--Planet AvP | Articles | AvP2: Primal Hunt Preview

AvP2: Primal Hunt Preview After much anticipation, the chilling experience of AvP2 will be brought back through the creative minds of Third Law Interactive. Once again, the three single-player campaigns revolve around a similar storyline, but will allow the player to see the events through the eyes of a human, Predator, and Alien. The game is set as a prequel to the events in AvP2. Many questions surrounding the origin of events that occurred in AvP2 could only be answered through the characters’ scattered log reports found throughout the game. Primal Hunt looks deeper into the motivations of some of the main characters of AvP2 as well as the “how” and “why” certain events took place. In the Beginning… The storyline centers around a mysterious Artifact on the planet Lv-1201 that has the power to control the menacing Aliens. The Predator campaign begins 500 years earlier with a lone Predator arriving on the planet to hunt. While exploring the Jockey ruins, he uncovers the strange relic. Before he escapes, however, he triggers a stasis field and is trapped deep within the ruins. The Alien campaign begins around the same time with a curious Facehugger exploring a Predator base. After finding a host to impregnate, the Alien lifecycle continues into a Chestburster and finally into a fully-grown Predalien! The events quickly shift forward 500 years with the arrival of humans - the Weyland-Yutani and the mercenary group, The Iron Bears. Upon the discovery of the ruins, Dunya, a mercenary, is sent to investigate. She unknowingly frees the trapped Predator and escapes with the Artifact. Then the race is on. All three species have a common goal - obtaining the artifact. Humans want it for the wealth and power it can give. Predators desire a base in the Hive to hunt Aliens. Aliens seek to destroy it to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. With each campaign containing 3 new missions for a total of 9 missions, it will be a fight to the death to claim this prize. While exploring the outside environments on the planet, players will also encounter two new forms of indigenous life - large, burrowing worms and a bull-like creature with large crescent tusks. Tools of the Trade A handful of new weaponry and technological devices are being introduced for additional mayhem. Marine and Corporate classes will now be distinguished by something other than choice of weapons. Corporates have been given a new 360-degree motion tracker. Although larger in radius than the Marine motion tracker, it has a much smaller range. The new dual pistols will be available to both human classes. The pistols have a high rate of fire, but require double the reloading time. Next in the list are remote sentry guns, which can be picked up and deployed by any human. Sentry guns can be placed anywhere on a map (up to a limit of 6 guns) and require no intervention from the player. Once deployed, they will shoot everything in their path. They have limited ammo and, if they overheat, will stop firing until they cool down. The final addition to the humans’ arsenal is a manned turret gun. It is a stationary, rapid-fire minigun that requires a player to activate in order to use. Advertisement The Predator class is also receiving new high-tech gadgets including the new energy flechette. This is a low powered, rapid-firing device that can be used for suppressive fire against oncoming enemies. In multi-player games, Predators will also have a self-destruct device. It can only be activated when the player has very low health (the last two groupings of Predator digits on the health meter) and also produces an audible countdown. The player will lose a frag because of the suicide, but will gain a frag for each person that is taken out by the blast. The only Alien class receiving an upgrade is the Predalien, which has been given the ability to headbite. This will allow the Predalien to gain health from both living and dead enemies in both the single and multi-player games. Get Caught in the Net Multi-Player servers have been given the option to restrict specific weapons and classes. When hosting a server, the player can check and uncheck each weapon and specie class to decide what will appear in the game. Large debates have occurred between players to discuss which weapons should be available and which should not. This new option should simply all problems by allowing players to restrict all weapons and classes that they deem fit. Five new multi-player maps will also be included. They are mainly indoor maps to suit the needs of all three species. However, some maps feature large outdoor areas and one map is entirely outside. The original multi-player maps have been updated to include the new weapon additions. This means that Primal Hunt multi-player games will not be compatible with the original game. Servers for both games will be listed separately in the server list to make joining online games easier. Primal Hunt is scheduled for release in stores in mid-August. By Praetor Comments? Flames? Praise? Mail feedback!