Retrospective: Aliens vs Predator (2010)

Quite a lot of animosity has been directed toward Rebellion’s 2010 return to the Aliens vs Predator franchise. After my experiences with the game’s original multiplayer demo I was inclined to agree: although the game looked a lot more modern than the company’s 90s original it felt like a weaker experience playing as all three characters. The pace of the marine gameplay was greatly slowed. Alien wall and ceiling walking was confusing and sticky thanks to the far more complex level geometry. And if you were lucky enough to be able to play as a predator – everyone wanted to be a predator – you quickly found that the contextual leaping mechanics seemed inconsistent in range and opportunity.

Despite it being a multiplayer demo – a mode of play I don’t tend to dabble in a great deal; call me antisocial – these issues with the game’s feel left me wary and disappointed toward a title I had been eagerly anticipating.

Eventually I picked up the game in a Steam sale and, along with scores of similarly-acquired titles, there it languished until recently when I, a hangover and a procession of cups of tea set out to explore its three campaigns.

And you know what? It’s actually a bit alright, this game.

Those initial concerns about the game’s feel are greatly allayed by playing through its campaigns. Sure, it’s a bit irritating to have to play three tutorial sections, but it’s essential to ease you in to how the three characters play. Let’s look at each in turn.

The marine is as previously mentioned a slow, plodding creature. I remember the original game involving breakneck dashes from area to area, glancing in every direction at constant intervals, desperately trying to make it to the next objective or defensible area – moments of fast-paced adrenaline punctuated by the claustrophobic terror of hiding in small rooms before the next mad dash. The shift in pace AvP 2010 brings isn’t all bad: considering the superhuman speed and strength of the creatures the fragile colonial marines were pitted against, those breakneck rushes felt a bit daft. Rebellion’s second take is all about slow, steady progression and regular use of the motion tracker to anticipate the direction of an assault.

The trade-off against pace is vulnerability. Now that it’s no longer possible for a marine to realistically run from danger it’s necessary that he not be quite so fragile. And so we come to those hated kill animations and the associated melee combat.

Many have commented on the idea of a marine punching or kicking a xenomorph away being a ridiculous proposition in the context of the setting, resulting in damage to the game’s atmosphere. It’s hard to argue with that on the face of it, but if we look back at the trade-off between pace and vulnerability – speed and durability, in other words – it’s obvious that this is the inevitable result of Rebellion balancing their game characters. In game terms, in other words, it doesn’t bother me, because it works. As for the fiction, the dodgy 2004 Alien vs. Predator film has a predator pulling out WWE moves. Let’s not pretend corporate IP is artistically inviolate, eh? Besides, knocking a big bug back for a few seconds with the butt of a rifle is rather more credible than running backwards whilst shooting, as seen in every 90s FPS and precisely none of the Alien films.

There’s a similar rebalancing for the aliens themselves. In the first game they were vulnerable, prone to blow apart in the face of a single blast of pulse rifle fire. They’re more durable now and almost as fast, making them even more deadly adversaries – and a bit more practical to play through an entire level with. When pitted against them as a marine it’s still about blowing legs off and finishing them with shots to the melon, but accomplishing that is now a lot tougher – as it should be. Playing as the alien is still mostly about stealth, and head bites still restore health (it’s a classic), so the main change is their enhanced melee abilities. They’ve got a greater range of stealth and knockdown contextual kills – though you will unfortunately see these over and over – meaning combat against humans is mostly about stealth kills or quick ambushes wherein you knock someone down and finish them quickly before retreating to the shadows. Thanks to your being slightly more able to resist gunfire you also feel a bit more like a specimen of the universe’s deadliest creature than an easily-punctured bag of goo moving at 60mph.

There’s also the recharging health: controversial, but again in gameplay terms it makes sense. I’ve lost count of the number of times I spent in the first game with only a sliver of health and not a single vulnerable civilian whose head I could devour. At that point there was nothing else to do but jump in front of a nearby turret and start the level again.

Finally, there’s the wall climbing. Although certain environments are still a pain – whose bloody idea was it to release a multiplayer demo of the hive, which has the worst tunnels to wallclimb along? – for the most part it’s pretty intuitive to leap and scurry about all over the place, striking and retreating, exactly as a lone xenomorph should. From discussions with others I gather this strategy is a lot more feasible on PC thanks to the mouse and keyboard, where you can reorient yourself in a split second and make a speedy escape.

Next up is the big guy. He’s still the nastiest contender and not just because he’s got more health and better guns. Playing as the predator is far more about stealth – when up against marines – and the use of gadgets and brute strength against aliens. When taking on humans the best trick is to use your camouflage field (which no longer drains your energy reserves) and leap from vantage point to vantage point, identifying the most vulnerable humans to pick off. You can distract them using the voice recorder/transmitter from the films, drawing off stragglers or distracting guards. A large marine squad can be whittled down using this technique and if, eventually, they spot you (after which they’re perhaps a bit too good at knowing where you are) you’ve still got your plasma caster.

Against aliens you’ll find yourself using the disc to injure large mobs as well as extensive wristblade strikes and leaping movements to manage your engagement with them. You can just wave in and swing but you will get torn apart or wounded. It’s much wiser to strike, take down a couple of opponents, then leap away and tackle the first few to reach you. As with the marine squads, keep on repeating this and whittling them down until the bug swarm is no more.

My point in going into so much depth with the strategies and techniques around the playstyles of the game’s three characters is to establish the baseline for an argument that, actually, Aliens vs. Predator 2010 does a pretty respectable job of nailing the feel of both film franchises and bringing them into a modern gaming experience. It doesn’t deserve the denigration it does by way of comparison with its gaming predecessors. Through its different choices, and the shifting conventions of modern gaming, it presents a strong and characterful take on the colonial marine, the predator, and the xenomorph. The part of me that’s a fan of those films and settings appreciates that. The gamer appreciates how well balanced the different characters are, at least throughout the three single player campaigns.

That’s not to say there’s nothing to criticise. The story is fairly old hat, with its most interesting elements relating to minute trivia of franchise lore: the dynastic corporate leadership of Weyland-Yutani, for example. Perhaps Rebellion opted to tell a fairly standard tale because of the risks of straying outside established lore with a beloved franchise (that’s the polite way of saying that geeks can be really conservative and protective of their fiction), or perhaps they were forced into it in order to tie the game into a revamped franchise that includes two new films.

The game’s also over fairly quickly, and as a result of its close adherence to accepted canon there’s nothing in there that you won’t have seen in previous films and games. Of course, that is also rather the point.