Alien vs. Predator: Requiem is the sequel to 2004’s rather mediocre Alien vs. Predator. The recently released trailer shows that this will not be a repeat of the neutered Paul Anderson movie – Requiem’s got plenty of action, tons of gore and no human/predator love story. We are unsure if the game follows the movie closely (as the details for the movie’s plot have been kept quiet) – the game has players taking control over a lone Predator on Earth, whose aim is to extinguish the Xenomorph threat on the planet, but also to do a bit of hunting on the side.
Purple haze, all in my brain
UK studio Rebellion has development duties on Requiem – fans might remember that they were responsible for the only good game on the Jaguar, Alien vs. Predator, and the far superior PC game of the same name. Rebellion’s output over the last few years has not been anything to be proud of, but Requiem has shown so far that they are gradually getting back on track.
Requiem is a fairly straightforward third person shooter with a reasonably large emphasis on stealth. The game has provided players with a pretty faithful set of the Predator’s abilities – cloaking, different visor modes (heat vision, night vision, and alien detection), arm blades and the shoulder cannon. There was not a spear gun or disc available in the demo, but we assume they will be in the full version of the game.
Do the Predators have a tribal dance?
The first level of the game had us going through a fairly basic tutorial on the Predator’s abilities, before leading us to a crashed Predator ship in order to destroy the resident Xenomorphs. Controlling the Predator is a little trickier than we had hoped – the analogue stick steers the creature, the d-pad will activate vision modes and stealth camouflage, while the face buttons will control various attacks. The camera was providing to be a bit of a nuisance – the shoulder buttons control the camera, but both need to be pressed simultaneously to lock on to an enemy. It is fine for taking on a single enemy, but hopeless for taking on groups. Still, it is pretty satisfying locking onto a beast and charging the shoulder cannon to blow it apart.
The next level was set in the suburbs in the midst of martial law. As such, we were required to rely on the Predator’s stealth camouflage a lot. There seemed to be some minor issues with the guards being able to see through the device at long distances which was rather disappointing. Of course, players are discouraged from killing soldiers unless the weapon is turned on them, so you have to sneak around and hope you’re not caught, because even though the Predator is pretty good at killing, he’s not much of a match in open spaces against soldiers.
Having a shoulder cannon is handy for cleaning poop from the walls
Requiem’s visual presentation is looking rather inconsistent, with some good character models and solid animation, but decidedly bland environments and texturing. The Predator certainly looks better than in his last appearance in Concrete Jungle, which is pretty good given the less powerful hardware of the PSP. On the other hand, the frame rate was struggling through some of the more intensive scenes. The music is pretty moody, and there’s plenty of solid voice work from the soldiers.
We’re not exactly sure how far along our test version of Alien vs. Predator: Requiem was, but with only 3 weeks to go until the game’s release, we are not sure it is going to change at all. It is a little disappointing because Rebellion has got the basics of the Predator experience right, but the play mechanics need a bit of tightening, and there are a few other technical issues to address. Still, Requiem looks to be a decent game, and a far better experience than 2005’s Predator: Concrete Jungle. Be sure to stay tuned to PALGN for our final review of Alien vs. Predator: Requiem in December.
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