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Reader Reviews
28 reviews. Average Rating: 6.46
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Publisher:  Genre: Action
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Mac OS X: 10.2.5 Mac OS Classic: Not Supported
CPU: G4 @ 700 MHz RAM: 256 MB Graphics: 32 MB VRAM |
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Aliens vs. Predator 2
August 15, 2003 | Nat Panek |
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AvP2 allows the player to act out the entire hideous life cycle of an alien, from facehugger through chest burster to full-grown drone. The first level starts you out as a freshly-hatched facehugger; basically defenseless, you must find a suitable human to hug. In the next level, you start out as a chest burster, inside the host you just impregnated. Getting yourself out has got to be one of the sickest things I’ve ever seen in a computer game, and it is also one of the most imaginative. Once on your own, though, you’re even more defenseless than you were as a facehugger; all you can do is keep to the shadows until you find a suitable food source that will allow you to grow into a nice, big bug. Upon reaching adulthood, all your defenses are in place, and you basically have one single-minded goal for the rest of the campaign: FIND THE HIVE. There will be humans and the occasional Predator in your way, but if you know how to use your unique abilities to the fullest, they’ll all add up to one thing: food.
While it might be unfair to judge this sequel on the merits of its predecessor, I must note a few places where AvP2 falls a little short. Interestingly, some of the weapons seem to have lost their punch. The smartgun, for example, seems a little less smart, and does not track enemies as well as it did in the first game. Similarly, the Predator’s disk is less accurate than before. And one of my favorite aspects of playing as an alien in AvP--being able to knock out all the lights in a room and stalk humans in the dark--has been diminished as well; now almost none of the lights can be destroyed. Minor quibbles, but still a little disappointing.
Multiplayer
Aliens vs. Predator 2 offers LAN and online multiplayer games. Game types include deathmatch and team deathmatch, as well as Hunt (play as either “hunter” or “prey”, kill one and you respawn as the other); Survivor (a “last man standing” kind of game); Overrun (play as either an “attacker” or a “defender”); and Evac (similar to Overrun, only defenders must reach an evac point and remain there for 10 seconds). All in all, these games boil down to subtle differences--you'll always be choosing a species and pummeling the other one(s). Regardless, the games are generally fast-paced and fun, with varied multiplayer maps available. There are about a zillion gameplay variables and rules available when configuring a server, the most impressive of which has got to be the alien’s ability to morph into a queen. Oh, and before I forget, multiplayer is cross-platform, so Mac and PC users can play together in Internet and LAN games.
Graphics & Sound
While a vast improvement over the graphics of AvP, the fact remains that the graphics in AvP2 are by this point a little dated. This is unavoidable given the delay in porting this title to the Mac platform, notwithstanding the tweaking done to the Lithtech game engine. Motion capture animation has been used to enhance the movement of character models, but lip-synching is pretty much nonexistent, giving speaking characters the appearance of ventriloquist dummies.
The good news is that light and shadow still play a large part in the atmospherics of the game, although extensive lightmapping use, especially in the marine campaigns, can slow down framerates sometimes. Video settings are highly customizable, so if the lightmaps are giving you problems, you can turn them down or off; same goes for various special effects, texture qualities, and screen resolution.
Background music is kept to a minimum, which detracted very little from the action, I found. Some of the music and sound effects seem to be sampled directly from the various Alien movies, and the voice acting was generally of decent quality, which is a good thing, because there’s plenty of it.
Conclusion
Anyone who’s been awaiting this game’s release for two years is going to pick it up no matter what. However, gamers with no particular interest in the Aliens vs. Predator mythos would be cheating themselves of some unique gameplay experiences if they passed this title over just because it’s a little after the fact. It still holds its own as a single-player experience, and yes, there are still people playing it online.
Pros
• Extensive single-player campaigns
• Great multiplayer options
• Generally an improvement over the original
Cons
• Some decreased weapons functionality
• Slightly behind-the-curve graphics
28 Reader Reviews submitted. Average Rating: 6.46
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