I didn't grow up with this game (I was a PS2 gamer at the time) but I did see people playing it at lan cafes from time to time and it looked like fun. After playing it though it is so much better then I thought it would be.

First, I wasn't expecting a game that has three campaigns to have much polish since it's a bit divided, but each campaign just feels like a perfect incarnation of what it should be. The predator feels powerful and stealthy the alien feels fast and deadly and the marine has the fire power but is only human.

What really makes this game work in my opinion is the AI. I recently attended a games festival where one of the bioshock guys was giving a speech on how in his opinion AI had taken a back seat and gotten worse over the years. I tend to agree. While the Xenomorphs can get a little buggy at times. Their speed and path finding abilities is amazing. They will crawl along ceilings and walls to get to you and do with such speed and accuracy that they are quite deadly as a result. The humans also behave the way you'd expect.

To top it off you can unlock cheats in this game by earning them Goldeneye style. I'm a big fan of Goldeneye/Perfect and it's always nice too see this.

I've also been playing AVP 2 and while I think it's very good and would probably make for a story good enough to be cannon I personally prefer this one.

Sorry for the long thread I just wanted to share my impressions of this game.

You'll probably be pleased even more after hearing that the Goldeneye Facility is available in AvP Classic 2000 as a custom downloadable map then. :)

Indeed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9801eUJNOqI

Map available here: http://www.moddb.com/mods/aliens-versus-predator-classic-redux/addons/avp-multiplayer-map-pack

I guess I'll also add my two cents. The AI is par for the course considering when the game came out. I liked how there was a panic reaction that can overtake marines and civilians. Alien AI is more spotty I find; sometimes they make a b-line right for you, other times they face a wall and run at it. What I always loved about the game and have yet to find in another is the dynamic lighting. They really had a great detection system; if you hid in the dark (as an alien) or stood still as a cloaked predator, you were well hidden and wouldn't be spotted by AI. I'm still amazed at how well they pulled this off.

What I hear most people criticizing the single-player game for is its lack of story. They see it as merely lever-pulling, door-opening, and key-finding without any substance. I think this is because it's compared to AVP2's story, which is much more substantial. People don't remember that the game was released only 7 months after Half-Life, and it actually premiered at E3 1998 when both games were still in development. According to a livestream by Rebellion, they added the movie sequences you see on the monitors afterwards to try and make some semblance of a story because of Half-Life's influence. So it's no wonder the narrative is shoddy, because it was intended to be more like Quake than Half-Life. And I don't think that when Rebellion started, people really expected FPS's to tell a story; that's why the episodes are more broken up. Even so, the marine campaign does have each episode start where the previous left off, it's just much more gameplay oriented than story-driven.

Indeed! But I think I'm just no good at it anymore. It looks good, and feels good sometimes.. but overall I can't help but shake the feeling it could be better optimized.

Are you having prominence issues?

Heh. Honestly, I can't explain what about it needs to change (for me). It almost feels like the mouse is more sluggish than I remember it being.

You can change the mouse sensitivity in the options. Controls -> Mouse Configuration -> Vertical Sensitivity and Horizontal Sensitivity.

I agree that the default setting really is too sluggish. I leave it on the maximum setting, personally.

You'll need to use the reply button if you want emphaticleech.183 to see your message. Try making the vertical sensitivity a little bit more then the horizontal. That seemed to work pretty well for me.

I know how a forum works, thanks. If emphaticleech.183 wants to check up on the thread, he can feel free to do so. If not, then not. I don't really care which.

Ah sorry, thought you were new.

If I may bring the conversation down to a more polite level. :P

I first played AvP #2 years ago and loved it and for some reason thought #1 would be a huge step backward but like the OP I am amazed how good it looks, smooth it runs, and how GREAT IT SOUNDS! I also appreciate how it borrows from the original Alien over the 2nd Aliens which are both great movies but the1st tends to get lost in the wake of the second.

However that's not why I'm posting here. XD

Am I the only one who thinks #1 is WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY harder than #2. That's not a gripe and I plan on reinstalling 2 after I finish 1 for a replay, but #1 just seems much darker and more confined and flat out scarier.

I have adjusted the mouse sensitivity, not sure why one would think I didn't do that lol. It just feels sluggish, not slow.. but clunky.

Maybe this? If you have adjusted the sensitivity, then it's your mouse that's the problem. This is the first I've ever heard anyone complain about the mouse being "sluggish." Mouse movement shouldn't be clunky; moving your character might feel clunky, but looking around is extremely fluid.
Sluggish and slow mean the same thing. :)

I got the exact opposite impression; that the game was almost directly patterned after the sequel, of which it takes place some while after. It's Alien: Isolation that's very evocative of the original film.

But I agree the game is remarkably relevant thanks to its great usage of the ip and its unusual characteristics like the very unforgiving but authentic balancing. I gave up and uninstalled it after failing on the 4th Marine mission on Director's Cut a bunch of times. At that difficulty, it's just too down to luck.

The only gripe I have about the game (other than the difficulty being a bit much at times), is the fact that they didn't really commit on the predator vision mode. Given that you're always using one of the mask modes anyway, I don't think it would have been such a bad idea to replicate the style we saw in the film and not just put in the normal mode for the game. But it's a minor concern and I don't know the lore.

Sluggish also means lacking alertness or energy. Also can be used in place of heavy.

Not just slow.