Anyone who knows the original Aliens vs Predator would also know that that it was created by Rebellion Developments. Not Monolith, who had took on the project with its also fairly successful sequel to the game, Aliens vs Predator 2. Rebellion, who introduced the brilliant franchise in the early dawn of contemporary shooters, is back with its modern take on the series.
You’ll be glad to know that the Alien vs Predator we saw at Eurogamer this year wasn’t just a re-release of their 1999 original, but a fully fledged re-introduction of the Aliens vs Predator game franchise.
It has been told the game won’t steer too clear of what the series has been known for, and that is a three way balanced, yet differentiating, take on one overarching storyline. So, you’ll have three campaigns to play through; one for the Predator, one for the Aliens, and the other for the Colonial Marines. Each will play very differently from the other and you’ll have to use different tactics to get through them successfully, however, there will be times where you’ll cross path within the story making sense of each perspective.
Our time at Eurogamer had been very short with the game, simply because there really wasn’t much of it on show. Like the majority of other games being displayed, we were introduced to the multiplayer side of the game, which is probably just as, if not more, popular than the single-player.
There may have been 2 maps for us to choose from that day, but we unfortunately only got to play one of them due to the unsurprising popularity of the title.
What was slightly odd about the map we played was the constrictiveness of it, Aliens vs Predator isn’t at all known for its enormous maps, but for its palette of providing maps that have advantages for all three of the characters. Here, it was clear the Aliens had the advantage. We were stuck in what seemed to be some sort of ancient monastery, but a rather small and very dark one. Playing as the Predator (as was almost everyone else) we felt constrained to use just our infamous wrist blades for quick stealth kills. The animations are rather nice and graphic, seeing as we’re a predator most of the time you’ll be wanting to take your enemy out undetected, we found ourselves preying on the marines a lot seeing as it was easier to do this that way.
When going up behind an enemy a ‘stealth kill’ indicator will come up, and that’s when it’s your opportunity to hit the attack button and watch a rather gruesome instant kill animation. We found ourselves sticking to this easy solution.
There have been screenshots of the game, and it’s probably worth confirming that they’re definitely in-game, from what we saw it does in fact look very sharp and authentic to its dark and gritty Alien vs Predator universe. From a distance there was some blur on the textures until you came closer, but this is very much a work in progress and it definitely didn’t look like it was complete.
From what we gathered, the whole game (or at least the multiplayer) appeared to be based around stealth kills and counter-stealth attacks, in certain situations when we tried to perform a stealth kill, the marine or alien would sometimes struggle their way out of the finisher. Unluckily, we didn’t get to witness this on the receiving end so we didn’t know how to perform this exactly, but it’s probably safe to assume that when attacking from the side and/or front then there’ll be away for the other character to fight their way out of the attack. We were actually quite relieved to see this, as going up to an enemy unnoticed, definitely a marine, was very easy indeed.
You’ll be glad to know we witnessed almost all of the classic weaponry that there is to offer in an Alien vs Predator game. The predator not only had his wrist blades, but he could go into stealth mode for his close combat sneaking manoeuvres, he also had his particularly powerful shoulder cannon which would home in upon a timed lock-on, and we also got to use his flying glaive discs.
On the other side of the fence, the Alien obviously doesn’t have any sophisticated weaponry, but relies on its basic yet effective wall runs, speed, and jump attacks. They also have the ability to see Predators through their invisibility, making their stealth attacks almost useless on them.
Then lastly, you have the marine who relies on varied weaponry and technology. The marines in the map we played did seem to be at a major disadvantage due to there not being that many weapon pickups about; we didn’t see anything other than the pulse gun. But it was unsurprising to see that their well known motion tracker has returned, there hasn’t been any change to this that we noticed, and it’s still only part way tracking so you can only detect movement in front of you.
It’s been mentioned that the ‘Smart gun’ will be featured in Aliens vs Predator, so heavy weapons will definitely make a comeback. We just didn’t see it being used within the map we played. We also came to understand that teamwork is also a big strategy for the marine players; this might have been why the few that were playing as the marine were getting picked off so easily.
Aliens vs Predator looks to be a game that will stick to what it knows, and therefore, what it’s good at doing. And that is pulling the player into a well produced mergence of perspectives, without one character being the exactly the same in control and gameplay.
There’s still a lot more to be revealed in Aliens vs Predator in terms of content, and we’re very much excited for what they can throw at us between now and its February release date.
Aliens vs Predator will be early next year for a February 26th 2010 release.
Preview By: Lee Burton
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