The first Aliens VS Predator for the PC was not exactly a good game - or at least not a proper PC shooter for its time. The main complaint about the game was its lack of a game-saving feature, which introduced an artificial element of difficulty in the game. While some would argue that doing so gave the game the "tension" and "suspense" that it needed, others would brush it off as a lack of effort on the part of the game designers to optimize the game - which was originally on consoles - for the desktop platform.
There would be no such arguments made against Aliens VS Predator 2, which is designed by Monolith instead of Rebellion. This title also incidentally happens to be completely exclusive to the desktop platforms - likely because it uses Monolith's LithTech engine, which was not compatible with consoles at the time.
This supposed sequel actually has no narrative continuation from the first game other than being set in the same universe. However, it has the same premise: a very deadly inter-species struggle among members of three races, all of whom are known (in-universe) for having a knack for killing.
Unlike the story in the first game, where the same game is practically played over three times only with a character of a different race each time, the story in Aliens VS Predator 2 involves three arcs that intersect with each other but do not occur in the same time frame. Each story arc will give enough knowledge about the story for the player to know about its gist, but the other two, when played, will reveal bits and pieces that the player can piece together into satisfying revelations.
Each story arc also shows the advantages and disadvantages of the player character of each race, often at a pace that is comfortably gradual. However, this also means that the length of each arc is dependent on the features that the player character concerned has. Therefore, the Marine arc appears the longest, followed by the Predator and Alien arcs, in that order.
The Human arc has the player taking on the role of a Colonial Marine corporal, who is part of a taskforce that has been sent to the research facility on the planet LV-1201 to investigate its state of incommunicado. As to be expected from a game based on IPs that have themes of ominous tidings, the Colonial Marines' mission goes awry and the player character is left on his own to complete his objectives. Throughout the arc, the player will get to know about the strengths and weaknesses of the Marine and the weapons available to him. The player will also discover the intrigues behind the purpose of the research facility, though if he/she has played the first game, they would be quite familiar.
The Predator's arc has the player character joining one of the galaxy-spanning hunts that are typically organized by his peculiarly cultured race. This arc will shed some light on the ancient history of the LV-1201 planet, as well as present the very interesting controls for his insidious weapons.
The Xenomorph's arc is perhaps the least-developed and may arguably be the most disappointing. The initial stages will be plenty of glee for those who had wanted to see the Alien life-cycle depicted in all its gory gut-munching glory. Unfortunately, from then on, the excitement would dip for those hoping for variety in content. That is not saying that this arc depicts the Alien poorly - far from it, as will be explained later. Rather, the Alien will perform the same sneaking and ganking throughout the arc, with few sequences that break up the tempo.
All three of the arcs will have moments where the respective player characters appear to have unwittingly caused some event that either hindered or facilitated the advancement of the other, or others. They can be entertaining for those who had wanted to see how their individual struggles intertwined, but those hoping for confrontations between them would be disappointed. (Unfortunately, to elaborate further would be to invite spoilers.)
The Marine has a plethora of weapons that he can collect. Conveniently, in the single-player campaign, he can carry all that hardware around with him like he is a walking armory and wield them in and out of his proverbial magic bag without much hassle, as well as carry enough ammunition that would have supplied an entire squad of his colleagues. Furthermore, all guns have different types of ammunition, which can deliver nasty surprises to enemies who are not expecting them. (For better or worse, there is no visual indication for which ammunition is being used on the Marine's model.)
In multiplayer, the Marine player character is further segregated into four different player classes, each with two variants that are typified by their default weaponry. However, they cannot retrieve their (fallen) comrades' weapons to further empower themselves, apparently in a design decision to balance the game.
A weak, puny melee weapon is prevalently one of the default weapons that shooter protagonists would have. Perhaps as a disappointment for some, Aliens VS Predator 2 follows this informal convention by giving the Marine a Combat Knife that would be pathetic next to the default weapons of the other two player characters.
It does come with another practical use, which is to cut open the nets from the Predator's Netgun (more on this later). However, it has to be mentioned that the Marine can only resort to the Knife if he/she is trapped; this is no different from the other two player characters, which have to bring up the right, one weapon to cut themselves out. In other words, this use of the Knife can be considered no more than aesthetics that accompany some scripting that has to be completed via button-mashing.
The Pistol is another typical and puny default weapon that the Marine has. However, far from being a weapon of last resort that will hardly save the player character from a grisly doom, the Pistol can be loaded with Armor-Piercing ammunition, which is more powerful than the default Dum-Dums. In multiplayer, this would be a surprise to enemies who thought the player character would be vulnerable when wielding what appears to be a pea-shooter.
There are a lot of enemies who resort to close-combat in this game, so it is expedient indeed that the Marine has access to the Shotgun, which is expectedly handy for close-quarters encounters. The Slug ammunition is especially useful in dealing with powerful enemies who believe that they are tough enough to take a shotgun blast, albeit one produced by default Shells.
The Alien universe's equivalent of the Assault Rifle, the Pulse Rifle, is in this game, being the signature weapon that it is. Like it was in the movies, its meek sound effects belie its power. Its primary firing mode is conveniently designed to produce a few-round burst or fully automatic fire depending on how the player presses the fire button; this makes it handy at many ranges, as to be expected from sci-fi assault rifles.
The secondary firing mode has the weapon launching grenades, giving it an area-effect offensive power and essentially making it an all-rounder for any combat situation.
The Flamethrower is also a signature weapon in the Alien universe, so it is here too in this game. As to be expected, the weapon spews flames, which are not really pretty to look at but otherwise perform what they are expected to do quite well: burning enemies to a crisp. In single-player, certain enemies, namely the Xenomorphs, are scripted to die within just a couple of moments of exposure to it. However, pyromaniacs would probably be disappointed by this weapon, which does not appear to able to set fire to anything else other than character models.
The Smartgun is one of the most useful weapons in Alien VS Predator 2. Its looks suggest that is little more than a mundane compromise between a light and a heavy machinegun, but a peculiarly shaped and very flexible muzzle suggests otherwise. Pointing at the vicinity of any viable enemy target on-screen within the gun's cone of detection will have the cursor latching onto said target, with the muzzle following it. After that, it is a simple matter of firing the gun, while making sure the target stays within said cone; a massive 750-round magazine makes certain that the player will have a lot of ammunition to go through swathes of enemies. Moreover, its built-in motion sensor allows it to track cloaked Predators.
On the other hand, the weapon applies more inertia to the Marine, slowing down his/her movement (which is to the advantage of enemies who are attempting to engage in close combat). This is likely a deliberate game-balance design. Yet, the other disadvantage is more akin to a design oversight: the cone of detection is not visually shown well on the screen.
The Sniper Rifle seems like an odd inclusion in a game where most enemies that the Marine would face will attempt to get uncomfortably close to him/her. However, there are wide-open environments that are conducive to its use, namely those where enemies cannot creep up to the Marine so easily. It is a high risk-versus-reward weapon, because it tends to do enough damage to kill either of the other two player characters in a single shot (a headshot in particular).
The Grenade Launcher is a lot more versatile than the Pulse Rifle in dealing area-effect harm, being able to cycle through several different types of grenades that will inflict explosive doom on victims in a variety of ways.
The default Grenade is a lot like Grenades that have been in sci-fi shooters, e.g. they bounce around. The Proximity Grenade is a great way to discourage pursuers (especially the other two player characters, whose special visions may distract them from the visual cues that a Proximity Grenade is up head). Smart Grenades, amusingly, chase enemies that they detect. The final kind of Grenade does not exactly harm its target; instead, the EMP Grenade is a hard-counter against the Predator's Cloaking ability, which malfunctions if the Predator is anywhere near the Grenade when it goes off. (As a bonus, the Predator is also temporarily but greatly slowed down.)
The Minigun is the Marine's answer to heavily armored enemies. In the single-player story, this bruiser of a weapon is very useful against certain enemies that are very tough. As to be expected of a Minigun, the weapon fires bullets at tremendous rates, taking them out of a very generous 900-round drum magazine. However, it has to be spun up before it can start firing; this is where its alternate fire mode comes in handy, as it spins the Minigun before-hand. Of course, it has to come with balancing drawbacks; the weapon is very noisy when it spins and the player character will appear on any opposing Marine's motion sensor as long as it is. The Marine is also rendered very slow.
The Rocket Launcher is a weapon that is typically found in sci-fi shooters, but its presence in this game is still a bit surprising because Predators and Aliens are quite fleet of foot and thus won't be so easy to hit with rockets. Nevertheless, the Rocket Launcher's massive area-effect properties can often catch Predators and Aliens unaware, especially in multiplayer deathmatch games where these two player characters may be engaged in close-combat.
Guns (and the Knife) are not the only equipment available to the Marine. There are also passively equipped items. (There are also some devices that are only used in certain points in the single-player story, usually for suspenseful scenarios involving death-traps.)
The most important of these would be the Motion Tracker. The other two player characters have special sights that will give them an edge over the Marine, so this is his/her virtually ever-present counter. Much like the Motion Tracker in the movies, it will detect any nearby characters who happen to be moving, both friend and foe, thus giving the Marine an advanced warning of any approaching enemies.
The Motion tracker also picks up the motion of anything that happens to be not idle, including machines and automated doors. Filtering out all the different signals to figure out which ones are actually dangerous can be a challenge, but this is an understandable balancing design. In addition, figuring out how to do so would be a satisfying experience for fans of the Alien movies.
Unfortunately, the Motion Tracker may have some design issues. The display for the Motion Tracker is a flat 2-D screen, so it has to resort to peculiar methods to indicate whether detected characters are above or below the Marine. These methods apparently involve icons of slightly different shapes and sizes, but they are barely adequate. The Motion Tracker also cannot detect anything behind the Marine, though the signature beeping will still occur anyway.
The Image Intensifier provides low-light vision, giving the Marine visual aid when combing through dark places, which are otherwise the domain of the other two player characters. On the other hand, it is still highly dependent on light sources, so pitch-black places are still off-limits without the use of the other sight-aiding devices that the Marine has. It also happens to render bright light sources, like gun-fire, even brighter, thus it is a poor device for dealing with human opponents that are prowling through the dark.
A bigger disappointment is that it happens to run on rechargeable but limited batteries. Running out of juice during combat in dark places is a terribly inconvenient coincidence. Moreover, a design oversight appears to have the single-player version of this device running out of power a lot quicker. Considering that the other two player characters can use their special visions indefinitely, limiting the Image Intensifier's use may be a poor game design.
As the name of the Shoulder Lamp suggests, it is a light source that throws a cone of light in front of the Marine. It happens to be a very bright one too, enough to blind anyone looking directly at it (including Aliens and Predators). (Of course, it is not as useful against AI-controlled enemies.)
Obviously, the Lamp can be seen by anyone, thus giving away the Marine's position. On the other hand, this won't be much of an issue against Aliens and Predators who will be able to detect the Marine without needing to search for the light cones, though this would be disadvantageous against other Marines, who, as mentioned already, may have weapons that are handy for ambushes.
The Lamp would have been more appropriate at propagating the theme of suspense that this game has than the Image Intensifier, but unfortunately, it also has the same drawback of having limited battery power. Worse still, both devices draw energy from the same battery, which can be a frustrating game design.
If the Marine prefers methods of illuminating dark places that do not give his/her position away, there are Flares that can be popped and thrown at advantageous locations. Flares do not last long and they obviously mark the path of a Marine character, but these traits are double-edged swords that can be used by the Marine himself/herself to trick and confuse pursuers. Yet, the Marine can only carry a measly 20 Flares at a time. An infinite supply would be cause for disbelief, but would have provided some welcomed gameplay expedience.
Similar to protagonists of other sci-fi shooters (of its time, that is), the Marine can retrieve supplies that replenish some of his statistics. There are armor pick-ups which restore his/her armor integrity and Medi-kits that restore health. These have the handy property of giving amounts of replenishment that the player needs while retaining any excess armor or health, i.e. the pick-up item stays in the game-world as long as it has some goodies left. Incidentally, this is a game design in Monolith's previous title, No One Lives Forever, and one that was well-received. Thus, it is pleasing that Monolith wisely decided to implement this idea in Aliens VS Predator 2.
However, perhaps in an attempt to balance the game, armor and health pick-ups can be deliberately targeted and destroyed. This can be frustrating for Marine players, however. Yet, this crimping may be understandable if the difficulty of the healing methods of the other two player characters is considered. (The Marine needs only run over supplies or tap a button to immediately replenish without any animation or delay.)
Another transfer from No One Lives Forever is the Ammo Box. Like the boxes in the other game, it contains supplies that the player can retrieve, and excess supplies are conveniently retained by the virtually indestructible Box.
With all these equipment and resupply methods available to the Marine, he/she can be a force to be reckoned with, especially in the single-player mode. In multiplayer, the Marine's capabilities have been (wisely) dispersed among different characters, requiring Marines to cooperate with each other for certain game modes which, appropriately enough, require coordination.
(However, multiplayer matches can also be played with restrictions on load-outs removed, thus allowing all characters to gather as many gear as they want, which is likely not fair to Alien players.)
The Marine's ultimate piece of equipment is the Exosuit, which is only available in certain parts of the single-player mode and certain multiplayer maps, for reasons of gameplay balance.
When donning the suit, the Marine loses his Motion Tracker, Flares and Shoulder Lamp, but the loss of these aids is a small price to pay for the increase in durability, speed and firepower that the suit provides. The suit comes with built-in Minigun, Rocket Launcher, Flamethrower and most importantly a Laser Gun. While the other weapons have limited ammunition (though their ammo bins are very spacious), the Laser Gun taps from the suit's energy reserves, which are rechargeable. (Oddly, jumping also taps energy from said reserves, but the player isn't likely to have the need to jump while in the powerful suit.)
The Predator is by default the toughest of the three player characters, excepting a Marine that has managed to hoard a lot of armor (or gotten the dreaded Exosuit). He is also the player character with the greatest stealth capabilities.
In single-player, the Predator player character has plenty of leeway in gathering and using Predator gear, much like the Marine in his own story arc. In multiplayer, the Predator's gear is distributed among three balanced classes, which also happen to have different speed and toughness attributes.
The default Predator is the fastest of the three, though he is also the least resilient. Naturally, in multiplayer, he starts with weapons that encourage the player to make use of its high mobility. He also happens to be the model for the player character in the single-player mode.
The Heavy Predator is the bruiser of the three. He is the toughest but consequently slowest of the lot. However, he begins multiplayer matches with weapons that are intended to help him come into grips with the enemy and he is still fast enough to run down Marines.
The Assault Predator is a compromise between the two previous classes. However, perhaps his class-name is a misnomer, because he comes equipped with mainly ranged weapons that are great for ambushes.
All three Predator types have the ability to make a powerful vertical jump, which is performed by crouch-jumping. This ability is handy in getting to places that the Marine cannot, as well as leaping out of the way of harm. (It has to be noted here too that Predators are immune to fall damage.)
Being technologically advanced hunters, Predators are not above using augmented visions to find their prey. They have up to three visions in addition to their normal one, each one for detecting player characters of one of the three races and highlighting their models with high contrast to the environment. In return, Predators suffer reduced levels of detail for everything else in their view, especially the surroundings and incoming munitions.
Augmented visions that can be toggled to-and-fro are not new in digital games, but Monolith has utilized them to introduce special properties to certain weapons that the Predator uses.
In addition to these, the Predator has his energy reservoir, which is grafted into him and powers his cloaking ability and a couple of his weapons.
As seen in Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie and its sequels, the Predators have a lot of advanced weaponry that generally has a simple (but insidious) goal: to main and kill in a spectacular manner.
Unlike the Marine's puny Knife, the default melee weapon available to all Predators, which are the Wristblades, are quite powerful. Its primary attack mode consists of a flurry of stab/punches, which can quickly overpower Marines and Aliens if they are caught up-close and unable to move away quickly.
The Wristblades can also be "charged-up" to deliver a more powerful blow, which can be handy for eliminating any unsuspecting enemy from the back. They are also one of the few weapons that will not disable cloaking when used to deadly effect, which is a game design that is unfortunately not well-documented in-game.
The Combistick is a much more powerful weapon than the the Wristblades; few players would not appreciate the damage that it can do and the greater reach that it has. Its primary fire mode is a series of swings that would slay any target that is too stupid to back away, while the secondary option delivers a powerful thrust that would kill most opponents instantly. It also will not break the Predator's cloak.
The Speargun is a peculiar weapon that one would not expect a technologically advanced race like the Predators to utilize, but its virtues would become apparent when the player makes the first kill with it. It is essentially a noise-less weapon that is difficult to trace and is surprisingly accurate even at long-range, despite being seemingly pneumatically powered.
Primary fire unleashes a rapid volley of spears which would make even Marines reconsider the Predators' seeming lack of assault weapons. Secondary fire launches three bolts at once, which is handy if the Predator expects to be at a range where he can't miss.
Moreover, the Speargun does not breaks cloaking, which can be handy if the Predator wants to make shots of opportunity at unaware enemies. Another bonus is that if the Predator can reach quarry that was slain by this weapon, he can retrieve some of the spears that had been expended.
The Netgun is useful if the Predator wishes to slow down any victims who are trying to retreat to more advantageous locations. The Netgun has a generous cone of fire for the net that it launches, though it does have a limited range (deliberately so for the sake of gameplay balance). If the victim is caught in the net, then he/she/it has to attempt to cut the net before the Predator can take advantage of their immobility. In addition, only the Knife, Wristblade and Alien Claws can remove the net; other weapons-fire is completely ineffective. However, oddly enough, the net still can be shot down while it is in-flight.
Interestingly, some of the Predator's guns tap energy from his energy reservoir, which is also used to power his cloaking ability. These weapons also tend to be quite powerful, so this may have been a game-balancing design, e.g. preventing the Predator from using them for hit-and-run tactics.
The Plasma Caster, a.k.a. the Shoulder-Cannon, is the iconic shoulder-mounted weapon that the Predator has been known to use to surprise enemies who expected him to engage in close-quarters combat. While the element of surprise is lost in this game, the Plasma Caster is still very nasty to use against the other two player characters.
Despite being shoulder-mounted, the Predator cannot use any other weapon in his hands, which is likely a game-balancing design. To compensate for this straying from the canon, the Plasma Caster can fire plasma bolts of various charge levels. Primary fire delivers quick shots, which are suitable for dealing with any threats that are getting too close. Secondary fire allows the charging of the weapon for a much more powerful shot with area-effect properties when released.
(It has to be noted here too that switching from the Plasma Caster to another weapon is a very quick action.)
Incidentally, such a weapon design has been done many times before; what makes it different from the rest is its advantage of being based on Predator canon. The weapon benefits from the Predator's augmented senses by being able to launch homing shots at whichever targets that the augmented vision had tagged.
The Plasma Pistol is a sidearm of sorts to the Predator race, giving the impression that this advanced race accepts the doctrine of a compact, pistol-gripped gun that can be quickly brought to bear on enemies. However, if this is the case, the Predator race has the technology to ignore the usual convention that sidearms are usually weak weapons; the Pistol's secondary mode, which simultaneously launches three powerful area-effect shots, would give this impression. Moreover, the Plasma Pistol's shots impede targets, slowing them down and removing any cloak that it has, if it is a Predator.
The Predator's Disc from the Predator movies makes its foray into an Aliens Versus Predator game. Like in the movies, it is a guided weapon that, once thrown, can zero in on whichever target that the Predator can see and has highlighted, often eliminating the target in a single pass. It can be thrown over or around cover, giving the Disc tremendous utility. This is balanced by a low rate of fire. There is also only one disc for the Predator to use, so the Predator runs the risk of losing it if the Disc misses its target. (Fortunately, the game designers have also included a feature to recall the weapon, in return for expenditure of energy.)
The Predator is not above using explosives, so the Remote Bomb has been included in his gear to give him an opportunity to pull off some sneaky (but very loud) ambushes, as well as having a make-shift grenade for enemies that are too close. The bombs are difficult to spot; ironically, other Predators would have the most difficult time trying to spot these bombs.
In addition to these nasty weapons, the Predators also resort to other pieces of equipment that facilitate their independent and self-sufficient personalities.
Cloaking is the Predator's main way of staying stealthy. As expected, it renders the model of the Predator virtually transparent. As a gameplay-balancing design, the Cloak takes energy from the same reserves as some of the weapons above do. The player will have to make a decision between engaging enemies outright and performing stealthy maneuvers, which is certainly in character with respect to the Predator.
Three of the most powerful weapons that the Predator has, the Plasma Caster, Plasma Pistol and Disc, disable the cloak when used. This is for gameplay balance, but the game does not document this very well.
(Another drawback of the Cloak that is not documented is that it fails when the Predator enters and exits bodies of water.)
The effects and benefits of cloaking are best appreciated in multiplayer, though the overall experience of cloaking would not be exactly as intended by the game designers.
In single-player, the Predator's invisibility is only apparent when the player hunts down human prey; Aliens completely ignore the cloak, as justified by the Alien player character's ability to see auras. Even so, the AI-scripts that govern the awareness of humans are finicky at best. Faraway AI-controlled humans will never be able to perceive the cloaked Predator, but getting nearer would reveal inconsistencies in their AI.
Staying still at close ranges to human prey would render the Predator imperceptible to them, but moving just a bit would betray his presence, even to humans who appear distracted, e.g. those that are enacting scripted conversations. The excuse here is that they have motion scanners, but the player would find that it applies to humans who canonically would not equip motion scanners, such as scientists.
Furthermore, the detection scripts appear to depend on map nodes and boundaries. For example, if a Predator can get a solid wall in between him and his prey, he can dance away on the other side of the wall while cloaked and not be detected. In contrast, slinking around behind cover will not help a lot, unless these pieces of cover have special scripting that facilitates sneaking around.
In multiplayer, the ability to cloak would appear to be balanced by special visions or techniques that all player characters have in detecting invisible enemies. However, these only present a silhouette of a cloaked Predator and little else. Considering that all Predator character classes have very similar model silhouettes and most of their weapons are very compact (especially when compared to the Marine's very big guns), a player would get little more information other than the whereabouts of the Predator.
The Medi-Comp lets the Predator perform the very painful medical procedures as seen in the movies. Excruciating animations aside, the Medi-Comp's healing process lasts only a few seconds while replenishing the Predator's health completely. This has been done in the first game, but it now benefits from a revamped system for energy reserves.
In the first game, the Predator has energy reserves that regenerate once depleted. Unfortunately, the regeneration rate was too slow to be competitive enough in multiplayer, and perhaps even single-player. Monolith addressed this issue by giving the Predator the Energy Sift, which can be used to replenish the Predator's energy reserves astonishingly quickly, but in return removed his ability to regenerate energy automatically and also makes him especially vulnerable during the recharging animation.
Like in the movies and other fictional works involving Predators, Predator player characters in this game can collect skulls for bragging rights. To do this, they simply attack the head polygons of the models for fallen enemies; the LithTech engine will do the rest of the visual changes. However, collecting skulls appears to be only there for purposes of thematic glee; the trophies does not offer any gameplay-changing benefits.
The Alien would be the least interesting of the three races, considering that it eschews the use of any kind of gear and has only a few natural abilities. Nevertheless, these are very versatile and can be used in a variety of ways to gain an advantage over the other two player characters. However, only mature Aliens appear to benefit from these. For most competitive game modes, these are the Alien classes that are best used.
Regardless of its type, an Alien is able to see any other living thing that happens to be on-screen; their silhouettes will be highlighted in colours that are specific to their race. Cloaked Predators can be seen this way, though cover will still block sight of their silhouettes. In addition, the Alien can toggle a low-light vision mode that allows it to see in the dark, but at the expense of the ability to see the silhouettes of enemies.
The Drone is the category of Alien that the player uses in single-player mode. In multiplayer, it is a class that is balanced in between the hard-hitting Praetorian and the fast Runner.
The Drone has the typical abilities that an Alien has been shown to have in the movies. By default, it attacks enemies by clawing at them. It can also perform a pouncing attack that inflicts tremendous damage to any target that is at the other end of the leap; the same pouncing attack can also be used as a quick get-away technique (ironically enough). The Drone can also perform a crouch-leap that is similar to the Predator's.
Its greatest asset is its ability to climb walls and ceilings. To do so, the player simply toggles to crawling mode, which will cause the Drone to drop into said pose. (By default, the Alien assumes a standing pose.) Moving up to a wall has the player character smoothly slinking up onto it, and its model will continue to slink along any surface that it is in contact with. (The player can also use this mode to scoot along the floor, if there is more cover on the ground than up on the walls.)
Releasing from the floor is simply a matter of toggling off crawling mode, and the Drone will reorient itself mid-fall to fall on its feet. (It also happens to be completely immune to fall damage.)
By making use of its fast speed and its movement capabilities, a skilled player can string motions together to perform highly acrobatic and athletic maneuvers that can confuse enemies (including other Aliens in multiplayer). This can be a lot of joy, especially if the player manages to out-maneuver an enemy.
The Drone can also make use of its tail like a whip. Its surprisingly long reach allows the Drone to destroy certain objects such as explosive canisters if using claws is not a good idea (though the Drone will still be well within the area of effect when they go off). If delivered against a living target, the tail-whip can stun enemies, briefly rendering them vulnerable to other attacks.
The Runner is the fastest adult Alien, clocking at speeds that are even more impressive than the Drone's. However, this comes at the cost of lower endurance than the Drone, and its speed may be too much for some players to handle. Otherwise, it is played in the same way as the Drone is. Yet, considering that the Drone is plenty fast enough, the design trade-off between speed and endurance may not be worthwhile.
The Predalien is one of the more entertaining results of the cross-over between the two popular IPs. Perhaps to the glee of Alien fans, they can play as this creature in multiplayer.
Combining the already prodigious strength of the Alien with that of the even stronger Predator results in a creature that can pounce and leap further than either race; it is also much tougher. However, the trade-off is that the Predalien loses the lithe build of the typical Alien, resulting in a loss of speed. It also loses the cranium of the typical Alien, preventing it from performing head-bites. Other than these traits, it has the same capabilities as the Alien Drone.
The Praetorian is the hard-hitter of the adult Aliens. Unlike the other Aliens, it has evolved natural armour that is proof to most small-arms fire. This is apparently devastating against Marines, though the latter does have several weapons and ammunition types that can harm the Praetorian. It also has a clear advantage in power against Predators and Aliens.
However, all that natural armor slows it down and also prevents it from making pouncing attacks as well as crawling around. It also happens to have the second-biggest model among Aliens. It is perhaps most suitable for players who like to play as Aliens but do not want the possibly disorienting speed and wall-crawling that the other classes have.
There are two other classes, which are the Facehugger and Chestburster, but these are only featured in the single-player mode and the Alien Life Cycle game mode (which will be described later). Playing as these can be astonishingly difficult, due to their relative weakness, though the Facehugger does benefit from certain gameplay conveniences (which will also be described later). There is also the Alien Queen, which will be elaborated on in a more appropriate section.
All Alien player characters are able to regenerate health by attacking corpses; the heads of corpses hold greater health bonuses. For the more daring Alien players (except those that play Predaliens), they may attempt to perform a critical hit (of sorts) by aiming at the heads of enemies, which will trigger the visual indication that the player character is ready to do a lunging bite that, if successful, would inflict a lot of damage. In the case of human enemies, this will often slay them instantly.
The corpses of Predators also appear to be more nourishing than human ones, curiously enough. Of course, this design may have the purpose of balancing the game and rewarding Alien players for successfully defeating Predators, which are very deadly in close combat.
While there is visual indication on the Alien player's screen of which attack type that the player has ready, there is little - if any - visual indication of the same for other players. While this may appear unfair to players of the other two races, this compensates for the lack in variety of the Alien's attacks.
The single-player mode of the game uses the player classes that had been mentioned above as AI-controlled enemies that the player has to face and eliminate. There can be quite a lot of them to handle at times, though these moments are also incidentally where the game will introduce new gear to the player.
There are also some non-playable characters in the game, though these are reserved for single-player mode. Most of them, such as the facility guards, merely serve to give the player some weak buffoons to kill and profit from their deaths, though there are other, much more difficult enemies to contend with.
There are plenty of automated defenses in the research facilities that the player will infiltrate, which serve to stall the player character's progress.
Then, there are the Synthetics, which are android soldiers that will never be highlighted in any way in the Predator's and Alien's special vision modes. Predators and Aliens also do not get anything from their corpses. Fighting them can be a huge pain, as there is no reward for doing so.
With three distinct races of player characters, the sound designs have to portray them with enough respect and faith towards their respective canon. Most fans of these IPs would find that the game is aurally competent in doing so.
Being a shooter, most of the voice-acting for the player characters consists of mostly grunts and groans, especially for the Predator and Alien (as befitting taciturn individuals who kill for sport and completely feral creatures, respectively). The Marine has some phrases, but most of these are for his/her death throes (as befitting the rather dubious side-role that he/she plays, which is to show how inhuman the other two races are).
Alien VS Predator 2's story is mainly driven forward by two (non-player) characters with over-arching schemes: a certain Dr. Eisenberg who has an infatuation with Xenomorphs, and mercenary general Rykov, who has a very severe issue with Predators. Their decisions will be the ones that dictate the flow of the story, and there are also plot twists that reveal startling points in their respective histories and which also give reasons for their tenacity in pursuing their goals. This great writing is further bolstered with surprisingly on-character voice-acting for both of them, though a lot of their intrigues are also presented through notes and messages that they have unwittingly left behind for the player to retrieve and read.
The other voiced characters are not as good, but they are still adequate enough to present their actual roles in the story: hapless bystanders who get sucked into a bloody mess. This also extends to the player character in the Marine's story arc, unfortunately. However, he does have voice-acting that fits his cool-headed personality well. (On the other hand, the writing for his character design and role in the story could have been deliberately made to accommodate for any possibility of the casted voice-actor turning out to be dead-pan.)
The sound effects in this game are comprised of sound clips from the movies and the previous Alien VS Predator game, though these have been remixed and altered to accommodate the LithTech engine. Fans of the Alien and Predator franchises would not find the sound effects too wanting, though non-fans would have to be cautioned that the Alien player characters repeat their sound clips and sound effects a lot, which is a consequence of having fewer moves and attack options than the other two races do.
The soundtracks in the game can be categorized into three sorts, one for each race in the game. The Marine's set of soundtracks appropriately has themes of suspense and urgency, while the Alien's exudes dread and the Predator's has plenty of malice, of both the subdued and all-out sorts. However, they can be loud enough to smother gameplay-related audio cues (e.g. the Marine's sensor pings), so the player may want to tone them down.
The graphics in the game is powered by LithTech 2.0, which is the same engine that powered No One Lives Forever (Monolith's own game). However, whereas Monolith may have had an easy time with No One Lives Forever due to its cheery art-style and 1960s themes, Monolith had to work on LithTech 2.0 some more so as to produce graphics that fit the Alien Versus Predator universe. The result is LithTech Talon.
This effort shows in the execution of lighting sources in the game. Lighting sources emit cones and spheres of illumination that are quite impressive, especially those from the shoulder/helmet lamps of human soldiers. Landing this illumination on actual objects, however, does not exactly produce shadows that look as great. These shadows are quite pixelated around the edges, and this pixelation can still be seen even at the highest shadow quality setting.
The textures and polygons for models in this game are surprisingly well-detailed, especially if compared to those in the first game and Monolith's previous game, No One Lives Forever. Of course, it may not be on par with those that can be achieved with the Unreal or idTech engines that powered big-name shooters at the time, but the character models have enough detail to portray the role that they play in the game; Marines will have plenty of gear appended to their models, Predators will have lots of tattoos and the ribs on Aliens can be counted clearly, for illustration.
As has been seen in No One Lives Forever, the LithTech engine that powers this game is not exactly an industry-leader in facial animations. There is much better lip-synching than there are in the super-spy game, but the only other facial animation is the blinking of eyes.
Bodily animations are a different matter. The Aliens take the limelight here, with their slinking motions being particularly impressive, especially when they are crawling up to the player character with harmful intentions. The Predators are expectedly quite still when they are crouching and waiting for their prey, but when they go on the assault, they resort to brisk sprints and hefty swings that look like they can decapitate a human if they connect (and they can certainly can).
The environments in the game include sterile laboratories, military warehouses, subterranean caverns and jungles, to state some major examples. Most of these environments are static and dark, providing a gloomy and sometimes unexciting atmosphere which is not really memorable. However, they do benefit from high numbers of polygons, lighting sources and detailed textures, so they are not as bland as their first impression would suggest.
LithTech Talon also allows for smoother and more stable gameplay than its predecessor in No One Lives Forever had. Furthermore, it has much more reliable networking support, which is to the benefit of multiplayer in this game.
The multiplayer portion of the game utilizes the canon behind the Aliens and Predators IPs to create a few amusing game modes, but there are some genre staples too.
There is Deathmatch, which is a free-for-all as shooter veterans would expect. However, the experience is made quite different from the usual frag-happy parties with the three different categories of player characters. Finding ways to counter players of another race can be very satisfying, especially if they turn out to be effective.
Team Deathmatch groups players into their respective races, which while thematically appropriate, can be disappointing if a player had been expecting motley crew teams. Of course, this restriction may have been intended for gameplay balance.
The Survivor match type, which is something like a game of tag, has one team playing as the "Mutants", while the other plays as "Survivors". The Mutants are to hunt down the Survivors. Upon being killed, the latter are turned into Mutants. In other words, the Survivors face a battle of attrition that can only be won by holding out until the match timer counts down to zero. On the other hand, having the Survivor team being whittled to only one member can result in the match ending anyway; considering that Survivors earn score points the longer they survive, there are plenty of chances for very amusing betrayals.
The Hunt game mode is like Team Deathmatch, except that these teams are hardly static; having members of one team killing those of the other causes them to switch sides. This game mode may perhaps be too chaotic for those wishing for more reliable teamwork.
Overrun is again another variant of Team Deathmatch, but the scoring methods are different. The "Defending" team gains points for holding out, while the "Attacking" team scores in the usual way.
Evac has one team attempting to run away towards a rendezvous point, away from the other, who is trying to stop them. Surprisingly, no one race would have a net advantage over the others in running away, despite some obvious bonuses that a certain race would have that the others lack, such as the Predators' Cloak. The gameplay has been designed such that any kind of enemy that is on the run can be countered by any pursuer.
There are also "mutators" of sorts that can be toggled in these match modes. Like the match types, most of them are also inspired by Aliens and Predators canon.
Life Cycle has Alien players starting as Facehuggers. Like in the movies, Facehuggers have to leap at victims and smother them in order to lay their eggs inside the latter. However, in a game, the element of surprise that a Facehugger canonically has is greatly reduced.
Therefore, a Facehugger benefits from very forgiving collision detection that allows it to latch onto a victim's face anyway even if it has leapt at said victim from behind. The Facehugger can also climb walls.
The gestation time is very expediently short, and the player would soon emerge as a Chestburster. Unfortunately, the Chestburster is a pathetic phase of the Alien life cycle; it loses the ability to climb walls and leap, it has reduced movement speed and its only defence is a meek bite.
Playing as a Chestburster in multiplayer mainly involves finding a place to hide in while waiting to mature into an adult Alien (which is an expedient gameplay contrivance, considering that the Chestburster has to canonically feed in order to metamorph into an adult). While this may appropriately suit the vicious but timid nature of the Chestburster, it would not be so exciting gameplay-wise if all it can do is hide.
Queen Molting has one of the Alien players turning into a Queen when he/she has reached a certain number of kills. The Queen is a very powerful creature that can decimate anything that is stupid enough to get too close to her. However, this power comes at a cost of mobility. The Queen also loses Pouncing Attacks, the Crawling ability and Head-Bites, in addition to having a huge model that cannot hide behind almost anything.
With its designs that largely stayed faithful to the IPs that it is based on and its improvements over its predecessor, the game can be concluded to have been designed for fans of the first game, as well as fans of the Aliens and Predators franchises. As a shooter, it may not be leaps and bounds above the leaders of the genre at the time, but it makes great enough use of its source material to forge gameplay that is unique enough to stand on its own.