Customer Reviews

Aliens Vs. Predator Hunter Edition

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Aliens vs. Predator Hunter Edition is a tad on the pricey side, but if you're a die hard fan of the Alien films, the Predator films or any combination thereof it's worth it.

The Pros:

1. The game itself. In a word, fantastic. The developers have truly managed to capture the essence the films. The attention to detail is amazing. As an Alien, climb walls, run fast & kill mercilessly with your tail, claws or jaws. As a Predator, you'll hunt Aliens and marines from the trees using all the weapons and technology seen in the films. As the colonial marine, you'll get scared out of your wits as you walk through an abandoned facility (in the first level) toward your various objectives. The ambient sound is creepy and there are a few startling moments that get the adrenaline pumping before the developers really let you have it.

2. The bonus map pack. Initially only available to purchasers of the Hunter Edition, the included map pack consisting of four separate multiplayer maps is great fun and probably makes this set worth the extra money depending on how much the pack will be once it's officially released to the general public.

3. The patch. I've read many reviews out there where the writers seemed unconcerned with the Weyland-Yutani patch. I'm a huge fan of the Alien films and for me, that patch was easily one of the major reasons for purchasing the Hunter Edition. Having a patch of "The Company" to put on a hat or jacket is just plain fun. It should be noted that the spelling is not the one used in the original film (Welan-Yutani), however I can understand the usage since it's been established through every film since.

3. The facehugger. While not a full size replica, this poseable toy is easily the prime reason for buying the Hunter Edition and no doubt why it was sold out before it was even released.

The Cons:

1. The facehugger. Not the greatest detail and not "fully articulated" as advertised. The fingers are poseable to a degree, but the tail isn't at all. It also would have been nice if they had made it just a little larger, but the real problem is the apparent potential for the toy to come broken in the box. Mine had the tail completely broken off. I've heard of one other instance of this happening. Evidently the packaging for the facehugger itself is too tight and the toy had to be basically wadded up into a ball in order to fit. The fingers are thin and have wire inside allowing them to be bent with ease. The tail however is another matter. Thick and no wiring inside, it had to be bent 180° to be inserted into the packaging. Having been stuck in there for a while eventually some of them, it seems, end up snapping from the stress placed on them. Thankfully, my experience in film effects, modeling, etc enabled me to repair it.

2. The "post card". While not really technically "bad", this item leave something to be desired. A lenticular 3D card with an image of an Alien, a Predator (well, his arm anyway) and a marine is nice, but hardly worth it. I remember reading it was advertised as a post card which it isn't. It does look neat, but it's nothing to write home about.

The In Between: The Dark Horse Comics Aliens vs. Predator graphic novel is nicely done with a hard cover and new cover art and is a great read. On the other hand, it's a reprint of the original Aliens vs. Predator story that first appeared in Dark Horse Presents #s 34, 35 & 36 and was reprinted previously as Aliens vs. Predator #0. The original printing was black & white while this edition is in color, but if you've ever read the story you're getting nothing much new here and if you've ever seen AvP #0 this is the same thing only smaller and with a hard cover. There is a nice pin up by Glenn Fabry inside just after the story, but it would have been nice had they included more or perhaps reprinted these along with the first four issue mini series (five if you count #0). Overall, the graphic novel is beautifully done and even though I have read the originals, I still like this presentation.

All in all the Hunter Edition is worth every penny (even in spite of the poor packaging resulting in potentially broken facehuggers). Hopefully, they'll correct the packaging issue. If they do, this is definitely a must buy for fans.

If you like Aliens and/or Predator you will like this game. But I mainly wanted to let people know that if you are buying the Hunter Edition the included DLC code (for the PS3) has expired. Amazon is essentially selling this item not as described. Way to break your own policies Amazon ;(

I am not sure what standard people are holding this game to but in my opinion it is absolutely awesome. It is what it is, AVP... marine is scary, predator is fun, alien is wicked. The Hunter Edition is such a great value as well, I would not pass this up.

The reason I purchased 4 copies, one for me and the 3 others for friends who I play with online on a regular basis. I enjoyed this game when I rented it; I just wish the story modes for each setting were a little longer. It's really fun playing as an Alien; the feel is unlike any other game out there. This is a very unique game considering being able to play as a Marine, Alien, and the Predator.

Be warned! The download codes for this edition have expired and cannot be used!! Also there's a known issue with the facehugger's tail breaking (mine was bent and almost broken but not quite). The website to order a replacement is no longer available. So order this only if you want the game, which is fun but can get repetitive. Also noone really plays the multiplayer so I had a lot of trouble finding games online.

This game has flaws. You're enemies seem overpowered, the campaigns are too short, ect. That being said, there aren't any game crippling bugs on this game. It is also a fun game, and the trophy kills are brutal and spectacular. The hunter edition is a good special edition. The facehugger is nice, though small, it looks great. The comic is. A reprint, but a well done reprint. The weyland -yutani patch is a good blast of nostalgia, and looks like its actually from "The Company". The 3d postcards is a letdown, however, but the steelbook case looks awesome. Overall good game and special edition.

Since the game is so old the map pack it came with has expired. And the alien replica's tale was cut in half, but for kist 20 bucks compared to 100 its worth it

I love the game, and I won't be reviewing it so much as the "Hunter Edition" package. The comic is nice, but very small. The other junk is just that, including the reason I went for the Hunter Package: The Life-sized facehugger.

I would call this thing life sized for a small baby... maybe. It's tiny. Also, mine came broken, in three pieces. Its only saving grace is that at least the fingers on it came with little metal wires inside, so they can conform to any shape.

In my opinion it should have been 2-3 times larger to be "Life-sized."

hey the map pack add-on has already expire on the 3/31/11 and i have just burly had the game delivered on July 30,2011 they should had put on the description that the map pack had expire on the description so people would have known

When first I heard that there was to be an AvP game coming to BRD (BluRay Disk), I was extremely excited. What fan of the Alien and Predator franchises isn't excited by the principle of an HD release of a video game in which one can play as more than just one of the races? Needless to say, I went out and pre-ordered this game and even bought the special edition, but when I got it I found myself only growing increasingly frustrated.

To my knowledge, this games release was pushed up too much, and it was far too rushed in its overall composition. A few more months could probably have spared everyone the however many years now it's been of debilitating glitches and increasingly frustrating gameplay. In the beginning it was a glitch with the experience bonuses, where one could spend hours upon hours leveling and getting experience, and then have it all disappear when the system decided to glitch up and reset one's progress. I found this very frustrating at the time, because I put untold hours into leveling and unlocking the best character skins. I sent a letter of inquiry to Sega requesting a fix of this glitch, and restoration of my experience, but in the end I only ended up getting new glitches to deal with. Once the game stopped reseting peoples' ranks, it then began to glitch in the sense of the fact that once one completes one online match, one's experience then starts counting backwards. In other words, you have to leave the game lobby every time you finish a match, and proceed to wait another 10-20 minutes for a new multiplayer lobby, lest your hard work only take you backwards. To my knowledge this glitch still isn't fixed, and at this point I doubt it will ever be. It's clear to me, based on my prior experiences with the developers, that fixing this game's problems and helping their customers' frustrations are a very low priority.

Besides the endless stream of glitchy gameplay, I also found the online matches to be increasingly frustrating. Most of us typically choose a specialty in any given game, but this game does not let you choose matches that allow you to fulfill your specialty, rather it instead randomizes things completely. This is arguably fair in a sense of leveling the playing field, and would be good in theory, but there is a distinct reason this system fails for this game: class balance:

Marines are essentially the weakest class. It doesn't matter how good a shot you are, the aliens and predators have significantly more health and resilience, and have no problem getting close to you and thusly destroying you, because marines have no means of then getting away from either of the alien species to a safe range. I don't much care for humans anyway, but no amount of skill or talent can keep you alive once an alien or predator gets close, as not only are you thusly trapped, but they can kill you in one to two completely un-blockable and unavoidable hits. In a game with better structure, there would at least be some way to escape close range confrontation.

Aliens fall in the middle in terms of balance, and while they were hugely dominant in the few weeks after the release of the game, they are effective prey for virtually anything. A good blast from a Marine's shot gun can stun an alien for long enough for the Marine to run in circles around you and switch weapons seven times before finishing you, while predators can essentially block or interrupt any melee attack, thusly leaving aliens with nothing left but to swiftly die. One could argue that a skilled alien can dominate a match, and while this is true, it is also true that even a terrible predator can kill an alien without even trying.

This brings us now to the Predators, the god mode of the game. Predators can kill anything in two or less shots, can be completely invisible, and have this nasty habit of automatically rotating to the back of an opponent in combat, thusly allowing them to perform a one-shot "stealth kill." While this is a lot of fun for the predator, it is almost literally impossible to kill a predator with even the most remedial levels of skill with regards to gameplay. Their ranged weapons are even worse. If they hit any other class, the predator weapons essentially freeze the opponents controls for a good five or so seconds, which is of course more than enough time for the Predator to then finish them off. It goes without saying that predators are very fun to play, but horribly frustrating to be pitted against.

To top off the unbalance factor, this game pays absolutely no attention to team distribution. Not only are there a handful of one versus all, no win types of games, but in even the simplest of death match modes, many a time will there be eight people on one team, and two people on another. The horrible part of this is that it is almost entirely random, and so over half of the time, if not way more than that, you are faced with a no-win situation, in which only the cheapest cheap tactics, such as using other players as meat shields, can even keep you from dying (but not even help you win).


Needless to say, this game is a huge disappointment. The campaign modes are mildly enjoyable, but the online gameplay wrecks the entire experience. To be perfectly honest, I have never played a game before or since this one that was so poorly balanced. I will always wonder why Rebellion Interactive didn't copy their basic system from the PC predecessors to this game, because while those games were, in my opinion, very well put together, this game was horribly assembled. One can only hope that the mysterious "sequel" Sega was discussing for a while after the release of this game would prove to be a much better experience. And so, unless you have a masochistic need to play a game in which almost 85% of the time you are being beaten up by game modes with horrible circumstances, or enjoy spending tireless hours working towards nothing, I would not recommend this game in the slightest.