Jay "The Flea" Wade
The idea of a Alien vs. Predator has been done in different game types, First there was
an arcade style fighter on SNES, then a first person shooter on PC and now a tactical
war strategy game in the style of Warcraft & Star Craft. It’s nice to see war strategy
game on the console systems, unlike the PC there only a few. The game play is almost
identical to Star Craft, You can play as the Marines, Aliens and or course the Predator’s.
Each having there own style of objectives, weapons, and upgrades.
The marines missions are basically protect the planet and kill all invaders.
Using pistols, machine guns, flamethrowers, rockets and so on, some vehicles would have
been nice instead of all on foot, but it doesn’t ruin the gameplay. The Predator are more
tribal hunters. Using blades, spears, blade discs, and a few laser weapons. They are
just there to hunt and collect skulls. And then there’s the aliens. My personal favorite.
They build a hive and hunt down anything living and drag their prey back to the hive to
create more aliens. Instead of weapons they just have different abilities and strengths.
The graphics are decent, but if you compare it to the other war strategy console games
on the market right now, Aliens vs. Predator is top notch perfection. The gameplay is
like I said before, like Star Craft. My only complaint of the gameplay is that without
reading the instruction book you may get confused on how to upgrade and create new
soldiers. So if you rent it, you might get you butt handed to you because you don’t have
to book. So if you buy the game, read the book first and you’ll do just fine. The control is
alright but still some of the control setup could have been user friendly. I would have
preferred highlighting a character then pressing a button to access a menu on upgrades
and soldiers I can build, instead of remembering several button combos.
Comparing the Playstation 2 against the Xbox version is really unnecessary, for the
most part they are exactly the same, the Xbox version might have a tad sharper
graphics and the loading time is five times faster then the PS2, but other then that you
really cant say one is better then the other. I do recommend AvP for anyone who’s
searching for a good tactical war game on the PS2 or Xbox, it will keep you entertained
until a Command & Conquer, Warcraft or Star Craft is released on the consoles. it’s the
best console Tactical War Strategy game on the market.