Anderson Stay Away: New AvP Announced

Anderson Stay Away: New AvP Announced

They were scarier in the first game, prettier in the second. Both in the third?

Sega have today announced that they are publishing a new Alien Vs Predator game that is to be developed by Rebellion, who made the original, and quite brilliant, game. There are scant details at the moment, but there is a whole lot of my thoughts on the move below, along with a few reminiscences, and maybe even a few recantings.

There’s obviously a reason for all this; Sega have Aliens: Colonial Marines in development by Gearbox, something that’s looking pretty good, along with a rarely seen Alien RPG made by Obsidian, of KOTOR 2 fame. Add to that the relative popularity of the AvP films, and you’ve got the recipe for a reasonable market out there. But please, please, make sure to use the games as reference, not the films. And make sure you put it on PC; that’s pertinent.

Ignoring the problems with the films, I do find the prospect that we’ve got a game that’s inspired by two films spawning a film which is, in turn, spawning another game a bit laughable. Could the AvP franchise get any more convoluted? Originally it was a brilliant atmospheric shooter that allowed you to play through the same series of events from three perspectives, and it worked rather well. AvP 2 was a bit weaker, but still a very solid experience, and it’s multiplayer was the only thing to scare me online until Hidden: Source came along.

That they’ve got Rebellion working on it is encouraging (if you ignore their recent AvP flop on PSP), and even if they just update the graphics and engine of the original game, that’d be grand. What I’m scared of is if they decide to make the idiotic decision to set it in the present day, the first ridiculous and utterly inane mistake the films made. It’d be a pitfall that both makes no sense and would be astonishingly stupid. I’m not saying that you couldn’t make a good game out of it, but why would you need to?

I’ll stop there, as this is all essentially baseless cynicism, but the timing is just a little suspect. I hope they do it right, and I’d love to play an new AvP game and be scared silly as I was in my gaming infancy. Time will, of course, tell, and we’ll keep you posted on the details as and when they emerge. Now, to see if I’ve got my AvP discs lying around somewhere…

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