Video game number sixty six: Aliens Vs. Predator

Video game review number sixty six in my 365 Games in 365 Days project is "Aliens Vs. Predator".

I stopped enjoying the Aliens movies after Winona Ryder showed up. It's not that I don't like her (she's a fantastic actress and a skilled bargain shopper), but I think the movies lost whatever it was that made them great about the time that she got there. I never saw the Aliens vs. Predator movie, nor do I want to. I watched Freddy vs. Jason, which was enough icon "cross-over" for me. If they ever do Batman vs. Superman, I'll watch that...but only if it's the directors of the movies fighting instead of the characters. I'd definitely pay 10 bucks to see Christopher Nolan pimp slap Bryan Singer for making Superman Returns, and I'd pay 14 if it was in 3D.

Anyway, so....I played this game. My first impression? It was too damn dark. My wife walked in while I was playing and when I started complaining about it, she said "The movies are all dark. It's supposed to be scary like the movies".

That's all well and good, but you spend the majority of the first three levels looking at a small circle of light the size of a flashlight beam. The first alien you meet is scary. Every additional one is just annoying. Imagine if you were playing Bioshock (an awesome game that is scary and beautiful at the same time)...but instead of walking you through the city of Rapture, the developers turned off all the lights and made you play the whole thing through 10% of your TV screen. That game would have been lame....and so is this one.

I am aware that you can be an Alien, A Predator or a Marine. Like Starcraft, when given the choice of which race to pick, I always choose the human to learn the mechanics...then I move on to the aliens. In this game, I started with the Marine campaign. It's dark, and filled with lots of "run up these stairs, now run back down them missions". I don't mind linear games, but I hate it when they make you do a 180 in the middle of the mission and run back to where you started. he first three marine missions all do this.

Overall score is 4/10. By the end of my morning with this game, I didn't even want to try the Aliens or the Predators. I may go back to it some time and try them out, but it will be out of curiosity about the powers they have....not a desire to find out what happens in the story. Just like the movies, I don't care about what's happening in the darkness of this game. I blame Winona.