Though this process is a bit cumbersome at first, it eventually adds to the gameplay by adding some suspense and time constraints to your missions. In a nod to the odd breeding process laid out by the movies, the game requires you to jump through some hoops to grow your army. Overall, the Predators are the strongest units and when you play them you’ll have to get by with much fewer of them than any of the other races. The units themselves are cool, with cloaking, special vision-modes and armor-based self-healing. The roar you let out will scare your cat. In the game’s best detail, you get to triumphantly autopsy your enemy, Predator-style. And in a cool twist you gather honor points by gathering, you guessed it, skulls.
Added to the mix are a Medic and Commtec (who is responsible for calling in the troops and repairing atmosphere generators). The grunt with his flamethrower, saddle gun and pulse rifles and the Synthetic (who plants guns and detects movement). And you want a lot of cash because the marine staples are all present and accounted for. Marines earn cash for upgrades by killing the bad guys. The aliens work a little differently with a complex, time-consuming breeding process that balances out the fact that they don’t have to work with cash or “honor points” (the Predator currency).
With the marines and Predators, you can always buy new units or upgrades as long as you have the resources to pay for them. The psychological value of each unit also varies depending on resources. Predators usually have around 10 units at a time, Marines around 25, and Aliens (with their strength in numbers) can have 40.
This is good for making a console RTS but it means there is little chance for a PC port of the game (who wants an RTS with no building? Not me!) Each race gets their own supply and soldier cap, which varies from mission to mission. You don’t spend any time building bases in Extinction (beyond the building of defensive guns) but you will spend most of your time building and managing your army to prepare for battle. Leave the Predators for last.The game breaks down like this. My advice? Do the basic tutorial and then the marine mission (or the Alien mission since the units are less valuable overall). The problem was I had all the races’ abilities swimming around my head but I really needed to be focusing on the humans. Unfortunately, I was overwhelmed pretty fast by all the unit-building trees and abilities so playing the first level (as a marine) was a total bust. There are very useful tutorials (basic and advanced) which take you through controlling all three races. It has its problems, mostly in AI, control and replayability, but, overall, it’s yet another strong entry in the AvP arena, the latest in a string of critical successes for the 20th Century Fox licenses.Įxtinction has a rough start. Of course, we humans always have to be there to participate in the carnage - so our marines tend to waddle in with their little pea shooters and bravado.ĪvP:E is a decent game and, in my experience, the best RTS you’ll find on the PS2. Predator 2 and, yours truly, AvP: Extinction) there’s just something about two badass alien races going mano a mano for title of baddest-ass. AvP:E catches just enough to warrant some praise.įrom the 1989 Dark Horse comic story that started the craze to the latest videogames (Aliens Vs.
It’s always good to shoot high just to see if you can attain a nice chunk of your inspiration’s magic. Sound familiar? Kinda like Starcraft eh? Well SC was clearly an influence on the game (as SC’s design was influenced by the Aliens movies). Take three races, balance them, make them all cool and faithful to people’s expectations and throw them in an RTS arena to do battle. So maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised when I found that Extinction is an ambitious game. Their Harry Potter games could have been digital dregs but they ended up being pretty fun. They have a keen eye for what’s cool and the muscle to be first in line. Electronic Arts has been signing up a bunch of popular licenses for years.