Review by: Jeff Haynes
Published: November 16, 2001

My mommy used to say there were no monsters. No real ones, but there are.
– Rebecca “Newt” Jordan from the film “Aliens”

Yes, Rebecca, there are real monsters, and they’re all fighting over the same planet. When Fox Interactive and Rebellion unleashed Aliens vs. Predator on the gaming world in 1999, they managed to successfully enrapture and terrify us with a glimpse into an interstellar conflict that had only been raging in the confines of the comic book world. Since the late 1980s, Dark Horse Comics has enthralled fans of both the “Alien” and “Predator” film franchises with tales of Alien infestation, the Predators that hunt them, and the unfortunate humans that find themselves trapped between the two sides. Similarly, the original title, a very successful port from the ill-fated Atari Jaguar, instilled a palpable sense of dread as players ran, crawled, and leapt through level after level of ferocious enemies. Fox was so convinced of the shock value experienced by watching these characters battle it out they offered a pair of free underwear to people who purchased it. Two years later, Sierra has teamed up with Fox Interactive and Monolith to scare devotees even more with the much-anticipated sequel, Aliens vs. Predator 2.

One of the more critiqued facets of the original game was the plot — or lack thereof. While the first AVP had missions with objectives and plot points for each species, no specific reason was given as to why the second outbreak occurred on LV-426. For instance, the Marine wakes up to discover Aliens have overrun his facility, but doesn’t know how or what caused the invasion. Additionally, there was no cohesion between the storylines, which gave a further sense of disunity. Events that happened within the Alien levels, for example, had no effect on the Marine or Predator, which made it very hard to detect that the three species were even on the same planet at times. Thankfully, AVP2 offers a unified plot with branching scenarios for each race, which gives the game a movie-like quality. In fact, the title may seem very similar to “Aliens” to buffs of the movie franchise.

The plot even sounds like a side story Ripley could’ve gone through: 77 years after the incident on LV-426, the unscrupulous Weyland-Yutani Corporation has established a lab on LV-1201 for the purposes of research and development of the xenomorph species into a commercial and military application. Headed by Dr. Eisenberg, a high-ranking company scientist, the facility is supported by a mercenary strike force dubbed the Iron Bears that handles most of the security issues for the site. While performing a routine shipping of research specimens back to Earth, a containment unit carrying an Alien egg falls and breaks, unleashing a facehugger that creates an infestation at the site. Detecting the new epidemic, a Predator ship descends upon the planet and begins to hunt both the humans and the newly gestating bugs. As things quickly turn from bad to worse, the LV-1201 facility sends out a distress signal to the USS Verloc, which holds a battle-weary platoon of Marines. Responding to the call, the Marines find themselves embroiled between two opposing forces as they try to find any survivors upon the planet and evacuate them to safety.

While this is AVP2‘s basic backstory, Monolith goes a little farther with its development of the plot. Each species has seven missions available that are layered with multiple levels. The selection of a specific character presents the plot in a racially specific way; however, the title manages to interweave side plots of the other characters to deepen the playing experience. In one instance as the Alien, you wreak havoc inside a section of the laboratory complex, freeing fellow xenomorphs that join in the carnage upon hapless humans. This action also has the effect of freeing a Predator, a perspective not seen unless you play the Predator missions, where you discover exactly how that character was captured and why it was placed in the lab. Additionally, AVP2 features large, detailed outdoor levels that offer a welcome break from the confined, tightly packed corridors and hallways that comprised the original game. Also, while you may interact with other members of your selected race, for the most part you are on your own against all odds, as many of your allies are either separated from you or ripped to pieces in front of your eyes during the cinematics and scripted sequences.

Regardless of the race chosen, you are dropped into a nightmare that requires continual adjustments of tactics to survive your encounters with your environment and your enemies. Drone xenomorphs, Predators, and synthetic attack androids are only a few of the dangers in each level. In a firefight, many of them also attempt to push you toward other threats in the vicinity, such as poisonous pools of water, precipices, or automated sentry guns. Since most attacks are either en masse (in the case of human or Alien aggression), or overwhelmingly powerful (in the case of the Predator), knowing how to adjust your equipment to the situation becomes a necessity. For example, the Praetorian Alien is immune to small arms fire, so switching to a stronger ammo type is essential for surviving one of their assaults.