O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
When talking about No one Lives Forever 1 and 2, I mentioned that apart from those two, there was another Monolith Productions classic that cannot be purchased digitally – Aliens versus Predator 2. Released between NOLF 1 and 2, this game was my personal favorite of the three and I replayed it a lot. I haven’t done it in a long while, though, and after replaying the NOLF games I was a bit worried about being disappointed. But I wasn’t.
The concept of Aliens versus Predator was born out of crossover comic books of the early 90s and videogames based on the license soon followed. Most notably, Rebellion Developments has made several titles with the same name (but different spelling) across two decades, with the latest entry being Aliens vs. Predator from 2010, which was very boring. My first experience with this concept was with their second game called Aliens Versus Predator released on PC in 1999 (and re-released years later digitally as Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000) – a simple but extremely fun FPS which let you play 3 separate story campaigns. The Colonial Marine campaign was a horror themed FPS about surviving the encounter with xenomorphs and Predators. Alien campaign was about using the ability to climb all surfaces, rushing at enemies and refilling health by eating them and story-wise was essentially the reverse of the human campaign. And Predator story was, true to the character, about hunting creatures across several different planets and you could use the arsenal of weapons from the movies, cloaking ability and many visor modes.
In 2001 Monolith Productions, using their engine and experience from the first NOLF, created Aliens versus Predator 2. A game that did everything its predecessor did, but on a completely different level of quality. For one, instead of doing barely connected missions, the entire game is one big story with three campaigns providing several points of view on the same events and adding more context. This alone made going through the singleplayer of the game very exciting (the 2010 title that actually attempted the same, but poorly). But on top of that, they also made sure to give a unique feel to each story, and packed them full of unexpected twists and unforgettable moments.
Colonial Marine campaign is now not just horror themed, as some levels are almost purely about building tension and scaring the player. And it constantly switches the pace and the tasks, providing you with different equipment during different story beats so the game never starts feeling repetitive. Same thing happens with the Alien campaign – it’s a full on horror, but now with a slight tinge of stealth mixed with extremely fast paced action. While as Predator you will experience both being overpowered with your high tech tools and being stripped of them and relying on smarts instead. All 3 campaigns are fantastically well paced and last just enough to be exciting and not get stale.
Not that the game is without issues, of course. There are moments where level design is questionable and unclear. Even with the Master Server Patch fan mod, which despite the name also makes the game better compatible with modern hardware, the game doesn’t run as well as you’d hope it would. And I couldn’t make it run on 2560×1440 at all, requiring me to play at 1080p instead, occasionally experiencing crashes. But it’s all worth it.
Unlike the Primal Hunt expansion. I did try to revisit that standalone prequel expansion, developed by a different studio. But couldn’t stomach more than half an hour of it. Even though the completion of that expansion would’ve taken me around 2 hours. It’s just that terrible in design and writing. And the only saving grace it has is a couple of cool moments and interesting visual design for a few levels. Still, even if the game will eventually get a proper digital remastered release, if Primal Hunt is included you can safely ignore it.
I do wish there would be a remaster of this game, though. Unlike NOLF, which I feel would rather benefit from a remake, Aliens versus Predator 2 still plays really well. Probably, being a more conventional FPS helps. It’s still memorable, still fun, still exciting and if you ever get a chance to play this game, definitely give it a go.