Video Game / Aliens vs. Predator 2

"The hive appears dormant. The remote rover has found Xenomorph traces, but no active specimens. The synths have begun explorations. Many signs of the carrier species. We call them Pilots. Unexplained structures jut from the earth, and mysterious shafts vanish underground, all exhibiting the distinctive architecture of the ship from LV-426. Although these archaeological remnants come as little surprise — we followed the ship's flight telemetry here, after all — I find it all a bit unnerving."

—An unknown WY employee, shortly after LV-1201 was discovered

Aliens versus Predator 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Monolith Productions. The game is a sequel to the successful Aliens versus Predator, released in 1999. However, it has no connection to the plots of that game's three campaigns, and instead features an entirely new story. Set 52 years after the end of Alien³, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation has followed the flight telemetry of the alien spacecraft from Alien to LV-1201, a planet with a rich alien ecosystem. They find ancient ruins of similar make infested with Aliens, which a clan of Predators have also taken an interest in for their ritualistic hunts. In predictable company-fashion, Weyland-Yutani almost immediately sets up shop there, which can only end in chaos.

The sequel to one of the most frightening games ever made, the story-driven plot of Aliens versus Predator 2 comprises three interconnected campaigns that each enable players to take control of one of three bloodthirsty species: an Alien, Predator, or human colonial marine. As an Alien, the player takes control of a lone Xenomorph seeking to liberate its kind from Weyland-Yutani's occupation. As a Predator, the player assumes the role of an elite clan "Prince" seeking to fulfill a personal vendetta against General Rykov, leader of the corporate mercenary group the Iron Bears. Finally, the marine campaign has players taking the role of Corporal Andrew Harrison, whose squad arrives on LV-1201 to investigate a communications blackout there. Each species has its own set of weapons and abilities that they use to fight and survive against each other.

A year after it was released, the game received an expansion pack, Aliens versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt. The expansion is set before the events of the main game, and explores previously unseen happenings that were crucial to the plot of AVP2.

The Video Game contains the following tropes:

• Absent Aliens: Averted by Primal Hunt, which added several non-xenomorph alien species indigenous to LV-1201, including a worm, bull, and reptilian gorilla.
• Accidental Hero: The Alien warrior that you played as saves the Predator character when it is held captive by Weyland-Yutani.
• Action Girl: Major Dunya, Rykov's second-in-command and one of the few surviving members of the Iron Bears.
• Advertised Extra: Unlike the Jaguar game and the first PC game, in which Predators appeared semi-regularly as a Giant Mook-like enemy, in AVP 2, Predators are limited to a few appearances in scripted sequences, and one boss fight in the Marine campaign and three boss fights in the Alien campaign.
• And I Must Scream: Dr. Eisenberg final fate has his arms and legs are torn off, cocooned into the wall of the Queen's chamber, and since he's a synth, he can't die. The Alien campaign ends with his hysterical shrieks echoing throughout the dark burrows of the hive.
• Anti-Villain: General Rykov, although he's happy to secretly kill a few Weyland-Yutani civilian employees (the people he's hired specifically to protect) in order to steal company resources for his mercs, and under Eisenberg's orders sets the Marines up for an ambush to wipe them out, he's clearly not taking any pleasure in doing so and is absolutely loyal to his own men, even going so far as to undergo a suicide mission at the end of the game to buy time for his surviving mercs to escape the planet. He also ends up indirectly helping the Predators (even though the last time he encountered them, they blasted a hole through his spine).
• Apocalyptic Log: The marine and Predator campaigns have accessible terminals and data log entries scattered around the maps that provide both background plot information and interesting side stories, some detailing the destruction of Pod 5, the infestation of the POC, and the story behind the disastrous first attempt at settling LV-1201 which led to Eisenberg's transformation into an android.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Alien Praetorians are literally bulletproof. Punching through that requires either the pistol loaded with armor-piercing bullets, or high-caliber rounds from the minigun or sniper rifle.
• Art-Shifted Sequel: The first and third games by Rebellion had a more realistic art style, while the second game by Monolith has a more cartoon-like, stylized art style rather similar to that of Monolith's own No One Lives Forever.
• Asshole Victim:
  • The human you eventually have to impregnate as a facehugger is beforehand shown to be a complete asshole of a sergeant who constantly bullies his subordinates and neglects his own duties. You won't feel all that bad about having to chew your way out through his ribcage.
  • Arnaud Eisenberg is a Mad Scientist who obsessively experiment with xenomorphs in order to control them, and to that end has no problems with deceiving, betraying, and sacrificing his subordinates and colonial marines to achieve his goals and cover up his failures. It's hard to feel sorry for him when he ends up being dragged into the xenomorph hive to be dismembered and cocooned, slowly driving him insane, and as he is a synthetic, he is going to face his horrors longer than the average human victim.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The sniper rifle is basically a future railgun rifle, and does even more damage than the rocket launcher, killing Praetorians in just 2-3 shots. However, almost none of the Marine campaign's combat takes place at long range, and due to the sniper rifle's relatively slow rate of fire, it's impractical against fast moving regular Aliens, and it's usually not available against any of the big tanky bosses like the exosuit, Predator, or Alien Queen who it might actually be useful against. You basically only get it at the end of Mission 6 and Mission 7, just before a Praetorian fight (who can be taken out much more easily with the minigun anyway). It's more useful in multiplayer, which is what it seems to have been designed for.
• Battle Trophy: Rykov takes the Predator Mask from the Prince as this much like how Predators do to their victims.
• Big Bad Ensemble: While Dr. Eisenberg serves as the main villain of the over-arcing story, he primarily features in the Alien campaign, with the Predator campaign focusing on General Rykov, and the Marine campaign having Frosty confronting the Alien Queen. There also appear to be multiple Alien Queens on LV-1201, or else the Queen is really good at coming back from the dead considering the Predator kills her once and then Frosty kills her twice, only for her to be around to torture Eisenberg in the Alien campaign ending. Dialogue in the game implies there are multiple "new queens" with one "empress" being the primary queen.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: The cat-sized beetles that can be found flapping around LV-1201. They are especially common in dark spaces and inside air ducts, and the sudden spastic movements they make can catch players by surprise, as they can be confused for a facehugger. They are otherwise harmless.
• Boring, but Practical: the regular old pulse rifle qualifies as this. It appears to be, at first, just another generic assault rifle. After about two missions of using it you will suddenly realize it kills all common enemies in as many as 5 shots, has a magazine of 99, a rate of fire close to a modern AK-74 assault rifle, possesses an underslung integrated grenade launcher (with perfect trajectory and quick travel times) which instagibs nearly everything in the blast radius, and there's a bug which causes the first bullet fired to cause extra damage, thus making burst shots more powerful while saving ammo. The icing on the cake is that it is available to humans throughout almost every mission, with abundant ammo to boot! Three guesses as to which human weapon received, arguably, the most use in multiplayer.
  • The Alien pounce attack also fits; It's nothing more than a single button move where you fling yourself through the air at a high velocity. Upon impacting other living things they are instagibbed or stunned in place, leaving them open to a quick and brutal slaying. In multiplayer the pounce 'n' slash became the bread and butter of every xenomorph player.
• Boss in Mook's Clothing: Praetorians are used more or less like mini-bosses, with several appearing in the Marine and Predator campaigns, usually in the later levels. They're a little slower than regular Aliens and can't climb walls, but are still just as fast if not a little faster than you are, and their carapaces are armored and they can withstand several dozen rounds of pulse rifle fire before going down. The minigun still shreds them in less than half a second, though, and the Predator can beat them in a melee duel using the combistick.
• Boxed Crook: W-Y uses prison labor on LV-1201 as a cost-saving measure, with a note mentioning that rates of escape on distant planetary ventures are universally low due to convicts having nowhere else to go and the prospect of their sentences being severely commuted in exchange for hazard-time. Prisoners who don't fall into line are liable to be subjected to implantation experiments...
• Cheat Code: Like most games of its era, the developer console is still enabled in the final retail version, allowing players to input a variety of cheats. Besides the usual god mode, give all weapons, etc., the cheats let you play as almost every available character; you can play as a marine in the predator missions, for example, or even a synthetic or exosuit. However, since the levels are built around the very specific movement abilities of each character most levels can only be played through from start to finish as the specific character they were designed for.
• Chekhov's Skill: In the intro to the marine campaign, Frosty is shown moving around cargo with a power loader. This gives a subtle bit of foreshadowing to that he is probably qualified to operate the military exosuit, which he indeed does near the end of the campaign.
• Colony Drop: The W-Y installation on LV-1201 is designed around "Pods" suspended from a ginormous superstructure. If one Pod is compromised by, say, the alien lifeforms you're running unethical research on, you can just jettison the whole thing before the infestation spreads.
• Continuity Porn: The game does a really good job at making as many references to the Alien and Predator movies as it can. For example, the interior layout of the Forward Observation Pods is very similar to that of the starship Nostromo, and the Primary Operations Complex is very similar in aesthetic to Hadley's Hope. The first few missions of the Predator campaign are also set in a tropical jungle setting. And then there's the dead Engineer at the end of the marine campaign...
• Death World: LV-1201 is actually a very dangerous planet. Sure, it sports a rather beautiful looking jungle region, but other than that, it is prone to deadly windstorms, has acidic oceans, is crawling with huge monstrous wildlife that attack anything that moves, and then of course there are the xenomorphs that are loose there and the clan Predators that make routine visits. Yeah, not exactly the ideal vacation spot.
• Developer's Foresight: In one late Marine mission, if you managed to save the three Marine NPC's from being killed by the Aliens (preferably with weapons that don't cause their acid blood to burst out). They can actually be talked to and have lines for it.
• Distant Sequel: Takes place half a century after Alien 3.
• Distress Call: Primal Hunt reveals this was the reason why the Prince and his clan came to LV-1201 in the first place. They were responding to a distress beacon sent out by the Ancient Predator.
• Elite Mooks: Combat synths can take a lot more hits than regular humans (though dismembering weaponry tears them apart pretty quickly), often carry heavier weapons like smartguns or miniguns, and don't show up in the Predator's thermal vision and aren't fooled by the cloaking device.
• Evil Laugh: The Predator gives its signature laugh after using a Spear Gun to cut off enemies' heads.
  • The first Predator the Alien character encountered does this as it dies following its defeat.
• Fate Worse than Death: Being trapped in xenomorph cocoons is definitely this. Until the alien chestburster bursts out. Then the person dies anyway. Unless you are a synthetic like Eisenberg. Who gets trapped in one at the end of the Alien campaign.
• For the Evulz: The company's research, and the entire Alien campaign, show that the xenomorphs have an intelligence bordering on semi-sentience. This suggests that their voracious need to kill is more than just instinctual...
• Functional Genre Savvy: The Weyland-Yutani xenomorph research outpost on LV-1201 is actually very well designed for its purpose. The Primary Operations Center, which houses most of the administration, spaceport, interstellar communications array, and bulk cargo is surrounded by electric fences on the outside and more electronic fences inside and is located far from the xenomorph hive. Even the weakest point in the security is still proof against anything short of a bomb. The Forward Observation Pods are several independent units suspended over a canyon by means of an electrified framework. The mustering area on the surface below is surrounded by electric fences and automated gun turrets, with additional bunkers for shelter during an emergency, and the only access between this area and the pods is by means of an elevator lowered down from above with no supports to climb up. If necessary, a compromised pod can be separated from the others and detached. The pods and the POC are connected by a roadway with substantial underground tunnels that are gated in sections like an airlock to ensure that no "specimens" are able to pass through without proper security measures.
• Gang Up on the Human: In the Primal Hunt expansion pack, the Xenomorphs and the planet's native wildlife seem to ignore each other and focus solely on attacking you.
• Gatling Good: The minigun does massive damage and can shred Praetorians in just a second or two of sustained fire, who can otherwise soak 60-80 rounds of pulse rifle fire before going down. When you play as the Predator, enemies equipped with miniguns can obliterate you just as quickly.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Weyland-Yutani are the ones who commissioned the operation on LV-1201 and lead to the Big Bad Ensemble to confront the main characters.
• Gunship Rescue: Using the dropship, the Marines obliterated the Queen that was chasing them.
• Harder Than Hard: The game has Hardcore mode, which has similar toughness as Hard mode (enemies deal more damage, can take more hits, appear in larger groups, and ammo is significantly more scarce) and also disables manual saving, so you only get the autosave at the beginning of each level transition.
• He Knows Too Much: A smuggler gets arrested by Rykov and his men for trying to find out the cargo.
• Hollywood Chameleons: LV-1201 is home to the aptly named "chameleons", which are enormous reptilians with gorilla-like gaits that can camouflage themselves so that they resemble large boulders.
• Homing Projectile: The plasma caster bolts used by Predators in the Marine and Alien campaign actually homes in on you, so you can't dodge it by strafing and need to either use cover (for the Marine) or stay in melee range (for the Alien) to avoid getting shot.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: The parasitic nightmare-beasts and killing machines who rip people apart for fun tend to be treated almost sympathetically in comparison to the game's human villains. Corporal Harrison is the only one who ever ends up facing enemies of his own species...
  • Aliens Are Bastards: ... but still the alien creatures ain't much better themselves. The xenomorphs kill whatever living creature they see, and based on studies by the company, it's heavily hinted that they're semi-sentient so they must do this for more reasons than just to protect the hive. The yautja kill people without provocation, usually start the fights and if you survived an earlier attack from them in your life then God help you because those creatures will hunt your ass down, no matter if it'll take them ages or thousands of enemies between them and you before they finally gets you, all for wounded pride.
• It Can Think: When playing as the Alien, you overhear a human commander explaining their plan to defeat the xenomorphs, who he says are just stupid animals. Your next task is to relay this plan to the Queen, who promptly develops a successful counterattack.
• Invisibility with Drawbacks: As in the previous game, activating the Predator's cloak uses up a small amount of energy, so you can't just decloak before firing then recloak without using up energy. Firing any weapon that also uses energy (such as the plasmacaster or energy pistol) will also decloak you, which is more logical than the previous game where firing any non-melee weapon other than arbitrarily the plasmacaster would decloak you. As always, Aliens can still see you even when you're cloaked, and Synths can spot you a lot quicker than humans can.
• Level Editor: While the game does include support for custom levels, it doesn't include editing tools itself. However, an unofficial level editor exists and the game has quite a few custom maps made for it, both multiplayer and single-player.
• Mêlée à Trois: Seen occasionally in the Predator campaign, with Mercs and Aliens fighting each other as well as the player on the rare occasions they're found in the same area.
• Monster Delay: The first level of the marine campaign does not feature the xenomorphs until much later, but does a good job and building up tension and atmosphere until they finally make an entrance. Interestingly, the Predator is the first of the two creatures you encounter, as one stalks Harrison almost as soon as he arrives on LV-1201, but never directly attacks him.
• Mythology Gag: After you complete all three campaigns you get an extra ending scene. This includes a report that mentions every surviving scientist who studied the Predator artifacts has turned up dead, with the same Asian-looking woman spotted near these incidents. In all likelihood this is meant to be Machiko Noguchi from the Aliens vs. Predator comic book.
• Nerf: The player Predator is much less tanky in this game than in the first Aliens vs Predator. Use of stealth tactics is pretty much essential for survival against human enemies, whereas in the first game just Ramboing them was a viable tactic.
• New Work, Recycled Graphics: The game is built on the same engine as Monolith's previous game, No One Lives Forever, and uses a lot of foundational assets such as weapon and entity logic and character animations from that game. This accounts for the game's somewhat cartoony art style, which is very similar to No One Lives Forever's. That said, the vastly different settings does mean there's no recycling of things like actual character or weapon models.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Eisenberg's reaction to the Marines shutting down the security grid in sector 2 causing the entire Weyland-Yutani security grid to shut down. Despite that he ordered it to be set up like that in the first place.
  • Also, when Harrison is escaping from the Pod he unintentionally releases the Player Character Predator from stasis, allowing it to wreak havoc on the guards and scientists. Granted, the Predator never actually interferes with Harrison or his allies, and in some cases aids him indirectly, so this example is iffy.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Frosty tries this.. It doesn't exactly work out well the first time, although he does have more success when he tries it again at the end of the game.
• Obvious Rule Patch: The Predator had a huge weakness when it came to medium-range combat, being equipped exclusively with melee or slow-firing, long-ranged weapons. Primal Hunt introduced the Ancient Predator's energy flechette, a handy SMG-like device.
• Post-Final Boss: In the Alien campaign, the real Final Boss fight is the back-to-back duels with the medium and heavy Predators at the end of the game. The "fight" with Dr. Eisenberg that comes immediately after that is mostly to just wrap up the plot, as he goes down in one hit (though he does have a combat shotgun that can kill you in 1-2 shots, especially since you probably haven't had a chance to fully heal up after the Predator fight).
• Powered Armor: Remember the Power Loader from Aliens? Now there is the militarized version known as the exosuit, capable of moving faster than a marine on foot and armed with a flamethrower, a dual minigun, and a semi-auto missile launcher, and a laser weapon, the whole thing powered by an atomic reactor— essentially more firepower than an entire squad of marines. They call her Alice.
  • The Marine and Predator campaigns have one boss fight each against Merc versions of the exosuit. It can take almost a full 99 round mag of pulse rifle fire to bring down, and while the laser does regular damage and the rockets can be dodged, the minigun can shred you in less than a second if you're not behind cover. However, the cockpit is completely exposed and you can kill it by shooting the operator in the head with a few bullets or spears.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The chameleons. They are hulking, lizard-like monsters that attack on sight, can camouflage, fire concussive energy beams from their mouths, and are big and strong enough to pulverize a Predator and take on a group of Aliens singlehandedly.
• Respawning Enemies: Generally averted, unlike the first game, but there are certain sections in the Marine campaign (escaping from the hive at the end of Chapter 1, in the sewers searching for the backup power at the end of the first section of Chapter 4) where enemies do respawn infinitely and you need to hurry to the next area.
• Sand Worm: The Predators in Primal Hunt encounter a race of giant, carnivorous worms that pop out of the ground ala Tremors when they first arrive on LV-1201.
• Robotic Reveal: Eisenberg is revealed to be an Android. He died long ago but his consciousness has been transferred into a robot duplicate. He's essentially immortal and that's the problem.
• Sequel Hook: Harrison and his team leaves LV1201 and head to their next destination however, the Prince and his clan are now in pursuit of them.
• Simultaneous Arcs: The three campaigns - Alien, Predator, and Marine - intersect and overlap with each other, although each campaign starts and ends at different points in the overall story. To get the full picture it is necessary to complete every campaign.
• Sole Survivor: Averted; unlike most other entries in the franchise, Frosty actually manages to save most of his teammates at the end of the game.
• Strong Flesh, Weak Steel: The Predator boss in the Marine campaign can take a good 100 rounds of pulse rifle fire to bring down, which is about on par with what it takes to destroy an exosuit. Also, unlike the exosuit, the predator doesn't seem to take extra damage from headshots.
• Supervillain Lair: The WY complex appears to be some kind of attempt at designing a xenomorph-proof building; it consists of a series of skyscraper-sized pods suspended from an overhead gantry that can be dropped individually in case one is compromised. The support structures in turn are electrified to prevent intrusion through them.
• Ten-Second Flashlight: Played straight with the night vision, which literally lasted about ten seconds. The regular flashlight lasts a bit longer but does run out after extended use.
• Took a Level in Badass: Praetorians have gone from Elite Mooks like the Predaliens, to being full boss fights.
• Unique Enemy:
  • You only fight one Predalien in the Marine campaign and two in the Predator campaign, despite the fact they're only somewhat tougher than a regular Alien. Praetorians and Predators are just as rare, though those are at least full boss fights. Though it makes sense story-wise, since Predaliens are created from Predators and there aren't a lot of those running around.
  • Human enemies are only fought in the Marine campaign in one out of the six chapters, and most of those are security guards armed only with pistols and the occasional shotgun. You only fight three mercs armed with pulse rifles as a Marine. Makes sense, as the focus of the Marine campaign is on fighting Aliens. There is also in the final Marine level where you get to kill 1 combat synthetic and 1 WY security guard, they're usually busy fighting aliens, but will try to kill you when they are done with the aliens. But usually one or both are killed by the aliens.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Major Dunya in the Primal Hunt expansion. Had she not deactivated the stasis field keeping the Ancient Predator imprisoned, Pod 5 never would have been destroyed, and the signal that lured the Prince and his clan to LV-1201 never would have been sent out.
• Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Averted. Unlike in the first and third games, in AVP2 the flamethrower does direct damage instead of merely setting enemies on fire, allowing it to mow down Aliens at close range extremely quickly.