Aliens Vs. Predator: Extinction Member Review for the PS2

Alien Vs. Predator: Extinction

I've always enjoyed this series, and so have the die-hard fanbase as well.  Thats why I was dissapointed by this game. It could have been so much more, but I am getting ahead of myself.

AVP:E has the classic three races, Alien,Terran and Predator. Instead of a FPS that we are all familar with, this game is more of a RTS.  While not the best RTS out there, this game still has some gems deep...DEEP within its core.

AVP:E is an RTS... Thats the greatest asset of this game. There are no other RTS out with this kind of genre. It orginal, with unique upgrades of each race and a history for each explained by the game.

The interactive Encyclopedia in the game, is just outstanding. Every fact about each race is included, whoever wrote that did some serious digging to find out all that they could. That alone, saves this game from the fire.

But, its still not enough to save the game from a scalding review. Poor interface is the games biggest fault. I spent more time loseing some units just because I could not control them. Also, the graphics are cronically dark. Not evil, lack of lighting. Aliens may be able to see in the dark, but humans can't. Its poor design that a player has to jack up their brightness just to see the outline of their units.

Also the upgrading is inefficient. I found myself nearly breaking a controler just because I had to kill 40-50 humans that magically respawned, just to buy one simple upgrade. I remember in the Aliens' move people were killed, but not on this scale...

But, while the graphics, interface, and level design, and lighting may be bumpkis, the music is not. Each race has the classic music from the movies, and the sound effect matches perfectically. The aliens have their snarls, spitting sounds, and hisses, the Predators have their chirping and clicking, and the humans... They talk, and scream when they die.

There are units for each race, and while they are diffrent and unqiue, it really dosn't matter. Each race has an uber unit that everyone will shoot for and you'll find yourself being rushed with these characters.

Sounds like thats muitplayer mode??? Nope, sorry. This game dosn't have that. In fact, the levesl are so liner, that I found myself using cheat codes just to get though the game quicker...

This game would have been So much better on the PC as real RTS. With full mouse function, and better processors to keep up with the graphics.  If you find this game, use it only for the refrences of the encyclopedia. If not, wait till the producers get their heads to gether and make a decent RTS worthy of the AVP title.