thePULSEBy Thomas Hodgson
March means fitness month here at Pulse, and as the Got Game? columnist, I have a new workout plan that all the celebrities and colonial space marines have been raving about. It’s simple: run like hell. Burn off all those pesky, unwanted calories running for your life in an interspecies battle royale. Order today!
Just over 10 years have passed since I built my first computer and christened it with the purchase of Aliens versus Predator Gold Edition. That weekend, I played it ‘til 4 in the morning at a LAN party in my buddy Beard’s basement. It was the closest I had actually come to being Ripley or The Governator in Aliens and Predator respectively. The frantic gameplay and dark environments juxtaposed with the opposing styles of the Aliens, Predators, and Colonial Marines had me riveted to the last drop of Mountain Dew. Outside of waking up and being Wolverine, one of my lifelong dreams as a nerdy high schooler was complete. And now, it’s time to relive those fond memories with Rebellion’s next-gen installment, Aliens vs. Predator.
An ambient atmosphere provides a visceral experience true to the form of both franchises, with great effort being put into the slightest details of the sights and sounds of the imaginative movie worlds. Developers at Rebellion are huge fans of these films and it shows clearly in every authentic facet of their fully realized creation. And while reliving your favorite scenes from 20th Century Fox’s finest is part of the fun, the contrasting styles of play is where this game grabs you by the neck and impales your head.
The Predator prefers using stealth to hunt his unsuspecting prey, hopping from platform to platform looming from the high ground, where as the Aliens rely on cunning and ferocity and the Colonial Marines on their weaponry. The previous game was marred by the imbalance of the different species and their abilities. Conscious and fully-aware, the styles have been harmonized.
The Predator has different vision filters which are now species specific. There are no universal modes, so players have to cautiously navigate maps prioritizing foes. Once you do, you can stay on the outside and devastate with the shoulder cannon, or get in close for a gruesome trophy kill with the wristblades, which remove your opponent’s head for a spot on the Predator’s living room wall.
Aliens are the Muhammad Ali of sci-fi, floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee. They can maneuver across any surface in the game, pouncing out of the shadows to obliterate you with their claws, tail, and jaws. And like the Predator, Aliens have their own trophy kill system. Their speed has been dulled downed from the overwhelming swiftness of before to make fighting them slightly more manageable.
What Colonial Marines lack in grace and cunning they make up for with resourcefulness. Making great use of their numbers and firepower, they are able to hold their own using the Pulse Rifle, Smart Gun, motion tracking systems, turret systems, and other manufactured forms of death.
As a fan of either film, you owe it to yourself to buy this game. The last time I saw someone as excited as I was to get something was when Danny Glover received the flintlock pistol at the end of Predator 2. Any excuse to yell Arnold quotes from Predator at prepubescent kids on Xbox Live is just an added bonus.
And throughout the daunting catwalks and eerily abandoned halls you’ll traverse, one adage reigns true: if it bleeds, we can kill it.
