That's right, it's time for another RETROspective! Today, I will be talking about Aliens Versus Predator for the PC.
This game was released in 99' for the PC and Apple computers by Rebellion, and was one of my favorite first-person shooters. The best part of this game was that you were able to choose between three species to play: the Colonial Marine,
the Alien and the Predator. Each of them had their own single player
campaigns which were usually several levels long. Not only that, each species had unique weapons and perspectives.
The Colonial Marine had weapons and gadgets mostly from the
Alien film franchise, such as the flamethrower (
Alien and
Aliens), the pulse rifle (
Aliens) and the motion tracker (
Alien and
Aliens). Along with that, the Marine was given a normal vision mode and a night vision mode. You also had to find med-packs to heal. I'll say it right now (and I've said it before): the single-player Marine missions were the scariest experience of all three species. Most of the levels were dimly lit and when I my motion tracker make that "bleep" noise indicating something was coming my way, it made my palms sweat. It was even worse when you had to use the infrared vision mode because your motion tracker would disappear. Although the Marine has decent weapons available, he was still rather weak up close. One good hit from an Alien's tail or a Predator's shoulder cannon and you were usually finished, even with body armor. However, of all three species, the Marine was still the most balanced between power and vulnerability.
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| A rare shot of an Alien, Predator and dead Marine all together. |
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The Alien was my favorite species to play in this game, and I'm fairly sure it was the first campaign I completed in full. The Alien had no ranged weapons, just claws, a barbed tail and a mean set of inner jaws. This meant that you had to get up close and personal to take down an enemy. But despite this handicap, the Alien was MUCH faster then the other two species and could climb on almost any surface. This helped balance the inability to attack from a distance and made the Alien a fascinating gaming experience. You also had a vision mode to navigate in the dark and a "fish-bowl" vision perspective. While the Alien was powerful in close quarters, it's armor was weakest to the firepower of the other two species. But at the very least, when you were the Alien, you didn't have to worry about getting ambushed by other Aliens (except in some multi-player modes). You could also regenerate health by head-biting an enemy with your inner jaws.
The Predator was probably the most super-powered of the species. His weapons were strong and so was his health. The Predator also had the ability to heal at will as long as he had enough energy. Given the right situations, this made the Predator very tough to beat. He also had four different vision modes: "normal" vision (which is not canon accurate, might I add), infrared, Alien mode, and Predator mode. The Predator's auto-targeting weapons, the shoulder cannon and disc, were tied into these visions and would home in on what ever species was highlighted. This was very useful in single player because there were very few instances where you had to fight Aliens and Marines at the same time. However, in multi-player mode this was actually a disadvantage because if you were playing with humans and Aliens AND Predators, it was inconvenient to have to switch between modes to auto-target them. Still, the Predator was probably the toughest of the species. It took many more hits from the Alien and one of the bigger guns from the Marine to take a Predator player down.
While the single-player campaigns were fun, they were not particularly driven by a deep plot-line. But ultimately, the single-player mode was not the reason you played this game. It was the online multi-player mode that really made this game shine. It was one of the most adrenaline driven and face paced games I've ever played. You had to be on your toes almost constantly to avoid getting ambushed or blown apart. The way you played was also different. You could use what ever weapon you wanted in single player but in multi-player, other gamers had different expectations. You were more respected if you were good with the weapons that took skill to use. A good example was the spear gun for the Predator and the pulse rifle for the Marine. Both of these weapons took more skill to use effectively because one required you to be incredibly accurate with your aiming and one was lower in power and required accuracy. One nice feature online, however, was the ability to lock certain weapons when you hosted a game. So if you didn't want a bunch of Predators disc spamming or a bunch of Marines using the smartgun, you could just lock the weapons. I literally spent weekends playing this game online. It was that entertaining.
Eventually, the online community died out and people moved on. But this game will always have a special place in my heart. And, in writing this segment, I discovered that it is available on Steam (through Valve) so I might just download it and relive some of the excitement I remember from those days. If you're interested in a scary, exciting and (for it's time) unique game perspective, go and download Aliens Versus Predator Classic, turn all the lights off and PLAY THIS GAME!!
