get right? Lets break it down by category.

Story

Honestly I really could not tell if there was a story in this game. I played through all 3 campaigns and I really can’t even remember any of the main story points.  The story only works to move the game along. There are no memorable characters or anyone to get invested into the whole game. So the story is not something that this game got right. It’s not the worst story ever in a game, but it lacks any real emotion, appeal, or depth of character.  I know I know I know, it’s an AVP game, why does it need a good story? In truth it doesn’t, but with one it could have taken the game to a much higher level.

Game Play

Since AVP is broken into three different campaigns there are three different styles of game play. So I will break down how each one plays.

Marine – The Marine campaign plays like a standard FPS, but without good controls, weapon variety, or fun. Maybe I am spoiled, but I expect more from a game these days then what I got from this part of the campaign.  My main issue is with the controls.  The game is very jerky, the aiming is spastic and hard to control, and it just feels like crap. However you do get used to the controls, and it won’t get you killed so much, unless you play on the higher difficulty setting. But even once I got used to the controls it still bugged me through the entire Marine campaign. Maybe some would say it adds to the feeling of vulnerability when aliens are ambushing you, but there are better ways of doing this then making the controls wonky. Between all three campaigns this was my least favorite. It had some really intense and fun moments, but they were so few and far between that it just didn’t make it worth it. All you are doing is going from A to B with no real sense of getting anything done. It’s a very vanilla experience and one that could have used a lot more work.

Predator – This was by far my favorite campaign of the three. It did not have as much action as the Marine campaign, but the game play was much tighter and fun. As a Predator you are given all the iconic weapons that make the Predator such a memorable character, and that is why this is the best campaign of all three. It’s the only one that makes you feel like a true bad-ass. You have your large claws, Frisbee of death, and the awesome shoulder cannon. These weapons work well to dispatch enemies at all different ranges, but in the end all I wanted to do was sneak up on someone and rip their head off.  This is one of the parts of the game they got right. The Predator campaign was way more fun and a bit more challenging then the others. I really wish they would have dropped the other two campaigns and focused on making the game all about the Predator. All praise aside the Predator campaign does have one big issue. That being that its so damn short…literally 2 -3 hours! It goes by so quick that it really pissed me off. I want more!

Alien – You know how I said the Predator campaign was short, well guess what? I completed the Alien campaign in under an hour and a half. The entire campaign just revolves around finding vents and popping out every now and then killing people. On paper that doesn’t sound bad, but in practice it does not really lead to compelling game play. You can pretty much just run around and whack everyone to death and usually not die. If you want to be stealthier you can knock out lights and attract the Marines to your location in order to sneak up behind them to do some graphic special kills. This part is really the only fun I had with the Alien campaign.  It kind of felt like playing Splinter Cell in a way, if Sam Fisher could bite a hole in people’s head. I had more fun playing as the alien then I did as a Marine, but once you get into it, the game ends. There is also an issue with moving around as the Alien. It is very easy to get turned around and lost. Add the fact that you move very fast and you are going to die a lot because you could not navigate properly. So to wrap up, it’s short, kind of sweet, but in the end a big disappointment.

Graphics

Graphics in AVP is a mixed bag. Overall the game looks decent. It’s not going to impress you by any means, but it has its moments. One of those moment is when it comes to all the over the top special kills you can accomplish. Sneak up or stun someone and you can perform some sick looking melee finishing moves. Pulling someone’s head off, along with their spine, is my favorite. It is here where the graphics look very nice, but the rest of the games visuals are just passable. Textures are a bit muddy, and really just the art design in general is pretty lame. I know the AVP universe is not the most colorful world, but they could have done so much better. It felt like they used a total of five textures the entire game. The only other bright spot would be the character models, which while not the best I have ever seen, are pretty darn good.

Sound

The best-done aspect of this game by far is the sound. All the sounds we came to know and love from the movie are here. The Predator’s weird tick tick tick sound, the awesome sound of a Colonial Marine pulse rifle, and of course the shriek of the Xenomorph. The game does do a wonderful job with the sound. The music is passable, but not memorable. The voice acting is a bit hit or miss, but overall I didn’t hear anything too cheesy or overacted. So in the sound department I give them a lot of credit. I just wish they put this kind of effort into that actual game!

Overall

I really wanted this game to live up to that video I saw, but the game is so short, and so plagued with annoying issues that once I finished it I had no desire whatsoever to go back and play it again. There is enough here for the fans of the movies to enjoy, and I did find myself having some fun with the game. But the one thing that is still stuck in my head is the fact that the all three campaigns occur on the same levels. That’s right, you get to play the same levels three times over, with different game mechanics. I know it revolves around the story, but to me that is a developer being really lazy, and I have little patience for lazy design. It pains me to think how awesome this game could have been with real developers behind it, someone like Naughty Dog or Bungie. Either one of those could have made a much better game. As it stands AVP is a solid rental that will give you enough head ripping glee to last a day or two.

In case you have noticed I did not review the Multiplayer for this game, and that is because I have not played enough of it yet to warrant a fair review. So in the next few days I will add on a MP review. So the current score is strictly based on the single player game.

AVP gets 3 out of 5 Aeronauts!