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Call it Freudian if you like, but I'm a bit of a wet lettuce when it comes to chitinous murder-beasts that impregnate people with their foul spawn, and an ill-advised trip to the Trocadero's Alien War at the tender age of 13 did nothing to endear me to Geiger's scampering Xenomorphs.
Lucky, then, that SEGA demonstrates Rebellion's latest Aliens vs. Predator title in the bright and airy Eurogamer demo room, which is totally lacking in vents, ducts and other things for evil to lurk behind. Even more luckily, we're booked in for a karaoke session afterwards, so I know this won't even be the scariest part of my day. Anyway, it turns out that what I'll largely be witness to is the gangly bastards meeting squishy, plasma-related ends in the Marine and Predator sections.
The sheer awfulness of the movies has tarnished the reputation of the Aliens vs. Predator crossover in recent years, but Rebellion has excellent AVP pedigree, knocking out 1994's Jaguar title and 1999's PC version - both of which impregnated the hearts of many gamers without the need for forcible tentacular throat-rape. This then is perhaps a chance to redress the balance and produce a game that fits more snugly with the generally excellent comics and graphic novels.
Rebellion's set about doing this by returning to the approach that made the PC first-person shooter so lovable, essentially crafting three very different games, with each playable race offering a distinctly different approach. First off, we're introduced to the creepy, underhanded Predator: all fleshy dreadlocks and hi-tech gadgetry as he stalks into a xeno-infested military post in the jungle. He's there to contain the outbreak: an abandoned hive disturbed by foolish humans mining the planet for ore.
Many of the Predator's abilities will be familiar to anyone who's played the previous game or seen the movies. The iconic wrist-blades are there, satisfyingly chunky and nasty-looking, and the shoulder-mounted plasma-caster shimmers its three-dot aiming laser through the trees. Key amongst the Predator's abilities, however, is his nifty cloaking device, which conceals him from the Marines - unless they happen to be carrying a motion-detector.
This was not the sort of three-way that the stag had had in mind.
Aliens are also unfazed by this optical trickery, instead sniffing out their target. A lot of the time, though, you'll be sneaking around when you're playing as the Predator, attempting to get close enough to perform gruesome "trophy kills". For Aliens this can mean tearing off the extendible proboscis from their mouths as they attack; for unfortunate Marines it usually means some invasive dentistry and a gruesome decapitation. The showboating isn't just for kudos in the family album either; towards the end of the demo we see a dismembered head used to operate the retinal scan on a security door.
Another new ability is a floating jump reticule, acting like a grappling hook to leap to branches and walls with pinpoint accuracy. An approach from height seems to be a definite tactical advantage, offering cover and the all-important element of surprise. It also allows you to indulge in a little bit of skullduggery, zooming in with binoculars and recording snippets of enemy conversation.
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JohnnyWashnGo
30/06/09 @ 10:40
+4
If its not as good as the Atari Jaguar version, I will be annoyed.
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Paperghost
30/06/09 @ 10:47
0
I'm really curious as to the status of the other Aliens game (the one where you play as marines only) but info on that one seems to have dried up. anybody?
/ edit - to be clear, i'm not talking about the rpg that's been canned, i mean....uh....the other one, where you can weld doors shut and things of that nature before the aliens start swarming you.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 30/06/09 @ 11:50
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StarchildHypocrethes
30/06/09 @ 10:47
+8
Sounds promising!
Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. |
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+3
an ill-advised trip to the Trocadero's Alien War at the tender age of 13
Ill advised because it cost about £20 and lasted five minutes (or similar)? Not terrible, but certainly not amazing. Not as amazing, for instance, as AVP1 on PC - what a game! Thank you for that Rebellion, and here's hoping that you can replicate (and even improve upon) it this time around. W00t!
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 30/06/09 @ 11:52
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StarchildHypocrethes
30/06/09 @ 10:52
-1
Alien War scared the bejesus out me when I was a kid!
You're obviously made of stern stuff Pete. |
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+1
I too had the Jaguar version, and was good for its time. Although it was certainly rather unbalaced if played as the Predator. Cloak... creep up to enemy... decloak momentarily... zap enemy with your stick (so not to get poor kill rating while cloaked)... cloak again. Rince, repeat.
I agree totally that the game was not fun if you were a Colonial Marine. |
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creepylizard
30/06/09 @ 11:21
0
I remember the jaguar version. It looked good at the time but I remember when you killed an alien it left an acid pool on the floor for the rest of the game that you couldn't cross. Bloody annoying at times...
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curtlikesmeat
30/06/09 @ 11:36
-1
I was just watching videos for this on youtube this morning and thinking it's strange that EG haven't done a preview - 10 minutes later here it is, you lot must be telepathic. I hope they play up to the survival horror part rather than a full on FPS.
Having said that this isn't anything that hasn't been on the internet for a few weeks - lets see some Marines footage!! |
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IneptPercy
30/06/09 @ 11:53
-1
I still remember my mate screaming 'turn around' like his life depended on it, and I was playing the game.
As said the marines where great fun, you heard that blip and ran away! |
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+6
I remember the enjoyment me and my friends got with playing this game. The multiplayer LAN fights we had on the 1999 PC version were epic, very atmospheric in what you did.
My favourite memory though is having a scaredy cat friend of mine Rich play the game. He was a marine playing the single player, strolling along... hearing noises (as you do) looking around corners feverishly then coming to a dead end only to turn around to face an alien mid air flying towards him. He promptly freaked out with the girliest screams your likely to encounter out of a man. The funny thing was it scared the crap out of us all too, more for his reaction than anything else! |
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kangarootoo
30/06/09 @ 12:09
+2
"I hope they include the non save feature, although it made the game almost unplayable when the motion tracker went off you nearly shit a brick! Great for atmosphere.
Way better than quick saving every 5 seconds. Maybe give us the chance to save twice per level? " If they do, they had better make it optional. I hate limited save systems with a passion. AvP 1 was still super scary even when they (thankfully) patched a save system in. /engage the same thing I say every time this subject comes up Being able to save my game is a function of good software. What if my door bell rings, or I want to go to bed half way through a level? Having to play to the end of a level before you can record your progress is unacceptable (checkpointing is ok, if it is well done). If you need to limit the saves to "increase tension", there is quite simply something wrong with your tension. Repetition is not fun and it is not "gameplay". And like I said, AvP 1 was still scary with saves, because it was well basically designed. |
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+2
I remember going to the Trocadero for Alien War, it was amazing and very scary at the time (I think I was 13 or so too). I went on it again a few times and they definitely shortened the length as time went on, the first time it was about 15 minutes IIRC. I always remember some poor sod would be dragged from the lift by the alien...
I'm really looking forward to AvP as the first on the PC was amazing, the face huggers used to scare the shit out of me because you could hear them scurrying in the darkness but you'd have no idea where they were and then suddenly BAM they were on your face and you were dead. The difficulty and lack of check points made AvP that much scarier as you couldn't just reload your save game, it made you value being alive so much more! I don't know if they could dare do that today without people complaining about the difficulty. Maybe the hardest difficulty could have no checkpoints? |
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Doctor_What
30/06/09 @ 12:33
+2
@ kangarootoo: I take your point about convenience, but I can also see that it's hard for developers to create tension when the game is constantly being interrupted.
For example, if you were watching The Shining for the first time and stopped every fifteen minutes to have a bit of a chat, then you would expect the atmosphere to be ruined, woudn't you? Well, that was my first experience of the film, and I didn't find it even remotely scary, whereas it's supposed to be a classic of atmospheric horror. If such a respected classic can be ruined by breaks, how can developers be expected to manage it considering how much harder they have to work to generate fear in the first place? I was the first to complain when MGS4 woudl launch off into another 40min cutscene just when I wanted to go to bed, so I really do understand the need for clearly demarcated save points, but I also think that only having two or three in a level can be good for the tension in a level's structure. |
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kangarootoo
30/06/09 @ 12:34
-1
"Maybe the hardest difficulty could have no checkpoints?"
That could work, but it still sits uncomfortably with me. Why not make it a completely seperate option for players that want that sort of thing. Hitman Bloodmoney restricts saves based on difficulty, and its the reason that I don't play it on Expert. Its not that I don't like a challenge. It is because a) I can't guarantee I can keep playing without wanting to stop for a bit (their save system is a bit buggered as it is in that regard) and b) the AI is too flaky to make it feel consistently fair. |
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schachmatt
30/06/09 @ 12:36
-1
Let's hope - well, I do - it will be more like the first immensely atmospheric AvP than the second one (by Monolith), which was generic FPS-fodder!
Being a Marine felt as intimidating and overwhelming as it should be and the 2-save-restriction of the Gold version or patched original elevated that feeling. It was sort of an Anti-Duke. I loved it for its difficulty and envy the skill of people, who made it through the unpatched, no-save version. Anyone here? kangaratoo: If the doorbell rang or you had to turn on the lights mid-play you could pause the game, you know? AvP1 just wasn't for the casual gamer, who wanted quick success. You were a Marine/Alien/Predator in an evironment full of hostiles! Rebellion made you feel being there. |
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kangarootoo
30/06/09 @ 12:36
-3
@Doctor_What
"but I can also see that it's hard for developers to create tension when the game is constantly being interrupted." I didn't say it was easy to create a scary game. But some devs can achieve it, so it can clearly be done. "For example, if you were watching The Shining for the first time and stopped every fifteen minutes to have a bit of a chat, then you would expect the atmosphere to be ruined, woudn't you? Well, that was my first experience of the film, and I didn't find it even remotely scary, whereas it's supposed to be a classic of atmospheric horror." But in that example, you had the choice to pause OR to leave it player. Choosing to pause frequently was what ruined your experrence, but you could have also simply chosen not to. A better example is imagine a DVD player with no pause function. If the doorbell rings and you want to answer it, you either have to miss a bit of the film or start watching it from the start again when you return. Imagine how annoying THAT would be! Edit: in fact, its a great example because it makes my point for me. Imagine the response if someone released sucha DVD player sans pause function, and when asked why on earth they had done such a thing the vendor cited your "pausing can spoil the atmosphere of a good film" justification. T3 magazine would choke their coffee across their keyboards.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 30/06/09 @ 13:38
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+2
People forget that one of the first PC games true surprises was a unique and realistic explosion model. If you fired a rocket or threw a grenade while in tight space like a vent, the explosion travelled along it a fair distance as it would in real life, compared to causing an explosion out in the open where didn't have to be as careful.
It was absent from the sequel though. |
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Sub-kamikaze
30/06/09 @ 12:40
+1
The Monolith version really was quite poor which surprised me because this was their NOLF/NOLF2 era in which they were bleedin' brilliant. There were some good touches though; like you playing the alien and chewing through a chest cavity... but, bar these novel touches, the actual normal gameplay for all three characters was a bit lacklustre
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0
Just wanted to throw some love out for the use of tentacular throat-rape. Love it. Aliens was one of only two films to ever give me recurring nightmares as a youngster (in my defence, I was only about 10 when I first watched it). Like others here, playing AvP1 over a LAN at Christmas ranks as one of my best ever gaming experiences and I can but hope that this new game will be anything like as good as the first. Some structure to the co-op or team-based multiplayer would be a dream come true.
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SomaticSense
30/06/09 @ 13:22
0
"a giant Predalien half-breed looms unpleasantly through the gloom"
I hate to be pedantic, but sod it. There's no such thing as a Predalien half-breed when it comes to Gieger's Aliens. By their very nature they are all effectively half-breeds. Aaaannnyway. So looking forward to this. As long as they keep it simple like the originals and don't add any cover or other 'in vogue' modern day gaming cliches or fuck about with the mythology in any serious way (I'm looking at you Paul Anderson...), I'm sure to be very chuffed with it come release. We are long overdue a really good current-gen Alien/Predator game. |
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curtlikesmeat
30/06/09 @ 13:30
-2
Just to add, I'm one of the few that actually preferred the second game over the first - I thought the storyline was very fitting for the Aliens universe and playing as a facehugger was a lot of fun. Maybe they can combine the best of both.
I think you need to allow save any time really - yes it's cheesy when I'm pressing F5 after every fight, but if the phone rings or whatever you have to go.... if I can't save it I'll just be pressing escape and leaving it on the menu for a few hours.... which is an inconvenience if I need to go out. I found the second game quite tense anyway - no one else shart themselves when you had to go into the mini hive to rescue that female marine?! Arrrghh!!
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 30/06/09 @ 14:32
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+2
Is there any reason the "No save" crowd wouldn't just have a bit of self restraint and not use the quicksave button? Woulnd't that be better than demanding that everyone like to play the game the way they like to play it.
If people want to save so they can have their tea/leave the house/masturbate* then let them. If people want to ruin the atmosphere, let them. You're still safe in the knowledge that you guys are l33t. Eoin *Those were alternatives and should not be attempted simultaneously. |
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Sub-kamikaze
30/06/09 @ 13:34
+3
@homerbert
Ah, but if you're playing on a console, you're going to get checkpoints. And I dare you not to use a feature if it's implemented. I don't have that sort of restraint. I'd rather they have a hardcore difficulty level which disables checkpointing / Quicksaving and the like. I want that to be an option ingame rather than a self-imposed restriction. |
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