Australian Penthouse

ALIEN vs. PREDATOR

PUBLISHER: SEGA
DEVELOPER: REBELLION
PLATFORM: PS3, XBOX 360, PC

★★★★★

THE road to adapting movie-licensed properties is fraught with peril, with most attempts stopped at the gate, never to be seen or played. Generally, these games are hack jobs, created to coincide with a cinema release and with little consideration of the source material (exluding titles such as Batman: Arkham Asylum).

However, this is not the case with Alien vs. Predator. In fact I’ll go out on a limb and say that the game is the best licensed product that I’ve ever played—being both faithful to its inspiration, and breaking new ground.

Through three interlocking campaigns, as either Marine, Alien or Predator, you retrace your steps with each new character, but the wildly different mechanics of each species keeps the action decidedly fresh, leaving you hungering for more.

Marines use the same iconic weaponry from the films, such as the Pulse Rifle and SMART gun, gloriously recreated as you creep tensely through the darkness to the metronomed beat of the motion tracker. Aliens are built for stealth and speed, emerging from the shadows before ventilating craniums, and Predators are the nastiest of the bunch, stalking prey from afar, cloaked, with the most brutal coup de grace ever seen in a videogame.

Each story lasts approximately 4-5 hours, and feels perfectly balanced. The thread that weaves it all together is Charles Bishop Weyland, (voiced by Lance Henriksen) giving both an air of legitimacy and familiarity, and just the beginning of the multi-license pay-off.

There’s a robust multi-player component, with inter and intraspecies ‘Death Match’, ‘Predator Hunt’ and ‘Infestation’, where one player stalks a squad of Marines as either Alien or Predator, but my favourite is Survivor, where up to four Marines battle waves of increasingly more powerful Aliens in a last stand scenario.

With sublime controls, respect for its namesake and high production values, Alien vs. Predator is a must-own for the discerning gamer, guaranteed to keep you entertained from the first burst of the Pulse Rifle to the climactic inter-species smackdown.

[Inside The Game]

Alien vs. Predator producer Paul Mackman explains how SEGA brought together two original monsters of movie franchising…

SEGA must be overjoyed at Australia’s reversal of the classification ban of AVP

Absolutely! Obviously, from a sales perspective we are, but as developers we’re glad that you guys will actually get to play the game—and from a more personal standpoint. I get to come to Australia for a week, so it’s a win-win in my book.

Did you draw upon any of the films particularly heavily?

It’s fair to say our primary reference points are Alien, Aliens and Predator—those are the classics, in our opinion; but we take something from the [franchise] universe, including the films, the comic books—it’s all fair game. We think we’ve given fair nods to all four corners of the AVP galaxy.

Lance Henriksen has a large role and provides the basis of the game’s three separate campaigns. Was Bishop always your preferred narrator?

Charles Bishop Weyland was always our primary character to bind the three stories. I actually directed the voice session, and it was a massive career highlight for me. [Lance] was everything I hoped he’d be: very chilled; cool; with

loads of stories—talking about Jim (James Cameron) and Bill (Paxton); but beyond that, he’s a consummate professional. I think he really likes coming back to the franchise, adding a little more to it here and there…being a face that the fans recognise, and pulling it all together.

In multi-player sessions, does the development team favour one species over another?

It’s actually quite evenly split. Our producer, Dave, would play Marine, our project leader, Tim, would opt for the Alien, and I would be the Predator—as I love the toys, he’s a cool guy—but I really do enjoy playing them all, and you’ll find that the more you play, the more you’ll enjoy switching between the three characters.

Will fan favourites Hicks (Michael Biehn) or Hudson (Bill Paxton) be available as playable characters in the final version, multi-player or otherwise?

I’m afraid not, there is a fair amount of unlockable content, but we didn’t manage to get likeness rights for either of those two characters.