Graphics, sound, ambiance!

Booyah baby! I've been reading a few reviews where people are knocking the graphics in AVP2. I dunno, they look very sweet to me. The only problem I can see is that the facial animations in the in-game cutscenes are quite wooden (In a half life sorta way.) and that the graphics in some areas are a little blocky. (Rock faces and vehicles for instance.) Need more polygons! The Lithtech engine (Remember No one lives forever? It's an updated version of that engine.) just doesn't offer the eye candy that the Q3A or UT engines do. The only thing I've seen that looks like total crap is the character blink animation. Gah. Just looks like hell, they shouldn't have bothered if they couldn't make it look better.

That being said, the levels are very realistic and well detailed. The sky looks excellent, and the animated clouds look nice as well. Lots of ground detail, with grass and small plants as well as larger bushes and trees. Many of the trees have animated "leaves" as well.

Sound is excellent. They've fixed a few of the wimpy sounding weapons from the original game. If you've seen the movies you know what things sound like. Aliens chitter as they scramble across the ceilings, and shriek when hurt or killed. Humans scream and beg for mercy. (Heh. I LOVE this part.) Predators roar when they take a trophy, and make that creepy chattering noise when they're running around. The preds also laugh when they remove someone's head with their spearguns. One thing I wish they had added was EAX support, as near as I can tell it isn't included, and would have been excellent for a game that so sound related. Music is creepy and ambient, well suited to the situations you find yourself in. In combat the tunage picks up the pace. A good indicator that you're in trouble is faster music. :)

Ambiance/Worlds

The whole feel of the game and the worlds is very well done, the guys from Monolith really pulled off quite a feat this time around. When you're the Pred, leaping from tree to tree in search of your prey, you really get into it. You can almost see yourself doing it. As the alien, you can just picture yourself towering over a cowering human about to dismember them. As a marine, it's quite the experience to throw out a flare and see a flow of aliens coming across the floor at you, like an oil slick of death. Lots of Half Life style scripted events are included in the game. (Such as scientists getting suddenly pulled screaming to grates.) As in the first game, it's all about the ambiance, ambiance, ambiance!

All of the cut scenes are done in the game engine, and clue you in to what's going on. You'll also get in game cues from eavesdropping on conversations during your travels. At the start of each level you get an update on your objectives for that map.

Levels range from the inside of a research lab, underground bases, caves, cliffs, to the canyons and forests of the world you're all stuck on.

Backstory

As usual those wacky humans are up to their shenanigans again. A renegade scientist, who's supposedly on LV1201 to research the aliens is doing a little more. Much more. He's crossbreeding aliens and predators, seeking to make the ultimate weapon. (Heard something along these lines before haven't you? And I just bet you're saying "Silly humans, everything's going to go horribly wrong!" ain't yah? You'd be right.) Needless to say, neither the aliens nor the preds are particularly amused by this whole chain of events, and as either of those races you're out to clean house. As a human marine you're there to save your people and get the hell out alive, which it turns out, is easier said than pulled off.

During the alien campaign you start out as a face hugger, find a victim, move up to chest burster, (You actually get to burst out of a guy's chest. Very cool, very gory.... By this time you're so into the game you're cursing humans and relishing every bit of pain and anguish you can inflict upon them.) and then to a drone.....

Predators start out landing for a hunt, but quickly find out that the humans have kidnapped several of your clan mates and are experimenting on them. As you advance you'll gain more weapons and tools to use to rescue your buddies, and kill them pesky humans. Oh, and the aliens as well.

The marines were sent to LV1201 to find out why the scientific outpost hasn't responded to communications. On arrival you find skinned bodies hanging from the front gate, and an alien infestation as well. Great, just another day in the corps.

The story behind all three missions is compelling and believable. Obviously the dev team spent alot of time and effort making sure players would have a tense and enjoyable experience. One thing I really enjoyed was that the campaigns of the three species intersect. You'll often find yourself wandering through a location, and realise you're playing it from the other side now..... and you know the enemy is watching, because you saw yourself and the marines go up that lift when you were a predator. Very cool, and adds a nice element to the game.