Figured I'd finally stop putting off writing my own review.
contains some spoilers.
Introduction:
My first true introduction to the franchise/s was from playing AVP Gold Edition. I loved the game, the dark atmosphere, the gameplay, everything about it just blew my mind. Afterwards, I promptly viewed every Alien and Predator film up to that point. AVP (2010) is a game I've been thinking about ever since enjoying the intense multiplayer of Monolith's AVP2. I wondered what a truly next gen AVP would look like. Later after being introduced to Halo on the original Xbox, I had hopes that I'd see an AVP shooter on consoles as that had become my preferred method of gaming. Well, that day has finally arrived and now we're playing it on both consoles and PC. So was it worth the wait? For the most part, I think so.
Single Player:
I enjoyed all three campaigns although I felt they were a bit lacking. I started by playing the marine campaign. Right off, I was impressed with the look of the colony. It looked very original while still maintaining that Aliens feel. The stormy sky, the rivers, and the refinery towering above made the whole thing very immersive. Refinery was a great level as well; the main Alien hive definitely captured the feel of the films. I was a bit disappointed in the "battle" with the Queen, I was hoping she would break off of her egg sac to chase me around the room; instead I got to kill her as she sat. Leaving the refinery, the campaign moves to a much more open jungle.
While the jungle levels were still interesting, I wish Rebellion had done more with the colony as it looked massive and it would have been nice to have more time to explore it. After some caves and Predator ruins there is the Research Lab. This was another interesting structure that looked good on the exterior and interior. Moving through that we get to the final level: The Pyramid. This was something I was also quite disappointed with. I was hoping for a lengthy trek through many familiar rooms of the pyramid, but it was quite short with about two rooms leading to the fight with Weyland. Overall the marine campaign was great fun but at the same time felt a bit underwhelming.
The Alien campaign was also well done; it felt great to sneak around on the ceilings and drop down to pick off prey in a satisfyingly gruesome way. Playing as Number 6, it seemed like from the opening scenes that there would be a bit more story for our Xeno, But after the first level the story almost becomes nonexistent. The final cutscene looked great but again gave me the feeling that more could have been done. Taking over the ship would have been a great last level for the Alien Campaign.
The Predator campaign was probably the one I had the most fun with. The effective weapons and jumping mechanic made me feel quite powerful. More effort was placed in the story in this campaign then that of the Alien, but the heavy emphasis on the ancient Predator heritage and rituals seemed a bit unnecessary. This campaign had the best boss fight in the game, The Predalien design was the best yet and it put up a good fight on nightmare difficulty.
All in all the campaigns were good, but they could have been great. I don't think it would have taken much more to make them feel truly epic rather than just good enough. Visiting pretty much all the same areas as each species also made the single player experience feel inferior to the past AVP shooters.
7.5/10
Multiplayer:
Similar to Killzone 2, the multiplayer is where this game really shines. It's the reason you buy AVP in my opinion. Almost all of the matches I've played have been great fun. Although the maps have received some criticism, to me they both look and play quite well with areas to the advantage of each species. The map count does feel a bit low however; hopefully we'll see more in future DLC. The game modes are all enjoyable, unique, and interesting. The multiplayer induces tension quite well, especially in Infestation and Survivor.
The Survivor co-op is also fun, but I do feel it could have been tweaked a bit to be more enjoyable. Wave respawns and eventually bigger aliens such as a large Praetorian or Predalien would have made things more fun. Overall the multiplayer is flat out awesome and I've been having a great time with it. It was a good choice to have a level of customization with the skins but again feels like just a bit more (Female marines, Predator armor variety, Runner, Predalien) would have made things feel truly polished. Again, hopefully some DLC will aid this.
8.8/10
Gameplay:
The gameplay is another strong point of this game. I think it's great that AVP has an old school horror FPS feel similar to games like Quake IV or Doom 3. Far more than any AVP title before it, AVP (2010) really has you feel like you're playing as an Alien/ Predator/Marine. The controls might feel a bit awkward at first compared to other FPS games, but work quite well after you get the hang of them (again like Killzone 2).
The game feels well balanced, it could use a tweak here or there but I'm pretty impressed with Rebellion's job on trying to create a level playing field. Overall the controls work fine and all three species are fun to play. If I had just a couple complaints about the mechanics they would be that the Predator's arsenal could have used a few more toys, and the Alien headbite to regain health should have been available in multiplayer.
8.5/10
Presentation:
Graphically, this game looks pretty good. Especially on PC but also on consoles, the textures, lighting, and character models all look great. In the first level of the Alien campaign I waited a moment before releasing my "siblings" just to get a good look at how well the Xenomorph models really turned out, they are quite impressive. The Predators and to a lesser extent the marines look great also. The violence and trophy kills look fantastic and are immensely satisfying. The environments throughout the game are well designed and immersive, even with the feeling that more could have been done with them.
The Sound design works great with effects that sound faithful to the source material. The weapons, ambient noises, and creatures all sound top notch. The voice acting however is rather poor and dragged the marine single player experience down for me a bit. The audio diaries are alright, however the main characters with the exception of Weyland do not sound very convincing. Also, some of the marines can get downright annoying at times after hearing "Don't relax just yet marines!" for the hundredth time. The fact that AVP2 has much better voice acting than this after nine years is unfortunate.
7.5/10
In conclusion:
I feel that AVP(2010) excels beyond its predecessors in some areas, yet lags behind in others. The experience of playing as each species feels spot on and the multiplayer is very fun, but some presentation issues and a lack of polish prevent this game from being everything that I had hoped. In the end I'm still quite satisfied and I feel that AVP is a worthy sequel to the previous games. The multiplayer saves this game from being just average and lifts it to being quite good. I'll be playing it for a long time to come.
Pros:
+Multiplayer
+Graphics
+Sound effects
+Gameplay mechanics
Cons:
-Voice acting
-Campaign variety
-Lack of Polish
-Story
Score: 8.1/10
