Aliens vs Predator is a First Person Shooter based around the movie franchises (although not a game adapatation). It allows you to take control of either an Alien, Predator or Colonial Marine from the Aliens movie. Each race has their own campaign mode to play through in single player, plus there are various online play modes too.

The campaign modes are good fun & a good introduction to the mechanics of how each race works & should be played.

The Predator is easy to control & has loads of firepower to take out hie enemies. All the predators weapons appear in the game including the boomerang, spear, claws & plasma caster. You can even turn invisible using the camoflage suit & this works really well. I was very impressed with the effect in game. You play just as the Predator in the films acted. Jumping from tree to tree, using stealth & surprise to kill your enemies. You also have a very gruesome & brutal instant kill option when close enough to either of the other species.

Playing as the Alien takes a little getting used to at first. You can walk on any surface at any angle. You can even walk along the ceiling upside down. The Alien doesn't carry any weapons so they are quite powerfull to help make up for this. They are also the fastest race & regenerate helth automatically. As an Alien, you crawl around from surface to surface. Destroying an lights you come & staying in the shadows until you can creep up on an enemy & eliminate them with an equaly gory & violent stealth kill. The only problems I have with the Alien is that you need to hold the r2 button to move from floor to wall & then from wall to ceiling. I wish that you didn't have to use the button. Plus because you are so fast moving & can go on any surface it's very easy to lose your bearings quickly. It's still lots of fun though.

Playing as the marines is like playing a Resident Evil Game. Tight, dark corridors. Poor lighting & powerful beasts hiding in the shadows trying to take you out. Very atmospheric, tense & conveys exactly the feeling of characters in the movies. Your only aid in the darkness is a weak torch, flares & the motion tracker from the movies that starts beeping when you should start blasting or running! There are lots of different firepower options that you will collect & be able to use throughout the campaign to help you deal with the foes who can quickly overpower you. The only downside I have with the marines is that they don't have any weapons that kill a foe instantly whereas both the opposition are able to do that.

The graphics in the game are reasonable. They may not be the best, but they are not bad & the levels are very large & in some cases very well lit. I think some reviews I have read mistake diliberatly poorly lit rooms for bad graphics. Plus there is the iconic heat vision option for the predator. Sounds are excellent. Every single screech, gun blast & Lance Heriksen's voice is taken straight from the movies to the game. This definitely sounds like the films.

The Online option is fun to play. There are many modes including 1 Predator vs Marines & whoever kills the Predator becomes them. ! which begins with 1 Alien against marines who when killed become Aliens & Death Match options galore. There is even the Pyramid from the movies which changes it's shape regularly. Really good. The biggest downside I found with the multiplayer is that it can take some time to find a game to get into. Still as more people buy the game, this should get better (hopefully). My only other problem with Multiplayer is for a Predator player. Aliens begin with no weapons. Fine they don't have them anyway. Marines begin with the Standard issue rifle. Predators get nothing! I personally think they should either begin with either the spear or the boomerang all the time or, once you have collected an item, you still have it when you respawn.

I have no problem recommending the game. Because of it's three species approach, it is very different than any other FPS games around & offers a real change in play depending on species that you play with. Great variety on offer. Distinctive stlye of play for each species & exciting mutliplayer.