Aliens vs Predator 2 - Page Two

The alien is probably the coolest to play with, for a while at least. A lack of attack options does make it repetitive later on in the game. You start off as a facehugger, just hatched from an egg that was accidentally released from a holding box. Here you are weak and must find a solitary host to gestate in. In the true Aliens spirit, and for the game to earn its Mature rating, once you have morphed, you become a chestburster who must bite your way out of your living host’s body before seeking out food to grow. Still weak, you need to avoid human contact and seek out some small mammals in order to mature into a fully-grown alien.
The Alien relys on its claws and teeth in melee combat. Moving like a cheetah on steroids, you can choose to “pounce” attack, leaping a great distance and ripping apart your target, but leaving nothing left to feed on. Alternatively, you can rip your opponent up with your claws, and hope that there is something left to feed on when you are finished. Lastly there is a tail attack option, which is slower and weaker, but will stun your enemy, leaving it completely vulnerable. As an alien, you regenerate by clawing at a dead body, or biting off a head in a rather gruesome manner. By using the tail attack you ensure the most intact specimen to feed on, while the claw attack may rip off body parts, including the head, making them inedible. This game is definitely not for the faint hearted – you may even go to the stage of feeding off an unarmed human cowering at your feet.
The missions that you will undertake as an alien reflect your abilities as that species. Dark corners and ceilings are your best friend, and you will be able to navigate your way through vent shafts or dismember doorways and windows. The alien has the unique (and disorientating) ability to “wall walk”, either on wall edges or the ceiling. Not only is this damn cool to drop straight onto your unsuspecting prey, but it is also necessary to access the ventilation shafts and other areas in your quest to escape the facility.

As a marine you are a member of a squad which has been assigned to investigate the incidents occurring in the labs. Here you take the role of a typical more-brawn-than-brains character, sporting a wide range of equipment and inventory to deal with all sorts of hazards and enemies. No AvP game would be complete without the good old pulse rifle and flamethrower and these classic weapons are still around. You find armour, health, weaponry and ammo throughout the game and must use equipment such as your hacking console and welding torch to get past obstacles in the missions. You also have a motion tracker and night vision, powered by a kinetic battery, which will become your best friends in some of the darker areas of the game. The motion tracker also features a location device, which will let you know what direction to head to find someone.

The predator shares many similarities and differences to the marine. You have the ability to interface and react with doors, equipment and people, but carry a completely different range of weapons and equipment. Most notable are the cloaking device, and a facemask with several vision modes to more clearly identify one species at the cost of other ones becoming harder to see. The predator has the unique ability to leap (crouch jump upwards), a skill that is useful as part of the predator’s treetop hunting specialty as well as necessary to progress through parts of the game. In one sense the predator is the easiest to play, with the element of stealth, and extremely powerful devices, including a homing plasma weapon, and remote detonation bombs. Using some of these items will cause you to decloak however. Additionally, the predator has an unlimited energy and health supply, the only cost to using these regeneration devices is that the predator cannot cloak, and has to slow to walking pace. The predator also lets out a loud howl when using the Medicomp, alerting nearby enemies. Once again, in the Predator spirit, you have the ability to decapitate any human prey and add them to your trophy collection. The predator GUI is unique, using a base 9 counting system along with the symbols familiar to the predator in the original movies. This was confusing at first, but is easy to get used to.
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