Aliens Vs Predator Review

Reviews - Other

Best Bits: - Genuinely terrifying - Great use of the license - Great location and atmosphere - Good sound effects, the beeping of the movement sensor will get your heart beating Bad Bits: - Brutally tough

I want to start by saying that this game is a first person shooter and lets you play as either a colonial marine, an Alien, or a Predator from the relevant movies, however you will find you will probably only play as the marine, this is by far the best section of the game as its like being in an Alien movie, and if you're playing this thats why you are, you want to be Hicks, you want to be Apone. 

Playing as the Predator or Alien, albeit with their cool skills like sliding up walls or turning invisble was not something that hooked me in, I wanted to be the lone marine creeping thrugh the darkness with only the blip of my radar for company, and that radar is the key element of what makes this game so scary, the solitary blip of it in otherwise complete silence is bad enough, but when the blip starts to increase in pace and you realise something... moving is getting closer to you, this is when the heart rate increases and hands become sweaty, this is a family site so I won't go into details about the underwear department, but mark my words that radar is a masterstroke in scary gaming and wihout it I fear this game would have been a mere shadow of itself.

You play through the game in a first person perspective with just your selected gun being visible and the area surrounding you. You are on an Alien infested planet and have to battle your way off it while trying to stay alive, and believe me this is no mean feat, this game is hard, very hard.

So its dark, very dark, and hard, very hard You can’t quicksave like is the norm with PC shooters, you have to wait until the end of the level, and some of the levels are huge, I have never finished this game due to this, and I think the inclusion of a quicksave feature would have ranked it higher in my favourite games list. Thank god the second instalment DOES have the quicksave feature.

The atmosphere is spot on, it truly is like being in the movies, the darkness, the blip of the radar, the blast of the pulse rifle all gel to give you a movie like gaming experience, in fact i'd go as far to say if you liked the Alien movies, and there are a hell of a lot of you out there, then you will love this. The locations and Aliens are very reminiscent of the films and everything is very well scripted and thought out, to give the maximum sensation of being stranded on an Alien world. Overall an excellent game, very atmospheric and very scary, but also very hard, only the very hardcore gamer will finish this beast.

Score: 4/5

Written by Shane - Administrator Friday, 30 January 2009 15:24