Alien vs. Predator 2

[Ish]

Anyone else round these parts ever play this. What a cracking game. What a terrifying game (when played as a marine).

I've just started replaying it. It captures the mood of Aliens (specifically Aliens, and not the other movies) so perfectly.

Particularly the audio. Excellent.

It has the benefit of running ninja fast on a semi-modern PC too. And I believe its now out on budget for a tenner.

I never played the first one though. Was it as good?

[Garibaldi Biscuit]

I only played the demo of the second one ( and it chugged most comically on my ancient P.C ) but it seems to refine certain concepts from the first game - taking into account how people felt when they played it. E.G the first level as a marine in AVP had an initially long period without meeting any aliens, allowing the tension to build, this is also the same in AVP2 but they throw in evil touches like a pile of debris suddenly collapsing and triggering a blip on your motion tracker.

The Predator and Alien levels seem more structured in the sequel, and the plot between each race more tightly woven ( there barely was a plot in AVP ), I hated the first alien mission in AVP but loved the demo one in AVP2 - as they got a more clear indication of what you'd like to do as an alien, have the humans screaming 'what the hell was that?!?' as you skitter across the ceiling and dissapear into a vent.

[Super Stu]

Indeed. I think we managed about 16 players on this at the last LAN bash. The best thing about it was that they were all pretty much new to the game, whereas I'm a veteran of the original. They had no idea really about the Aliens' capabilities, so it was like a scene off the 2nd film, where they were all in a blind panic trying to find me and kill me as I was picking them off one by one. Fun, until they caught on

I'll say this about the game: for me, there's nothing in gaming quite as chilling as hearing your motion sensor blip, then fall silent...

[*PrYzM*]

Yep i enjoyed this game very much, i think i played it through 3 times twice as a marine and once as a predator. Without doubt the scariest way to play is with the marine, with the lights off and nobody to distract your attention, the atmosphere is tense to say the least.

Playing as the predator tends to give you a greater sense of power, and you really do end up seeing every other living thing as prey. The optics for the predator were really well done in this game.

Top game and top time spent playing it.

[Welrain]

Yeah lots of fun!

Played through both the Marine and Predator missions and about half way through the Alien ones.

The Marine missions were scarey! The sneaky debris falling from the ceiling early on nearly killed me and running away while being persued by a pack of aliens was most exhiliarating.

[Ish]

What I find really impressive about it is that, particularly as a marine, even though I can remember exactly whats coming (due to it scaring the crap out of me so much the first time round) I'm still bloody terrified and it still makes me jump.

I just have to keep repeating to myself:

They're only polygons
They're only polygons
They're only polygons
They're only polygons

[Ravon]

I got this on the day of release, i enjoyed it a little but not the "**** your pants scary" that some of you think it is....

It was the Marine missions i enjoyed the most, the others just didn't do it for me..

[Garibaldi Biscuit]

Although I only played the demo of AVP2 I personally found the original Marine missions more frightening, even though the sequel possessed superior scripting and environments.

What killed it for me in the AVP2 was the alien models. They just.....didn't look right, far too brittle and fragile, and their movements were decidely skittish compared to the insectile quickness of the aliens in the original AVP.

Ravon, did you play the original? If so, did you find it superior for similar reasons? I'm just trying to find a pattern here.

[Ravon]

Yeah, i played the original. The aliens are guff, and the missions are uninspiring. And as for the predator, what a laughing stock he would be on his home world.... all them cool gizmos and still getting his ass kicked by some humans and a wall crawling acid spiting puff...