Aliens versus Predator

Lack of out-of-place music, impressive (at the time) ambient noises, slick darkness, the gritty and terrifying world and xenomorphs of the Alien franchise with the somewhat monstrous but oddly honorable cloaked hunters from Predator movies, AVP sets an experience that is action-packed and laden with horror. Stalk humans and predators alike as a lone xenomorph drone. Run in the darkness as a lone marine, hunted by both the swarming xenomorphs and the stealthy predators. Or stalk as a predator, nailing down humans one at a time and fighting the hordes of xenomorphs. Regardless of whom you play as, the feeling of anxiety, exhilaration and fear you felt with the original Alien movie and the sequel are pretty much there.

The game actually feels almost Lovecraftian, but instead of psychological horror, the game gives you a relentless horde of aliens with nary a sufficient arsenal to counter them. Besides the foreboding darkness and the lonesomeness each character makes you feel, each character's gameplay is different in their own way.

The xenomorph drone outmaneuvers and stalks individual targets from the dark while avoiding most direct confrontations as he is quite fragile but can rend almost anything they come in close enough to pieces in less than a second. Marine has it tough as the neverending swam of xenomorph drones forces them to progress onward, not giving him time for a breather, making even his impressively varied arsenal seem pitiful and even a single predator on his path can make things a lot more difficult. For predator, picking out humans while cloaked may seem simple, they rarely offer much of a challenge except in large numbers. The aliens however see through the predator's cloak and come swarming in on him like a nest of bees, making many of his more powerful weapons useless in close quarters. All three provide unique challenges and experience.

It's amazing how AVP didn't become more popular than it is, it's a solid package of great gameplay with decent story, however it was unfortunately released shortly after Half-Life which was hyped by the press and many others even though it offered less in a sense, contributing to AVP's lower popularity. AVP was perhaps too hectic and not everyone is fan of horror and dark places where you feel insignificant and can't see your enemy properly. Instead of making you feel like a hero like HL did, AVP makes you feel like you survived.

(Sorry for the ad-like speech at the start, but I couldn't think of anything better.)


Sanguine # 2009-08-21 03:24:10

Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000 features the Colonial Marine, Alien and Predator Campaigns and the frenetic single-player Skirmish mode from the original title: Alien Versus Predator Gold Edition, which was released to massive acclaim in 2000.

Alien Versus Predator Classic 2000 has been updated to run on modern PCs and laptops using DirectX 9.0c and includes support for Xbox 360 Controller for Windows, however, it does not currently support multi-player.

The three most ferocious species in the universe in a bloodthirsty battle for the ultimate prize: survival. Take your pick: be a Colonial Marine, a Predator or an Alien. Fight through suspense-filled environments: from starships and space stations to colonial bases and eerie planetscapes. One wrong move turns you from hunter to prey.

* Three campaigns: Colonial Marine, Alien and Predator
* Includes all the levels from the original AvP Gold Edition plus the Millennium Expansion Pack
* Skirmish mode against infinite Alien hordes
* Bonus Episodes
* Unique abilities, weapons and equipment for each species
* Scale walls and elevator shafts as an ALIEN with frightening speed as you attack and devour your victims
* Stalk your prey as the deadly PREDATOR using wrist blades, shoulder cannons and stealth mode
* Lock and load as a COLONIAL MARINE using motion trackers, grenade launchers and flame-throwers to exterminate your foes
* Supports Xbox 360 Controller for Windows
* Music from the original soundtrack CD

Fox Interactive? - # 2010-01-16 03:07:42 - official description - source

healing magic - Predator heals himself by expending his energy reserves and stabbing himself with the healing stabby things, can be repeated whenever the player feels like it and there's sufficient energy reserves left.
health draining - xenomorph's healing method vaguely belongs to this: by "eating" the heads of humans and predators, live victims give more health.
hypermobile foes - xenomorphs when playing against them.

steam - only for AvP Classic

Sanguine # 2009-09-27 13:45:31

Seems like people have trouble running the game with anything newer than XP SP2, meaning anyone with XP SP3 or newer (like my XP64) are unlikely to get the game to work.

Though the game is practically playable even on XP64, as long as you don't linger in the main menu for long and skip the cinematics as the game otherwise crashes in a minute or so.

Sanguine # 2009-08-20 13:52:44

Comes on 2 CDs.

Sanguine # 2009-08-20 12:11:32

Gold Edition includes the "Millenium Expansion Pack". I couldn't find info if this was available for separate download for owners of regular AVP, but my memory says it was. There's 9 new multiplayer levels and few singleplayer levels for the marine. There's 2 new weapons, pistol and "skeeter", for the marine. Other weapons, mostly the explosive kind, were made more powerful, too. Gold Edition multiplayer is incompatible with the original AVP. There's different title screen and apparently some voice overs were replaced by Rebellion staff.

The new AvP Classic is essentially the Gold Edition.

Sanguine # 2009-08-20 11:52:16

EAN-13: 3348542147805 (BestSeller series, Gold Edition)

Sanguine # 2009-08-20 11:32:07

For 1 to 8 players.

Sanguine # 2009-08-20 11:30:17

Not to be mistaken with the new AVP game (2010) from the same developer.

Sanguine # 2009-08-10 13:06:00

Based on the 'Alien' and 'Predator' films, this highly rated shooter became famous for its intense fear factor, equal to if not better than other famously terrifying games: Thief, System Shock 2 and Half-Life in places.

Despite its superb exploitation of human terror, however, it failed in terms of gameplay to match the top FPSs of the time (Half-Life had been released just five months before). But with three games in one, one for each race (Alien, Predator, Human [Marine]), few could be disappointed by AvP.

# 2005-04-05 22:26:00

Official description:
Featuring characters from the popular and terrifying film sagas Aliens and Predator, Aliens vs. Predator pits three of the deadliest species in the universe against each other in a bloodthirsty battle for the ultimate prize survival. Playing as a colonial marine, a Predator, or an Alien, players stalk their way through richly detailed, spine-tingling environments.

# 2005-04-05 22:26:00

software: Lutris,

display: textured polygons

Minimum:
* Windows 95 or 98
* 200 MHz Pentium MMX CPU
* 32 MB RAM
* 640x480x16 display
* 400 MB HD space

Recommended:
* 400 MHz Pentium MMX CPU
* 64 MB RAM
* 4 MB VRAM
* 640x480x16 display
* 500 MB HD space
* EAX

Sanguine # 2009-08-20 11:40:07

ported to
Aliens versus Predator (Mac OS Classic)
Aliens versus Predator (Linux)