Ok, have finished the game for some time now, but I only remembered to post my final analysis:
Well, first of all, the
majority of the graphical and sound hiccups problems got solved by switching to Xp instead of Windows 7 and by also installing the latest graphical and sound drivers... Still, there are parts where sound is missing and some graphical issues that I think got fixed by the patch 2 that came out earlier this week... And I said ' I think' because there is no way I am gonna download it via Steam... I find it immoral that a person has to suck up to steam to get the patches that were REQUIRED to be already in the retail DVD... Just another immoral way to earn extra bucks at the costs of other people's 'vices'...
I think with the fixes the game got much better (I somehow was unable to see the Predator's voice synthesizer) and the game is solid enough for me... This just shows that the Direct x 11 is a mirage, since even in Direct X 10 mode the game is utterly unstable...
The Alien ending got some of the fans of the 'warrior turning to Queen' excited... And the egg-morphing ones not so enthused...I am
...
So, I liked the game, and it is a breath of fresh air after the Modern Warfares, I guess... Still maintain the criticism of the first preview-review I did before since there are still a few gameplay things that become more noticeable the higher the difficulty level... I mean, apart from the Sniper Rifle, no weapon is really good to kill Aliens... The Pulse Rifle takes way too long to kill them, not to mention the sidearm... The Flamethrower is useless, and so is the SmartGun, because the times we use them, the Aliens come from multiple sidesa, and so the tracking becomes useless... The shotgun is, I bet, intentionally scarce...And that is about it as far as weaponry goes... The smartgun occupying two out of three weapon slots, leaving only the sidearm available, didn't make me happy either... especially with the ammo available for the SG...
Apart from that, I am more and more in love with the graphics...The story, well, let's just say it was nowhere near AVP2... AVP2's story with these graphics would have been HOORAH!
Still, the best review I can give it is that it is my default game on my PC...I install others and then uninstall them once they're finished, but this one has been there... As it happened with AVP and AVP2...
This game is a thrill... It could have been better, yes, but so can most, if not all games that come out... The point is how entertained you get with the game? It is cool to stalk humans as the Alien or Predator and it is cool to use the more traditional FPS as the Marine to see more clearly the differences and MOs of the three creatures... That is what attracted me more to the AVP games than the movies they are inspired from...
And the killshots still give me 'joygasms'... even when I am getting hit by Aliens while doing that... The Aliens, the Predators are very well designed, the human faces up close are impressive... The gameplay is a bit hard at first but then it is like a vice: the jumping part of the Predator is now instinctive, the Alien movements even more so (too bad we cannot pick the humans up when we are on the ceiling or on a wall and do the Killshot like that...too bad) and the Marines, well, they are more déjá vu but still competently crafted to make them worthwhile... The gun 'aim heaviness' thing is a bit disappointing, and the 'melee' is preposterous, but if not for the melee, I would have been toast many times...So, once we swallow it, we're fine...Though for the next installment, I hope they focus more on the story and the Marines' gameplay, because it is clearly the weakest of the bunch...
So, as my FINAL MARK, I would give a 8.5 to the game... The story's lack of cohesive interlinkage between all 3 creatures and some holes in it as well; the marine's gameplay and the remaining glitches take the 1 point I was willing to give it...Still, the gameplay is addictive and the graphics are stunning...
