Aliens vs. Predator 2: Primal Hunt - Expansion Pack (PC CD)

*not as suspenseful as the original (AvP2) as it can - at times - be nonstop action, which is good if you like that kind of thing, but id prefer it to be more scary like the original. also, when the aliens do attack, you get a 'dramatic score' which gives away that your going to be under attack well before you can see or hear anything

*the aliens first level takes ages on harder difficulties - firstly trying to work out where the hell your supposed to be going and then avoiding the plasma caster shots which seem to fly at you constantly when your not in an air vent

*aliens seem to be able to hurt you when they are a short distance away - can get a bit anoying

good points do outweigh the bad though, as those are all minor negatives

*awesome graphics and animation

*i like all the new weapons - they aer all really cool, especially the double pistols for the marine

*get to play as pred-alien - yay!

basically, if you liked the original or the films - get it. if you didnt like any of those, then why are you even reading this far into this review? weird... just buy the original and play it to death, then buy this if ou want some more...

Of course, you will probably be trying the single-player game first. The SP game will take you to all kinds of places: 500 years into the past (ie. about 300 from the present day...), the ruins of the ancient civilisation as seen in the original film Alien, Predator bases, gigantic human-made fortresses, the works. Plus there's a range of suitably outlandish indigenous life-forms, as well as civilian facehugger-fodder, hard-ass (and heavily armed) corporate mercenaries, and of course the titular Alien (inspiration for pretty much every sci-fi film since the late 70's, a biomechanical hive-minded beastie which gestates inside a living host) and Predator (complete with trademark clicketty-click growls and an array of nastily sharp weaponary for hunting you and everyone else). Then there's the guns, which blow every other games' offerings out of the water, but you'll soon find out about those.

So, AvP2: Primal Hunt. A game based on some of the greatest and most downright scary sci-fi films ever made, with great creatures, scenery and guns. And a plot. Frenzied multi-player action. Jaw-dropping weapons. Enough atmosphere to use as deodorant. The catch? It hasn't come out yet. Hah.

The Predator game was good, with well thought out plot and locations. The new weapon fills the only real hole in the predator armory (rate of fire) but I'm sure the pred starts a self destruct at the end, and it never goes off...

The alien game suffers from a lot of problems. There is a room with three exits. One of these exits will allow you to continue the level, the others will have you killed instantly. That's assuming you can avoid all those plasma-caster wielding predators. Grr. And of course, it is way, way, way too short.

TO summarise - an OK add on for an excellent game - a little disappointing though.

+Weapons balanced
+Pred self-destruct
+Predalien beefed up a little
-Pickup-able sentry guns appear to do very little damage
-Way way way too short
-Russian accents (supposedly)
+Dimitri's character developed
-Dunya "Prettied up" I preffered the embittered Merc.
+Dunya in the shower ;)