Aliens versus Predator 2000

Aliens versus Predator 2000 Classic review by Honorabili

One Sentence Review:

“AvP 2000 might be old but it sure still is SCARY!”

Overall Score:
10 out of 10

Overview:

AvP 2000 is one of the scariest PC games ever made. It might have come out back in 2000 but the atmosphere of the game is chilling, especially when you play as the space marine and aliens come swarming after you, and predators decloak as they cut you in half.

You can play as any of the 3 races: Aliens, Predators, and human Space Marines. Each of the races plays completely different and each has their own strengths and weaknesses, although the Predator is the most powerful of all.

There’s two aspects to the game, the single and the multi player modes. For single player, you follow a string of missions as any of the races interacting with the story and trying to survive through each level any way possible. Multiplayer consists of either playing co-op against hordes of aliens or a free-for-all slaughter-fest that mainly consists of survival of the fastest.

When you play as the Aliens, you are weak and easy to kill, if they can catch you. You special ability is mainly claw grabbing to any surface and moving really, really fast. You gain health by eating organics (humans, predators) especially if you are lucky enough to get a headshot (you literally eat the brain). The game shows you when this is possible by making a set of teeth come out at the top and bottom of the screen. You have a secondary attack that is your tail which you mainly use to decapitate and rip limbs off opponents.

The Alien by far literally is the most alien to play. When you set your vision to the special vision the alien uses and you run upside down on the ceiling going like 50 mph you will no longer feel like a person, once you get used to it. It kind of has the same feeling (as far as making you dizzy, if you get that) as the game Descent.

Should you decide to play as the human space marine, you will quickly find out why I claim for this to be one of the scariest PC games of all time. Everything pretty much kills you really fast. You have the worst vision in the game (the game is pretty dark enough as it is) and you have to rely between switching your night vision off and using your motion sensor which has the same sound effects sort of like the second Alien movie, Aliens. Your weapons range from the assault rifle to a smart gun, various rocket/missile launchers (overkill usually, and can kill you from the splash damage) to the flame thrower. You will get nervous playing as the space marine as you hear the claws and feet of multiple aliens coming at you from every direction.

The predator is by far the easiest race to play with in the game. You have 4 different vision (filters) to use, each one specializing in a specific kind of prey for you to hunt. The predator is pretty much overpowered in the sense that your weapons pretty much one shot every other thing in the game easily and you have the ability to cloak and self-heal.

This game is a classic.

Fun Factor:

Few games have the speed to rival both the Unreal Tournament and Descent games but AvP does. The action is non-stop and when it does stop, it makes you nervous because usually that indicates that something is hiding or they are building up to come get you. I find that exciting in a game, especially when everything in the game is so lethal.

This game is a pure adrenaline rush. The predator is the slowest but if you want to make it funner/scarier, jump into the space marine or see how far you can last being an alien. I love sneaking around and eating people’s brains.

Fun factor gets a score of 10 out of 10.

Difficulty Versatility:

This game is HARD. I’m good at this game and I can tell you that it’s really tough still, after 10 years of playing it. The terrain and environment for the most part can get you killed, whether it be barrels that can explode or sentry guns that rip you in half or the splash of an explosion or even the acid blood from an alien you killed at point-blank range and that’s now eating a hole through you.

You can play in 3 different difficulty settings, and each one is dramatically harder than the previous one. The harder you put it, the less saves you get (yes, this game has a limited number of saves unless you opt out to cheat and put unlimited saves).

It’s so easy to die and that makes the game way challenging and in a good way! Difficulty Versatility gets a score of 9 out of 10. Why not perfect? Some people will go home and cry to momma since this game is too fast and rough for them.

Value:

Since this game is old, you can either track down an old CD of it through mainly ebay or the easy way to get it is just to spend $5 on Steam (it’s always on sale there for that price). The link to get it on Steam is http://store.steampowered.com/app/3730/

I think that’s a price that anybody, even a child, can afford to spend on a game, especially a classic game like this one. Value gets a score of 10 out of 10.

Replayability:

It never gets old to get the rush and fear this game gives you. Even when one knows what’s coming up on the mission, if that is too “easy” for you, set it at the max difficulty and get a real challenge.

Think you’re good? Go online and play against people that are champions at the game.

I’ve played over 2000 hours of this game. If you are like me and like being shocked in a game and enjoy an epileptic experience, you will come back over and over to play this classic. I think that deserves a Replayability score of 10 out of 10.

Sound:

Sound is SO important, especially in a horror game. The sounds the Aliens and Predator make are completely authentic and sound as great as their movie versions do. The growl of the Predator and the scream when you heal will remind you a lot of the original Predator (vs Arnold) movie. The game will scare you when you are a lone space marine backed up in a hallway (or how about a stairway!) and you hear the screams of oncoming aliens crawling on the walls all around you. Sometimes the humans can sound a bit cheesy but otherwise the game creates a great tension. Even hearing the thump of your motion detector and some of the lights in the installations turning on can be quite creepy. Sound gets a score of 10 out of 10.

Music:

I used to play this game with the music off and it made it easier. However, the soundtrack adds a lot of tension to the game and it does a great job at it. Music should augment what the mood of the game is and it does the job right in AvP. Music gets a score of 9 out of 10.

Graphics:

The graphics are dated but they still look nice considering this game was written on an antiquated DirectX engine. Some of the terrain looks crappy but this is an old game. If you want it to look better you can always play part 2 or the new game which is scheduled to come out tomorrow. The character models look the best and that’s what’s important as well as making the weapons look realistic, which it does. Graphics get a score of 8 out of 10.

Stability/Reliability:

The game has been patched a lot over the years. It’s extremely stable. Stability/Reliability get a score of 10 out of 10.

Controls:

Controls are standard wasd fps game controls but each faction has its own variation. Basically, as soon as you play a new race, pause the game, go to the key mappings and see what your special keys are. It might be a little annoying at first but once you get used to it, it’s not so bad. Overall controls get a score of 9 out of 10.

Performance:

This game always ran fast. The engine is awesome and even when it came out it ran GREAT! Performance is not an issue. Performance gets a score of 10 out of 10.

My history with this game:

My brother, friends, and I have played this game extensively single player and even more so doing LAN parties throughout the years. This is one of those games where the explosions and screaming that would come from the speakers and players was so loud that we would literally get kicked out of any place we LANned it at.

I hope the new game continues with the shock treatment tradition that this game started.

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