Aliens vs Predator

Date Released:
NA: February 16, 2010
AU: February 18, 2010
EU: February 19, 2010
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Rebellion
Formats: PC, X360, PS3
Genre: First-Person Shooter

Aliens vs Predator is a 2010 first-person shooter game developed by Rebellion and published by Sega for PC, X-Box 360 and Playstation 3. It follows in the same path as previous AvP games but it’s not a direct sequel 2001’s Aliens versus Predator 2, but more of a reboot.

Official Description

Cover Art Aliens vs Predator

Bringing the most intense war between two of science-fiction’s most popular characters FPS fans, AvP delivers three outstanding single player campaigns and provides untold hours of unique 3-way multiplayer gaming. Experience distinctly new and thrilling first person gameplay as you survive, hunt and prey in the deadly jungles and swamps surrounding the damned colony of Freya’s Prospect.

    • As the Marine, you’ll experience a claustrophobic and terrifying experience where light is your friend, but there’s never enough. However, the United States Marine Corps are humanity’s last line of defence, and as such they are armed to the teeth with the very latest in high explosive and automatic weaponry.
    • As the Predator, you will stalk from the shadows and from above, passing athletically through the treetops to ambush your victims. Although equipped with an array of powerful, exotic weapons and tracking equipment, honour ultimately dictates that you must get in close and take your trophies face to face.
    • As the most deadly species in the universe, the Alien offers you the chance to play as the very stuff of nightmares – the monster in the dark swarming forward with countless others, jaws like a steel trap and claws like blades.
    • Play all sides off against each other in a series of unique 3-way online modes and go tooth-to-claw-to-pulse rifle in the reinvention of one of multiplayer gaming’s defining moments.

Story and Gameplay

 Aliens vs PredatorLike the other games in the series, Aliens vs Predator is a first-person shooter with a campaign for each species: Marines, Predators and Aliens. Each campaign has its own unique gameplay elements but the story does overlap with all three.

The Marine campaign begins with you landing on a planet after a Predator ship destroys the USS Marlow spacecraft. As the “Rookie”, you have to explore the human colony and get the systems back online. Corporal Tequila guides you along the missions and eventually you’ll come face to face with Karl Bishop Weyland. Marines can use a variety of different weapons such as pulse rifles, smartguns and flamethrowers and have equipment such as the shoulder lamp and flares to see into dark areas. There’s also the iconic motion tracker which tracks any movement in front of you.

The Alien campaign has you starting as “Specimen 6”, a chestburster, in a laboratory. An electromagnetic pulse disables the colony’s systems and now, Specimen 6, a fully grown Xenomorph escapes and frees the other Xenomorphs. The Aliens retreat to a refinery where a hive is created and lays dormant until the Marines arrive. As an Alien, the player can attack with their claws and tail and can climb on any surface and jump long distances. You can also harvest hosts throughout the campaign by pinning them down while a Facehugger infects them. You have the ability to perform instant stealth kills if you manage to sneak up on an enemy. You can automatically regenerate your health if you’re not being attacked.

 Aliens vs PredatorThe Predator campaign begins in a jungle on an alien planet with a Predator proving himself worthy in a trial. He, along with a few other Predators, investigates a distress call from another Predator on a planet known as BG 386.  The Predator fights through combat androids and xenomorphs in a Weyland-Yutani research lab that and later down to a pyramid to face off against a Predalien.

The Predator gameplay is based on using stealth and tactics than other species. A new gameplay element is focus jumping which highlights on screen the next spot to jump to when you’re traversing the treetops for example. The Predator features two additional vision modes: Heat to see humans clearly and Alien vision to see Aliens more clearly. There are numerous weapons at your disposal such as shoulder cannon, disc, combi stick, proximity mines as well as wrist blades.

The wrist blades allow the player to perform a trophy kill and one of several animations happens showing the Predator graphically killing the Marine. The cloaking device is also part of the Predator’s equipment which makes you invisible to Marines. Energy is required to operate the shoulder cannon and proximity mines which you can refill at recharge stations across the levels. Health shards can be found to replenish your health.

Along with the three singleplayer campaigns, there’s also an online multiplayer mode. You have the standard Deathmatch, Species Deathmatch and Mixed Species Deathmatch where it’s either every man for himself or to work in a team to get the most kills. Domination has your team trying to take and hold certain control points across the map and win by the amount of time you keep them. Infestation mode has every player starting as a Marine while one person is the Xenomorph. The Alien has to hunt down all Marines and when they are killed, they become an Alien. Predator Hunt is similar where everybody starts out as a Marine and one player is the Predator. With each kill, your score increases. Finally, there’s Survivor mode which features up to 4 Marines surviving waves of Xenomorphs.

Development

 Aliens vs PredatorAliens vs Predator originally started life under Vivendi who absorbed Fox Interactive in 2003. The game was developed by Rebellion who previously developed 1994’s AvP on Jaguar, 1999’s AvP on PC and 2007’s AvP Requiem on PSP. In 2008, Activision merged with Vivendi and later dropped many of their projects as they felt they weren’t a good fit in Activision’s catalogue. Sega then bought Aliens vs Predator.

Aliens actor Lance Henriksen voiced the character of Karl Bishop Weyland, the antagonist in the Marine campaign. Lance was really enthusiastic about the project but Rebellion’s alternative idea if Lance didn’t want to do it, was to explore the Yutani aspect of Weyland-Yutani.

The game’s story originated within the development team but ultimately, the game’s script was written by Gordon Rennie, who’s done a lot of work with Rebellion in the past for 2000AD and James Worrall, who has worked on a lot of the GTA titles. Rebellion thought about releasing mod tools like the previous AvP games but couldn’t justify the time and cost of doing so.

When Aliens vs Predator was submitted to the Australian Ratings Board OFLC in 2009, it was denied classification and was effectively banned. At the time, R18+ didn’t exist for games. Sega refused to cut the game so Sega appealed the decision and the OFLC classified it as MA 15+. The board said the violence within the game wasn’t prolonged, it’s fantastical in nature and justified within the context of the game.

The first map pack was called Swarm and was released in March 2010 and the second map pack was called Bughunt which was released in July 2010. Both packs provide new multiplayer and survivor maps.

Release, Reception & Sales

 Aliens vs PredatorAliens vs Predator received mixed reviews from critics when it was first released. The general criticism was aimed at how the game wasn’t very innovative and that little had changed since AvP1 and AvP2 had been released over ten years earlier. Reviewers generally liked the three very different campaign styles as you could play as a Marine, Alien and a Predator and the story intertwined with each other.

Game Informer scored it 5.75/10 and said it was just a plain game: “Curiously, Rebellion’s 1999 PC release, Aliens vs. Predator, was well received, but this update captures none of that game’s unique spark. Instead we have a title trying to live off the fumes of two dormant franchises.” Official X-Box Magazine gave it a more positive 8/10 praising the atmosphere but criticised the Alien and Predator campaigns as not living up to the great Marine campaign: “It’s just a shame the other campaigns don’t quite match up. We can’t help but wonder if the traditional structure should have been abandoned for a lengthier sting as a Marine. Nevertheless, AvP is well worth your time and, with the unique online offering as well, there’s plenty to get your teeth, claws and wristblades into.”

 Aliens vs PredatorIGN UK was more positive too with 8.5/10: “But that never truly detracts from how much fun is to be had throughout Aliens vs. Predator’s myriad modes as Rebellion leans heavily on the source material, creating a game that’s going to stoke the hearts of anyone who ever fell in love with the original films – which is likely anyone who’s ever picked up a game pad.”

In terms of sales, Aliens vs Predator had sold 2.19 million copies worldwide as of December 14, 2013. In the UK, it debuted at number one in the All Formats chart and it generated over £14 million in the UK, making the best-selling Aliens game of all time.

Aliens vs Predator Screenshots

Tunnel Tunnel
Alien Attacks Alien Attacks
Predator Attacks Predator Attacks
Marines Waiting Marines Waiting
Predator Laser Predator Laser
Battle Battle
Ruins Ruins
Alien vs Predator Alien vs Predator
Predator Predator
Xenomorphs Incoming Xenomorphs Incoming

Aliens vs Predator Concept Art

Xenomorph Xenomorph
Marine Equipment Marine Equipment
Xenomorph Xenomorph
Number Six Number Six
Concept Box Art X360 Concept Box Art X360
Concept Box Art X360 Concept Box Art X360
Predator Statue (Laura Dawes) Predator Statue
Predator Statue (Laura Dawes) Predator Statue
Statue (Laura Dawes) Statue
Enivronment (Laura Dawes) Enivronment

Aliens vs Predator Magazine Articles

PSW (April 2009) PSW (April 2009)
OXM (June 2009) OXM (June 2009)
PSM (July 2009) PSM (July 2009)
PC Zone (August 2009) PC Zone (August 2009)
Total PC Gaming (August 2009) Total PC Gaming (August 2009)
PC Zone (October 2009) PC Zone (October 2009)
PCGZine (November 2009) PCGZine (November 2009)
Game Informer (February 2010) Game Informer (February 2010)
OXM (February 2010) OXM (February 2010)
Wizard (February 2010) Wizard (February 2010)
Post Comment

Name:

Comments: 28
  1. I Will Shoot My Horror Films On Location (Day And Night), (Indoors And Outdoors), (Blue Screen), (Green Screen), (Chroma Key), I Will Work With An American Film Crew With American Film People And I Will Work With American Film Actors (Males And Females), (Americans And African-Americans), (Ages 15 And Up), (Teenagers And Adults).


  2. Jason Kingsley on the reviews of AvP:

    “Rebellion has said it’s happy with the critical response to Aliens
    vs. Predator despite three “totally s*** reviews by some Americans”.

    “We wanted Aliens vs. Predator to be a critical success as well as a
    commercial success, which we think we have achieved,” CEO Jason
    Kingsley told Develop following the game’s chart-topping exploits in
    the UK.

    “The reviews have been mostly good. We’ve had three totally s***
    reviews by some Americans, which is a bit odd. Some of them were
    inexcusably bad,” he said.”


  3. Yo Sega and Rebellion if you do make a AVP4,please have a combie spear that can be thrown andbe used as a meele weapon plus have finishers like for the alien the predator pulls the aliens tail,flips the alien over to its back and impales the aliens head and takes the head as trophies


  4. i remember bk when i was a kid i played ALIENS on the PS one many yrs l8r it got better with the campaign and graphics then AvP came along with AC:Marines the ALIEN ISOLATION i would like them to remaster these games and bring bk the old classix to the 20th century now we have advanced a bit more in the gaming industry it would b nice 2 have the jump scares bk like we used 2 have would this b possible for SEGA 2 remaster the old ALIENS and AvP or would the decide 2 not bother with the games as they may think its a waste of there time and resources who knows maybe 1 day we will b lucky enough2 see these games again 🙂👍


  5. Are they ever going to make a sequel for this game I grew up on this stuff and I love it Aliens vs Predator, and Alien Isolation their my favorite video games so I would really like to see a sequel soon before Destiny replaces Call of Duty, and Battlefield,and Grand Theft Auto. Aliens vs Predator is better than Destiny all it needs is a chance. Destiny sucks!!!


  6. ive never been a fan for this kind of stuff but this game really turned me on I no some people say that marines cant block alien hits and thats cool one thing I didnt get though was its called aliens vs predator but you only fight one as the marine and three as the alien is this normal?


  7. This is my favorite game and I’ve played almost every COD and Halo this game needs an excellent sequel to really kick start the whole franchise Aliens vs Predator has the potential to be better then COD and Halo there are a few things they need to change though from allowing marines to fuck xenomourphs in melee combat to recycling ENTIRE levels in this relatively short game and the multiplayer is dead which is the biggest god DAMN shame ever people still do Halo Reach multiplayer (which is good) but not this that pisses me off. LETS ALL ASK REBELLION IF THEIR GOING TO MAKE ANOTHER GAME HOW ABOUT ALIENS VS PREDATOR GODS AND MONSTERS OR EVEN BETTER ALIENS VS PREDATOR RESURGENCY!!!!!!!!!


  8. This game was awesome and I excelled at the alien but the Rock Paper Scissors combat system was broken from the start. And the updates they did made it worst. Alien wall tail spamming. Predator plasma spam and double heavy attack spam (made me tear my hair out no joke), Marines blocking claws with their forearms -_- Plus a lack of customization and just skins and a boring 2 dimensional progression left me wanting an AVP 4 with all of these fixed running on unreal engine 4. How about it Rebellion?


  9. game is the best alien game out there best mode ever alien infestation i wish they make game free on xbox so id have people to play with and theyed get people to get dlc so they would make more money


AvPGalaxy: About | Contact | Cookie Policy | Manage Cookie Settings | Privacy Policy | Legal Info
Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Patreon RSS Feed
Contact: General Queries | Submit News