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AvP 3 - A Fan's Perspective
Hello
there, readers! I know I haven't been on here in a while,
but I am back now... at least for the moment to tickle your
reading bone with a little article I like to call "AvP
3 - A Fan's Perspective". Written, of course, by your
friendly neighborhood AthlonDude.
First off, let me start off by saying that I have been an
Aliens fan ever since the movies, and even before,
there were many Aliens games I tried out. I remember
first playing AvP on the Atari Jaguar, which reminded me a
lot of Doom, but was fun enough at the time. Then came
AvP for the PC and it just scared the living hell out of me.
And now AvP2 and the Primal Hunt expansion. All really good
games in their own right, with their good points and bad points.
With that, let's take a look at what they had to offer us
then, and what we they need to offer us in the future.
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First off, the single-player experience. Now in AvP 1, the
single-player gameplay was pretty intense. It was a frantic
run-from-place-to-place-hoping-you-wouldn't-run-into-any-of-those-creatures
type of game, and if you did, you were hoping to survive.
Lots of action, lots of fun, a little nerve racking at times,
but not bad. Almost all weapons came straight from the movies,
both Aliens and Predator, right down to the minigun. Good
sounds - in fact I loved the sound! It was dynamic, and they
gave the game a lot of atmosphere. The only down side was
that there was no storyline, no climactic ending to shoot
for, and no drive except to survive. Other key issues were
left out or were just no good: eggs didn't hatch facehuggers,
AI was terrible, no AI buddies helping you out, etc. Animations
were smooth on the models, but they just seemed a bit predictable.
All in all a good game, just a bit of a let down after playing
through other games like Half-Life.
Multiplay in AvP 1 was not very good at all, with a limited
variety of maps, and no dedicated server or automap rotation.
It just wasn't fun for very long. Got boring in a hurry, and
left you feeling kind of cheated. Considering the possibility
of having 3 very distinct species duking it out, you would
have thought they would have spent more time on multiplay
than anything else, but that was not the case...
Heck,
even with the free downloadable maps, it still didn't help
much.
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Then
comes AvP2, which was and still is a big refreshing change
from the original. You could really tell that the developers
took to heart what the fans had been posting in the forums.
Almost everything I ever read ended up in the game, with the
exception of the acid-spit. Singleplay was fantastic, a bit
dry in some spots, but all in all it had almost everything
the first one didn't: compelling storyline, better graphics,
scripted sequences, better lighting, you name it. AI still
needs work, and almost every possible ending was pretty lame
in my opinion, but it was all good. Downside was I thought
all the singleplay missions could have used about 3 more levels
to kind of round out the story, and fill in the blanks - something
Primal Hunt does, I suppose. Also, the animations on the characters
don't seem to be as fluid as in the original... they seem
to be a bit jerky.
Multiplay was handled well. They provided dedicated server
support, bumped up the maximum number of players to 16, and
allowed for class weapons, automap rotation, and even character
model selection. Maps were a bit better than in the original,
but none that were pulled straight from the movie, and that
was a bummer. I think we all would have liked to have seen
a detailed map of the LV-426 Hadley's Hope Complex, or perhaps
a return of the Subway map from the original? and where was
that infamous Jungle map, and Predator ship map we never got
- I suppose that's for modders to make? And player selection
could have been better. In No One Lives Forever, you
could choose characters and skins, in AvP2 you only had character
selection and that was it. Also, they should have had the
key individuals in the line up like Harrison's Team. Same
with the corportes... needed some corporate guards in there,
and maybe some flamers. Selection of maps, and methods of
play was neglected a bit as well. Coop mode would have been
great for an Evac mission, or an Overrun map. Monolith
did a good job but some of the obvious things that they left
out really perplexed me.
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So,
what about AvP 3, you ask? Well, it's gonna take a lot to
really bring out another hit. Rebellion
did good, Monolith did
great, but just who is going to be the next one to bring out
that kick ass AvP experience? If I had it my way it would
be Raven, or Valve.
I say that because Raven and Valve both know a thing
or two about AI, both have access to great game engines,
and both have the kind of drive and energy to get the
job done. If I had to choose a game engine it would be Quake
3, or the Serious engine. I chose those because
they are both visually stunning, and handle lots of polygons
well. Plus it wouldn't be such a drastic transition from the
Monolith format. As far
as what it should have, that's simple. I think they should
have every type of alien and predator ever seen in any movie,
plus maybe a new one. I think that multiplay should have many
modes of play to include bot support, and multiple skin and
character selections, to include actual characters from the
movies. The animations need to be smooth, and the singleplay
should have a good storyline with about 10 levels per species,
and I think that if they plan on using the corporates, they
should have a mission too. They should make it in such a way
that you feel like your in the movie. Multiplay should have
a wide variety of maps ranging from movie based maps, to futuristic
maps, and even a few that aren't necessarily alien or predator
in origin at all. They really need to knock this one out of
the park and put AvP on the map for good!
In any case, these are my hopes and wishes for AvP 3. I can
only sit back and wait and see what happens. I hope they make
the right decision.
By
AthlonDude
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