User Rating: 8.4 | Aliens Versus Predator 2 PC
Aliens vs. Predator 2 improves upon the original in almost every way. The single-player portion of the game involves three separate modes of play, each based around a particular character, as did the first game. Players can choose between marine, alien, and predator 'campaigns', each one with it's own unique storyline. AvP 2's three races are brought together once again by the Weyland-Yutani corporation and it's desire to use xenomorphs as weapons. While the improved plotline is welcomed, the gameplay overshadows this clichéd background story. The marine is a tough hombre with a variety of firepower, but succumbs easily to melee attacks. With this ever-present knowledge in mind, playing as a human can be very intense against enemies that are largely invisible, whether through darkness, cloaking, or simply because they have a tendency to burst out of walls and floors at the most inopportune of times. Players filling the role of the alien will find that solving 'problems' in a more stealthy fashion, i.e. hanging from the ceiling above a doorway, patiently waiting for unsuspecting passerbys, yields better results than taking on foes head-on. While the alien can cling to walls and ceilings as if walking on floors and also move at incredible speeds, this race tends to be the easiest to kill. However, the alien can evolve into more powerful classes, such as the Praetorian, though doing so can trade special abilities like wall-walking for stronger damage resistance. While the marine relies on firepower and the alien on stealth, the predator race depends on a mixture of both and none. They have superior weaponry and equipment geared toward hunting both humans and xenomorphs, plus players can cloak themselves from human eyes, allowing them to walk directly up to their prey if careful. As first-person shooters go, sight plays a more significant role in AvP 2 than in other games in the genre. Each race has different advantages over the other in terms of detecting enemies. Marines have night-vision, a shoulder-lamp for illuminating poor-lit areas, and a motion tracker that helps pinpoint moving targets. Unfortunately, this handy device can't be used in conjunction with night-vision, posing a toss-up for the player--the ability to see night as day, or being able to detect the invisible through movement. Predators are a bit more complex, with an assortment of different vision modes provided by the visors they wear while on the hunt. Each mode is designed to detect a specific character, be it human (thermal), alien (infrared), or fellow predators (x-ray). Players can cycle through these modes so long as they wear the visor, which can be knocked off in combat. Without it, the predator sees as a human would. Using a specific vision mode can be a problem, however, as one can only see a particular prey when using a race-specific mode. Aliens have perhaps the most user-friendly vision, in that they can see any race at any time with normal sight. Conversely, their alternate mode of seeing makes it nearly impossible to see the enemy, though it makes navigating crawl-spaces such as ventilation shafts and sewers a snap. What you can see plays a large part in the feel of AvP 2. The marine campaign is hair-raising in that you're forced to choose between night-vision and motion tracking, both of which make you more or less vulnerable to the fast moving alien drones or the oft-invisible predators. Playing as the predator is a bit more laid back in that for the most part, humans and aliens can be easily dispatched through range weapons or melee combat. It's only when a player bites off more than they can chew does the predator run into big trouble. The alien is possibly the most interesting role to take on, in how it's part of the game revolves around evolving into a more powerful xenomorph, enabling more abilities as the story moves along. While you have a tendency to die easily, playing as the alien is a hoot in how you get to experience the opposite side of the fence when stalking marines or predators. When it comes to graphics, Aliens vs. Predator 2 still looks good by today's standards. The game's visuals are true to the source material; futuristic tech combined with an inexplicable lack of lighting. Indeed, it's the latter that can bring so much interest to how one plays AvP 2--marines have to be constantly wary of dark corridors, while aliens and predators use shadows to their advantage. While the overall look of the game is great, the animation of the characters can seem jilted and odd looking, especially in regards to the alien race. The environments themselves, while convincing, can look somewhat sparse and have little in the way of deformation or destructible components. As far as performance is concerned, players shouldn't have a problem with framerates on modern PCs. In fact, AvP 2 is a great game to pick up not only because it's inexpensive but because it runs well on older machines, making it easy to accomodate a variety of setups at a LAN party. The audio of AvP 2 is great. While there isn't much in the way of a musical score, it's not really needed or even warranted. The ambiance of an abandoned facility possibly infested with xenomorphs is much more interesting, and trying to place the position of a cackling, cloaked predator is harrowing in and of itself. The sounds of weapons, changing vision modes on the predator's visor, and the bittersweet tone of the marine's motion tracker are high-fidelity in regards to the films they're drawn from. The most fun to be had with the game can arguably be found in the multiplayer component of AvP 2. Various game modes are available, including standard deathmatch and team deathmatch. The first is a free-for-all, regardless of race, while the second pits each race against each other. Kill a member of an opposing race, and you score a point for the team. AvP 2 also features several other modes of play which revolve around specific situations between the races. The most popular mode between my friends and I was Hunt, where one race is the hunter and the other is the prey. By default, one player takes on the role of the predator, while the remaining participants fill the shoes of marines. The predator tries to kill as many marines before being taken out. Once the predator is dead, the round ends and the player that defeated it gets a chance to be the lone hunter. Trying to work together as a team is good fun, especially when pitted against a player that knows how to use the predator class well, and use the marine's weaknesses to their advantage. Other modes include Survival, where marines try to live as long as possible against xenomorphs. If a marine dies, they mutate into an alien and proceed to kill the remaining humans. Another mode involves marines attempting to escape from a facility within a time-limit, similar to Ripley's exodus from the colony at the end of Aliens. Likewise, the aliens are attempting to prevent the marines from leaving. Yet another gametype places marines in a base, but the majority of players are placed on the alien team, who attempt to overrun the marines inside. If it sounds as though the game modes are partial to aliens and marines, the game allows server admins to toggle the races involved--for instance, instead of being a predator in Hunt, you can be an alien, or a marine if you so choose. Speaking of server admins, Aliens vs. Predator 2 a dedicated server option for up to 32 players. While the gameplay itself comes across well in a multiplayer environment, the game maps can seem a little bland at times. In some cases they're too small, in others too symmetrical. They're simply not as convincing in terms of construction as they are in the single-player portion of the game. Still, overall, multiplayer is a blast with relatively balanced gameplay between the three races. At the end of it all, Alien vs. Predator 2 is a fantastic sequel that succeeds where the prequel failed, and then some. With a strong single-player game and a multiplayer component that yields tons of replayability, it's worth checking out if you're interested in first-person shooters in general and a must-have for fans of the films.