Improves upon the original Aliens Versus Predator in nearly every way.

User Rating: 8.5 | Aliens Versus Predator 2 PC
Rebellion did an okay job with the original Aliens Versus Predator, and it was fairly well received so that it's no surprise that Fox Interactive called for a sequel. This particular title developed by Monolith attempted to take the Aliens Versus Predator gameplay and slap a story onto it while introducing other improvements, and this was mostly successful.

The Alien, Marine and Predator campaigns are all set on LV-1201 in 2230 many years after the original game; a planet under the control of a human corporation called Weyland Yutani. Each campaign tells the story of "the incident" through each character's eyes, and the storyline while not remarkable is good enough for the setting and definitely better than that of those atrocious Aliens Versus Predator films.

Like the original AvP, AvP 2 features drastically different gameplay for all three races. In the Alien campaign you're the big bad movie monster; although Monolith added a twist by including the entire alien life cycle. You start out as a "Facehugger" in the alien campaign, and have to find a suitable, isolated host. Then you become a "Chestburster" and your goal is to avoid being seen while you find a place to hide, and something to eat until you reach your final stage of evolution where you can proceed to bite off people's heads. Fun!

The Marine's gameplay is pretty straightforward like in the original game. You have guns, and you shoot stuff with said guns. Unfortunately the Marine's campaign isn't as tense as the original AvP's due to the presence of an actually decent plot so it feels even more like a generic FPS experience.

The Predator's gameplay is thankfully improved. The campaign features a lot of outside environments making the Predator of AvP 2 feel more like a hunter, and there's an item you can use to instantly recharge your power supply. Unfortunately when you use the Predator's shoulder cannon you automatically uncloak which didn't happen in the movies, nor the first AvP and I have no idea why Monolith made the decision to do this for AvP 2; it's definitely not a design decision I agree with.

From a visual standpoint AvP 2 is hit and miss. On one hand character heights are accurate, the Aliens are huge in AvP 2, and the Predators are taller than humans as well. On the other hand the characters all look like something out of a comic book due to Monolith's decision to use their fairly cartoon-like Lithtech engine which powered Shogo: Mobile Armor Division and No One Lives Forever. The cartoon look just doesn't click with me; AvP isn't a cartoon setting so I honestly have no idea what Monolith was thinking when they decided to use that particular engine.

The audio is pretty good, like AvP the sound effects are authentic Alien/Predator film sounds and the music is good enough for the setting. Since AvP 2 has a story it also has voice acting, and the voice acting is actually very well done most of the time.

Aliens Versus Predator 2 is a significant improvement over the original Aliens Versus Predator; an actual story and improved gameplay mechanics. The game looks a little off because of the Lithtech engine, but overall it's still a much better game.

+ Alien and Predator campaigns are an improvement
+ Generally superior gameplay when compared with AvP 1
+ Aliens and Predators are tall
+ An actual storyline

- Marine campaign is even more generic
- Cartoon-like visuals