Jason Trent, Associate Writer

Aliens vs. Predator Multiplayer Impressions

Sega released a multiplayer demo for Aliens vs. Predator on February 4th. After having played a significant amount of time with each race (aliens, predator, and space marines), I, Jason Trent, can say that I'm very excited for the full release of the game. The thing that sets this game apart from its competitors is that each race plays so differently from one another.

Because they're strictly a melee class, the aliens rely on speed and agility to dispatch their opponents. Climbing and jumping on any surface feels great, and although hanging upside down and moving from walls to ceilings to floors can be disorienting, Rebellion made a subtle but effective choice to make your targeting reticle a level. This means that when upside down, or on a wall, you can always tell where the ground is. This makes a huge difference in the playability, and when you're moving as fast as you do while sprinting, you'll need every bit of help you can get. The class is very very fast; almost disorientingly so. As you roam the map looking for your next victim, you can see enemies through walls as a red outline. From there, you want to get to your target as efficiently as possible. That might mean climbing through a hole in the ceiling to get to the next floor, or going through the many corridors and tunnels (take the walls or ceilings for best results). Because the worst thing you can do as an alien is to be spotted before an attack, the more unexpected your attacks are, the more lethal you'll be.

The predators are this game's version of a rogue. The first thing you'll want to do is cloak yourself. This will ensure that enemies will have a difficult time seeing you as you approach them from behind for their inevitable death. Beyond cloaking, predators also have the abilities to use heat-sensing vision (which makes marines stick out) and another mode of vision that makes aliens stick out. You're unable to use both at once, so you'll find yourself having to switch rather frequently. Most combat with the predator is hand-to-hand. The right bumper is your quick attack while the left bumper is your strong attack. Holding both bumpers will block melee attacks, something you'll have to do to survive during the game's many close quarter encounters. As you explore the map, you'll find ranged weapons such as blades to throw, which adds variation to the normal sneak-and-kill formula that this race generally relies on.

The space marine is the bread and butter of shooters. You don't really have interesting powers, but you do have a gun, so if you can see your enemies before they get the drop on you, you'll have the upper hand. You start with a machine gun and flashlight, but you can find shotguns and sniper rifles (which have the benefit of enhancing your detection of both aliens and predators). Though you do not have any way to see through walls or to see enemies' heat signature, you do have sonar; a small minimap at the bottom of the screen that beeps faster and faster as enemies near. One thing that makes this different from most minimaps from other games is that the blips on the minimap only update every second or two. This leads to situations where you don't always know exactly where your enemy is coming from; only that your enemy is coming. This creates a very intense, and almost survival horror like experience that is completely different than the hunting style found with the other races.

When creating a game with multiple classes or races like this, players are always concerned about balance. You don't need to worry about that here. I was effective playing as each and every race. Some have higher learning curves than others, but if you're willing to take a different approach to the first person shooter, and play to each races' strengths, you too can enjoy them all.

You've probably heard this by now, but this game is amazingly violent. While playing as the predator or alien, your best option for survival is to sneak up on your target and perform an execution. If you can do that, you are rewarded with a cringe-worthy spectacle that involves lots of neat pops and crunches. As the predator, you'll saw off a space marines head while he has a most upsetting look of terror in his eyes. Blood sprays with fanfare, and the predator lifts his victim's head from its body with a bit of spinal cord still attached for good measure. It's gives me a sick sense of empowerment. That was my favorite of the bunch, but there are some other very badass things that can be done. A predator will snap an alien's back over his knee, the alien will impale unfriendlies with its tail, and of course there's the classic second-mouth move where the alien takes a bite out of a victim. It's all very entertaining to watch for the non-squeamish types.

If you're been playing a lot of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 or Halo 3, you owe it to yourself to give something new a try. I don't think I'm the only one this demo won over.