AVP2's defining features are the unique qualities of the three playable characters that make for some very innovative gameplay. The most memorable AVP2 hours of mine were spent with a baby-alien as it escaped from its cage in human's base and was looking for food to grow, and later was searching for a lonely human body to nest in. The alien could walk on walls and ceilings, jump 20 feet high, heal itself by eating little rats and victims' brains, move exceptionally fast, and to obtain new abilities as it grew. Marine, predator and alien each have their own unique 10-hour campaign that present the same story from three perspectives. Predator can use its invisibility cloak limited by its energy level, jump 8-feet high, restore one's energy and health while left alone, and it also has three special vision modes and a varied selection of weapons. The character of human marine is the frailest of the three but has the best firepower, a motion tracker to detect enemies and the ability to hack locks. Despite all the interesting features, the single player campaigns cannot sustain the excitement for the whole 10 hours. But there are more interesting tactics to be discovered in multiplayer. For example, a marine cannot detect a cloaked (invisible) predator if the latter is standing still so he would need to get the predator moving by "smoking him out". The predator, on the other hand, has to shift between his three vision modes for detecting marines, aliens and other cloaked predators; when it's fighting marines it would help to remain stationary and when fighting aliens it would have to move fast to dodge the alien's charge. The alien itself, although lacking long distance weapons, is very dangerous with its ability to climb anywhere, to leap and move very fast. 15/20 - Based on : 15 HOURS 3/4 PRODUCTION VALUES - Gameplay-wise excellent, graphics-wise not so. 3/4 ACCESSIBILITY - I spent 5 minutes figuring with the marine how to open a door. Might be stupid me, might be bad instructions. 2/4 PACING - Uh, gets 2 for getting me so excited with the alien's progress and then gradually wearing it down by hours and hours of continous killing... 4/4 INNOVATION - Using three characters - alien, predator, human - with different abilities, their developments and stories. 3/4 IMMERSION - One of the best ever in a game for those few first hours with alien; later went quite bad.
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