Not quite a soulless cash-in, but not really an ambitious failure, either. Middling, shallow fun that soon wears off.
To be sure, the weakest element of the experience is the game's plot. AvP2010's storytelling style is a muddled attempt at doing something similar to what Monolith achieved with AvP2's elegantly overlapping species campaigns. Whereas AvP2 had a cast of interesting and colorful characters that carried over from campaign to campaign, however, AvP2010 often plays like a bunch of disconnected, barely coherent moments strung together on top of another – and without any compelling characters to root for (e.g., I could really give two craps if the supremely irritating Corporal Tequila lives strong or dies young), I found myself actually wishing that the game had been more like the no-plot, all-action style of AvP 2000, if only to find some respite from the annoying radio chatter of the Marine campaign. It also goes without mentioning that Rebellion's decision to literally reuse *each individual level*, in the same order, IN EACH CAMPAIGN, is some of the laziest game design anyone will see in a major title this or any year. Making matters worse, the enemy AI is as dumb as dirt; the Marine campaign is intermittently creepy and scary, but more often it's tedious and dull. Rather than being swarmed by a relentless horde of creepy aliens, what the Marine campaign really boils down to is the player remaining awake long enough to deal with mentally challenged aliens who politely line up single file and approach one at a time at a pace so slow that you can actually walk circles around them, pushing the odd one or two back with a melee attack. Instead of feeling like a terrified and isolated grunt who has zero chance of survival, you often find yourself wondering whether "Rookie"'s squadmates – and by extension, our heroes in the Alien films – are a bunch of woefully ignorant dunces for not figuring out that to survive alien attacks they only needed to walk at a brisk pace, shove their gun out in front of themselves every few seconds, and shoot dope (I mean, "stims") regularly. Likewise, the Marine AI doesn't exactly distinguish itself in the Predator campaign, either; Half-Life this ain't. When you aren't listening to the same two or three voice actors repeat the same two or three lines of dialogue at wildly inappropriate moments (Lone Surviving Marine, wading through a swamp full of the headless and blown apart corpses of what used to be his entire squad: "Don't relax just yet, Marines!"), you're probably wondering why another Marine doesn't seem too interested in the fact that his buddy was just eviscerated from the waist up not even 15 meters away. (The Alien campaign finds a way around this by forcing you to play more conservatively, as it really only takes one "sharp" guy with a gun to dispatch you quickly.)
As for the graphics, this game is a great demonstration of DX11 on those cards that support it (I played this on an ATI Radeon HD 5750 at 1400x900, and the performance was beautiful, with very rare hang-ups that lasted no more than a split second). There are some moments when the subtle lighting effects really stand out, such as when you find yourself looking at the dusky shadow cast over a dark mining shaft by a lumbering fan, or at the way a beam of light shines through the distortion of the Predator's cloaking field. Sometimes it's even fun as a Marine to just toss a flare into a corner and watch the individual sparks kick up in the darkness, particularly when they are reflecting off of another surface. (Hey, I'm as easily amused as the next guy.) The only real complaint I have about the graphics is that the facial animations of human characters (Marines, NPCs, etc) look strangely unemotive and plastic; there's nothing here to rival the likes of what's been done in Half-Life 2 or either of the Left 4 Dead games, titles that are both powered by a nearly seven year-old engine.
All that having been said, the action here can be very satisfying indeed. Aside from the horrendously underpowered flamethrower and a smartgun that sounds more like the minigun from Predator, the Marine's arsenal looks, sounds, and feels exactly as it should; there's nothing quite like the sound of a pulse rifle ripping through chunks of Alien flesh, and this game at least gets that much right. For that matter, the Predator's weaponry is a lot of fun to use as well; something about blasting Marines and Aliens apart with the plasma caster just never gets old, and it's empowering as usual to enjoy the feeling of hunting your foes in both single- and multiplayer. Unfortunately for the Alien, the abundance of "E kills" (gruesome, non-interactive kills gained simply by sneaking up on or outflanking an opponent and hitting the E button) means that you spend most of the time grappling with frustrating, clunky controls, only to feel somewhat disconnected from the action when you *do* score what should be a very rewarding stealth kill; aside from old-fashioned tail or claw kills, the experience of playing as an alien feels a bit hollow and underwhelming.
As for the multiplayer, this is arguably where the game really has a chance to shine, but Rebellion and Sega have once again shot themselves in the foot. In addition to standard modes like vanilla and species deathmatch, there are a couple of additions that sound great on paper: Infestation, a sort of "Last Man Standing" in which Marines square off against a xeno, with the xeno ranks gradually swarming as Marines die; and Predator Hunt, in which a team of Marines has to hunt down one Predator. However, the horrible nature of player match (it can take 5 minutes to get a 10 minute game started, before getting kicked back to the main screen upon completion of the match so that you have to go through the whole process again) and lack of dedicated server support upon release has cost the online community a lot of players who may or may not be coming back, depending on how much faith you want to have in today's consumers' attention spans and willingness to put up with repeated delays from the developers on providing fixes to game crippling problems, such as the stutters suffered by Nvidia users. Hopefully the recent introduction of beta dedicated servers will bring more people back into the fold, but thanks to Rebellion and Sega's short sighted focus on netting a quick profit by releasing the game without such an integral feature, the less-than-stellar word of mouth that this title has received right out of the gate suggests there's a very real possibility that AvP2010's online community has been handicapped – if not suffocated – before it's even had a chance to take root and grow.
I wanted to take a few weeks before posting this review, as the game has received a lot of extreme reactions from both ends of the spectrum (excessive flak from borderline trolls and bubbly praise from apologist fanboys). Because I would identify myself as a fan since boyhood of the original three movies (Alien, Aliens, and Predator), as well as an avid fan of the first two games in this series, I wanted to make sure that I did right by those people on the fence who were still thinking about buying this game. It's tough to say "Wait until this drops $15-20 in price before picking it up," since the jury is still out on the longevity of this game's community,and whether or not it will still be kicking by the time the price drops that much; what is certain is that with Rebellion bragging about sales figures for this game and professing a strong desire to rush a sequel out (Sega willing), there's no way in Hell that this will have the lifespan of AvP2. When the multiplayer works, it's a lot of fun; if you aren't bothered by subpar AI and recycled level design, the single player will treat you to a game thick with atmosphere and meat-and-potatoes FPS action, some of which is very exciting. However, the incredibly linear campaigns, limited number of multiplayer maps, and uncertain future of the community means that for the same price tag, a cash-strapped gamer could probably find other current titles that will offer much more bang for the buck. If you're a diehard fan of the series who somehow hasn't bought this game already, then go for it; if you're a casual gamer who has extra money floating around and doesn't mind taking a chance on a shiny new game which offers top notch graphics and an easy fix of shooter action, then go for it; if you are the kind of gamer who only wants to pay full price for a new release when you're absolutely certain you have to have a title or that it's going to change your life, then wait for this thing to hit the bargain bin.
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 9/10
Controls: 6/10
Story: 4/10
Single Player: 6/10
Multiplayer: 7/10
Overall: 6.5/10
System:
ASUS P5NSLI Motherboard
Intel Core2 Duo, 2.4 GHz
6 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5750
Windows 7 64-Bit