
	Platform PSP Genre Action Publisher Sierra Developer REbellion ESRB T (Teen) Released December 25, 2007

- Branching level choices add a level of interest - Cinematics are nicely polished - Single player and multiplayer experience included

- Combat is way too easy - Whole experience is a little boring - Some level design is confusing

Review: Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow (PSP) Review: Rainbow Six Vegas (PSP) Review: Chili Con Carnage (PSP)
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Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem

Score: 6.0 / 10

The Alien vs. Predator series is a little unusual as far as movie-to-game tie-ins go. The movies have generally gotten worse over the years, but the games have actually gotten better. Unfortunately, this title doesn’t continue the trend. Not to say that it’s a bad game, but its average at best and could have been a lot better.

The game starts out with an alien ship crashing into Colorado and you must destroy all evidence of the alien presence. As the Predator, you will seek out pieces of Alien technology and disintegrate it. Sometimes, the evidence is a lot bigger. In the first level you must destroy the alien ship. Some poor level design issues present themselves in this first level however as you must disable a power source into order to walk over some water to get to the next part of the ship. After completing an objective, you return to the same spot and need to turn the

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power back on and the game expects you to then go back over the water you were initially told was dangerous! This confusing message could be forgiven in the rest of the game got better.

The color palette in this game is quite muddy although the graphics overall are pretty much on par with other PSP games. The sound design is fairly

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uninspired but passable although I did have a problem where when there were many enemies on screen at once the audio cut out completely. I am not sure if this was because my battery was running low or not because the problem never occurred again.

The controls work fairly well for a PSP game, except for the camera. It can be controlled with the left and right shoulder buttons and then both buttons together are used to lock on to an enemy target. The downside here is that in a group of enemies it’s not really possible to choose which enemy you target, so it’s just a matter of you keeping at it until you kill everyone, which is rarely troublesome.

The D-Pad accesses extra vision modes and even a cloaking mode which can help you avoid human contact. Although you lose points for killing humans, I found it impossible to resist slashing through their flesh with my Wolverine-like claws. The game does also offer an interesting option in that it allows you to choose how you progress from the first level. You can choose three different paths although they all lead to the same place, it gives you a different perspective on getting there and does provide a reason to play the game through again if you have nothing else better to do.

The game also offers honor points which you get by avoiding killing humans and also “tagging” aliens before you kill them. Tagging consists of pressing the triangle button to switch from the games usual third-person perspective to a first person one and then zooming in on your enemies and “tagging” them. Think of it like using a sniper rifle that just shoots blanks. It serves little purpose other than to make you stop and think about what is coming up rather than just running in guns-a-blazing but the honor points can be used to upgrade your already fairly invincible predator. This is certainly an option for completists.

In addition to the single player adventure, the skirmish mode tests your ability to clear out as many enemies as you can in a five minute period played in many of the single player levels and the ad-hoc wireless multiplayer option lets you bring a friend along for the ride. Don’t look for any bonus unlockables or rewards however, because at this point they are just not there.

Alien vs. Predator: Requiem is not a bad game, it’s just not the best game in the AvP universe. Instead, I’d recommend you dust off your Atari Jaguar and boot it up there. You’ll be surprised at just how fun it was.

- Syd Bolton

(February 15, 2008)


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