[E3 2009] Aliens vs. Predator Eyes-On
Rebellion is back to doing what they do best: scaring the piss out of us.
Published: June 4, 2009
We've got a big soft spot for the good folks at Rebellion after they proceeded to cause the whole of the office to poop its pants when the first Aliens vs. Predator game was release waaaaay back in... wait, 1999? Though it's "only" been a decade since we first got the chance to creep around the dark, claustrophobic tunnels as a Colonial Marine, skitter along walls with ridiculous speed while having our POV set to 200 or some such ridiculousness as an Xenomorph and hunt the both of 'em with kick-ass weaponry as the Predator, there's been a hole in our lives that only Rebellion's take on things could provide.
Maybe it's because they've been making the games for like eleventy billion years, or that they just knew how to properly scare the crap out of us (or make us feel like an overpowered ass kicker and the ultimate primal hunter, by extension). Whatever the reason, it's good to see some old friends going back to basics. Well, not entirely back to basics. The new Aliens vs. Predator, like all Rebellion games, uses the latest upgraded version of their own in-house multi-platform Asura Engine, and the updates made to the underlying tech for next-gen systems have seen plenty of attention focused on lighting, fancy texture effects and the usual whiz-band stuff needed to pass for an HD effort these days.
More importantly, though, as we saw with our first glimpse into the Marines' side of things, it still has the potential to scare the bejeebers out of us. Mainly it's because the Xenomorphs -- those acid-blooded, ridiculously quick, barbed tail-packing baddies are such great killers. When one's on the screen, it's a little frightening, and one must take care to gun them down from a distance lest their arterial spray do to our faces what seeing the Ark of the Covenant did to that Nazi dude in Raiders. When one's slowly slinking forward while two of his friends are snaking across the ceiling to attack from the flanks, it's positively freaky, and that's what the series does so well.
We got to see one of the first missions in the game. A new Marine, freshly transported to, what else, a mining colony that unearthed some old Predator ruins, has arrived after the colonists decide to go poking around in the ancient alien digs. Predators are awfully fond of keeping face hugger eggs as prizes, y'see, and when the colonists get a little too close... huggy-huggy, chesty-bursty, crawly-crawly. All the new guy needs to know is that they're bad, they're fast, and there's a whole colony's worth of 'em running all over the place. Not good.
Exploring the gutted, dilapidated bits of the settlement offered all sorts of pretty little effects; thick shafts of smoky light poured into the interior from the weather-beaten (and, we might add, sunny) outside, acid burns had eaten their way through multiple decks right down to the bottom where they revealed dry terra firma underneath, and, thanks to a few remaining Marines, motion-tracking turrets were constantly pinging and scanning away at the open corridors, complete with little green columns of light that capture the smoky, dusty swirls in the air. In short, it was all the best parts of the Aliens setup, and done to perfect effect. Eventual outbreak? Check. Turret burning through targets on the other side of a closed bulkhead? Yep. Attempt to escape as sheer numbers of baddies overwhelm the few remaining survivors? Yeah, here too.
In short, it's a proper next-gen update to the very same feelings of dread and hopelessness that we got all those long years ago, and though we didn't get a chance to check out the Predator gameplay, we're told it's remarkably different -- sandbox-y, even -- which only makes us more eager to check things out as soon as we can. As soon as that happens, we'll pass along the info.
Maybe it's because they've been making the games for like eleventy billion years, or that they just knew how to properly scare the crap out of us (or make us feel like an overpowered ass kicker and the ultimate primal hunter, by extension). Whatever the reason, it's good to see some old friends going back to basics. Well, not entirely back to basics. The new Aliens vs. Predator, like all Rebellion games, uses the latest upgraded version of their own in-house multi-platform Asura Engine, and the updates made to the underlying tech for next-gen systems have seen plenty of attention focused on lighting, fancy texture effects and the usual whiz-band stuff needed to pass for an HD effort these days.
More importantly, though, as we saw with our first glimpse into the Marines' side of things, it still has the potential to scare the bejeebers out of us. Mainly it's because the Xenomorphs -- those acid-blooded, ridiculously quick, barbed tail-packing baddies are such great killers. When one's on the screen, it's a little frightening, and one must take care to gun them down from a distance lest their arterial spray do to our faces what seeing the Ark of the Covenant did to that Nazi dude in Raiders. When one's slowly slinking forward while two of his friends are snaking across the ceiling to attack from the flanks, it's positively freaky, and that's what the series does so well.
We got to see one of the first missions in the game. A new Marine, freshly transported to, what else, a mining colony that unearthed some old Predator ruins, has arrived after the colonists decide to go poking around in the ancient alien digs. Predators are awfully fond of keeping face hugger eggs as prizes, y'see, and when the colonists get a little too close... huggy-huggy, chesty-bursty, crawly-crawly. All the new guy needs to know is that they're bad, they're fast, and there's a whole colony's worth of 'em running all over the place. Not good.
Exploring the gutted, dilapidated bits of the settlement offered all sorts of pretty little effects; thick shafts of smoky light poured into the interior from the weather-beaten (and, we might add, sunny) outside, acid burns had eaten their way through multiple decks right down to the bottom where they revealed dry terra firma underneath, and, thanks to a few remaining Marines, motion-tracking turrets were constantly pinging and scanning away at the open corridors, complete with little green columns of light that capture the smoky, dusty swirls in the air. In short, it was all the best parts of the Aliens setup, and done to perfect effect. Eventual outbreak? Check. Turret burning through targets on the other side of a closed bulkhead? Yep. Attempt to escape as sheer numbers of baddies overwhelm the few remaining survivors? Yeah, here too.
In short, it's a proper next-gen update to the very same feelings of dread and hopelessness that we got all those long years ago, and though we didn't get a chance to check out the Predator gameplay, we're told it's remarkably different -- sandbox-y, even -- which only makes us more eager to check things out as soon as we can. As soon as that happens, we'll pass along the info.
