Aliens vs. Predator Requiem Review

It's been a long time since Oxford based developers Rebellion has taken the helm of an Aliens vs. Predator game. Their first title on the doomed Atari Jaguar, released in 1995, is widely regarded as one of the best games on the console. Four years later, Rebellion released another critically acclaimed AVP game on the PC. It's fair to say that the developers were masterful craftsmen when it came to creating game worlds inspired by the cult-classic comic book series.

Unfortunately, it appears that Rebellion has lost their way a little when it came to developing their new title, Aliens vs. Predator Requiem, the official game of the movie that's due out this Christmas Season. Okay, so the fact that it's a film licensed game should've tipped us off to the fact that it would be a stinker; but we were really hoping that entrusting the franchise under the rich heritage of the Rebellion name would counteract this somewhat. Unfortunately, we were very wrong.

It's Not Like In ET...

In AVP Requiem, you play solely as a Predator in the aftermath of one of their ships crash landing in an atypical suburban US city (with the one exception that it's infested with aliens). There are three routes through the single-player campaign (each of which takes two or three hours tops to complete), with the different routes moving through various city locations. For example, one of the routes takes you through the city's industrial complexes, while another takes you into the sprawling suburbs. Although, I can guarantee that you'll only have the patience to complete one of the routes before taking the UMD to your nearest industrial compactor and promptly sending it to Predator heaven.

Either way, all the routes end up with the same destination - the Hospital - which the Aliens are in the process of colonising (complete with Alien Queen). Tragically, however, you don't actually get to battle the Queen. The end-of-game boss is a puny and disappointing helicopter, with the Alien Queen being revealed during the final cut-scene where it is apparently killed by one of the Predator ships (you've long since blown-up the Hospital and returned to your Predator peers).

That's about all that that we could garner about the AVP Requiem movie storyline from this. If the story (and I use the word "story" in the loosest possible way) in AVP Requiem on PSP is anything to go by, then it would seem that the film's plot will stretch no deeper than Aliens fighting Predators in our backyard. Nevertheless, we're hoping that this is just a poorly adapted game of the film, rather than a thorough recreation of the movie.

Stealthy Like An Elephant

These disappointments are minor, though, when you compare them to the disaster that is AVP Requiem's gameplay. With the game being a third-person shooter, we were hoping that Rebellion would pick up on the lifeblood of the Predator and provide some cunning stealth-action gameplay. What they have done is provide the utilities for this such as an invisibility cloak, three different types of vision (Thermal, Alien and Tech) and the Predator weapon inventory (such as throwing discs, shoulder cannons, hand cannon and spear). What they haven't done, though, is design levels in a way that encourages you to make use of these abilities.

Aliens, of course, can sense cloaked Predators. So, it would've been nice to see intelligent, deadly Aliens which stalk you in the shadows, before pouncing upon your ugly mug mercilessly. Instead, hordes of Aliens tend to be thrown at you and the resulting combat is a bit like being set upon by a group of rambunctious squirrels. There's not that greater a need to use your 'Alien Vision' because you can usually see them just as clearly in the normal view, while it's also straightforward dispatching the aliens with your bog-standard wrist-blade attacks. You can also lock onto enemies by holding both shoulder buttons simultaneously, before vaporising them with your shoulder or hand cannon. Either way, the resulting rinse and repeat combat provides all the subtlety of haemorrhoids. Additionally, the fact that only a complete imbecile could get themselves killed in this game means that I've had scarier encounters with a glass of water.

You do get the opportunity to use your cloak in the sections with human enemies though. Here you can creep up on them before unleashing a throwing disc or impaling them on your wrist blade, but this is about as far as the stealth extends. These sections are bog-standard at best anyway as the NPCs tend to run towards you even though you're invisible, and you can usually pulverise them without the need for stealth anyway. In fact, you could go through most of the game without using any of your vision types or invisibility cloak. However, in order to break up the monotonous experience, we suggest using your Predator abilities wherever possible.

The 'Honour Points' system has a little potential. There are a few set-pieces and sections where you'll have the chance to save innocent civilians for example, thus upping your 'Honour Points' and unlocking weapons in the process. One particular set piece, where an Alien attacks a civilian from across a body of deep water, was particularly nicely done. After ravaging the human, the Alien then disappeared under the water before leaping at you moments later on the other side. If the game had been more heavily populated with moments like these then it could've been much more enjoyable but, annoyingly, this was a flash in the pan.

Scraping The Barrel

The multiplayer offerings offering is actually a re-hash of one of the unimaginative single-player modes. This single-player 'Skirmish' mode places you in one of five uneventful maps before throwing swathes of Aliens at you. The more Aliens you kill, the more points you get. The ad-hoc multiplayer game is essentially this 'Skirmish' mode played co-operatively with one partner. In short, more fun can be had with a ball that's attached to a bat.

Graphically, Aliens vs. Predator Requiem on PSP is sub-par. At no point will you stop and appreciate your surroundings but, at the same time, it's not as if the visuals are offensively bad - just incredibly mediocre instead. Sound wise, I could've done a better job of the soundtrack with FruityLoops on my home PC, while the annoyingly repetitive dialogue of the human NPCs and your grunting Predator aren't exactly music to your ears.