Aliens Vs. Predator fail

Chilling with some pool

I loved the old Aliens versus Predator game. It was one of the most panicked and action packed horror games i ever played. Thats why i was really looking forward to playing the new installment in the series. The NEW Aliens Vs. Predator.

I was adviced against buying the game, but i did it anyway because i thoughts that it would be impossible to mess up the concept of aliens, marines, and predators fighting each other…. i was sooo wrong.

I fired up the game and it immediately crashed, sending me face first back to Windows. After a couple of attempts i finally managed to get into the game, and things started going more smoothly. I have no idea why the game crashed on these first attempts at running it, perhaps it was a warning from a higher god that i should not play it.

The marines will save the day – HUAH

Being the death-wishing-idiot that i am, i started with the marine campaign. Immediately i was disappointed to discover that you actually meet Aliens after a few minutes of play. The thing that made the old games so awesome was that you KNEW you would meet Aliens, but the first few levels where all about building up suspense, so you actually didn’t meet any aliens for a while. Also everyone knows that the conventions of the alien movies is that you FIRST meet a facehugger, and THEN meet Aliens… but no. In the new Aliens Vs. Predator game you get thrown into the alien horde from the very start. The game uses lights to try and make it all scary, but at the same time the aliens have been made overly glossy. So you can see them very easily in the dark. On later levels the developers just didn’t care anymore, and there’s plenty of light.

I played the marine campaign for a few hours and then suddenly… i was done. Yes, the marine campaign is INCREDIBLY short, and has the most crappy ending i have seen in a long time.

Then you go on to play the Alien and predator, and i won’t bore you with the details but it didnt exactly get any better.

It was so easy and you broke it

So the point here is – how is it possible to botch such a fantastic concept? (Even though the title “Alien vs. Predator” is a bit stupid… since they are both Aliens).

If they had just followed the simple system set forth by the Alien and Predator movies, then the game would have been a lot more awesome. Don’t throw hordes of monsters at the player to begin with. Build it up slowly. Scare the player with weird lights that are just lights, and tell the story of something horrible that happened at the colony … and no, i am not going to play this in multiplayer – ever.

And a final comment – why the hell is it impossible for a Marine to light and throw TWO flares at the same time? What natural law is it that says that only one flare can burn at the same time, or the space time continuum will break? – yes i am horribly disappointed.