Aliens vs. Predator for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

I bought my first gaming rig to play AvP, oh so many years ago. The visceral, dark and sometimes terrifying experience set up my expectations for what makes a good fps for years to come-- playing through the missions on nightmare difficulty before the patch that put in saves. Now, playing AvP on the 360, the game doesn't disappoint... much.

Visually, there are some quirks. The character models are a little bland by today's standard: bad lip synching, odd facial expressions, plastic hair. The environments, however, are awesome, and true to the films (I don't include the AvP film, because it's dead to me.) Playing through the levels from the different viewpoints of the species is quite novel.

The Colonial Marine game is very shooty, appropriately. The Xenomorph game is very crawlly-sneaky, appropriately. The Predator game, unfortunately, is very punchy-blocky-melee, and forced me to rely on the scripted finishing moves, which are time-consuming and leave the player vulnerable. The original Predator game was more sneaky-shooty, and I enjoyed it more. Also, when did the Predator get "normal human vision mode?" The compelling part of the original game was adapting to the Predator's vision modes. My impression is that "human vision mode" is in only because of the scripted finishing moves, and I truly wish it were not, because in infra-red the moves are even more disturbing, because of their inhumanity.

The campaigns are short, a few hours each, but well scripted. Lance, as always, reads his lines well. The longevity of the game, I think, is intended in the multiplayer, which is fun... though I wish there were more to the marine survival co-op.

Overall, I think this is going to be a rental for most people, though I do highly recommend it to anyone who played the original in its original era.