Hands On: Alien vs Predator
By Brenna Hillier - Mon Nov 2, 2009 9:06am
The Aliens vs Predator franchise already occupies a warm place in our hearts, especially amongst those that recall the early versions, which are still remembered as true classics in the first person shooter genre. The upcoming “next gen” refresh by original developers Rebellion has understandably garnered a great deal of interest, despite Rebellion’s less than spectacular efforts from the last decade or so. Anybody remember a certain Judge Dredd game? Hopefully not...
In the lead up to the Eurogamer Expo, getting hands-on with the AvP demo was definitely high on most attendee’s lists – but it rocketed into the top slot with the announcement that we’d not only be checking out our beloved franchise, but also one of the first games to utilise DirectX 11 technology.
Sadly, only the PlayStation 3 version made it to the show floor, so there’ll be no graphs and detailed statistical analyses of how Rebellion’s commitment to the latest and greatest tech means you should start upgrading in anticipation of their game. Thankfully, I can sum up what I did see in a handful of descriptive phrases, though – beautiful, splendid, smooth, detail replete. There are plenty of screenshots floating around showing exactly how pretty AvP is, but none of them can do justice to seeing it in action.
You won’t get much time to check out the impressively sculpted character models while playing though, because the space of the game is so fast that everything is spinning past you faster than your eyes can track. A better way to admire Rebellion’s artistry is to play as the alien, pausing occassionaly in the shadows to look backwards while running to exclaim over every little bump and nodule on your flowing tail, or pause a moment (usually fatally) to cast on eye over the details on the Predator’s wrist blades.
If it bleeds, we can kill it.
During my multiplayer demo, I played through a single arena, a temple-like structure yielding to the verdant jungle’s encroachment, with a xenomorph head sculpture looming out of one of the central squares. It was a large, spacious level – probably a little too much so for a mere four players.It did provide plenty of opportunities for the patient to take advantage of the alien and predator’s various stealth abilities though, as well as the alien’s superior mobility. Leaping from the statue onto players who’d foolishly forgotten about the level’s verticality was a satisfying experience.
Offered a choice between marine, predator and alien, the consensus amongst the crowd was that Predators take home the Most Popular yearbook prize. Understandably, given the lure of the exotic and the fact that they were far less likely to end up on the wrong ends of an Alien’s tail.The poor old marine barely got a look in ¬– but the neglect of the melee-only alien seemed a little surprising.
Until, that is, I had been in line long enough to see how thoroughly the predators were dominating; nobody wants to look like a noob in front of an attentive audience, after all. The alien’s non-standard gameplay proved much more difficult to succeed with than the Predator’s somewhat familiar moves.
People on the receiving end complained that the Predator was overpowered, and even a few of the successful combatants admitted to finding our Arnie-slaying friend a tad on the cheap side. I’m not sure whether this demonstrates a serious balance issue, or whether it’s just that the alien will only prove rewarding to those willing to put in the practice.I’m almost willing to bet on the latter after watching an alien-equipped player rapidly knock out all three competitors, spread across the arena, in the space of a few seconds. Phwoar.
The alien did have a few obvious disadvantages, one of the most crippling being a small but frustrating camera problem. Instead of keeping your eyes firmly fixed on your target while hurtling towards an opponent on the other side of the arena, the camera would instead automatically realign when switching from the vertical to the horizontal plane. Not only was this rather stupid (do you think spiders look down at their feet as they scuttle from the wall to the floor?), it often allowed opponents to slip away unseen in the precious moments while you repositioned the camera.
Another issue, and one that caused a great deal of amusement in the queues, was that the speed of the alien’s movement, wall climbing abilities, and low viewpoint combined to cause more than a view hardened onlookers to complain of dizziness and even nausea (myself included). Although it didn’t prove such a problem while actually playing, it’s something to remember when your grandma’s visiting, unless you enjoy wiping her weet-bix off your couch.
Nobody seemed to be taking an official count, so it’s a matter of speculation which title was the most enthralling throughout the whole expo, but Aliens vs Predator has to be near the top of the list, perhaps rivalled only by Assassin’s Creed II, on the more accessible side of the 18+ curtain. Waiting in line for yet another go, I overheard enough conversations to assure me that I was not the only one being drawn back again and again to a franchise some of the youngest players hadn’t even realised wasn’t a movie tie-in.
The first-person and multiplayer markets are already pretty crowded, but after my time with the game I think it’s fairly safe to say that if the full game lives up to graphical expectations, and the balance issues are sorted, AvP is going to live up to its forerunners. With three very different playing experiences, each as interesting and captivating as the next, maybe three won’t be such a crowd after all...
In the lead up to the Eurogamer Expo, getting hands-on with the AvP demo was definitely high on most attendee’s lists – but it rocketed into the top slot with the announcement that we’d not only be checking out our beloved franchise, but also one of the first games to utilise DirectX 11 technology.
Sadly, only the PlayStation 3 version made it to the show floor, so there’ll be no graphs and detailed statistical analyses of how Rebellion’s commitment to the latest and greatest tech means you should start upgrading in anticipation of their game. Thankfully, I can sum up what I did see in a handful of descriptive phrases, though – beautiful, splendid, smooth, detail replete. There are plenty of screenshots floating around showing exactly how pretty AvP is, but none of them can do justice to seeing it in action.
You won’t get much time to check out the impressively sculpted character models while playing though, because the space of the game is so fast that everything is spinning past you faster than your eyes can track. A better way to admire Rebellion’s artistry is to play as the alien, pausing occassionaly in the shadows to look backwards while running to exclaim over every little bump and nodule on your flowing tail, or pause a moment (usually fatally) to cast on eye over the details on the Predator’s wrist blades.
During my multiplayer demo, I played through a single arena, a temple-like structure yielding to the verdant jungle’s encroachment, with a xenomorph head sculpture looming out of one of the central squares. It was a large, spacious level – probably a little too much so for a mere four players.It did provide plenty of opportunities for the patient to take advantage of the alien and predator’s various stealth abilities though, as well as the alien’s superior mobility. Leaping from the statue onto players who’d foolishly forgotten about the level’s verticality was a satisfying experience.
Offered a choice between marine, predator and alien, the consensus amongst the crowd was that Predators take home the Most Popular yearbook prize. Understandably, given the lure of the exotic and the fact that they were far less likely to end up on the wrong ends of an Alien’s tail.The poor old marine barely got a look in ¬– but the neglect of the melee-only alien seemed a little surprising.
Until, that is, I had been in line long enough to see how thoroughly the predators were dominating; nobody wants to look like a noob in front of an attentive audience, after all. The alien’s non-standard gameplay proved much more difficult to succeed with than the Predator’s somewhat familiar moves.
People on the receiving end complained that the Predator was overpowered, and even a few of the successful combatants admitted to finding our Arnie-slaying friend a tad on the cheap side. I’m not sure whether this demonstrates a serious balance issue, or whether it’s just that the alien will only prove rewarding to those willing to put in the practice.I’m almost willing to bet on the latter after watching an alien-equipped player rapidly knock out all three competitors, spread across the arena, in the space of a few seconds. Phwoar.
The alien did have a few obvious disadvantages, one of the most crippling being a small but frustrating camera problem. Instead of keeping your eyes firmly fixed on your target while hurtling towards an opponent on the other side of the arena, the camera would instead automatically realign when switching from the vertical to the horizontal plane. Not only was this rather stupid (do you think spiders look down at their feet as they scuttle from the wall to the floor?), it often allowed opponents to slip away unseen in the precious moments while you repositioned the camera.
Another issue, and one that caused a great deal of amusement in the queues, was that the speed of the alien’s movement, wall climbing abilities, and low viewpoint combined to cause more than a view hardened onlookers to complain of dizziness and even nausea (myself included). Although it didn’t prove such a problem while actually playing, it’s something to remember when your grandma’s visiting, unless you enjoy wiping her weet-bix off your couch.
Nobody seemed to be taking an official count, so it’s a matter of speculation which title was the most enthralling throughout the whole expo, but Aliens vs Predator has to be near the top of the list, perhaps rivalled only by Assassin’s Creed II, on the more accessible side of the 18+ curtain. Waiting in line for yet another go, I overheard enough conversations to assure me that I was not the only one being drawn back again and again to a franchise some of the youngest players hadn’t even realised wasn’t a movie tie-in.
The first-person and multiplayer markets are already pretty crowded, but after my time with the game I think it’s fairly safe to say that if the full game lives up to graphical expectations, and the balance issues are sorted, AvP is going to live up to its forerunners. With three very different playing experiences, each as interesting and captivating as the next, maybe three won’t be such a crowd after all...
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