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I just started playing this game, and is it my imagination or is it INSANELY difficult? And this is even on the EASIEST difficulty! I mean, I like a challenge but this is absurd!

First of all, I'm limited to only a few saves all throughout the entire game (or at least any of the three parts of the game). I was able to find a cheat to get around that, because frankly, I should be able to save however much I want (and I tend to save a LOT because that's just how I roll).

Anyway, I tried being an alien and got disoriented as hell because I couldn't find my way around, what with everything always sideways and upside down, but I managed to get to a place where I had to kill people, but if I didn't do it immediately then they'd set me on fire and I'd gradually burn to death with no way of putting it out as far as I can tell (so basically, if I'm hit even ONCE then I die!). Then I was quickly torn apart by a machine gun before I could even get close to the shooter (and of course I have no projectiles).

I thought it might be easier as a human. It's so damn dark that I have to leave my night vision on almost all the time, but at least I have it, so I guess that's alright. But it makes it hard to see when the aliens jump out at me, and they circle around behind me and I don't even know where they are, and it seems like it only takes a couple of hits and I'm dead! At least I seem to have plenty of ammo, but on the other hand, I use it quickly. I managed to kill a couple of them but I think it was the third one that killed me. I'm hardly even into the game at all!

I've been playing shooting games for many years and I'm pretty good at them generally, but this one just takes things to ridiculous extremes of difficulty! Why? And is there a way around this other than to just somehow cheat and make myself invincible? Because that would be too easy.
Post edited September 20, 2018 by HeresMyAccount
This question / problem has been solved by F4LL0UTimage
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HeresMyAccount: I've been playing shooting games for many years and I'm pretty good at them generally, but this one just takes things to ridiculous extremes of difficulty! Why? And is there a way around this other than to just somehow cheat and make myself invincible? Because that would be too easy.
Aliens versus Predator simply is an extremely difficult game. I'll blow your mind and add that the original version did not have any save feature at all, they only added it in the Gold version.

However, the game is perfectly beatable. Even as a kid I managed to complete the Alien campaign on normal difficulty (without saves, mind you) and I beat all AvP Classic 2000 campaigns on Director's Cut difficulty a couple of years ago. Admittedly the game is often unfair and frustrating and ultimately requires a crapload of trial and error. You simply have to die over and over and memorise paths, enemy locations etc..

In my opinion it's also a very rewarding game, though, and the best Alien game after Alien Isolation. I always loved the fact that there's infinite amounts of Aliens during the Marine campaign (and parts of the Predator campaign as I recall) and I love that playing as the Xenomorph you need to work very carefully and use stealth. It's a very intense experience, just as I'd want an Alien game to be.

Normally my best advice would be to play until the section where you always die, save, and then just keep pushing forward from that save until the next section where you keep dying (assuming that you've made some progress and didn't just get slaughtered while walking around aimlessly through the tunnels). That's how I managed to get through the whole thing. From what I understand you've unlocked infinite saves anyway, though.

Anyway, I don't think there's some magic trick that makes the game easy. The Predator campaign is probably the easiest simply because the guy is the toughest character out of the three AND can heal infinitely as long as you're patient enough for his energy to recharge. As the Xenomporh you have to be super careful, work stealthily whenever possible and just go nuts and blindly massacre enemies when there's no other way. Also, you need to learn to bite off the heads of live humans for massive health boosts and also devour corpses. The Marine campaign is in my opinion the toughest out of the three because the guy is pretty darn week and also has a pretty hard time killing aliens. Ironically the Marine is still very fast, though, and you need to move A LOT to stay alive. Sadly there's also the thing that the motion tracker doesn't work while NV goggles are used so you need to keep switching between both modes almost constantly if you want to benefit from the motion tracker without going blind.

One thing that's sadly true for all three characters is that the levels are very convoluted and even finding the right way is often annoyingly difficult. It's worst in the Marine campaign because there you're basically on a time limit with limited health and ammo but infinite enemies.

I'm taking a guess that none of that sounds appealing to you and the game as a whole is probably not suited for you. You'd probably be better off with the much more accessible sequel, Aliens versus Predator 2 (sadly not available digitally), or the reboot (or something like that), Aliens vs. Predator.
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F4LL0UT: Also, you need to learn to bite off the heads of live humans for massive health boosts and also devour corpses.
What?! How the hell do I do that? And how do I put out a fire when it's on me?
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F4LL0UT: One thing that's sadly true for all three characters is that the levels are very convoluted and even finding the right way is often annoyingly difficult. It's worst in the Marine campaign because there you're basically on a time limit with limited health and ammo but infinite enemies.
I think the worst one for trying to find my way around is when I'm an alien, because I have to crawl along walls and ceilings until I'm disoriented and have no idea where I am. But there's a time limit as a human? How so, and how do I know how much time I have? And there are infinite enemies?! Are you sure? And what do you mean I have limited health; isn't that always the case?
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F4LL0UT: I'm taking a guess that none of that sounds appealing to you and the game as a whole is probably not suited for you. You'd probably be better off with the much more accessible sequel, Aliens versus Predator 2.
Well, it doesn't sound great. Are you implying that the sequel is easier, and if so, in what way? I actually have it on CD (and I've tested it to verify that it works), which is why I'm playing the first one now - because I wanted to play them in the proper order.
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HeresMyAccount: What?! How the hell do I do that?
You bite off heads by aiming directly at them at comparably low range - when the aiming is right, teeth appear at the edges of the screen. Just left click while the teeth are visible and you perform a bite. It's pretty hard to pull off with moving targets (although you can get pretty good at it with practice) but it's easy to do on static enemies. There's a fair amount occasions where you can hang above an unaware enemy on the ceiling and bite their head off from there. It's quite easy to do on cowering civilians so make sure you don't just scratch those to death.
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HeresMyAccount: And how do I put out a fire when it's on me?
Sadly you can't. When you catch fire the key is to quickly replenish lots of health by biting off heads and scratching away at dead bodies. I've managed quite a few times to have almost full health when a fire goes out by simply replenishing health quickly enough while burning.
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HeresMyAccount: But there's a time limit as a human? How so, and how do I know how much time I have? And there are infinite enemies?! Are you sure? And what do you mean I have limited health; isn't that always the case?
I assure you that throughout most of the Marine campaign there's infinitely spawning aliens (and from what I recall in certain sections of the Predator campaign as well). It's just in the very beginning of the Marine campaign that all alien spawns are scripted.

And no, you misunderstood me. There is no formal time limit. It's just that you have limited resources per level (ammo, healthpacks) in contrast to endless enemies. It means that if you don't get the job done quickly enough you will inevitably run out of health and/or ammo - that's what I referred to as "basically a time limit". Obviously can survive longer if you're really good.

The other characters' difference is this:
1. The Predator regenerates (albeit slowly) that blue energy which powers the shoulder cannon as well as that defibrilator healing thingy. He can always heal himself if he waits long enough. Additionally the Predator has a variety of useful attacks that do not require ammo. Even his wristblade is powerful (especially it's secondary attack) and eventually he gets a throwable disc that returns to him like a boomerang - only recalling the disc, e.g. if it gets lost, requires a bit of energy. His only weapon for which there's limited ammo per level is that harpoon gun or whatever it was called.
2. The Alien does have limited health, however, unlike the other characters the Alien never encounters infinitely spawning enemies since it's only aliens that spawn infinitely and you don't fight those as an alien yourself. And even if there were infinitely spawning enemies (there might be some rare sections with infinitely spawning humans but I don't think so): more enemies would also mean more health since biting and scratching organic enemies heals the alien. So as long as you - on average - manage to replenish more health per encounter than you lose, you're good. And obviously the Alien does not need any ammo.

It's only the Marine who has to deal with strictly limited health and ammo.
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HeresMyAccount: Well, it doesn't sound great. Are you implying that the sequel is easier, and if so, in what way? I actually have it on CD (and I've tested it to verify that it works), which is why I'm playing the first one now - because I wanted to play them in the proper order.
In Aliens versus Predator 2 the levels are more linear and all enemy spawns are scripted - there's none of the endlessly spawning aliens there and you will rarely (if ever) run aimlessly around while getting overrun by enemies. And generally the balancing is more forgiving there. It's simply a more traditional and polished story-driven FPS than the first Aliens versus Predator is. I think it also has unlimited quick saves by default. AvP 2, unlike the first one, never gave me a hard time.

Personally I like AvP 2 less for exactly these reasons, because it's a more typical story-driven FPS while I love the original game for how original and even experimental it is. However, if you just want a good FPS in the Alien franchise AvP 2 should be right up your alley. I haven't played AvP 2 in almost ten years but from what I recall it has generally aged pretty well.

Also, there's really no story-reasons to finish the first game before going for the second. AvP 2 is not as much a sequel as it is just another game in the same franchise (it was also made by a different studio, namely Monolith who also made No One Lives Forever and F.E.A.R., among others). So if you're not enjoying AvP Classic 2000 at all I recommend you just go for AvP 2 right away.
Post edited September 30, 2018 by F4LL0UT
Thanks a lot; that's very helpful information!

I had originally played AvP back when it was new (I guess it was in 2000), and it didn't seem nearly this tough, but I mostly tried it as the predator, and frankly I didn't play it very much, but always meant to get around to it again (which I'm FINALLY doing). So I'm a little disappointed if it's so tough that it's not even worth playing. Maybe I'll just play it as the predator first, then try as the alien, and if I really feel like it I'll try it as a human also.

Also saw that there's a much newer one made in 2010, but I don't have it. Is it any good, and how does it compare to the old ones, if you know?
Post edited September 30, 2018 by HeresMyAccount
I found it insanely easy actually... You can outwalk aliens and run circles around them without breaking a sweat.
But even if you do that, at some point you'll reach a dead end and you'll have to go back the other way and they'll leap on you while you try to get around them. Also, they come from all directions so they can surround you, and since there are an unlimited number of them they can come up behind you at any time, so the only way to prevent that is to CONSTANTLY keep turning around to see if there are any there! You can kill them with your claws, but you have to get close, and they're faster than a predator. And if you want to kill them with any long-ranged weapon it will either have a limited ammo or limited energy, which is the same energy that you use to heal! So how exactly is that easy?!
I was talking about the marine scenario, I havent played the others.
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HeresMyAccount: Also saw that there's a much newer one made in 2010, but I don't have it. Is it any good, and how does it compare to the old ones, if you know?
Maybe you've bought it since, but it isn't a bad game at all. There isn't a lot to be said that isn't already pointed out in better detail in reviews though. It looks pretty good, it's somewhat short despite having three campaigns and out of the three AvP titles it has (arguably) the best take on the Predator campaign.
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HeresMyAccount: Also saw that there's a much newer one made in 2010, but I don't have it. Is it any good, and how does it compare to the old ones, if you know?
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TheMonkofDestiny: Maybe you've bought it since, but it isn't a bad game at all. There isn't a lot to be said that isn't already pointed out in better detail in reviews though. It looks pretty good, it's somewhat short despite having three campaigns and out of the three AvP titles it has (arguably) the best take on the Predator campaign.
To answer that as well, it's extremely enjoyable. Campaigns are short but well crafted.

The marine campaign is a 5 star survival horror experience, truely scary.

Alien campaign offers solid stealth gameplay and unique controls.

I have yet to play predator.
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liltimmypoccet: I was talking about the marine scenario, I havent played the others.
Well the marine one is the toughest one! Actually, I"m even finding the one for the second game really frustrating because the aliens jump out behind me with no warning at all and it's too dark to see where the hell I'm going, and when I hear them or they attack me it throws me into a panic and I push the mouse too far and turn unpredictably, so then I'm disoriented and I have to keep turning around trying to face the alien but by then my heart is racing and I feel like I'm about to die, and sure enough, I do.

Maybe I'll try the third game if I see it for sale cheaply.
Post edited January 08, 2019 by HeresMyAccount