Playing as a Predator provides a different experience as well.  Predators are calm, deadly, and efficient, and as a Predator the player has an array of weapons at his/her disposal as well as a whole host of technology geared towards the hunt.  Cloaking allows the Predator to scan the situation undetected while various vision enhancers allow him to search for his quarry.  While the other two species make the player feel as if he/she is in a fight for survival, the Predator experience is more akin to a deadly hunt for sport.  This is driven home by the Predator's love of trophies, which is what the Predator's victims themselves refer to as their heads.

The game's graphics make use of the LithTech engine developed for the game No One Lives Forever, and the designers have done an excellent job of adapting it to the universe of the Aliens movies.  The interiors make excellent use of lighting effects to create a mood of apprehension.  Flickering lights, arcing sparks, and glowing panels illuminate the hallways and rooms just enough to make the player feel that something is lurking just around every corner.  The game's exteriors also are well done, effectively conveying the same sense of foreboding as felt in the claustrophobic interior, but this time due to a feeling of exposure and vulnerability.  Everything is not perfect, though, the game does experience some clipping issues when an enemy is killed near a wall.  Sometimes the character will fall through the wall, which is more than just a visual problem when you're an Alien and need to chomp that head for health or a Predator and are denied a trophy.

The game's sounds compliment the graphics in bringing the Aliens universe to life.  When sneaking around as an Alien or Predator, you'll hear the station's personnel engaged in conversations as they go about their business unaware of your presence.  After the station is overrun by Aliens, the ambient sounds of steam hisses, low hums, and water drips are just a few of the sound effects heard while creeping around the station's buildings.  From the sound of the Marine dropship engines to the screech of an attacking Alien, the game does a very good job of recreating the sounds of the movies.

Multiplayer games are supported in several modes: deathmatch, team deathmatch, survivor, hunt, evac, and overrun.  Most of these are self-explanatory, with evac requiring a team to take an objective and hold it for 10 seconds and overrun being an assault/defense mode.  There are four different specialists for each species to choose from, and four characters from the Corporation.  Multiplayer games are fairly standard fare, good for some fun, but nothing spectacular.  Buy the game primarily for the single player campaign, and look at the multiplayer component as an additional freebie.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 90%. Aliens Versus Predator 2 does an excellent job of capturing the atmosphere and feel of the movies on which the game is based.  The intriguing, interwoven campaign games are excellent, and give the game a different feel when played from the different perspectives of the three races featured in the game.  They may be a little on the short side, but most players will find them thoroughly enjoyable.

System Requirements:  450 MHz Pentium III CPU; 128 MB RAM; 16 MB Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM; 750 MB Hard Drive Space; Mouse.

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