OK, I finally finished all 3 campaigns on Hard. Now I can review. There will be spoilers ahead, but Spoiler tags will be used appropriately.
--NOTE-- This review is for the Xbox 360 version of the game --NOTE--Single PlayerI plunged into play as the Predator first, seeing the E3 footage assured me that this was a whole new Predator experience, the definitive Predator experience I had been waiting for since Concrete Jungle.
Oh boy, was it awesome.
I cannot stress how much it irritated me that in AvP and AvP2 your hands were as cold as the environment. Now it's fixed, and the thermal vision is perfect. The best it has ever been. I love the distorted voices and the heart beat. The sound of changing vision modes is spot on.
The story was great, I loved how they expanded on the lore. The only thing that seriously annoyed me was that
Spoiler
you don't get the Alien vision until the middle of the campaign, and that you have to wear that God awful Lord mask.
The majority of the Predator's trophy and stealth kills are the best and most interesting for me, especially the one when the Predator plunges his wristblades into the Marine's eye sockets and then back hands his neck with his left wristblades, decapitating him brutally.
I do prefer the red Alien vision in the previous games to the newer vision mode, but that's probably only because
Spoiler
once retrieving the Ancient Mask you next have to go up the winding cliffs and you first encounter the Jungle/Runner Aliens
I fell off the cliff edges numerous times due to the blurry grey background whilst trying to avoid them.
The trophy belts are nice little collectibles and make the replay value go up, I collected the remainder of the belts I missed on the easy difficulty. As of today I now have all 45 trophy belts and an extra 15 Gamerscore under my name.
I did alternate through the levels by playing; Predator, Alien, Marine and then back through the cycle. I'll talk about the Alien campaign next.
First word that comes to my mind, short.
I played this through on my Purebreedalien XBL account in two hours on Hard. Two hours. On my primary account, Deadpool 199, it took far longer due to alternating between the three campaigns. It seemed longer too, but after finishing in two short hours, I realized how tiny it really was. Despite the length, it was an amazing experience.
I've never felt more like an Alien than I did in this game, skulking in the shadows and striking from the walls never felt more right. The sound design is just beautiful. I must admit, I stopped for a few moments sometimes just to admire it, the sound your talons make when you sprint against the grated metal is amazing, and the splash of the water when you strike it with your tail. It all helps with the immersion, and that's what this campaign does best.
The story was pretty much nonexistent but that didn't detract from the gameplay overall, well, not for me anyway. Although, I did find an error. The Alien campaign happens before the Marine and Predator campaigns, so
Spoiler
when the Queen is killed by Rookie during the Marine campaign, Six is weakened by her death and doesn't appear to recover until after she is taken off of the planet. So why weren't the other Aliens in the Marine and Predator campaigns affected by the Queen's death? Why didn't the Praetorian you fight as the Marine become the next Queen?
it did make me wonder if Rebellion had really though the overall story arc through.
The Alien has some particularly brutal stealth and trophy kills, my favourite of which is the stealth kill when the Alien rips the Marine's throat out and his jugular vein is twitching from being torn.
The royal jelly canisters are fun to locate, although some of their locations are... questionable.
Spoiler
When you need to find your way into the building before you are trapped by the Marines, there are two Jelly Canisters in the vents beneath the building. Why were they there? Did the scientists crawl into the vents and hide them in there for safe keeping?
It doesn't make much sense.
There was one visual glitch which got on my nerves.
Spoiler
When fighting the two Predators before fighting the Elite Predator if the player attempts a stealth kill on one of them some of the top mandibles would poke out of the mask. Also, when the Elite Predator fights you, I couldn't help but think that some people would get confused and think that they were fighting Wolf from AvPRequiem even though he died.
Now onto the Marine, who had the best story overall. I loved the lighting in the campaign, the level design and character models were superb. I did think in some places it was too dark, however, the flares did help. I only wish that more than one could be put down at a time.
The campaign is scary, but the quality of the levels do decrease, and then towards the end, increase. There are some jumpy moments in the campaign and the intelligence of the Aliens definitely add to that, they know how to flank you and they know how to remain unseen. The boss battles are extremely fun and challenging.
Spoiler
The Predator you battle in the Combat Arena is also intelligent and knows how to take you down, I was killed numerous times by his heavy attack. The Predator knows how to use his cloak, melee and ranged weapons to gradually deplete your health bar over and over again.
I was unimpressed by
Spoiler
the Praetorian battle. The Praetorian went down far too easily in my opinion, it seemed to hang back and send its weaker Alien minions to dispose of me, whilst it just stood back and watched. The Warriors are easily knocked to the ground which gave me a chance to unload a few pulse rifle clips and grenades into the Praetorian's torso. If it attacked me when the other Aliens were attacking me it would have been much more difficult.
The final boss battle and the fight before it was very challenging and also irritating.
Spoiler
As soon as the cut-scene ends and Weyland tells his Androids to "Take care of him" (him being the player) you are thrown back into the game, faced with two Combat Synthetics armed with shotguns and you hold just a pistol. First time I was killed by backpedaling into boxes which are directly behind the player. The only way to survive is to turn and run whilst changing weapons. The smartgun helped a lot but I couldn't help but notice that the Synthetics seemed to have increased in strength and health since the previous levels. The Weyland fight was the most irritating. He instant killed me everytime, until I had to do what I didn't want to do. I had to run away until I could gather more ammo and start sprinting round in circles gradually draining his health. It was almost enjoyable because it was so impossible.
Overall I enjoyed the Predator campaign the most. The feel of the Predator was there and I loved stalking my prey from the trees and disposing of them in gory and violent ways.
Pros and ConsPros+ Strong story for Marine and Predator
+ Great visuals
+ Amazing sound design
+ Adrenaline pumping musical score
+ Blood and gore
+ Respects the established canon and expands without screwing with it
+ Lots of replay value
Cons - Weak Alien story
- Some graphical glitches
- Marines have a tendency to repeat the lines; "Don't relax just yet, Marines." "Don't let your guard down." way too frequently.
- Very slow Matchmaking
- Stealth kills seem to teleport players half way across the map
- No host migration
- Crouch button was sometimes needed
