--Planet AvP | Mod of the Week | Aliens versus Predator 2: Special Edition

Aliens versus Predator 2: Special Edition Name: Aliens versus Predator 2: Special Edition Author: [Alpha]InfamousAndy Download: AVP2SE.zip Reviewed By: SirYawnalot Introduction Yes, it's been a long time. No, you don't want to hear excuses (I hope...), you want to know which mod is the most worthy this week. Well, the most worthy two or three weeks ago anyway. This mod has had woefully little publicity, so let's change all that. This nice little mod, which won't be taxing even those struggling 56ks out there, doesn't have any custom skins or sounds. It's made up of class changes. Don't let that fool you though, this isn't another one of those "tiny little gameplay balancy mods"-- these alterations are very noticeable and change the gameplay deeply. Each of the classes now has many differences - and not just in the weapons list - in a similar way to the AvP2 alien classes. Class Changes The Marines and Corps basically have the same kind of classes. Each has a regular marine, a scout (AKA sniper), "human tank", and specialist. In addition to having their own weapon lists, they also have a limited choice of which weapons they can pick up. The Scouts, Dunya and Ichiro, are bloody fast and come equipped with a sniper rifle. They can't pick up any new weapons at all, but Ichiro starts with an additional shotgun and Dunya gets a pulse rifle. Oddly, Ichiro can't load up armour-piercing rounds for the shotgun, and can't pick up shotguns he finds lying around either. Both are extremely limited in the armour department: Ichiro starts with and is limited to 50, Dunya gets 75 (but as a consequence is a bit slower). A nifty touch for these classes is the Enhanced Night Vision mode, which doesn't drain battery power and amplifies available light. It's pretty much the standard IR-goggles minus the graininess and with some colour. Funkily, this vision mode doesn't add to the file's size-- there's no new graphics for it. Big kudos to the author for this great bit of coding! Now, the "human tank" classes are meant to be super-slow. As far as I noticed, this wasn't the case... they were around the same speed as the Specialists. However, they have the best weapons, and a truly monstrous maximum armour capacity: 400. Nope, not a typo. As a balance, they can only get a maximum of 50 health, presumably as a side-effect of too many Big Macs. Specialists are made pretty much obsolete by the "human tank" classes. Around the same speed, but with lower-grade weapons and a max-armour capacity of 200. Finally there's the useful regular marine. He/she relies entirely on pickups: regulars start with no armour at all, and a pulse rifle. Although they can only load up to 100 armour, any weapon on the playing field is at the regular's disposal. The Pred classes are great. Except for the Heavy Pred, any class can pick up any Predator weapon. In addition, each class starts with a different set of weapons. Most of the classes have received a speed boost, and the Light Pred now rivals Sonic the Hedgehog as fastest bipedal character in a game. The Heavy Pred is no exception, and he retains his incredible resilience. However, he can't pick up any new weapons. He's limited to close-combat weapons: 'blades, Spear, Nets and Bombs. This makes him the honourable player's class of choice, and a very cool character. All the Aliens have their crouched speeds increased, except for the Praetorian, who gets a tiny increase with its standing speed. This makes PredAliens pretty damn nasty customers, and Runners blaze over the map like little four-legged lasers. As nearly all classes in the game get a speed boost anyway, it's fair to give this advantage to the bugs. Advertisement Weapon Changes Lots of the Marine weapons have their ammo clips changed slightly, and when firing homing SADAR rockets, you have to reload with each shot. Shotguns are far more likely to take down an enemy in one shot now thanks to a damage increase, and Pulse Rifles are a bit more powerful too (as if they needed to be...). The Pred weapons get the most changes though. The energy weapons now take up massive amounts of ammo-- you'll only be able to squeeze off about four or five Pistol shots with a full energy bar. As with most mods released these days, Plasmacaster shots fire in a straight line... but if you get a direct hit, you deal massive damage on the enemy, usually an instant-kill. Secondary adds splash damage, and of course using this weapon doesn't decloak you. The Speargun is also altered to make it a far more useful sniper's weapon. Bug Report Aside from the human-tank classes being faster than the author presumably intended, the Enhanced Night Vision runs into problems with lights. Most light textures look a bit odd, as in the screenshot. This isn't really much of a problem though, and certainly won't stop anybody from enjoying this mod. Opinions One of the few gameplay mods out at the moment that doesn't really go all-out at trying to balance the game. It makes a few helpful changes to weapons, and the altered classes don't add many new problems. One unbalance I can see is with the PredAlien... its speed boost when crouched, while small, makes this creature into the game's Big Gun. No need for UT's redeemer in this game, we have an entire player class which dominates the pitch. Having said that, skilled players should still be able to put the PA down with a well-placed grenade. And you've got to love the Heavy Pred. So... another overly positive review. Well I've listed the downsides, but I really didn't find that many, so the mark is well deserved, in my opinion. Finally... Big thanks to Infamous Andy, who's been very patient in waiting for this review. ;) Big sorry to everyone for the several millennia which have gone past since my last MODOTW review, and another one in advance because I'm about to ski off to sunny Corsica... so you'll have to do without another review for a little while. To give you a hint though, unless something else pops up I'll probably be reviewing the latest version of Bastiaan's Realism Mod. Final Score: Download: AVP2SE.zip By SirYawnalot Comments? Flames? Praise? Mail feedback!