14 DAY TRIAL // 
Even if you're not a Sci-Fi games fan, when you hear Aliens vs. Predator, you must have some sort of reaction, just like everybody else.
If you haven't played any of the previous games, then you must have watched one of the Aliens movie, or the Predators ones (if not, you should definitely become familiar with them). Either way, the huge AvP franchise adds a new follow-up to the 1999 Aliens Versus Predator game - and it has all the ingredients that make this gaming recipe a success.
Coming from the British developer Rebellion, Aliens vs. Predator is not the first game of this franchise to come out their studios. Aliens versus Predator and Aliens versus Predator: Requiem are game titles that have enriched the gaming world, bringing fans a taste of the endless fight for survival straight into their homes!
Will this game be able to follow up on the success of its blockbuster brothers and offer fans the chance to experience real-like alien and predator gameplay?
Story
Like its predecessors, Aliens vs. Predator offers three separate campaigns, which means three different stories: Alien, Predator and Marines. This sheds new light on the FPS genre by making the game an alternative to big names like Modern Warfare.
Marines
The USS Marlow responds to a distress call coming from a strange planet. In a rapid series of events, you find yourself abandoned on a dangerous planet, after your ship was destroyed by Predators. Not to get too fond of your character, he does not have a name, just a generic nickname: Rookie.
As you begin to explore the planet and rendezvous with your fellow Marines, you'll encounter a series of hostiles and a secret facility that conducts strange experiments on Xenomorphs. With help from an Android named Katya, you manage to kill Weyland and escape the planet.
Predator
You begin as a “Youngblood” and after slaying a decent amount of Xenomorphs in the arena, you are promoted to the rank of Elite Warrior and sent to planet BG 386, to investigate a distress call. This planet is one of the oldest and most sacred hunting grounds for the Predators, so the humans’ intrusion will not be taken lightly.
Upon releasing the captured Aliens, you find and replace your mask with an ancient one. To purge the stain brought by the humans, you must search for an ancient wrist bracer, take it to the tomb and destroy the entire structure!
Alien
Born in captivity, you'll play as Number 6, a Xenomorph that escapes and starts freeing all other captives and, of course, the Alien Queen. You set up base in an old refinery and head-out to find and kill more of the Marine intruders.
After a fierce battle with one of the Elite Predator Warriors, you head back to the refinery, just to see it in flames and your beloved Queen killed by Marines. Shocked by this sight, you are captured and taken into outer space, where you manage to escape and kill the entire crew while becoming an Alien Queen yourself.
Gameplay
With its three campaigns, the latest installment in the Aliens vs. Predator series has something for everyone: human weapons, grenades, a mighty sniper rifle (for the FPS lover in you), balanced gameplay, cloak, alien weaponry (for the tactical fighters out there), fast-paced scenes, chaotic movement and uber-strength for the adrenaline junkie in all of you.
While playing with Rookie (the Marine), I got the same feeling as in any horror shooter. It may not be as frightening as Doom, but I was often startled by Aliens jumping from wall to wall right in front of me, or an android corpse that got up and started shooting at me. Facehuggers amplify the movie feeling and provides an additional thrill to the game.
As far as I’m concerned, the Predator single player missions offer the best gameplay experience. They provide a simple story (not so intricate as the human one), and make you feel like you can perform high jumps, walk on tree branches, use powerful weapons (plasma cannons, discs, spears and mines), have a thermal scanner and lots of other gadgets that can make you unbeatable.
Redefining the horror concept, the Alien race has by far the best melee attacks, accompanied by awesome cinematic scenes. The best thing about their skills remains the fact that they can climb walls and walk on ceilings.
While looking amazing, this mechanics and the poor level design make the Alien very difficult to control and will often cause more problems instead of giving an advantage over your targets. If you manage to master wall-climbing and learn to stealthily blend in with the environment (make the darkness your ally), the Alien becomes a tough beast to beat.
The campaigns provide everything a first-person shooter addict needs: a variety of enemies, different settings (dark indoor corridors, lush jungles, ancient temples, infested laboratories) and, of course, lots of weapons and gadgets that differ from race to race.
The regeneration is done automatically on Aliens, while Marines have to collect and use health packs. Predators must also do the same, only with healing crystals.
Do you know the feeling you get when you’re in front of a door and it just won’t open? That’s the perfect time to double back and find out what you did wrong. Of course, most of the time it isn’t you and the game simply has bugs, meaning that you have to restart and go again from the last checkpoint, which can be quite frustrating.
Well, I got that feeling right in one of the first missions of the Marine campaign. Luckily, it happened only once and the frequent checkpoints make sure you don't have to replay too much from a mission.
I found the overall game experience to be rather good. If you think the campaigns are somewhat short (like I did), you can replay them as you fight on different difficulty levels, try to use different weapons, and find all the collectables (audio diaries for Marines, trophy belts for the Predator and jelly containers for the Aliens). All of this can be described as a hunt for achievements, of sorts.
Video and audio
The first thing I noticed about the graphics was the details. The Asura engine is kind of old and does not provide enough “reality” for a 2010 first-person shooter like AvP. If you think the textures are bad enough inside the corridors and laboratories, just you wait until you get outside!
What catches the eye and makes the game more enjoyable, as far as video is concerned, are the close cut-scenes. A bit weird at first, you learn to enjoy them as you try to make trophy kills with the Predator (remove the skull and spine from a fresh kill) or harvest souls with the Alien.
The sounds are quite nice and more than make up for the out-of-date graphics, recapturing the scary feeling from the movie. The sounds of Aliens tormenting their prey, the steady pulse of the motion tracker from the Marine's HUD, the way vision changing sounds on the Predator, they're all in there, adding to the chill and, literally, giving you goose bumps.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer brings several modes to the table, increasing the overall game value while offering players an experience like never before.
Deathmatch (the mode where you must make as many kills as you can within a time limit) is being supported by other two modes: Species Deathmatch (a marine, an alien and a predator fighting against each other) and Mixed Species Deathmatch (two teams containing all species).
Domination is the classic Control Point mode, while in the Predator Hunt mode, one plays the powerful hunter and the others are the Marines (victims). This is a recreation of the old Hunt mode from Aliens versus Predator 2.
Survivor will have you fighting in an arena against wave after wave of increasingly powerful opponents, backed-up by up to three teammates. In Infestation mode, each Marine killed will only make the Aliens side more powerful.
The drawback is that the multiplayer servers are not very populated and, when you finally enter a lobby, the host leaves after just a few minutes. Also, make sure you practice all the weapons on the single player campaign first, as some of the guys you meet online can make the experience really frustrating by dominating you throughout the entire game.
Conclusion
Honestly, I can't say that this is the best game I've ever played. It doesn't even make it in the top 10, but it's a game that I would recommend wholeheartedly. It’s a serious game, with sounds that maintain a sense of horror throughout the campaigns, and seasoned with movie-like and creepy cut-scenes that inspire fear.
The bottom line is that the new Aliens vs. Predator is a game that lives up to its name. The different campaigns, each one with a different playable race, make the single player a real treat. The multiplayer, showcasing an impressive seven different game modes, makes for the cherry on top of the proverbial delicious cake. Longer campaigns, something else then an outdated engine, better level design and easier alien control would have been the glazing to complete this gaming delight.
