The Reviews/interviews Thread

[Dusk]

One instance of the AI messing up doesn't undo the great Alien AI

Sadly, it didn't appear that great to me. There were too many times I could simply block an Alien attack, counter and shoot them to bits. Maybe the AI is decent, but Rebellion ruined the experience by giving the Marine the ability to effortlessly knock an Alien to the floor. The whole sense of dread and fear is gone.

You're supposed to keep Aliens at a distance, because once they close in, it's almost certain death. But now you'd want to actually engage them in close combat, because it makes things so much easier.

[MadassAlex]

Sadly, it didn't appear that great to me. There were too many times I could simply block an Alien attack, counter and shoot them to bits. Maybe the AI is decent, but Rebellion ruined the experience by giving the Marine the ability to effortlessly knock an Alien to the floor. The whole sense of dread and fear is gone.

You're supposed to keep Aliens at a distance, because once they close in, it's almost certain death. But now you'd want to actually engage them in close combat, because it makes things so much easier.

Well, that has absolutely nothing to do with the AI.

Either way, the solution to that is to turn up the difficulty. On hard mode, counter attacks buy you much less time and Aliens are far more resilient. Plus they deal more damage and behave more intelligently. You don't get the prompts, either, so you actually have to read their moves and react under your own initiative. Hard mode is the way to play the game and have the proper experience.

[PRI. HUDSON]

Sadly, it didn't appear that great to me. There were too many times I could simply block an Alien attack, counter and shoot them to bits. Maybe the AI is decent, but Rebellion ruined the experience by giving the Marine the ability to effortlessly knock an Alien to the floor. The whole sense of dread and fear is gone.

You're supposed to keep Aliens at a distance, because once they close in, it's almost certain death. But now you'd want to actually engage them in close combat, because it makes things so much easier.

Well, that has absolutely nothing to do with the AI.

Either way, the solution to that is to turn up the difficulty. On hard mode, counter attacks buy you much less time and Aliens are far more resilient. Plus they deal more damage and behave more intelligently. You don't get the prompts, either, so you actually have to read their moves and react under your own initiative. Hard mode is the way to play the game and have the proper experience.

Agreed. By the end of the campaign for Marine I was completely exhausted. I got killed so many times.

[Spic]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/uk-charts-avp-is-the-new-leader

LOLz

[hardwired]

I never really felt menaced by standardaliens. Insteed of more HP i would like them being more aggressive (run to you insteed of slowly circling on walls) and fast (using the sprint?) and less blockable (I really like marines, but I think they should be less effective in close range, besides normally a rine cant block a alien or pred attack, it looks ridicilious).
It was pretty terrifying in AVP2, if the aliens run trough a hallway in notime and you were screwed if they reached you.
The game isnt really scary at all.
But I really enjoy playing as pred and the temples were pretty atmospheric.
So the total opposite of playin them in AVP2.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/uk-charts-avp-is-the-new-leader

LOLz

That increases the chance of good support. 

[Vertigo]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/uk-charts-avp-is-the-new-leader

LOLz

"The game has become the fastest-seller of the year." -Normally I'd laugh given that it's only February, but that's actually pretty damn good given that we've had some very big hitters already in 2010 with Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2 and Bayonetta. I wish they'd show the actual figures though...
I'll join Hardwired in hoping that this means we'll see mod tools and a comprehensive patching scheme.

I never really felt menaced by standardaliens. Insteed of more HP i would like them being more aggressive (run to you insteed of slowly circling on walls) and fast (using the sprint?) and less blockable (I really like marines, but I think they should be less effective in close range, besides normally a rine cant block a alien or pred attack, it looks ridicilious).

Less durable, more predictable movement and no blockability? So basically you want them to be your standard FPS melee-enemy cannon fodder?
I can't believe you don't find these critters more scary than AvP2's. When you're in a major fight, and get swarmed, the time it takes you to nail one alien gives two more the chance to engage you in melee, and you can only block them one at a time (not to mention that it's time you can't spend shooting). The tricky nature of their movement makes them that bit more menacing, enemies who just run straight into your shotgun aren't terribly frightening or formidable.
Not to mention that they're far more powerful than AvP2's bugs as well as vastly more durable. If you get swamped, it's game over.

[MadassAlex]

Yeah, the Aliens gave me a lot of cause for concern.

In AvP2 especially, they were scary until you had them in your sights - then they were just fodder. These ones aren't so scary if you can draw a bead on them and keep the fire coming, but it's so easy to lose them that they often get plenty of chances to retreat into the darkness and come around for another strike.

On hard mode, especially, Aliens are absolutely brutal enemies. I rarely died to anything else - it was just those goddamned nigh-invincible Aliens and their combos of doom.

[Dusk]

I'm playing on hard now, and I admit it's tougher. Although I mostly died now from misplaced grenades. Btw, I don't buy the excuse anymore that iron sights aren't needed anymore because of the fast gameplay. There were tons of moments, even now on hard, where I could've placed well aimed head shots, if I would've been able to aim with the iron sights for a second. I can barely see the crosshairs in the game.

[LogansFolly]

It seems SEGA's advertising is taking place down here in Australia, Predator's on TV right now, brought to us by AVP

Which ads were they showing?  They're doing a similar thing here, Aliens last Thursday, Predator tomorrow.

Well if I was representing SEGA, I would be very quiet about this game. 

At first I couldn't believe that this game could be as bad as it is said to be in those reviews posted to this thread. However when I finally got the game and tried the predator campaign I realised that the game is exactly as bad as those reviews told us. The PC version feels like a very bad console port of a Playstation 1 game, and the predator feels more like a cloaked Wolverine than predator. 

Nicely done game Rebellion. (NOT)   

And by the way, I actually liked the demo, as it showed much promise. And yes, predator is my all time favorite alien hunter.

''VERY BAD PORT OF A PS 1 GAME''

That's just a stupid thing to write. Com on now be sensible in your criticism at least. 

[hardwired]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/uk-charts-avp-is-the-new-leader

LOLz

"The game has become the fastest-seller of the year." -Normally I'd laugh given that it's only February, but that's actually pretty damn good given that we've had some very big hitters already in 2010 with Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2 and Bayonetta. I wish they'd show the actual figures though...
I'll join Hardwired in hoping that this means we'll see mod tools and a comprehensive patching scheme.

I never really felt menaced by standardaliens. Insteed of more HP i would like them being more aggressive (run to you insteed of slowly circling on walls) and fast (using the sprint?) and less blockable (I really like marines, but I think they should be less effective in close range, besides normally a rine cant block a alien or pred attack, it looks ridicilious).

Less durable, more predictable movement and no blockability?
So basically you want them to be your standard FPS melee-enemy cannon fodder?

No, they still should be durable, but if they were so fast (They never seem to sprint), as i wished they would be probaly unstopable with the hitpoints from the hardmode.


I can't believe you don't find these critters more scary than AvP2's. When you're in a major fight, and get swarmed, the time it takes you to nail one alien gives two more the chance to engage you in melee, and you can only block them one at a time (not to mention that it's time you can't spend shooting).

I cant believe the opposite. It was too easy to handle one alien in melee. After all i dont like the strong defense of the rines. I want to be DOOMED  , if an alien or pred is allready attacking me and die faster cause the acid.
In that way they are more terrifying and it looks silly compared to the movies, if a human block and specially knock a pred or alien down.  God knows, even in MP its not that hard to manage them.
They often dont even reach me (thats maybe, cause Im not bad with the rine).

And I dont like it, if the primary meleeattack that works against me are sneakattacks, but i generally hate them, cause you can use them as normal onebuttonkill, if you manage to get behind an enemy, you are allready fighting in melee for some time. So you annul the melee => abuse.

The tricky nature of their movement makes them that bit more menacing, enemies who just run straight into your shotgun aren't terribly frightening or formidable.
Not to mention that they're far more powerful than AvP2's bugs as well as vastly more durable. If you get swamped, it's game over.

They maybe shouldnt run straight to me, but to me and much faster, if i allready shoot  at them. Sometimes there were some aliens on a wall/tree/etc. running in circles and i only had to shoot them down. Thats not terrifying but boring and just looks silly . So if you make them acting like that way, they should be still effective and fast and no easy target.
Often they manage some cool manovers, but mostly they made it easy to shoot them.

They just shouldnt act stupid and let me shoot them without any effort.
And I prefer fast aliens, about alien"tanks".

Overall i like the SP and specially the MP. But i hope the stealthkill gets a fix and the rine less effective meleecombat.
They can be improved in other ways, but I think, if one race has to be underpowered/one shouldnt be overpowered -> the marines. Rines shouldnt play the leading part.
And Im playin rines as most or even more then preds (aliens rarely).

I'm playing on hard now, and I admit it's tougher. Although I mostly died now from misplaced grenades. Btw, I don't buy the excuse anymore that iron sights aren't needed anymore because of the fast gameplay. There were tons of moments, even now on hard, where I could've placed well aimed head shots, if I would've been able to aim with the iron sights for a second. I can barely see the crosshairs in the game.

Yeah. But i missed crouch more. So many times, i could get in cover, be less visible and/or hittable and just do it, cause i felt it would be right (as rine and often as pred too).
A action or conditions that improve the accuracy would be great. Maybe by crouching and standig still (there are many moments it isnt more dangerous then running around).
In SP Im ok, cause i finished it mostly. But if i think about the MP and no crouch Im a bit angry.

[MikkoM]

''VERY BAD PORT OF A PS 1 GAME''

That's just a stupid thing to write. Com on now be sensible in your criticism at least. 

Well that is what the game feels like, at least as far as game mechanics are concerned. As a predator why do you have to "interact" with something that you will only destroy anyway? This could have been done by using just the predator's light/heavy attack or weapons. Why there seems to be inconsistent limitations in the predator's jumping ability? Why does the so called "jungle" seem like a narrow tube from a Playstation 1 game? Why is the marine AI so stupid and unaware of its surroundings? Why are there object markers flashing on the screen every other minute? (Does Rebellion really think that players are idiots?) And so on.

Ineffective? Are we playing the same game? Charge it up and it kills with one hit. The marine pistol has unlimited ammo because it is his last line of defence seeing as how he has no real melee as such. So yes, I enjoyed it a lot, and you need to learn the tools of the game properly before giving any kind of review.

So the technologically advanced predator has what? One or two deadly shots that it can fire before its weapon runs out of energy, and you have to search for some stupid energy sources? Meanwhile the not so advanced marine has a pistol that uses bullets, and it has unlimited ammo? Very intelligent game design. 

Anyway, this whole problem could have easily been avoided if the predator`s energy level would have functioned like in the first AVP game, and the marine pistol wouldn`t have had unlimited ammo. 

[stemot]

So the technologically advanced predator has what? One or two deadly shots that it can fire before its weapon runs out of energy, and you have to search for some stupid energy sources? Meanwhile the not so advanced marine has a pistol that uses bullets, and it has unlimited ammo? Very intelligent game design. 

Anyway, this whole problem could have easily been avoided if the predator`s energy level would have functioned like in the first AVP game, and the marine pistol wouldn`t have had unlimited ammo.

Or it has a spear that uses no energy that functions much the same way, or a disc that can be guided in mid-air. There's nothing stupid about having to charge your energy, stupid would be the way the second game handled it by giving you a portable charger which basically meant no energy (read ammo) depletion at all, and no consequence for constantly using one of his most powerful weapons. Hell, he even charges in the 2nd movie in the lightning. It is actually very good game design to force you to manage your energy supply, thus using other weapons at different points. Bad game design would be the way the second game handled it. Like I said, the reason the marine is given unlimited ammo is because he does not have melee attacks to resort to when he runs out of ammo like the Predator does. What are they supposed to do, let you carry on without a chance of getting 4 yards after running out of ammo, or maybe have a marine get in a fistfight with the aliens and predators just so he can have limited pistol ammo. I know which I prefer. As far as game design choices are concerned, the pred does not need an unlimited source of ammunition for his most powerful weapon, the marine does for his weakest.

[Ferno]

Don't know if this review has been posted, but I agree with it 100%.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVLgNkL9kpA

[stemot]

Don't know if this review has been posted, but I agree with it 100%.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVLgNkL9kpA

Disagreed with his points about the music (I thought is fit the game brilliantly), thought his points about having to learn 3 sets of controls for 3 completely different species was a little picky and completely disagree with the view of mundane multiplayer. I agree with him on the marine voice overs though, but that's about it.

[Dusk]

No wonder the game is tougher now, I mostly fighting versus 3 Aliens with nothing but my handgun.