Aliens versus Predator (1999 video game)

Aliens versus Predator is a 1999 science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Rebellion Developments and published by Fox Interactive for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It is a part of the Alien and Predator crossover franchise, Alien vs. Predator.[1] A sequel, Aliens versus Predator 2, was developed by Monolith Productions and released by Sierra in 2001.

Aliens versus Predator
Developer(s)Rebellion Developments
Publisher(s)Fox Interactive
Rebellion Developments (Classic 2000)
Director(s)Chris Miller
Producer(s)Vivian Barad
Programmer(s)Kevin Floyer-Lea
Artist(s)Marco Bertoldo
Composer(s)Rich Ragsdale
SeriesAlien vs. Predator
Platform(s)
ReleaseWindows
  • NA: 30 April 1999
  • EU: 25 May 1999
  • NA: 28 March 2000 (Gold)
  • EU: 14 April 2000 (Gold)
  • WW: 15 January 2010 (Classic 2000)
OS X
  • WW: 2001
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Gameplay

Like the 1994 Alien vs Predator game for the Atari Jaguar, Aliens versus Predator offers three separate campaigns, each playable as a separate species: Alien, Predator, or human Colonial Marine.[2] Each player character has different objectives, abilities, and weapons.[3] The single-player campaign presents the player with a conventional series of levels to progress through that are designed around the abilities of each character.

As the Colonial Marine the player uses a number of weapons to combat Aliens and Predators. The marine wears armor for protection and uses an image intensifier and flares to improve visibility in dark areas.

When playing as the Predator the player uses a variety of weapons from the Predator films such as wrist blades, a throwing disc, and shoulder-mounted energy weapons. The Predator is the most durable of the three player characters and can survive falls from greater heights than the human. The player can use a cloaking device to become invisible and several different modes of vision to detect enemies, including an infrared vision mode and a mode sensitive to electrical systems.

As an Alien the player can explore most of the game's environments freely, even climbing across walls and ceilings. The Alien has no weapons, however, using its claws, tail, and jaws to attack enemies. The screen is distorted into a fisheye lens effect to reflect the Alien's field of view. The player can also use a form of echolocation in dark areas and can detect pheromones to discern human or Predator enemies. The Alien can drop from any height without injury and is the fastest of the three player characters.

Several bonus levels allow each player character access to portions of the missions of the other characters. To allow the marine and Predator characters to traverse through the areas of the Alien missions, the player is supplied with a jet pack for the marine and a grappling hook for the Predator.

Plot

The storylines of the three player characters are independent of one another. As an Alien the player must defend the Alien hive from human marines, then stow away on an evacuating spacecraft and reach the marines' ship, the Ferarco. When the Ferarco's self-destruct system is activated, the player must reach the escape shuttle, which takes them to Gateway Station. Here the player explores the station and battles more marines, reaching a ship departing for Earth. Before boarding the ship the player battles two Predators, after which the Alien enters the Earth-bound shuttle.

When playing as the Colonial Marine, the player begins at a research station on LV-426 built to study the derelict spacecraft where the Nostromo crew first encountered the Alien eggs in the film Alien (1979). Aliens attack and the player must fight their way through the research facility, the derelict ship, and an adjoining colony. Next the player explores the atmosphere processing station and shuts down its cooling valves in order to cause an explosion which will wipe out the Aliens. The player character escapes in a drop ship and travels to Odobenus Station in orbit above the planetoid, where they battle more Aliens, Predators, facehuggers, and cybernetically-enhanced Aliens until reaching the spaceship Tyrargo. Aboard the ship the player battles more enemies including an Alien/Predator hybrid and "praetorian" Aliens. The player then battles an Alien queen, defeating it by expelling it through the airlock.

The Predator character's storyline visits three different planets, beginning with the player hunting marines in order to recover a captured Predator ship and its occupant from a human military base. Aliens are accidentally released in the base and the player discovers that the humans have created an Alien/Predator hybrid by implanting the captured Predator with an Alien embryo. The player defeats the hybrid, triggers the facility's self-destruct mechanism, and escapes in the Predator ship. The player next visits Fiorina "Fury" 161, the prison planet that is the setting of Alien 3 (1992), where more Aliens and marines are battled. Finally the player visits a marine-controlled Alien habitat, battling cybernetically-enhanced Aliens, "praetorian" Aliens, and finally the Alien Queen.

Development and release

Aliens versus Predator was developed by Rebellion Developments and published by Fox Interactive. It was announced in 1995 for release during the 1997 Christmas season on the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and PC.[4][5][6] However, the PC version was pushed back to 1999, while the Saturn and PlayStation versions were scrapped altogether, though the PlayStation was showcased in an early state during E3 1997.[7] The Saturn version was not displayed at the show, though Rebellion was still planning a release for the system at the time.[8] A version for the Dreamcast was also in development but never released.[9]

An expansion pack titled Millennium Expansion Pack was released in 2000. It adds nine levels for single- and multiplayer, the ability to save within levels and new weapons for the marine. A compilation package titled Aliens versus Predator: Gold Edition was also released in 2000. It contains the main game and the expansion. An Apple Macintosh version, for OS X and classical Mac OS, based on the Gold Edition was released by MacPlay in 2001.[10] A version for Game Boy Advance was to be developed and published by Ubisoft, but eventually canceled.

The mission briefings in the original version of the game were acted by professional actors, however, the development team felt that their acting didn't provide the sense of urgency required. New versions of the briefings were made for the gold edition featuring members of the team.[11]

Source code release

In 2001, on end-of-support and end-of-life of the game, Rebellion Developments released the game's source code and tools to public to allow the game community further support of the game.[12] Following the source code release, the game was unofficially ported to Linux and hosted at icculus.org in 2001,[13] Xbox in 2009 and for PlayStation Vita in 2020. Also an unofficial patch project for the PC version exists, based on the source code.[14]

Re-release

On 15 January 2010, after several years of unavailability, Aliens versus Predator was commercially re-released under the title Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000. This version of the game has been updated to work on modern computers, as well as support for the Xbox 360 controllers. Moreover, this release includes all the levels from the original AvP Gold Edition and the extra content of the Millennium Expansion Pack. Supporting only single player initially, multiplayer functionality has since been added.[15] This release can be purchased either through Valve's Steam digital distribution service,[16][17][18] through Green Man Gaming, or through GOG.com[19] where it started as a free giveaway.[20] A patch released on 19 January 2010 added proper widescreen support, optional unlimited saves, a locked frame rate, mouse improvements, and other updates to the game.[21] At one point it was available through the now-defunct game streaming service OnLive.[22]

Reception

Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "Played as the Marine, late at night with the lights out and the movie-inspired music cranked up, AvP is a totally absorbing, even terrifying experience."[35]

Aliens versus Predator received "favorable" reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.[23][24] IGN praised the game for allowing the player to play three different characters, each with a unique game-play element, and for being "fun and terrifying at the same time".[2] GamePro cited the lack of a save feature as a major flaw, but praised the "splendid graphics, perfect sound effects, multiple vision modes, and ambiance" and citing it as "the most frightening game since Half-Life".[29] The Adrenaline Vault cited the lack of depth in the story as a major flaw but praised the immersive atmosphere describing a moment of being attacked by a facehugger in the game as being "in these moments...the greatest game I had ever played".[1]

Sequel

A sequel called Aliens versus Predator 2 was developed by Monolith Productions and released by Sierra in 2001. It once again comprised distinct campaigns for each of the three playable species, but this time the plots of each were aligned within a common narrative, and the campaigns directly intersected at several points.

References
  1. Laprad, David (9 June 1999). "Aliens vs. Predator Review". Adrenaline Vault. Archived from the original on 25 October 2008. Retrieved 23 October 2008.
  2. Blevins, Tal (11 June 1999). "Aliens vs. Predator". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  3. "NG Alphas: Alien Vs. Predator". Next Generation. No. 34. Imagine Media. October 1997. p. 118.
  4. A. Gillen, Marilyn (June 17, 1995). "The Enter*Active File - Industry News Of Multimedia Software, Video Games & Online Communication - Ted Hoff Leaves Fox Interactive". Billboard. Lynne Segall. p. 58.
  5. Halverson, Dave (March 1997). "Random Access - Rebellion Returns..." GameFan. No. Volume 5, Issue 3. Shinno Media. p. 84.
  6. Brown, Steve (August 1997). "Plug In: The Latest in Video Game News". Wizard. No. 72. Wizard Entertainment. p. 85.
  7. "Alien Vs Predator - Fox Interactive". PlayStation Plus. EMAP Images. 1997.
  8. "Get the Fox Out of Here!". Sega Saturn Magazine. No. 22. Emap International Limited. August 1997. p. 10.
  9. "Dossier - L'union sacreé - Dreamcast - Alien Vs Predator". Consoles + (in French). No. 91. M.E.R.7. August 1999. p. 50.
  10. Chaffin, Bryan (18 October 2001). "Aliens Vs. Predator Ships For Mac OS X and Classic Mac OS". The Mac Observer.
  11. Jones, Tim (2018-11-20). "Aliens versus Predator: The 11th hour decision | War Stories". Ars Technica. 12 minutes in. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  12. The source code to Aliens Vs Predator is copyright (c) 1999-2000 Rebellion and is provided as is with no warranty for its suitability for use. You may not use this source code in full or in part for commercial purposes. Any use must include a clearly visible credit to Rebellion as the creators and owners, and reiteration of this license.
  13. http://icculus.org/avp/
  14. Aliens Vs Predator - Source code update
  15. "Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000 Update Released". Steam. 28 January 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  16. "Aliens vs. Predator Classic 2000". Steam. Valve. 15 January 2010. Archived from the original on 24 May 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
  17. Burnes, Andrew (15 January 2010). "Rebellion's Original Aliens vs. Predator To Be Re-Released". Voodoo Extreme. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on 19 January 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
  18. Burnes, Andrew (15 January 2010). "Aliens vs. Predator Classic 2000 Released On Steam". Voodoo Extreme. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on 18 January 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
  19. "Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000". GOG.com.
  20. Prescott, Shaun (15 October 2014). "Alien[s] versus Predator Classic is free on GOG this week". PC Gamer. Future plc. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  21. "Aliens vs. Predator Classic 2000 Update Released". Steam. Valve. 19 January 2010. Archived from the original on 21 January 2010. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
  22. "Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000 Game Details". OnLive. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011.
  23. "Aliens Versus Predator for Macintosh". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  24. "Aliens Versus Predator for PC". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  25. Buchanan, Jason. "Aliens Versus Predator: Gold Edition (Mac) - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 15 November 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  26. Couper, Chris. "Aliens Versus Predator (PC) - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 15 November 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  27. Edge staff (May 1999). "Aliens vs Predator". Edge. No. 71. Future plc.
  28. Howarth, Robert (14 April 2000). "REVIEW for Aliens Versus Predator: Gold Edition". GameFan. Shinno Media. Archived from the original on 10 May 2000. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  29. Strauch, Joel (14 June 1999). "Aliens Vs. Predator Review for PC on GamePro.com". GamePro. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on 21 February 2005. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  30. Johnny B. (June 1999). "Aliens Vs. Predator Review". Game Revolution. CraveOnline. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  31. Wolpaw, Erik (7 June 1999). "Aliens versus Predator Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  32. Roberts, Duster (7 May 2000). "Aliens versus Predator Gold Edition". GameSpy. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on 4 April 2002. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  33. Dickinson, Jon (28 June 1999). "Aliens versus Predator Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on 14 January 2004. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  34. "Aliens versus Predator". Maximum PC. Future US. June 1999. p. 81.
  35. "Finals". Next Generation. No. 54. Imagine Media. June 1999. p. 95.
  36. "Aliens versus Predator". PC Gamer US. Future US. August 1999.
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