Aliens VS Predator - Quick Look @ The Demo!
After playing the Aliens VS Predator demo, I realized how the original Aliens VS Predator [PC/Released 1999] the game was missing so much, as I remember the controls for it; trying to jump on/up to anything as a predator or even try to do the surface run required a lot of precision and effort, the amount of times I would end up missing the jump and falling out of the tree or as an alien slipping off certain surfaces/getting lost or confused due to being upside down etc.
Now we can say this is not really the case anymore, well I still get a little confused as an alien now and then. But how the controls are on a pad work very well they will take some getting used to but after a few games you get the hang of it quite quick!
As before there is three different species; Alien/Predator/Marine! Each play very different than the next;
ALIEN: is very fast can cling to walls/ceilings well just about everything really, when we was playing as the alien it felt like you had to keep moving and not be on the floor for too long. The amount of times a sneaked up on a marine/predator from behind by coming down a wall was pretty cool, even though I did screw it up sometimes!
The controls for the alien are very well done, no more thinking I want to get on to that wall or that ceiling and having to cling all the way round or drop down to get there. Now all you do is look where you want to with the cross heir and press A and bam you jump directly to it. And you don’t automatically now run onto the walls or ceiling as you did in the PC game, nope you now Hold down RT to do that so no more going “No I didn’t want to do that or get on there” And yes this works even if you moving at full speed or stood still which makes for some pretty cool moves, as the amount of times we was like “now you see me, but now you don’t” it was cool watching the marines look for you or where you went! Only to either sneak up on them or drop right down on them. The stealth kills/grab kills are amazing I could only image the view of what it was like from their perspective, actually I can as I’ve seen it but more on that in a bit. You have a heavy attack and a light attack; now holding both allows you to block, now if done right you can counter it an attack back which is handy in certain situation the combat as an alien is like a “Rock, Paper, Scissors” thing.
PREDATOR: Is what you might call a Hunter [O’Really I hear you say], yes he is meant to look at the situation and then make his move but in this demo its only death match so it doesn’t always work. but not to the extent I could see it in modes like “Predator hunt” etc.. As in those modes we can see a good predator really being a pain in the ass, if he uses his skill set properly. Again you have a light/heavy attack and block, but whereas the Alien can cling to walls and pounce off them at you. the Predator can leap up to things or a good distance making the plat forming easy as in the PC version this was quite a bother at times trying to get on to ledges or up on a tree etc.. Yes it can even leap on to people if you focus on them and then hit one of the attack buttons!
Now the Predator has not just got it’s Wrist Blades to attack, it can pick up weapons on the map either up on ledges or on top of things, or just on the floor now you can pick these up as you go be we found doing so got us killed due to being out in the open or caught off guard trying to pick them up, now that’s not to say don’t bother getting these weapons/items as they are cool to use and deadly in the right hands! The Smart disk was a really cool weapon to use on enemy’s as where the Proximity mines, you can also pick up the Combo spear and even the Plasma caster! Now you can just keep spamming these weapons, as you need to recharge some of them at stations around the map.
And using one will leave you wide open for an attack so you must asset the situation first, or you easily going to get gunned down or feel the power of an Alien’s tail coming through your back.
Playing as the predator is fun, but we feel in other modes it will take a skilled player to truly be able to use it, yes the vision modes are present. Oh and the Stealth kills for the predator are like you would expect, gruesome and amazing at the same time!
MARINE: is what you might call ‘the bait’ well in death match it felt like that some times, god knows how many times we could see our Motion Tracker going mental only to be looking on the walls, ceilings etc.. only for both species to jump out of know where. And it all kick off now quite a few times they forgot about us and battled it out between them self’s and we would blast away at the surviving one either killing them or they would just disappear if it was an alien it would get on to a ceiling/wall, a predator would cloak itself. Now we had a few times where we killed the survivor only to get sneaked up on and stealth killed [as we wasn’t paying attention to the motion tracker] and some of the views we got from this where “OMG” moments seeing our spine’s ripped out or an Alien’s face just before its second mouth punch a hole into our skulls!
As a Marine you are not defenseless as you have a M41A/2 Pulse Rifle to start of with and you can pick other weapons up on the map like; M42C Scoped Rifle, ZX-76 Shotgun, M26b Flamethrower, hell even the M59/b Smart gun is there. You know the one where Pvt. Vasquez says ‘LET’S ROCK’ which we did do…. as a marine you’re not exactly short on defending yourself and even a marine can block certain attacks, as countering one only to put a point blank ZX-76 Shotgun blast in their face as I like to keep this handy… for close encounters, I heard *that* see what we did there? but as a marine you have to keep moving and keep an eye out on your Motion Tracker, as hearing a hiss or the 3 red dots off a Predators targeting system is never a good sign usually.
Ok you can shoot down the sight’s of the gun’s well you can zoom on the Rilfe, but the other weapons you can’t do it, and I can see why as you would drop enemies quite fast if you did and this would make an unfair advantage this is where the ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ mechanics comes into play, I can see a pack of marines being a deadly force on certain game modes.
But I can see all 3 species being the same of controlled by the right player, it’s going to be fun to see how this all plays out across certain games modes and which one takes off more than the others on XBL but I can always see ‘Infestation’ being a popular mode for all players, our time with Aliens VS Predator was good. Yes we did get annoyed over some things like going to grab someone only for it not to happen, or being killed a lot from behind but again this was death match. Got to say this was not the best mode/map they could have picked but it did get us wondering what and how the other modes could play out!
Aliens VS Predator is out on the 19th of February on PC/PS3/XB360!
