I just finished the alien campaign, and I'm moving into the fourth or fifth marine mission.. and I must say, I'm impressed.

I didn't really care for the demo, so I'm a little surprised how much I'm digging the full game. For one thing, performance is dramatically improved over the demo. That's a big plus. I can run 1280x960x32bpp, details maxed, on a fast system with a GF3 and it feels like around 30-50fps most of the time.

There are a lot of NOLF-isms in this game, so fans of that game should take note. Lots of ambient dialog, lots of scripting, good AI (though not human per se), and I'd judge the graphics as slightly better than Monolith's previous game.


Overall, this seems like what AVP1 should have been-- and AVP1 was so damn close to being a great game. For one thing, I can save wherever I like. Sheesh.

So, if you're a FPS fan, you can add this to the list of good games you won't have time to play this year. Between all the console games and the PC games.. it's just brutal, a virtual avalanche. But in a good way.

I finished this one, and my final verdict is this: AVP2 managed to sneak its way into my top 10 FPS games of all time.

Does anyone here still play FPS games?

Bueller.. Bueller.. Bueller..

I do, I just haven't gotten around to this one yet. Working my way through a DAoC addiction, and Stronghold, and CivIII...

Picked it up last night. I'm a few missions into the Alien campaign. I plan to play the marine last, as I've heard it's the best of the three campaigns. My first impressions for the alien campaign are surprisingly positive. I kinda miss the fish eye effect the alien had in AvP, but the AvP 2 alien controls much better IMO. It's really nimble - that pounce is friggin' great. I also like that the headbite is so much easier to do. You can actually do it on live, armed enemies regularly. There are different alien classes as well. I'm looking forward to trying those out. I also enjoy that the stealth elements that I've experienced thus far have been organic and dictated by your character's abilities rather than a "Don't get spotted!" line added to the objectives.

My only worry thus far is that it's gonna have Elite Force syndrome. How's the length? The first few Alien missions reminded me of Half Life/NOLF in how they hid their linearity by seeming to be real environments, but I'm worried I'll start to get a little tired of dark corridors.

-Matthew

Yeah, length is about 15 hours for me in SP. That's at the threshold of what I consider acceptable, but it was a VERY enjoyable 15 hours.

Too bad multiplayer is jerk-o-rama, because that part of the game also oozes style and polish.

Sniper rifle? It is to laugh.

I like the gestation aspect.

Check out Erik's review here:

http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/reviews/0,10867,2823809,00.html

I had my qualms with NOLF, but I have to admit, Monolith has this whole FPS thing down better than almost anyone else at this point. My hat is off to Jason et al. I bought my copy of AVP2 and it's well worth it, assuming they get the multiplayer up to snuff..