See what happens when developers listen to their customers... a great game is born.
So you can imagine my trepidation when one Christmas day, I was forced to mouth out the words "Thank you dad, AvP2, just what I wanted".
So before I flogged it off on eBay, I decided "one quick try cant hurt". And I am still thankful I took that one little try. Monolith have changed my opinion entirely since the first game, and have made a truly briliant game, doing all the things the first should have done, and so much more.
Again, the same formula applies, choose Human (now more powerful and fun), Predator (with more Predator esque outdoors escapades and more familiar equipment), or the favourite, Alien (with very good level design and gameplay). But past that, so much has changed.
The levels are well paced and very well designed - you feel like you are achieving something throughout the game, and you have obvious challenges and rewards to achieve. And of course, the storyline is massively improved. Take the alien for instance - you start out life as a facehugger, stored away in some cargo. No attacks, just a very fast run, and a jump. You have to explore your way through a human ship, and find a sleeping member of the crew to facehug, where you then have to eat through his chest (thats right, you actually get to play a chest burster!). Of course, the evolution is not complete yet - you then are a chestburster on the look out for something to eat - once you find a chicken pen (I know, a bit odd, but still) - you manage to grow into a full on alien. But this is where this is incredible - you get to do this in multiplayer too! You start out as an alien facehugger - depending on the character you attack, you become that alien - Hug a predator, become a Predalien, etc.
The game overall has been well thought out, and is very very creepy in parts, especially if you play as the human - with some very scary levels particularly early on in the game.
Overall, a vast improvement, and in light of such a travesty of the original game, definitely worth getting hold of - especially now it is out on budget!