Aliens Vs. Predator 2: Primal Hunt is a shining example of how not to make an expansion pack.
Let me start by saying that this expansion isn't terrible. It does have some fun moments in it and I found that there was some enjoyment to be had. But there are so many possibilities with a franchise like this that you just can't help but feel that the developers are laughing at you for being such a sucker for purchasing their game. I mean this series has two of the greatest sci-fi creatures around, so why settle for mediocre? It's clear that there wasn't much enthusiasm going around the offices when this poorly executed expansion was made.
Just like in the original AVP 2, you can play as 3 characters: a Marine, a Predator, and an Alien. But instead of having a good 6 or 7 levels for each character, Primal Hunt gives you a scarce 3. This makes the game way too short. You can complete each character's levels in about an hour and a half, so multiply that by 3 and you'll have about how long this game is.
First up is the Marine. Just as in the first two AVP games, your tasked with running around and shooting every Alien and Predator in your path. It still works fine, but the problem is the pacing. Although I lot of people found AVP 2 to be quite scary, I didn't. But even so, there was still a moment or two where the pacing helped set up the atmosphere and made the game feel real. Here's a good example. At the start of that game, you simply ran around and tried to complete your objectives. You didn't so much as pull the trigger for a good while. However, all during this you would hear sprinting footsteps above you or an Alien screech coming from behind but looking around revealed nothing. It wasn't particularly scary, but it was a great mood setter and it helped the ambiance of the game tremendously. You won't go 20 seconds without pulling the trigger in this game, at the beginning or otherwise. The Marine portions of Primal Hunt are nothing more than a very generic "run-through-a-hall-and-shoot-some-bad-guys" game, except you're shooting Aliens instead of humans.
The Predator levels are pretty much exactly the same as the Marine levels. Honest to God, I used one weapon through all 3 levels. Only one. That just goes to show that there was virtually no effort to make the levels strategic in any way, shape, or form. In most first person shooters, there is usually a certain weapon that is clearly suited best for the situation at hand, but that's not so in Primal Hunt. All you need is one weapon and that's it. How fun. You still have your cloak and it's still pretty much useless. These Predator levels play no different than the Marine levels besides the fact that you can cloak and jump higher. When you peel back the layers, the weapons for each character work the same and they both play practically identical.
The Alien levels at least try to differentiate themselves from the other two. And that's about as far as my compliments go. I loved playing as the Alien in AVP 2. I thought the levels were geniusly designed to make the player seem like they're exploring and figuring out where to go while still making it fairly straight forward. That's not so in this game. I can't tell you how many times I was stuck because I couldn't find my way out of a room. Usually, the grates that you had to knock open were either hidden or blended in with everything else. Sometimes it would be in the only dark spot of the room in a place that just simply doesn't make sense for a grate to be. Other times, every grate in the room looked exactly like alike, but only one broke. So it was nothing more than a simple trial and error of hitting grates until one broke. This takes you out of the role of the character a lot and it makes the whole process tedious.
Another problem with the Alien segments is that it's just too short. I was extremely happy that the other two character's segments were short because I was so bored with them, but the Alien ones needed to be much longer. In AVP 2, you started as a facehugger in the first level and found your face to attach to, then moved up to a chestburster and had to find food to grow, and then you became the full fledged Alien and it was awesome. It really made you feel like you were in control of your own destiny and by the time you actually gained control of the full grown Alien, you felt unstoppable and it was very fun. But since there are only 3 levels in Primal Hunt, this isn't a positive factor anymore. The first level is still a facehugger mission where you must find a solitary Predator while the second level is still the chestburster mission where you have to find food to grow. By the time, you reach the 3rd level and have grown, you're almost done and there's no reason to get excited anymore. Plus, you don't actually play as the Alien. The regular Alien creature is much more interesting than the lame hybrid PredAlien you play as.
The graphics are the same as the original AVP 2. They look like an early Playstation 2 game which isn't all that bad really. But the environments weren't nearly as interesting to look at as they were in the previous game. Maybe it was because nothing in this game was particularly interesting, but I have a feeling that it's because it wasn't very creative and nothing was extensively detailed.
The sound isn't nearly as good as it previously was. I loved how the Alien and Predator sounded in the original incarnation and I still do in this one, but it's just not around enough. The Predator sounds great, but his war cry still happens far too often. Since you don't play as the actual Alien, the sounds for the PredAlien do sound just a bit different which is a let down since the Alien sounds the best of them all. The voice acting is terrible again -- surprise, surprise.
I have a lot of hate to spew at this game, but I did enjoy it to some extent and I don't think it's as terrible as some people say. I've come to expect expansion packs to not be nearly as good as the first game. After all, if a game is getting an expansion then it means that it was a very good game to begin with and it's difficult to create a simple add on that meets or surpasses the bar set in the original. But I've never played one that has changed the whole feel of the game as much as this one. The atmosphere was completely different (despite playing through some familiar areas) because of the pacing and the gameplay was tedious because of the unfair way enemies would pop up behind you constantly. Usually at the end of a review of mine for an expansion pack, I'll recommend it to anybody that has played the original because most people who have played the original will like it's expansion. But I just can't recommend this one. Unless you can play it for free or really cheap, take a pass on Aliens Vs. Predator 2: Primal Hunt.