Play it, but watch out or you'll be...
It was then I realized.. I LOVE FPS.
Now.. Onto the realistic review part of the.. review.
Graphics - 9/10
Well, for it's time.. Very nice. All the models looked good, the maps were awesome looking (and very well designed I might add), the weapons fit the theme.. It all fit together for me.
Controls - 8.5/10
Fantastic controls in this game. The usual FPS control scheme is used, and it works great. W-A-S-D for movement, mouse clicks to shoot/lunge, 1-9 for weapon selection. As an alien, climbing around was always fun, and not hard to control once you got used to it.
Gameplay - 9/10
As a marine, you use guns. You have the pistol, rifle, shotgun etc.
They are just like your average FPS, not much fancy going on.
Marines in my opinion, were never much fun. It's way better to be aliens and predators ^_^
As an alien, it was first-person but without a weapon. You ran much faster and could climb up walls. Your main attack was lunging and biting your enemies and attacking your claws. You also had a secondary attack to use your tail with certain species. That is another neat thing about the aliens. There are the different species, (I forgot most of the names so bear with me..) one was your very base little guy, who couldn't do much. He was real weak and tiny. He was the Face-Hugger. Your goal as one of these was to lunge onto a human or predator and.. Well, hug their face with a tube attached to your lower body. This would then implant an alien egg into them, you would die. But then you would be reborn by bursting from the chest of your enemy, as a new, more powerful alien! Aliens also have the power to see in the dark with a switch of your vision.
The second phase is the one I forgot the name of, but it's still fairly small, but not as small.. Later down the line, you will grow into a Drone. This is the base alien that you see all over the box art, in the movies etc. One step higher, the Praetorian (Spelling?). This was like the princess alien, and quite powerful.. Then.. There was the Queen. It's been a while, so I don't remember fully. But I think the queen was multi-player only? Sorry if I'm wrong on that, feel free to flame me.
And lastly.. The predator. These humanoid hunters are the bad asses of the game. Fancy gadgetry was the game for predators. You get a staff for a base weapon, quite powerful melee. Then you had a disc, which you could throw to decapitate enemies, and then it would soar back to you. There was a spear-gun which was very fun, because if you got a head-shot, the spear would stick the head into a wall behind the target, wherever that may have been. There are a few other weapons, that are quite as kick ass as the first few, but my memory is a little blank, as it has been some time since I played. Predators also get vision modes. One normal, one for sensing marines and one for sensing aliens. All are of course, useful. Predators were also able to use a makeshift sort of med-kit. You could press (H I think it was?) and you would pull out a blade and push a few fancy buttons on your arm pad then.. Bam, stab yourself in the gut and be healed. Was quite weird honestly, but still really cool :D
Sound - 10/10
The sound in this game was great. I can recall the creepy hissing of the aliens, the screams of marines, the clicking sound the predators make (and of course their cry of victory when they collected a skull). The voice overs during the campaign (from what I can remember of it) were really good. At least I can say, I never once thought "wow.. these voice overs suck". And I'm usually pretty picky about that. The music.. I cannot recall.
Overall - 8.5/10
I would only give it a 9, but it deserves a 9.5 to me because it was the first FPS I played and it really got me into the whole gaming community, and I'm sure it has for others. Bravo to the dev's at monolith for a classic gem.