Aliens versus Predator 2
Aliens Versus Predator 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Sierra On-Line for Microsoft Windows in October 2001, and for Mac OS X in July 2003. The game is a sequel to Aliens Versus Predator ; both games are based on the characters of the Alien and Predator media franchises as well as the Alien vs. Predator crossover series. It is set on the fictional planet LV-1201, which houses a vast series of ruins infested with Aliens that is routinely visited by a clan of Predators who hunt the creatures for sport.
The game is played from a first-person perspective. In the single-player mode, players control one of three characters, each with their own abilities and individual story modes. An online multiplayer mode, which allows players to play as one of four teams in competitive modes, is no longer officially supported and requires a community developed patch to enable multiplayer.
An expansion pack titled Aliens Versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt was released in 2002. A "Gold Edition" of Aliens Versus Predator 2 followed, combining both the original game and the expansion pack into a single package. There was never an Aliens versus Predator 3 nor any plans for a sequel, but in 2010 Rebellion Developments made a reboot simply titled Aliens vs Predator.
Gameplay
Like its predecessor, Aliens Versus Predator 2 allows the player to choose one of three characters: an Alien, Predator, or human Colonial Marine. Each character has different objectives, abilities and weapons at their disposal. The single-player campaigns present the player with a conventional series of levels that are designed around the abilities of each character.As the Colonial Marine, the player uses a number of weapons to combat Aliens and Predators. The Marine wears armor for protection, and uses an image intensifier, flashlight, and flares to improve visibility in dark areas.
When playing as the Predator, the player uses a variety of weapons from the Predator films such as wrist blades, a throwing disc, and shoulder-mounted energy weapons. The Predator is more durable than the human or the Alien and can survive falls from greater heights than the human. It can use a cloaking device to become invisible and several different modes of vision to help in the detection of enemies, including infrared vision and a mode sensitive to electrical systems. Unlike in the previous game, the Predator in Aliens Versus Predator 2 recharges its energy supply using a personal item.
As an Alien the player can explore most of the game's environments freely, even climbing across walls and ceilings. However, the Alien has no weapons and must use its claws, tail, and jaws to attack enemies. The player can also use a form of echolocation in dark areas and can detect pheromones to discern human or Predator enemies. The Alien can drop from any height without injury and is the fastest of the three player characters.
Multiplayer
Aliens Versus Predator 2 has several multiplayer modes which can be played through an internet or Local Area Network connection. In each game the player chooses one of four teams to play as: The Aliens, Predators, Marines, or corporate mercenaries. Each team has unique abilities, advantages, and disadvantages. The Aliens are able to scale walls and ceilings and the Predators can become invisible, while the two human teams have a large array of heavy weapons as well as motion trackers.There are six different multiplayer "modes" played on a number of "maps". "Deathmatch" mode is a free-for-all match in which the player's goal is to accumulate the highest number of kills. "Team Deathmatch" has the same goal except that the player is teamed with other players of the same species. In "Hunt" there are two teams, one designated as the "hunter" and the other as the "prey"; the hunters accumulate points by killing the prey, while the prey can themselves become hunters by killing members of the hunter team. "Survivor" mode designates all players as "defenders" at the start; if a player is killed they become a "mutant" and can then earn points by killing defenders. Defenders gain points by staying alive without becoming mutants. "Overrun" is a timed match between two teams that is similar to "Survivor" except that each player has a finite number of lives; at the end of the round points are awarded based on the number of surviving members on each team. "Evacuation" is another two-team match with a finite number of lives, in which one team is designated as the "attackers" and the other as "defenders". The attacking team wins by killing all of the defenders, while the defending team wins by locating the map's evacuation point and having at least one member survive within it for ten seconds.
In November 2008, Sierra Entertainment shut down the master server browser for the game.
Synopsis
Setting
The story of Aliens Versus Predator 2 largely takes place in the year 2231, approximately 109 years after the events of Alien and 52 years after the events of both Aliens and Alien 3. Humanity has established an outpost on the planet LV-1201, which was found after the Weyland-Yutani Corporation traced the flight telemetry of the original derelict ship featured in Alien. The planet was found to haveextraterrestrial ruins of similar make and was a breeding ground for Xenomorphs. The research colony consisted of two major installations: the Primary Operations Complex, designed with the same "shake and bake" architecture seen at Hadley's Hope in Aliens; and the Forward Observation Pods, a set of four scientific research facilities suspended over a canyon by a network of trellises, with an internal design style reminiscent of the Nostromo from Alien. A garrison of corporate mercenaries known as the Iron Bears, led by the mercenary general Vassili Rykov, provides security while Dr. Arnaud Eisenberg runs the science division.
At approximately 5:18 AM, on November 25, 2230, a lone Xenomorph escaped from its confinement and caused significant collateral damage in a fight with an invading Predator. Referred to in-game as "The Incident", the fight resulted in the Primary Operations Complex being overrun with Xenomorphs. Since the POC was the communications link between the Forward Observation Pods and the rest of the galaxy, this leaves the survivors at the Pods stranded and unable to call for help. Six weeks later, the Colonial Marines are sent to investigate what happened.
It is later established in the expansion pack Aliens Versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt that LV-1201 was also once the location of a Predator hunting ground, where the Predators hunt Xenomorphs for sport. In Primal Hunt, a lone Predator survivor from a previous botched hunt unwittingly caused a Xenomorph outbreak in Pod 5 while trying to alert other members of its kind to its location. The Iron Bears were forced to destroy Pod 5, while a lone Predator ship intercepted the call. The Alien storyline, which is the earliest point in the main game, picks up about five weeks after this catastrophe occurred.
Plot
The three story lines in Aliens Versus Predator 2 intersect and impact one another, unlike the preceding game.Marine
In January 2231, on board the USS Verloc, the ship is carrying a small contingent of the U.S.C.M to planet LV-1201. The Primary Operations Complex, one of the main Weyland-Yutani facilities on the LV-1201, is missing contact with the rest of the pods for the last 6 weeks, and the Marines are to rescue survivors and secure the facility until the larger USCM 6th Battalion arrives.Two dropships are deployed to the Primary Operations Complex, but they are separated by hurricane winds and one is damaged and forced to make an emergency landing outside the POC. Sergeant Hall and Red Team are sent to restore power, and White Team is sent to restore security control. Harrison, Shugi, and Blackwell are sent to clear the North Landing Bay and ensure that the wind shear radar is up. However, Harrison is immediately separated from the rest of his team and loses contact with them. He manages to restore power to the North Landing Bay and reactivate the landing beacon on his own, and the dropship immediately lands there. Harrison is then sent to the nearest security office to activate the POC's automated defenses. He succeeds, but accidentally wakes up the POC's alien inhabitants in the process. Red Team becomes pinned down in Yard Four. Dropship One takes off without Harrison, who is ordered to rendezvous with Hall's team; once he gets there, he is informed that Hall has been taken by the aliens. He attempts to rescue her, but by the time he finds her, she has already been impregnated with a Chestburster. She dies as Harrison finds her.
The Marines attempt to reach the Pods via the tunnel network connecting them to the POC. Harrison is sent ahead to deactivate tunnel security so the Marines' APCs can proceed through. However, in an attempt to prevent espionage, the facility's Internal Security Protocol Chief had tied the network security layer into the node protocol; as a result, the collapse of the network's data layer forces the Forward Pods to reboot their entire security system and leaving them vulnerable for 15 minutes. During this time, Aliens attack the Pods and six of the Iron Bears are killed before the Marines manage to arrive at the Pods.
When the Marines reach the Pods, both Eisenberg and Rykov give the strike team a false assignment in order to conceal the fate of the people who died in the POC. To facilitate this, the pair have Harrison isolated and imprisoned while he attempts to establish a communication link with the Verloc. Harrison escapes with the remote aid of a woman named Tomiko, an assemblyman's daughter. Harrison is instructed to recover a data disk containing evidence of Eisenberg's illegal activities in exchange for reuniting him with his platoon.
Harrison finds several members of White Team, but they are all killed by Xenomorphs and Predators before Harrison can activate the landing beacon for an incoming dropship. Harrison manages to kill a Predator himself before reaching the dropship. Tomiko transmits the coordinates of an old entry site to the Hive, and Harrison, now in his own Exosuit, proceeds after his fellow Marines whom Rykov has stranded. Harrison's Exosuit is damaged during a fall, and he must proceed the rest of the way on foot. He locates his team in a massive chamber where the fossilized remains of an Engineer reside. A Xenomorph Queen attacks the squad, but Harrison is able to repel the Queen so that he and the rest of the Marines can escape via dropship. The Queen tries to stop them, but the dropship bombards her with missiles, killing her.
As the dropship puts distance between itself and the Hive, Tomiko overloads the fusion reactors in the Pods, destroying them and killing herself to save the marines. When the Marines return to the Verloc, Major McCain recommends abandoning any further rescue or salvage attempts on LV-1201, as they depart back to Earth.
Predator
On the night of July 3, 2211, a Weyland-Yutani research facility on the planet Korari came under attack by at least one Predator. A young Rykov, who was a Marine at the time, was among the survivors, but suffered a major injury to his back; he was honorably discharged from the Marines and began working as a mercenary shortly thereafter.By November 2230, several predators have arrived at LV-1201; their arrival is brought to the attention of Rykov himself, who is now providing private security for the Weyland-Yutani installation there. The hunt lasts for at least a week, during which time one Predator self-destructs after losing in combat to an Alien and two more are captured by the Iron Bears. Pursuing his captured clan-mates into the Forward Observation Pods, the player character eventually succumbs to electro-magnetic pulse grenades which render his equipment useless and result in his capture.
Rykov places the Predator in a lab where it remains in stasis for over five weeks. It is revealed that this Predator is responsible for Rykov's injuries and his burning desire for revenge. Saved from being impregnated with a Xenomorph and inadvertently released by Corporal Harrison, the Predator powers through a horde of humans, reclaims his equipment and sets off in pursuit of General Rykov.
After escaping aboard a corporate dropship, the Predator fights through the Alien infested caves and tunnels beneath the pods and eventually manages to signal his clan using human technology to broadcast the signal to them. The Predator clan promptly arrive and re-arm the Predator, who then sets off to finish Rykov.
Following Rykov, now encased in an Exosuit, deep into the Xenomorph Hive, the Predator fights his way into the heart of the Hive for a climatic battle with General Rykov. Overcoming his enemy, the Predator rips through Rykov's body, and claims his spine as his trophy after 19 years of chase. The Predator reunites with his clan and departs the planet in order to pursue the U.S.S. Verloc.
Alien
On November 2230, a day before the Incident at the POC, Dr. Eisenberg is discussing some of the facility's problems with a co-worker. Those problems include the loss of Pod 5 weeks earlier, missing artifacts, and unauthorized research conducted by Eisenberg, while the oversight committee is getting worried about the illegal activities and the loss of the facility staff on Pod 5, as the Weyand-Yutani Corporation is worried about being able to cover-up the research on the LV-1201 any longer. Eisenberg continues research regardless of liability.Meanwhile, a shipping crate hiding a Xenomorph egg is delivered to the colony, where an accident awakens the egg and releases the Facehugger. The Facehugger leaves the ship through a series of umbilical ductworks and begins to track an irritable guard, Cisco, through the POC. When Cisco retires to his quarters for a nap, the Facehugger springs on him and infects him.
In due time, a player-controlled Chestburster hatches, killing Cisco, while the Facehugger hides under Cisco's desk and soon after dies hidden. It flees through an open window and proceeds through the POC until it feeds on a group of captive cats. After feeding on the cats, the chestburster grows into a full Alien drone. When the guards find him, he goes berserk and murders them.
The alien fights its way through the POC, releasing other Xenomorphs being kept as test subjects along the way. It reaches the lower levels, finally encountering a Predator that had been stalking it, probably believing it would make a suitable challenge. It fatally wounds the Predator, which activates its Self-Destruct Device, creating a large hole that facilitates the Xenomorph invasion into the POC. This invasion prompts the U.S.S. Verloc's deployment.
Six weeks later, the alien infiltrates the Pods during a brief security failure caused by Corporal Harrison. As the Xenomorphs attack the Pods, they weaken the defenses and release an artificial hive in the process.
Eisenberg has taken advantage of the Marines' arrival to initiate the Large Mass Specimen Extraction, a project to capture the Xenomorph Empress. As part of the plan, combat synthetics have wired explosive charges throughout the tunnels of the Hive. After leaving the Pods and armed with this information, the alien disables these explosives as it tracks the Empress.
The Empress is successfully captured, but the alien pursues her captors, including Eisenberg himself. It tracks them through an archaeological site, killing numerous guards, civilians, and Iron Bears mercenaries, to a dropship landing pad. It kills two Predators and sabotages the pad's support machinery, causing the dropship to crash. Furious, Eisenberg attacks the alien directly. The alien incapacitates Eisenberg and cocoons his artificial body to celebrate their victory.
Reception
The game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Aliens vs. Predator 2 for its 2001 "Computer Action/Adventure Game of the Year" and "Online Game Play of the Year" awards. However, it lost in both categories to Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Similarly, the editors of Computer Games Magazine nominated Aliens Versus Predator 2 as the best action game of 2001, but ultimately gave the award to .
''Aliens Versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt''
An expansion pack, titled Aliens Versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt, was developed by Third Law Interactive, published by Sierra Entertainment and distributed by Fox Interactive in August 2002. It was also included in the Gold Edition of Aliens Versus Predator 2 released in May 2003, which bundled the original game and the expansion pack into a single package. Primal Hunt adds new weapons and multiplayer maps to the original game, as well as a single-player campaign which serves as a prequel to the storyline of Aliens Versus Predator 2.Gameplay
The player is once again able to play as either a human, Predator, or Alien character, each with its own campaign and abilities. The plot lines of the three characters intersect and set up the events of the original game.Plot
The events of Primal Hunt are set on LV-1201, the same setting as the main game, but take place in earlier time periods. The stories of the Alien and Predator characters begin five hundred years before the events of Aliens Versus Predator 2 and continue in the year 2230, approximately six weeks before the events of the main game, which is also the time period of the human character's story. Primal Hunt revisits the Forward Observation Pods of the research facility and explains the destruction of Pod 5.Marine/Mercenary
Major Dunya, a female member of the Weyland-Yutani private military contractor known as the "Iron Bears", is stationed on LV-1201. She is ordered by her superior officer, General Rykov, to retrieve an artifact from a location known as the "Zeta Site" which houses part of a Xenomorph hive as well as technology from an alien race. The player battles xenomorphs through the Zeta Site, retrieves the artifact, and returns to find that Aliens have infiltrated Pod 5. A Predator steals the artifact and the player defends the cargo area from Aliens until the pod is evacuated. Rykov then destroys the pod's supports, sending it crashing into the valley floor below.Predator
In the early 18th century, 500 years before the incident, a Predator spacecraft encounters the planet LV-1201 for the first time and the player Predator is sent there to hunt. The player battles numerous creatures before discovering that Xenomorphs also inhabit the planet. The player tracks the Aliens to their hive and activates an artifact which has the power to repel the Aliens. The game then shifts forward eight months, by which time the Predators have established a camp around the artifact. The player Predator descends into the hive in search of the Alien queen, but the artifact is deactivated and the camp is overrun by Aliens. While repairing a stasis field around a group of Alien eggs the Predator is attacked by a facehugger and the two are caught in the field and trapped in stasis for five hundred years.The Predator awakens when Dunya deactivates the artifact, and the player tracks her to the research facility's Forward Observation Pods and breaks into Pod 5, inadvertently allowing the Aliens into the pod. The player retrieves the artifact and sends a signal to other Predators who are nine weeks away. The Predator is then killed by the Alien embryo bursting through his ribcage.