Article from magazine:
The good news is you're the predator. The bad news is the aliens don't like you. The good news is this game- a PSP exclusive-is based on the upcoming movie Alien Versus Predator 2. The bad news is the aliens don't like you. Again, the good news is you made the right choice. Nobody got access to Rebellion's fantastic-looking new slice of nightmarish sci-fi combat before us, or even knew of its existence.
This is its debut. The bad news is the aliens don't like you.
Not much can survive in the face of a grinning, fully-grown, acid-blooded, slimy, metal-toothed alien...even Ripley ran away. But as you know, predators are somewhat hard themselves. Survival of the fittest kits you out with all those deadly gadgets you'd expect; wrist blades, night-vision modes, shoulder cannon, invisibility cloaking, spears and much more- and lets you loose on the 'xenomorph' menace. But theres a catch. quite a few in fact. You're alone-its just you, an elite predator, against a horde of ceaseless space maniacs; a horde of ceaseless space maniacs who are already fighting the national guard, who in turn, aren't going to be sending
you any Christmas cards-none that aren't small and pointy and doing 750mph anyway.
Theres a war on and you're in the middle of it.
Thats right, the national guard-you're on Earth in Colorado to be precise in the small town of Gunnison; just as in the film. And it turns out theres nothing quite as effective as a familiar, typical little town-with its shopping malls, schools and hospitals-to make an Alien look really freaky. It gets worse. There are still parties of civilians in Gunnison and they're looking for their missing friends.Theyre unlikely to simply ask the nice man with the long hair which way Bubba Billy-Bob went and they're very likely to rustle up some pain and try to throw it all over you.
YOU'RE GHOSTING US
Stealth is an option with your cloaking device, of course (as long as you don't get wet) and you can use vision modes to track and hunt humans fairly easily. But this really isn't about creeping around apologetically avoiding confrontation. You're a predator and you have a box of weapons even Hans Bix wouldn't lift for too long, just feeling the weight.
Some we've mentioned already, but even the simples have brilliant abilities. Wrist blades are your default melee weapon for instance, but they can still be combined.
Similarly, the spear can take down multiple enemies AND has a useful auto-block feature if you're retreating, while the familiar boomerang-style predator disc will kill every one you've tagged-up in first person mode, one after the other,
before swooping back drenched in blood to your ever-loving hands
New weaponry is purchased with points learned from obeying your Honour system-more about this interesting code in a moment. And as you may be realising...the later, more sophisticated weaponry is a really severe health and safety liability.But then, it needs to be. Skilled players can work their way up to laser-trip mines, plasma grenades throwing stars and a modified hand-held cannon that delivers plasma bolts at uzi-type rates, the trademark shoulder cannon
and - better step out of the way- dual shoulder cannons. These enormous guns can be charged up by holding the trigger down- the longer you hold your nerve the more powerful the blast. On the down-side, it drains suit power furiously, leaving you temporarily at risk.There are even a few suit modifications to earn; such as the steel-wrist shield (deadly to anything it smashes into, but also draining on power) and an advanced cloaking capability.
VISION OF BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
You just wouldn't be the predator without your special vision modes, but you have them, so you must be the predator. Logic is such a wonderful thing. The three altered modes have three distinct uses. Firstly, theres the alien mode. This is tuned to highlight their acid blood, but will also show up whole aliens pretty well and even allow the tracking of creatures you've tagged-up. Aliens also show up on your wrist
computer.Next theres heat mode. This is best for finding humans and useful machinery and can also be used for tracking- you don't have to attack, after all, as they could lead you to your enemy by obligingly getting horribly attacked. Lastly theres predator mode- rather than being handy for checking your lovely hair in mirrors, its designed to show up the all important bits of ship debris.
ALIEN VERSUS YOUR MATES
The main thrust of Alien Versus Preadtors multi-player, is a 'last stand'-type mode. It's a xxx xxxx mode that allows four players to get together as predators and fight off waves of hoarding aliens..where are the suitcase-sized sentry guns when you need them eh? xxxxxxxx xxx locating one would help. The multi-player mode is one thing Rebellion has been slightly tight-lipped about detail-wise,but the number of times they've mentioned it and the survival of the fittest subtitle; thats just oh so ept, tell us it certainly wont be merely a token wi-fi presence. And if theres anything more mouthwatering than aliens on your PSP, its the same aliens all over everyone whos xxxx. This latter improvement allows you to track aliens as well as humans...aliens hunt by pheromone, so for most of the game those bishop ripping bugs can smell you coming. Wait. We were busy explaining what a dreadful shitstorm you've landed in, spaxx in the middle there, but got sidetracked, thats right it gets worse still. Besides the hostile mobs, frightened soldiers and the growing infestation of perfect otherworld killing machines, there are the scuttling little face huggers. And the chest bursters. Think thats just a normal healthy man you're fighting? Good luck with that.
At this point you may be wondering what this tangled bunch of super bastards is doing in the town of Gunnison, Colorado. But before we get to that, we should clear up the whole honour system thing, as that's what keeps you kitted out and hopefully breathing while you're there. The predator, despite being a deadly seven foot wall trophy hunter from space, is actually pretty cool. You can point to the dreads and the slow mouth clicks and the oh-so retro spear if you like.... but his sense of hunters fair play has plenty to do with it too. The alien after all is just as good looking and far more deadly, but though hugely admired you couldn't call one cool. An alien couldn't pull Kate Moss but a predator might.... in some weird and weepingly sad alternative universe we've just invented that is.
ITS NOT ME
The predator kills though choice, not by nature... killing unarmed humans is not sporting. So you lose honour points for it. You even lose them for killing an alien
that hasn't killed anyone else or attacked you-hell, even a facehugger that hasn't impregnated anyone is a slight against your code of honour. Stalking and killing unarmed humans goes down very badly. Actually if you're feeling really hard you can play without your mask; sight is impaired and obviously you wont have the vision modes, but honour points are doubled, its either a quick way to glory or a quicker way to death. We cant decide. Amazingly, not quite everyone in Gunnison is trying to kill you, and leaving innocents to their fate is frowned upon..
letting humans be killed by aliens, facehuggers or chesbursters will also affect honour points negatively.
GIVE US A HUG
On the other hand, saving people from such horrors, whacking attackers and offing impregnated humans all earn you points. Better still, if you kill a prolifically murderous alien you get an extra point for each of their victims. Rejoice! They won't have died in vain! They'll have bought you a nice new gun which is sweet of them. We said we'd explain what everybody was doing in Colorado. Remember the predators ship from the original 1987 Arnie movie? Its crashed in the woods outside town setting free a whole pile of facehuggers and much worse- a deeply unfriendly predator/alien hybrid you're ultimately going to have to take down.
Of course, its also important you find and destroy the ship wreckage-it wont do to have pesky humans getting hold of it. Each of the 15 levels promises multiple routes and of course, theres the opportunity to customise and upgrade between the levels- it should lend itself well to replaying, if were lucky. But then HR Gigers crackly insectoid space bastards crawling up the walls and a Predalien hybrid waiting
for you the whole damn time-waiting with the unbalanced patience of a jilted lover-you're going to need plenty o'gf luck just to get through once. and the bad news is the aliens dont like you. the good news is your hair looks ace.
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sorry it took so long, the writers' disjointed wording was pretty horrible...add to that interlacing pixels making the last two pages a nightmare to decipher...ugh.
That said, this game sounds very cool.
