AVP Demo

REALLY?!?

Thank you so much for informing me of this!

 

Anything specific it'll come with(like multiplayer)? Although I'm really not too pumped up about this, I might as well get it.. free is good right?

 

Yeah, it's a MP Demo that's out now.

Edit: Played it, and it kinda sucked. It's balanced, but that's part of the problem. It shouldn't be. An ffa gametype is bullshit. It should be Marines vs Aliens or Marines vs Predator(s) or Aliens vs Predator(s). I'm sure they will have those gametypes in the full game, but they should have gone with that over the deathmatch you are limited to in the demo. There's several things wrong with the combat, but I'm sure you'll figure that out if you play it. I don't wanna drag on about it.

 

I played for about ten minutes as the predator today.. am I supposed to kill other predators as well? Gameplay was kinda meh... the aliens seemed absolutely tiny to the predator. Like the first time I saw one, I thought it was supposed to be a baby alien :/

Still, I might give this game a rent, it doesn't really seem like this demo really showed the games full potential.

 

GAH, I HATED IT. The Invisibility was kinda redundant because EVERYONE has Thermal Vision. So Basically if you get within 50 feet of a marine your dead. Aliens one shot you, I mean I felt being a predator was Like being a Dog in a Tiger and Tank Fight.

 

I'm going out on a limb here and saying that I enjoyed it. At first I didn't, but once you get used to it, it grows on you. This is merely FFA deathmatch, but they will have more original gametypes in the final (such as a gametype similar to Halo's predator). However, I played with friends, and so we'd all choose to be either Aliens or Marines, and proceed to work as a team. It yielded lots of fun and good moments.

Also, I haven't ever played a multiplayer match where I felt the effects of horror. As a marine, walking down some of the dark back tunnels where you can't see ****, I had a good couple of scares, and the radar only added to the suspense.

Will I get this though? Probably not, because I won't have the money for it and other games I've been awaiting.

 

I played one game and sucked so badly, I hated it.
Then I played once more, and it rocked.
Sprinting around the place, doing all sorts of grabs from behind was brilliant.
I was the alien of course, so I could bite of people's heads, impale them from behind, and cut off their faces with my tail. Good fun.

It's very different depending on what character you play as; The human is more a survival horror, and everyone else's job is to scare the **** out of you as well, which was what made it fun. The alien is more of a speedy stealth experience, and differs greatly.
I thought it worked quite well, but this was probably because after watching the trailers, the game looked bad, so I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was.

I doubt I'll buy it, but I'll definitely rent it from blockbuster or something.

Also, playing it at 11 in the dark on your own makes it better.
I wasn't physically scared, but it was good fun, and kept me on edge.

 

I played as the predator first, BIG MISTAKE, because I hated it, then I played the alien and it was amazing and is the sole reason Im getting the game when it comes out.

 

The demo grew on me, once I worked out how to do everything. Here's an in-depth report on my experiences and impressions from playing each of the species. Caution tl;dr alert!

Marine.

I played as this guy first since it started me off as one and I couldn't work out why I was unable to switch species; I later realised that the gametype forces there to be a certain ratio of marines/aliens/predators (A good thing imo).

Playing as a marine really does feel like a survival horror. You will see aliens fly across a small corridor opening, slither upon the ceiling, or perhaps you won't even see them at all until you notice a tail sticking through a gaping hole in your chest. The motion tracker is the only thing giving you a heads-up; a single beep may be the difference between life and death.

You come equipped with a flashlight, which is tempting to turn off so that you are less easily detected, but really all enemies have ways to identify you that makes the beam from your flashlight the least of your problems. You can't hide, so don't bother, leave the light on if you want to spot an alien hiding in the shadows, or the shimmer of a cloaked predator. Make no mistake, you are the prey.

The weapon you start off with is the trusty marine Pulse Rifle. There's no zoom or iron sight on this gun, so you won't be shooting from a distance. So far this hasn't posed a problem but I could see it being a frustration if there are any larger maps than the one presented in the demo. The only time a lack of precision over distance really presented itself as an issue was when I came across a Predator, with a shoulder cannon, camping up in the rafters; he was a bit too far away to shoot but he could lock onto me and destroy me in a single blast. What the Pulse Rifle has really got going for it is its clip size. You have over 90 bullets that you can spray and pray (oh you will be praying) before you have to perform a reload; it really is a saving grace when your motion tracker showing multiple contacts and is beeping away like it's trying to communicate to you in Morse Code (I think it's saying "You're F*cked!").

As well as the Pulse Rifle, you can find other Marine ordinance lying around the derelict environment. Here are some of the things I came across; note that you can carry two weapons at a time + pistol, except for the smart gun, which takes up both weapon slots.

Grenades - Attached to your pulse rifle is a grenade launcher, to use it you need to first find grenades on the map; once you have some you can fire a grenade with the left trigger on your pulse rifle. They are quite effective, I recommend memorising where they are and making a bee line for them whenever the opportunity arises.

Shotgun - I only used this gun once or twice and found it pretty underwhelming, I may just have not been using it effectively, but regardless, it's a shotgun, I'm sure you can guess its uses.

Sniper - I had a love/hate relationship for this gun. One thing it really has going for it is its scope, it will actually highlight enemies through walls if they're close enough - fantastic for spotting a camping Alien or Predator. The problem arises when you actually try to shoot your foe. You see, the enemies in this game move fast, damn fast. Trying to hit them proves troublesome and it seems to take several hits to even take someone down with it. Perhaps I just need practice with it, but I found it a bit too unwieldy and tended to just stick with the Pulse Rifle.

Smart gun - A novel gun, I only got to use it once. It's that light machine gun that attaches to your hip and "homes in" on enemies and will take up both of your weapon slots. I imagine it's probably a pretty nifty gun to use but I died shortly after acquiring it. Having to sacrifice your pulse rifle may be a bit much for me to handle though.

The block command is worth noting. If an Alien or Predator does get up close then it's not necessarily game over; using the block command ensures you don't get knocked back by an attack, allowing you to get off those extra shots that should help you come out victorious. I'm sure I even managed to knock an alien back and make it stutter for a few moments just by punching it too, it was hilarious!

The last thing of note about the marine is that he can refill his health using stims. You start off with three of these and can find more littered around the place. It takes a moment to apply your stim, but it's worth doing whenever you can to keep topped up. At full health you can survive two light slashes or one heavy slash from an Alien, giving you the opportunity to put up a fight. If you don't keep your health up, your next encounter will be very short...

In conclusion, playing the marine is scary; it relies on twitch reflexes to prevent being clawed or shot to death. Your motion tracker and weapon are your only friends. The monsters are real and they're coming after you...wait...did that wall just move?


Alien

I got to play this beast second. The Alien is a very different experience to the marine and, initially, a far more confusing one.

Getting used to transitions from floors, to walls, to ceilings is disorientating and, at many times, infuriating. The problem, in my opinion, is the mechanic they've used for transitioning. You get a pop-up saying "Press RT to Transition" when against a wall so that, in theory, you can transition to it. The thing is, it doesn't quite work that way. Many a time I hit RT to Transition while walking into a wall and nothing happens, other times I'm brushing passed a wall or crate and it just feels like plopping me onto it for its own pleasure. I stuck on auto-transition and it still has the same issues and still asks me to press RT to Transition, what is the point of auto-transition then?!

Another issue with movement is an inability to "drop off" a ledge or hole. Anytime you approach the edge of a surface it will automatically transition you to the wall below you, you can't just drop off and fall down; this is with or without auto-transition on. It's not a huge issue, but still an inconvenience that crops up on occasion.

There is a saving grace though on the movement aspect of the Alien, the jump button. If you're close enough to a surface, you can press the jump button and leap onto that surface; be it a wall, ceiling, floor, whatever. I found this the far superior way to transition from surface to surface and clear ground like a leaping loony. The distance you can leap to transition is impressive and a great way to confuse your enemy. I found it particularly amusing to leap from wall to wall when traversing down a corridor to my foe at the other end, successfully reaching the other end as he ran out of clips.

It will take you a while to really get the hang of the Alien. I'd spent many hours as an Alien in the original AvP and AvP2 for the PC so the...er...transition wasn't too painful, even if the mechanic is a bit different now.

An Alien doesn't pick up anything on the battlefield, they use what nature gave them: their claws, tail, alien vision, and dexterity.

Your claws and tail are your weapons, obviously this means that you have to get up close and personal if you want to take someone down. Your claws are quick but very short range, while your tail is slower, more powerful, and has further reach.

As an Alien, you have a heightened sense, an Alien vision. All enemies will glow a particular colour and this glow will appear through walls. This sense is always active and will be the means by which you hunt your prey. Alien vision is my favourite of the different species' means for identifying enemies. You can still be caught out though, you won't be able to sense an enemy that's behind you and it takes a moment or two for an enemy to be picked up by your sense; which means that if you're running around small corridors too quickly, the first thing you see might be the enemy staring you in the face before the aura around them glows.

Not only can you hack and slash away at your enemy with your claws and tail, but you can also perform an assassination style move. Should you manage to sneak up behind an enemy a "Press X to Grab" button will appear. Grabbing an enemy puts you into a finisher animation and is a guaranteed kill. There is a downside though, you're completely exposed while this forced animation runs its course so it should only be attempted in private, behind closed doors, what have you. Sometimes I noticed I could also grab an opponent from the front; I think this may have something to do with knocking the enemy back first, or weakening them to a low enough health, even then I've also had the enemy wiggle out of the finishing animation and stop it somehow (In return I have also stopped people from finishing me, but I was button mashing so...). I believe it's only possible to be stopped like this from in front though, I've never had a back grab animation resisted to date (Or resisted it myself).

One final, and very important, combat mechanic for the Alien is the Focus Mode. At first I had absolutely no clue what this did, I pressed it and nothing happened except a fuzzy outline around my vision, I was thinking "Yeah, OK, great, that really helps!" and ignored it for a while. Later on I came back to it and realised it's true power (Shocking news folks, it does more than just blur the outline of your vision! Who woulda thought!). When close enough to an enemy, and with the Focus Mode button held down, a circle will appear around them; this means you're focused onto them. When focused on an enemy you can leap at them using your claws, this is extremely awesomely fantastically useful. When hanging on a ceiling or clinging to a wall you can use this focus leap to pounce on your enemy from the most unsuspecting places and really get a jump on your foe. Without it, it would be pointless trying to attack from ceilings or walls; with it, it's amazing.

Last thing of note; the Alien gets its health back by holding down the Focus Mode button, but it comes back very slowly. So while you don't have to pick up anything to regen health, you can't give yourself a quick boost either.

The Alien has a strong learning curve, but it can be very empowering once mastered. The only real threat to an Alien is the one chasing behind you waiting for you to slow down; don't be surprised to be grabbed from behind by a fellow xenomorph!


Predator.

The final species I got my grubby hands on. It seems there are only allowed to be two of these roaming monstrosities permitted on the battlefield at a time, so it took a while before I got lucky enough to snatch this ugly mofo.

The first thing you'll probably notice about playing as the Predator is that, despite being the technical bloke with all the gizmos, he only starts off with claws as his weapon. This means that, before you find something to pick up, you'll feel like a gimped grounded version of the Alien. So to start off with you'll be relying on a quick slash, or a heavy slash to take down foes; the Predator doesn't pull any punches though and you'll find yourself able to go toe-to-toe with an Alien and come out victorious, just with fisticuffs. Marquess of Queensberry would be proud! This is not the true way to play the predator though.

You'll start out with the ability to cloak; this does not make you completely invisible, but it can make it difficult for a marine to get a clean shot, or for a quick running Alien to spot you straight off the bat. I've seen no obvious downside to just keeping cloak up at all times, it doesn't appear to actually drain your energy. Cloak will deactivate if you perform an action though, so you have to remember to keep putting it back up again after every confrontation.

The other tech gadget available to you at the offset is the vision mode dealy. You have normal vision, thermal vision (for spotting marines and predators) and alien vision (for spotting illegal immigrants). It's always a gamble going for one of the specific vision modes, because it makes it really really difficult to spot a species of the opposing type. Since marines are slow, and meeting another predator is rare, I'd say that the Alien vision mode should be the priority, but you can still be caught out. To really get the benefit you have to constantly flick between vision modes and hope you don't suffer an epileptic fit. A lot of the time I just stuck with normal vision to save the hassle, and the hospital appointments.

The final "tool", if you will, that you begin with is the Predator's version of "Focus Mode". Much like the Alien, you will get a circle surrounding a nearby enemy when Focus Mode is held down, allowing you to leap at your opponent from a distance with your claws. Unlike the Alien, this is not all Focus Mode is for. The Predator can use Focus Mode to make great bounding jumps across large gaps and up to high ledges. A small cylinder highlights the ground in front of you while in focus mode, and pressing the jump button will cause you to leap to that point; I found this to be a very neat addition to the Predator's abilities. The final feature of Focus Mode is that it highlights, using icons, where nearby Predator Tech is located, allowing you to quickly and efficiently locate new gadgets for old crab face. I pretty much found myself holding down Focus Mode the whole time.

Similar to the Alien, the Predator also has a "Hold X to Grab" finishing animation that he can pull off on an unsuspecting victim. Not much else to say about that...except...those poor, hopeless, foolish Marines!

So, onto the goodies you can find lying around, note that you can only acquire one of these weapons at a time.

Disc - This is a crazy weapon. It didn't seem as though I could get it to "lock on" to an enemy (like you could in the old games), either with focus mode, vision modes, or any other means, so it seems to simply be an "aim in the general direction of the enemy and watch the hilarity" weapon. Basically you throw the disc and it bounces all over the place until finally returning to your hand, best used in small corridors; you may or may not kill the intended target/unintended target/yourself/a crossing deer. It seems to disappear after using it so many times; I don't know if its number of times thrown, or number fo times you've hit a target, but it isn't unlimited use.

Spear - You can only throw this thing once, but you may be able to pick it back up again (I didn't get a chance to test this, but you could in the old games, and it would make sense). There's no "lock on" feature (that I'm aware of) but it's an instant kill. I find it's best used against a camping target since it has a nice range to it. It's not so great when you've got an enemy running all over the place, since you only get one chance to hit it.

Shoulder Cannon - Yeah you know you want this bad boy! Holding down the fire button brings up the laser reticle (giving away your position) and a few moments later a very fast ball of energy obliterates your target. There are two ways firing this can work. One way is when you're not in the matching vision mode for the target, in which case it's like the Spartan Laser - you have to keep the laser targeted on your foe and then it should eventually fire and you might hit them. The second way is when you're in the correct vision mode, in which case a triangle reticule appears and locks onto your target, pretty much ensuring that you will hit them, provided there is a clear line of sight with no obstructions in the way; best used from above in an open area. Using the shoulder cannon consumes energy and will require you to go to one of the energy recharge points dotted around the map (and highlighted by Focus Mode) to refill your juice.

Like the marine, the Predator has a way to get their health back with the press of a button. Holding down "Y" will boost your health back up to full, but at the cost of energy. As with the marine, it is worth keeping this topped up.

The way they've designed the Predator is pretty clever when you think about it; he's the ultimate camping character but you won't be able to camp with him. For starters you have to go and get some gear, which are in contended areas of the map, and then you won't be able to just keep using that gear without it running out, so you have to go to get more gear, or recharge depleted energy supplies. He's still a great character to play as though, but you'll really want to try and grab one of those shoulder cannons if you want to feel like a badass.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So there you have it! In conclusion, I liked the demo and will be getting the final game. The Alien is my favourite character, but is somewhat frustrating with its transition mechanic.

 

Its good. I first played the game with the default brightness, which is really dark... Epic scares, I had to turn the brightness up, I was too scared.

 

To Crane's post:

The reason you could pull off "trophy" kills (holding X) in the front is because after you attack an enemy with a heavy attack (LB) as a Predator or an Alien, for a brief moment an option pops up that is the same as if you had snuck up behind an opponent. The kills this way can be fought off (although I don't know how exactly, I've done it a few times mashing and had it happen some) but provide cooler finishing moves in my opinion. An example is one where the Alien puts his claw on a marine's face, puts his fingers in his eyes and mouth, and literally rips his head off. An awesome moment.

Also, the transition problem may be caused by a need to hold RT to transition to walls. Every time I do such, I have no problems. And if you can't climb a wall during combat, it's because being struck prevents such from happening and can even knock you off the wall.

I've also heard that Marine's can trophy kill, but only the Predators and only from behind (my friend said his guy pulled out a bowie knife and stuck it in its back). I haven't personally done such, but he randomly got excited while playing and said he had just done such; it seemed pretty real to me.

As for the demo, I love it. I have come to dominate with the Predator and Alien, mostly because of my ability to instant-kill most people from the front. Makes combat much easier to succeed.

 

You can go into the options menu and change the Alien transition to be auto instead of manual, so you don't have to hold RT. Trust me, makes it a lot more fluent and easier.

 

Holy shizit! Thank you for this amusing and informative breakdown of the classes. I will have to give the demo another go now that I actually understand how to play (although I'm sure most people that still play it are pros by now...). Shame on me for giving up so soon!

 

I've tried to join a game but I couldn't. I'll try again this weekend.

 

I'm fairly sure that holding down RT doesn't really do anything. I know it did in the old games, but I don't think it works that way in this game. I think it's simply a case that some walls are too sharp an angle to transition to if you're right up against them. I've noticed that if I back away slightly and then press RT that I will do a tiny hop and transition to the wall. Anyway, I just use jump now instead.

I've also noticed that you can drop down from the ceiling by pressing RT, which is sometimes useful.

Interesting...I'm planning to do plenty of research when I get the actual game and test things out with friends in custom matches; this will be one more thing to test!

Yeah I noticed a few Aliens doing that to me; wacking me with their tail and then grabbing me straight away from the front.

I did mention that I had turned on auto transition, but it still has trouble with some walls and it does still popup with "press RT to transition" next to surfaces. I've yet to really notice any identifiable difference between having auto transition on or off. I'm wondering if the option just isn't properly implemented in the Demo version.

 

I could help but notice your signature, but holy bageezus! You're still playing Mirror's Edge!? You must really love that game...

I wish I still have mirror's edge, instead of buying it, i rented it... I think i'm gonna buy it again...

Back to topic, has anyone ever tried using the sniper rifle in the game? Pointless! I couldn't hit a thing. Its way too dark, the predator is invisible half the time, the aliens are crawling all over the place, and by the time you get your crosshairs on a marine, he's probably getting pwned by a predator or impaled by an alien...