Since it was requested here's my AVP 3 review:
I believe this game to be a disappointment. There’s a pronounced lack of direction, polish and content throughout the game. Seems like the developers didn’t know where to go with this game and they took some parts from the previous games, some parts from the movies and mixed them together without a clear notion of what they wanted to achieve.
The problems start with the story and campaign progression. There’s pretty much no story , only a crudely sketched premise and the game simply takes you through the levels without setting a clear goal at any point – only arbitrary objectives that are also repetitive (go there activate switch, kill spawning Aliens, go someplace else activate another switch - repeat). Each campaign has 6 levels (5 for the Alien) and they all take place on 7 maps (in total), some being exclusive to a certain campaign or two. None of those maps (or levels – as in considering a level a specific campaign version of a map) are particularly interesting. The order in which you go though them differs between races. That’s another issue. You have no idea about the time line. For example: You play the level Refinery with the marine and it’s filled with Aliens. You also play it with the Alien but this time it’s filled with marines. For the Predator the level is filled with marines and Aliens. This creates confusion – what’s the time line? There seems to be no clear chronology between the three campaigns.
The Alien is the worst campaign of them all. It’s shorter than the other two and you don’t really accomplish anything significant. It feels underwhelming. Throughout the campaign you receive orders from your Queen. Nothing wrong with that except those are very specific orders and you have no idea what their point is. In one level you’re supposed to disable bases by shutting down electrified fences, communications, automated turrets and such. Yet why isn’t explained. I mean if the Queen wanted to throw out the humans then why send a sole Alien on specific sabotage missions and not send a whole army? And how would the Aliens know so much about human technology to target individual components for sabotage and in a specific order?
Onto the gameplay. The AI is very poor in this game. Only the Aliens act properly by employing hit and run tactics and by generally trying to out-maneuver you. Though sometimes they do hesitate too much or move about randomly. The humans seem oblivious to pretty much anything. They don’t notice dead bodies, they don’t notice an Alien hanging by the ceiling right in front of them (not even when it’s hissing loudly), they don’t notice someone being killed right behind them, or aside them. And if they were having a conversation with someone they’ll carry on even after stepping on that someone’s dead body. The Predators don’t fare much better. Both as a marine and an Alien I found that mostly they just ran/jumped from place to place oblivious of me hurting them. When I was playing as an Alien a Predator kept retreating while I was continuously hitting him with my tail. (When he attacked though the melee system with its famous -blow-back after hit- effect often made it impossible to evade.)
When the AI isn’t being oblivious is being too observant. For instance some marines might not notice a cloaked Predator 6 feet from them, but after they do, sometimes they’ll continue to see that Predator for a long time and distance.
Onto the melee system. I don’t like it. I feel it takes freedom away from the players with the way it locks on to a target and prevents any input from the player while the attack sequence is automatically played out. Melee combat can often feel tedious due to this. Unless you perform a trophy kill from behind, dealing with a marine as an Alien can last for too long. If he’s not alone this means certain death. I believe I should be able to attack and retreat the way I see fit and not have the game lock me out while performing predetermined animations that take too long and leave me vulnerable.
The controls for the game aren’t stellar. The marine feels sluggish and the Alien has difficulties detaching from surfaces.
Another problem is the lack of a crouch button. After dying because I couldn’t hide behind some boxes, I can’t see how anyone could say it’s not needed. And if indeed if there’s no need for crouch (or iron sights or leaning over a corner for that matter) then why is there a need for a carrying limit for the marine. I mean if the aim was realism, then that’s realism half-done.
Also weapons like the Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Minigun, Net Gun, Spear Gun and the Spear as a melee weapon are missing. So are the night vision, armor and APC for the marines.
I guess they weren’t “needed” just like more than 7 maps for the singleplayer weren’t needed, nor was a good storyline. Quite a lot of stuff this game didn’t “need”.
The game also suffers from “consolification”. The interface betrays a console port . The game is constantly telling you where to go and with which objects you can interact with. (And by the way for the Alien there is no free transition through vents – you have to wait until the game tells you to press a button and then press that button for an automatic transition.)
I could go on really, there’s too much that’s not right with this game. It should be a bigger game with a lot more polish and content. Right now it just feels unambitious and generic – more like a money milking attempt. I’ve already finished the singleplayer aspect and since I’m not really interested in the multiplayer I’m very tempted to leave it alone for a long time.
My grade for this game is 6.8
PS
I also don’t like the way the game is already setting up its sequel. I mean this game lacked in length, content, polish and storytelling and they want us to believe they have an ambitious sequel (ambitious due to the hinted subject it might tackle) planned out and that it will be worth it?
The game ends with a cliffhanger (two actually) and the only cliffhangers I accept are like the one in Doom 3 when at the end they show what happened to Betruger. The game could have ended right there and it wouldn’t have mattered as the game was long enough, properly done and most importantly had a proper ending. But I won’t accept cliffhangers for short games with unsatisfactory endings, lacking in content.
I hate this trend in modern video games and movies.
