Aliens And Predators Index

I've long been into the Aliens and Predator franchises, though so far I've talked less on this site about them than I'd expected I would.

Still, there's a non-trivial number of posts, so here's an index for them.

AvP 2010 Intro. AvP 2010 is as in Aliens Vs Predator 2010, ie the first-person game in which you play as an Alien, Predator, or Marine. This is an intro post where I give some context on where I was at when I first checked out AvP 2010, among other things.

AvP 2010: Predator. In which I talk about the design of the Predator's campaign. As this was an experimental series of posts in the first place, this is part-guide part-review, because I wasn't sure how I wanted to approach talking about this game. My usual style meshes poorly with the traditional linear story-driven FPS, for one.

AvP 2010: Alien. In which I talk about the design of the Alien's campaign. I really wish I'd taken more screenshots for this series... I might correct that someday, honestly. Regardless, the Alien's campaign is fun, but too short, and suffers a bit from basically being only a partial version of the Predator's campaign, in that the stealth combat gameplay of the two is fundamentally pretty similar.

AvP 2010: Marine. In which I talk about the design of the Marine's campaign. It really suffers from imitating the general FPS trends of the time without really embracing them and without really considering if they fit into the context of an AvP game; a cover shooter's general framework is pretty specifically designed for gunplay-on-gunplay combat, not for fighting melee enemies that don't care about your cover, like Aliens. Alas.

AvP 2010: Plot. In which I talk about the game's overall plot, because it's kind of meant to be one story told from three perspectives. It... doesn't hold up to scrutiny if you try to make sense of the three campaigns as a collective whole, but the intent is clearly there. Unfortunately, the Alien campaign is pretty narratively aimless, the Predator campaign has the foundations but doesn't connect them properly, and the Marine campaign is... cringe-y. And there's detail-work problems, too...

AvP Cross-Comparison: Alien. In which I talk about AvP Classic, AvP 2, and AvP 2010 each approach the Alien. On the whole, AvP 2010 sticks the landing best here.

AvP Cross-Comparison: Predator. This time it's the Predator's treatment in each game. AvP 2 in particular really sucks out the interestingness, but honestly AvP 2010 isn't clearly a stronger implementation than AvP Classic.

AvP Cross-Comparison: Marine. To be honest, this is mostly me reiterating the point that each game seems to primarily use then-current FPS trends as its guideline, with a lack of clarity on what the gameplay is really supposed to be other than 'whatever is the current popular gameplay model for a human shooting things'.

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And -at least for now- that's it for stuff focused on AvP 2010.

Next up is a couple of niche titles you've very possibly never heard of even if you're strongly interested in these franchises.

Predator: Concrete Jungle. Basically a one-post review of a game I'd vaguely heard about before directly checking it out, and which the wider internet had made sound generic and boring, but which is... actually good? It has a rough start and I wouldn't be at all surprised if a lot of players lose interest in it before it starts getting actually good, but it really is surprisingly good on a surprisingly large number of levels for the majority of the game. Sadly, mainstream reviews are pretty negative on it and it doesn't seem to be enough of a 'cult classic' to be liable to ever get an HD remake or whatever, so it's liable to remain 'one of those licensed games people expect to be bad and so don't bother to check out at all'.

AvP: Extinction. A fascinatingly weird experimental single-player-only RTS that, unexpectedly, actually tries pretty hard to keep the Aliens, Predators, and Marines all distinct factions that use mechanics appropriate to their respective dynamics, instead of just cramming them into an established RTS framework with some gimmicks thrown atop the way I'd have expected. I'd hesitate to call it a good game, but it's certainly an interesting game, and it's sad that it seems unlikely to ever be followed up on. A more polished version of the framework could've been downright amazing.

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Next is a game you probably have heard of; Alien: Isolation.

It's also, sadly, severely overhyped. There's a portion of the mid-early game that works pretty well, but the very beginning of the game is tediously waiting for the game to get to the part where there's actual gameplay, and the latter half or two-thirds of the game are a horrible mess on many levels; I genuinely don't understand why mainstream reviews are so universally positive on this game.

Alien Isolation: Intro. In which I talk about some of the broader things that are good ideas, and also a bunch of extremely severe, bizarre problems, several of which are just baffling to even exist. (Why is the Alien in so very, very little of the game?)

Alien Isolation: General Gameplay Design. The myriad, many, manifold problems with the gameplay's core design, many of which will get you killed through no fault of your own and/or lead to you spending half an hour stuck, unable to figure out what the game is wanting you to do next.

Alien Isolation: Where Gameplay Meets Narrative. For a game that wants you to feel immersed, Alien: Isolation is extremely committed to destroying any ability to be immersed for more than a couple minutes at a time.

Alien Isolation: The Story, Such As It Is. In addition to the gameplay constantly tearing you out of any possibility of immersion, the plot is bizarre. As in, it's a terrible plot full of serious problems that are completely baffling to even exist.

Alien Isolation: The Alien. The one thing the game does pretty competently, for... less than a third of the game. So much wasted potential...

Alien Isolation: Almost A Metroidvania. Speaking of wasted potential, Alien: Isolation has some shades of maybe intending to produce a Metroidvania experience, which is an idea with a lot of potential, but.. then it goes entirely unrealized in practice. Alas.

Alien Isolation: DLC. The DLC is yet more disappointment. I also reiterate my general position on the game as a whole.

And that's it for Aliens and Predator stuff on this site for the moment.