Alien campaign: absolute, total failure

[Zaxx]

I've quite enjoyed the Marine campaign even though it had its fair share of problems, the Predator levels were the coolest apart from the last bossfight that focuses on using the one faulty mechanic of the Predator's gameplay (the jumping mechanic is not exactly refined enough to do jumps quickly and in a reliable fashion) but the Alien part is frankly one of the worst games I've ever played. It's amazingly bad, the game barely works sometimes.

Right now I'm at the part where you have to kill 2 predators: I thought the last bossfight against Weyland with the Marine was the worst part of the game but nope, this fight takes the cake. The predators don't have health bars and the damage they do is totally unreliable so sometimes if they are in the mood they can kill me in one fu***in hit. It's horrible, it's truly broken and lacks any kind of polish whatsoever. After getting frustrated I lowered the difficulty from hard to easy and guess what? The game restarted the whole fu**in level! Sorry, Rebellion, there is no way in a million years I'll replay any part of this campaign.

The game is a huge letdown overall: the story is non-existent, all 3 campaigns take place on the same 4 or 5 levels, the whole thing feels uninspired and sometimes broken. Rebellion, it's cool that you made exactly one good game in 1999 (16 years ago) but I think that doesn't excuse this 2010 iteration. If you are reading this then please take my comment to heart and just stay away from the AvP franchise, I don't need more games like this. Thanks!

[Inferno]

Y'know, this game's "Hard" difficulty isn't a misnomer---one of the things this game got right was that the higher difficulties will f--ck you over if you aren't good.

And of course the game isn't going to change difficulties mid-campaign, let alone mid-checkpoint; I don't know of any game which did that, or could do that. It would also mess up how you obtained high-difficulty achievements if you could switch it to "easy" on a whim, in order to BS your way through certain points.

I thought the Alien campaign was by far the weakest, but for different reasons. In any case Rebellion is finished as far as AVP is concerned, and this game is 5 years old with no support, so addressing them here will be pretty fruitless.

[Zaxx]

Originally posted by Inferno:

Y'know, this game's "Hard" difficulty isn't a misnomer---one of the things this game got right was that the higher difficulties will f--ck you over if you aren't good.

And of course the game isn't going to change difficulties mid-campaign, let alone mid-checkpoint; I don't know of any game which did that, or could do that. It would also mess up how you obtained high-difficulty achievements if you could switch it to "easy" on a whim, in order to BS your way through certain points.

I thought the Alien campaign was by far the weakest, but for different reasons. In any case Rebellion is finished as far as AVP is concerned, and this game is 5 years old with no support, so addressing them here will be pretty fruitless.

Mosty I just wanted to get it out of my system.

I had no problems with the game on hard so far, the Marine and Predator campaigns were tough but fair but in the case of the Alien it's a joke. You die in a few shots which is ridiculous compared to the marine campaign where an alien can eat up almost half of a pulse rifle magazine and to make matters worse stealth simply doesn't work sometimes: there were a few parts where soldiers spot you from crazy angles and distances while in other parts they act as idiots. I don't like these things, I think it's atrocious game design, personally I think it would have been much better if instead of having regenerating health the alien is a bit tougher even on hard and if the game had different types of marines with different skills (some fall for your hiss, others don't, some spot you easier than others etc.), all of them being easy to distinguish.

On top of all this the alien's "senses" are all messed up:

- you are constantly disoriented because of the stiff transitions in your movement while going from wall to wall,

- you are unable to spot enemies that are far: soldiers that are far from you simply won't highlight even though you'd desperately need that because of the camera being lowered which makes things hard to see,

- you can't quite feel light and dark places because the alien "effect" washes out colours and makes everything bright etc.

- most of your attacks don't work 100% of the time, the charging jump attack misses sometimes for example even though the game is giving you a clear hightlight if the attack is available - on hard that can lead to your death.

These things should work if the difficulty is high, in fact considering that the alien campaign is the shortest by far and that the whole game takes place on the same levels everything should be 100% polished. Hell, the alien campaign doesn't even have any progression, you don't get any upgrades, it's just about utilizing a specific, small set of abilities. For example in order to complete the predator fight in the alien campaign on hard it would be nice to know a few things:

- Which attacks can you block, counter, which should you avoid and just in general how the hell the alien's "combat system" works. You get a thorough tutorial about the predators fighting capabilities and the alien's moves in the predator campaign so why not here and why introduce blocking at the last freakin' fight of the campaign?

- How do the other aliens affect the fight? Do they make damage of just serve as bait for the predators?

The game tells you nothing of this and you don't even get sufficient visual indication to show you this stuff, you just don't know what's up. That's just horrible game design and it actually kills every bit of fairness, making the whole campaign infuriatingly frustrating on a high difficulty.

Btw. I switched back to easy and completed the level that way: it was like the alien was invincible which kinda makes me understand the positive reviews on this game because I guess that on easy and normal you don't even feel just how horribly bad some of the mechanics are.

Also the game's overall story is clearly in the "1 out 10" territory, God the alien ending was awful that made the whole campaign absolutely pointless. :D Idiots wrote this freaakin' game, I actually felt sorry for Lance Henriksen, his lines were just unbearable.

Please, Rebellion, don't do this again, spare us!

[Inferno]

Originally posted by Zaxx:

Mosty I just wanted to get it out of my system.

Well, damage will ramp up, and combat will change slightly as the difficulty goes up. At the risk of inciting a quote tree, I'll try to address the rest of these.

On top of all this the alien's "senses" are all messed up:

- you are constantly disoriented because of the stiff transitions in your movement while going from wall to wall,

- you are unable to spot enemies that are far: soldiers that are far from you simply won't highlight even though you'd desperately need that because of the camera being lowered which makes things hard to see,

Transitioning takes a while to get used to, but it starts to feel natural later on.

You'll find the Alien vision isn't really needed for anything far away that isn't a Pred, but you're close enough when you fight the Preds anyway sans jumping into the arena.

- you can't quite feel light and dark places because the alien "effect" washes out colours and makes everything bright etc.

The tutorial campaign level mentions the indicator in the middle of your screen which will invert its green and black colour (black will be in the middle) when you're in the dark; the bolder the black, the more camouflaged you are.

- most of your attacks don't work 100% of the time, the charging jump attack misses sometimes for example even though the game is giving you a clear hightlight if the attack is available - on hard that can lead to your death.

I've never heard of a "miss," so you probably mean a block. If someone blocks the pounce, then they became aware of your presence. My advice would be a ceiling transition asap if this happens, or a heavy attack if you can afford it.

For example in order to complete the predator fight in the alien campaign on hard it would be nice to know a few things:

- Which attacks can you block, counter, which should you avoid and just in general how the hell the alien's "combat system" works. You get a thorough tutorial about the predators fighting capabilities and the alien's moves in the predator campaign so why not here and why introduce blocking at the last freakin' fight of the campaign?

The combat system is also explained in the tutorial level, and I believe on the easy and normal difficulties there are melee prompts, so you learn to recognize what/when to block, what to counter, or what to break for Marine and Predator (possibly Alien too, I don't remember); Predator melee works a lot like Alien melee if not identically.
This is the problem with starting on hard or nightmare; there are no prompts, as per the difficulty.

- How do the other aliens affect the fight? Do they make damage of just serve as bait for the predators?

Bait, mostly. They do very little damage I believe.

The game tells you nothing of this and you don't even get sufficient visual indication to show you this stuff, you just don't know what's up. That's just horrible game design.

As aforementioned, the Alien's abilities are basically explained in the first level, so maybe you played in a way which caused the game to skip over that dialogue without waiting, but the explanations are there.

Btw. I switched back to easy and completed the level that way: it was like the alien was invincible which kinda makes me understand the positive reviews on this game because I guess that on easy and normal you don't even feel just how horribly bad some of the mechanics are.

The mechanics work pretty well, if you apply them competently. Things actually tend to fall apart in multiplayer situations, due to janky net code.

[Zaxx]

Wow, just wow: so you're saying on hard you get less information that would lead the player to learn the game properly? Again: horrible game design, I instantly set every game on a high difficulty because I enjoy the challenge - that doesn't mean that I don't want necessary information to show up. What were they thinking? I mean I could have done without the tutorials about LOOKING WITH THE MOUSE because those did show up on hard but yes, no prompts. :D

As for the alien controls: I'm sure you can get used to it just like you can get used to regular beatings but frankly they are abysmal.

[Inferno]

I think the idea was, the game shows you what to do on easy and normal and then takes the training wheels off. The term for this method is escaping me at the moment, but you do learn to recognize rather easily when to do what, without prompts.

For example, it's usually safe to hold up a block so the Pred attacks with a light melee you can then counter; but if the Pred winds up for a heavy, you drop block and light attack the Pred yourself, to stop the heavy.

I found the controls pretty easy to learn after a while, to be honest; I'm lightning fast with the Alien if I want to be.

[Zaxx]

Originally posted by Inferno:

I think the idea was, the game shows you what to do on easy and normal and then takes the training wheels off. The term for this method is escaping me at the moment, but you do learn to recognize rather easily when to do what, without prompts.

For example, it's usually safe to hold up a block so the Pred attacks with a light melee you can then counter; but if the Pred winds up for a heavy, you drop block and light attack the Pred yourself, to stop the heavy.

I found the controls pretty easy to learn after a while, to be honest; I'm lightning fast with the Alien if I want to be.

Thanks for the help, I see now that the Alien vs Predator fight should be similar to the Predator vs Alien parts. I may give that last Alien level a go on hard again some day.

[Inferno]

Originally posted by Zaxx:

Thanks for the help, I see now that the Alien vs Predator fight should be similar to the Predator vs Alien parts. I may give that last Alien level a go on hard again some day.

No problem. The main difference is it's much easier to dispatch an Alien as a Pred, since Rebellion liked the idea of them being the strongest.

The melee mechanics are about the same, but you have to treat the Predators like tanks when you fight them, and play defensively when they're facing you; on hard and nightmare difficulty, taking a heavy attack or two will likely ruin your day.

[Just Chill]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTHrQQoIHz8

The part you're talking about starts at 3:30.
Was played on nightmare.

[Zaxx]

Gave it a second go: I practically don't understand how can you kill the predators reliably, this game's a piece of ♥♥♥♥. I kill the first one then the second one kills me even if I attack it from behind because reasons, he just picks me up and kills me off, the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ other aliens constantly get in the way, it's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mess. As a comparison with the predator there was a part where the aliens just keep coming if you don't do the thing that is needed to progress: I enjoyed the combat system so I just stayed there and killed off at least 30 aliens without even taking a serious amount of damage. That was on hard so I understand and utilize the game's combat system well. Guess this part is just bugging out on me, I can't imagine anything else happening.

♥♥♥♥ this game, it's uninstall time.

Edit: I did it at last, strangely enough the elite predator went down on my first try I guess because it actually had a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ health bar and there were no other aliens fighting him to ♥♥♥♥ up his animations. God, this was one of my worst gaming experiences ever and this comes from a guy who played old school Castlevanias and hard as hell games like Commandos and enjoyed them. This ♥♥♥♥ is just broken.

As I understand the hit detection is all messed up in this fight: my logic told me to attack the predators the same time when the other aliens make their moves and to approach from behind. That's cool and all and I feel the game is supposed to work this way but the thing is that even if you attack a predator from behind while he is blocking against an other alien the predator will counter YOUR attack instead of the other alien's which basically gives you the question of "What? How did he counter me when I attacked him from behind?" The answer to that is the shoddy hit detection so the solution is to attack the predators when they are alone, this way you'll be able to read its moves and counter its heavy attacks easily. You broken, broken game.

[Just Chill]

Have you used strong attacks?

Have you watched the video I posted?

Wasn't so difficult there... And the video was shot in nightmare difficulty.
Hard should be easy instead. :P

I'm sorry if I sound a bit condescending but I never heard about a similar experience like you had.
So it's just a bit strange from my side.
I enjoyed every campaign, but sorry if you had this much problems with the game.

[Mister Torgue Flexington]

Originally posted by Just Chill:

Have you used strong attacks?

Have you watched the video I posted?

Wasn't so difficult there... And the video was shot in nightmare difficulty.
Hard should be easy instead. :P

I'm sorry if I sound a bit condescending but I never heard about a similar experience like you had.
So it's just a bit strange from my side.
Sorry if you had this much problems with the game. I enjoyed every campaign.

exactly!!! when I retired this game last year, the easiest way I found out to beat the last Predator (also done on Nightmare), was basically spam the hell out of the Heavy Attack until he practically has zero-health and go for the easy grab.

[Judgement Nut]

You just need to hide, then hit, then run and repeat. But I see what your problem is. Hiding, hitting and running will only get you so far even on normal difficulty. It's hard enough to kill a marine while it's piss-easy for them to kill you. Also notice when you're playing as a marine you find your health down at 1 bar after 1 light attack. Predator is easy though because although he has a plasma cannon, he doesn't fire an assault rifle at you that kills you near-instantly. Trick with the predator is to just stay back and use heavy attack, and sprint away when you feel your luck is about to run out.

Alien just isn't meant for melee. You can only expect a one-hit-kill shotgun if you charge in.

This is why I prefer predator, he's pretty much the stronger and fitter version of the alien. Can withstand at least a little punishment, and can jump across trees while still being stealthy if not stealthier than the aliens.

[Inferno]

Originally posted by Anakausuen:

Holy necromancy Batman!

[Judgement Nut]

Originally posted by Inferno:

Originally posted by Anakausuen:

Holy necromancy Batman!

Maybe that's who needs to be introduced into the game: Batman. Aliens vs Predator: Batman Edition.

[Zaxx]

Originally posted by Anakausuen:

You just need to hide, then hit, then run and repeat. But I see what your problem is. Hiding, hitting and running will only get you so far even on normal difficulty. It's hard enough to kill a marine while it's piss-easy for them to kill you. Also notice when you're playing as a marine you find your health down at 1 bar after 1 light attack. Predator is easy though because although he has a plasma cannon, he doesn't fire an assault rifle at you that kills you near-instantly. Trick with the predator is to just stay back and use heavy attack, and sprint away when you feel your luck is about to run out.

Alien just isn't meant for melee. You can only expect a one-hit-kill shotgun if you charge in.

This is why I prefer predator, he's pretty much the stronger and fitter version of the alien. Can withstand at least a little punishment, and can jump across trees while still being stealthy if not stealthier than the aliens.

Thanks for the timely reply but thankfully I have Alien Isolation now so I don't have to play this turd again. :D ♥♥♥♥ this game, ♥♥♥♥ this franchise, ♥♥♥♥ the collection of hack frauds that its Rebellion and hail quality instead!

Did I say ♥♥♥♥ 'em?