Aliens vs Predator demo now on Steam
Rebellion's Aliens vs Predator demo is multiplayer only and doesn't boast all the features of the full game.
The demo isn't totally complete however and allows access to just one map, The Refinery, and only in Deathmatch mode. Forum discussion also suggests that the demo doesn't use dedicated servers.
On the plus side though, the demo does allow access to all three races, the Marine, Alien and Predator, so players will have a chance to test out their favourite breed of killer.
The demo is currently available on Steam for PC, though it's also available on Xbox Live and PSN if you'd prefer to play the game with your thumbs, rather than your fingers.
The full release will boast a number of new multiplayer modes, as well as three singleplayer campaigns (one per race) and a co-op mode that lets four Marines square off against AI controlled Aliens.
You can check our hands-on preview of Aliens vs Predator for more information, as well as our interview with Rebellion CEO and TIGA founder Jason Kingsley.
Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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56 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyI loved AvP2 also and was hoping this would at least be of the same quality.
If you were really into AvP2, I think you'll be disappointed. I used to play it a good 30+ hours a week..
Yea I had to wait 15mins for it to connect to someone, the demo is P2P-only, though the retail will supposedly have dedi servers and a server list and all.
A bit over 1Gb
1265MiB or something.
My first thought when I saw this on the steam feed was AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWESOME! But then I saw these comments and went all :( Is it really that bad? I thought it was looking to be really good.
EDIT: 1253MiB to be extact :P
+1
Although I'll take a look.
Thanks for the heads up ;)
are you sure that wasn't the menu music? i loved that crackling sound.
took a while to connect a couple of times but when it was actually in the game the atmosphere was bang on. Controsl for the predator are a bit clunky and the alien is a nightmare... as a marine the motion tracker has my pants filling though!
But at least the demo gives a taste of whats to come. The full game should be fun.
And to add another minus...
....yes, Audio is pretty bad. voice from steam is bad. ingame effect is... stereo at best. no 5.1 stuff. and no "oomph". the variety is nice, but quality is low. which hopefully the full game is better.
as for connecting... took about 10min this morning for me to connect a quick match. last night was about 1-3 minutes. either way, once ur in, ur in all the way. the game wont drop unless ur seriously the last person online. it will just keep playing. i believe this is because it will REQUIRE a full 8 people to open a new session.
i assume once the demo picks up, there will be more people online.
but yeah. its intense.
ps: ROFL at mouse3 button for predators...... yeah. now i can see how Pres is slightly overpowered.... just dont let them pick up a weapon.
Still haven't managed to play it.
AVP FTW!
no its not the interface ambience, its when steam users use their voice chat and trying to speak.... im assuming its a specific codec or some sort, not all of them. hopefully that'll get fixed on release.
but boy, people learn fast, lol.... theyre getting good now. and preds weapons rock! (just make sure u press and HOLD to aim) that shoulder mounted cannon > all.
[edit] Managed 20s with an Alien, no-one in sight to stalk and then the game leader left, killing the whole thing. Gay.
0/10 from me.
I've had a couple of games now, both as marine, and it's good apart from the need to decrease the Predator melee distance - his claw things work from about 20ft away.
i enjoyed playing it, but like others have said, i dont like the quake style deathmatch.... but was fun none-the-less, but cant seem to get a game now after waiting 15 minits....
still not sure if to get it or not from play.com for £18... hmmm
worst demo ever
+1, can't find anything.
I'll just wait for the full game to be delivered.
1. predator: cloak + land mine + heatseekinglaserthingamagic = win. find some gadget. find some place to hide. boom.
2. marines: redefining the term "pour lead unto you" by quite a margin. back against the wall. steady aim. spray.
3. xenos: unbelievable agility (once u get used to it). lack abit of punch, but run/jump/scale/spring/sprint/evade around until u can grab someone from the back and finish off. easy-mode.
but yeah, the lag and waiting for game and audio (whats with the cracklin and crappy quality?) is abit of letdown, hopefully remedied with the full version.
ps: if full version comes with dedicated, and demo comes with hosted instant sessions.... would that means u have the options for both? sweet.
It will be much better with the dedicated servers and the race modes. As I dont like the idea of marines vs marines or alien vs alien (well, xenomorph). But looks like it will be a really good turn out.
It feels wooden and even with everything on full @ 1920x1080 it didn't look great.
I'll give it another try tomorrow.
Additionally silly things like getting shot (at least as a pred) makes you stop momentarily as well as jumping. Very irritating game and I hope for a proper demo in the near future. Maybe then it won't feel so clunky.
EDIT: I had to Google the Steam website to find it. Reason I never saw it on my Steam account was this ...
"Sorry!
An error was encountered while processing your request:
This item is currently unavailable in your region
Here's a link to the home page."
To be honest if that's the attitude they're adopting then I'm sorry after reading the shitty experiences people have already had of the game here I'm not bothering. This is very lazy. Exactly the same treatment I got when trying to download the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 demo only releasing it was for NA only. Pfft...
Steam's doing you a service by sparring you from the sh*tty demo :)
Alien sprint +1
It does work this way.
Connected to a game no problem at all.
Graphics were ok I guess, running everything on max at 1920x1200 and smooth as silk. Didn't exactly get a chance to admire anything as I was concentrating on not dying.
Obviously, players need to get into the swing of the game again and get used to the not-so-straight-forward mechanics of the alien and predator. As a Marine, I managed to get 26 kills, 13 ahead of 2nd place. I haven't played an AvP game in about 6 or 7 years.
I didn't really notice any lag, so the actual playing went smoothly enough, but the deathmatch style does not suit it. Race deatmatch would be better.
For the marine, the weapons other than the Pulse Rifle, are just naff. The Sniper rifle, 3 shots to the head of a predator, still lived (ok, I was being impaled through the back with an aliens tail at the time), the shotgun JUST managed to kill someone at almost point blank range and chasing 2 marines with the shortest-ranged flamethrower ever created...
I'll have to try Predator and Alien at some stage today anyway.
First impressions, lacklustre.
Also, the sprinting is ok and as far as I am aware, the lunge for the alien is the interact key, or so I have been told. It has an auto-focus mode, so there is little to no aiming.
Definately have to investigate further.
Once into a game though it was really quite good fun. The alien is uber fast and great fun, the pred is slow but powerful (perhaps a little too much) and the marine is weak but hella powerful over range. Good fun when I played last night - plenty of bugs to work out though and i can;t help think that the demo will turn off players rather than encourage them to buy.
as aliens, when u hit space when ur cursor have 3 spikes, ull stick to that side of the wall. when u hold Q and u run towards a wall (at any angle), ull climb that wall. or use mouse3 button.
abit of learning curve for aliens movement, but afte a couple rounds as aliens..... its simple: xenos are deadliest class. speed to go pretty much anywhere + grabbing someone from the back is insta kill = god mode.
i actually find predators one of the hardest to play now...... the spear and blades are useless that longer range since they go on a straight line, and pretty much nobody standing still... close range is good with aliens, but if a marine can spray on u, ur toast.
of course, pred still has the proximity mine :)
Yeah the demo is a bit ****, when I first played it I thought it was crap, but the more I played it the more I liked it.
First few games went badly, but I started playing with a group of mates and we were all marines and worked together, was amazing fun, hearing people shouting "Oh god there's one behind you! Look out! Noooooo!" down the headsets.
Then we played some hotseat when people came round as the alien and started to get the controls and tactics down, some of the kills are awesome.
It went from an ok game that I would wait to become cheaper into one I have to buy.
Getting used to the controls was my first issue so this may help;
All races
Objectives: TAB
Chat to All: Y
Chat to Team: U
Voice chat: V
Jump: SPACE BAR
Interact: E
Forwards: W
Backwards: S
Strafe Left: A
Strafe Right: D
Sprint: Q
Walk: LEFT CTRL
Marine
Primary Fire: MOUSE 1
Secondary Fire: MOUSE 2
Flare: F
Flashlight: T
Health Stim: H
Melee: MOUSE 3
Reload: R
Select Pistol: 1
Select Weapon 2: 2
Select Weapon 3: 3
Alien
Light Attack: MOUSE 1
Heavy Attack: MOUSE 2
Focus: LEFT SHIFT
Surface Transition: MOUSE 3
Hiss: R
Block: MOUSE 1 + Mouse 2
Predator
Light Attack: MOUSE 1
Heavy Attack: MOUSE 2
Secondary Weapon: MOUSE 3
Focus Mode: LEFT SHIFT
Zoom: Z
Zoom in: MOUSE WHEEL UP
Zoom out: MOUSE WHEEL DOWN
Cloak: R
Distract: E
Vision Mode: F
Health Stim: H
Block: MOUSE 1 + MOUSE 2
Select Plasma Caster: 1
Select Mines: 2
Select Disc: 3
Select Combistick: 4
Taken from someone's useful post on the Valve forum LINKY
Now if it was team deathmatch with marines working together maybe it will be better.
The predator's close range blade is way overpowered, it still works 15-20 ft away.
but whats with this pred close range blade fiasco? evrybody sayin it works 10+ feet away... what is it? the main left-click blade? main attacks is pretty close range when i played, except when its laggy...
the races are very nicely balanced and dominance depends on how skilled and alert the player is. i am kinda divided between the alien and marine race but i would say marines are my favourite by a fraction.
also, when playing as aliens, does anybody tend to feel dizzy when walking on surfaces? i turn on the auto-wallwalk thingy to make it easier. i usually run on the ceilings to make it harder to spot me but this makes me feel sick after about 2 hours of play :(
Don't seem to be having any of the issues with the game that other people have mentioned (apart from the long server find times).
I personally don't play as the marine but i've come across some people who've either topped the leaderboards or have been in the top 3. You're definitely going to suck as a marine if you play the game like a normal FPS deathmatch like Quake/UT etc. and just run around blindly looking for things to shoot. You need to take your time and make sure you use your motion tracker. Also you have the advantage against the other two races since you have long range firepower to start off with. Sure it's not all that powerful, but it'll still tear through an Alien or Pred that's been knocked to the ground. I've also seen the Marine player that just "happens" to show up during a conflict between an Alien or Pred. in close combat and just mow both down whilst they're pre-occupied.
As for the Alien, they're easily my favourite race. They have the speed to escape from any dangerous encounter and easily return later to seek revenge. As for the OP who commented on the lack of a pounce attack, it's actually executed by doing "Focus+Attack".
Played for a few rounds as the Pred. as well and it's not quite my thing having to go hunt for equipment scattered about the place... although even without it you can still hold your own, especially against Marines since you have a cloak, sort of like a slower Alien.
Currently i think the melee combat still needs a bit of refining, the Focus/Lock On isn't completely accurate and i've ended up pouncing on the enemy whose been on the far side of another engagement leaving me caught in the middle and subsequently ripped to shreds. Also i've started to rely less on Stealth/Grab kills since you're still completely vulnerable during the 3-5 seconds of the animation, a Pounce or Heavy attack followed by a swipe or two usually does the same job in the same amount of time but keeps you roughly moving. It's also funny to see the "grab chains" whereby you just get people grabbing each other from behind. At first i thought the grab was rather otherpowered, it has a pretty long range from behind and you can grab in combat for an instant kill, although i found out you can actually counter/block the grab from the front but i'm not sure how as of yet, and as for a grab from behind... it'll teach you for letting someone sneak up on you :P.
I'd really suggest watching the new AvP Combat Feature which does a brief walkthrough of combat techniques like the pounce attack and more importantly the counter system. I'd say that this is probably the thing that needs tweaking most so far, a counter now pretty much gurantees a kill since you knock your opponent down... it then takes a heavy attack whilst on the floor followed by a light attack to finish off the opponent who's still recovering. I understand that they have to add some depth to the combat, but now it's made me exclusively just block and use heavy attacks when i'm faced against a single opponent.
I haven't played as pred yet but can confirm that both the alien and the marine are fun. OK, so I'd like to be able to choose a loadout with the marine and stick with it but generally I prefer the pulse rifle anyway - at least when I can find some grenades that is.
I was missing the pounce on the alien but I'll have another go using the focus and see what happens. The grabs are pretty potent as others have said but you seriously don't last long if you're spotted and a marine gets a bead on you. Preds seem a touch too brutal in close combat as well though. One hit = dead alien unless you get a grab attack in.
After the first game we agreed TDM with the guys on the server, limited the preds to 2 only and then had massive amounts of fun. Some of the graphical effects are nice as well. Seeing the guy stood next to you suddenly getting nailed to the wall with a javelin through his chest definitely gets your attention!
BTW: Block is left + right mouse by default and can work in about a 135 degree arc (or at least seemed to) but you have to be pretty quick.
But as soon as the second time when I checked the controls it all became a lot more immersive,
Didnt have any problems creating a game, had a lan in my flat at the weekend and got all 8 of my mates in the game without any problems and we made it team deathmatch as we were all there and could make alliances and this was really fun.
When the actual game comes out with more/better online modes I think people will love this game. I for one am really looking forward to its release.
ps. THERE COMING OUT OF THE GOD DAMN WALLS
I love countering the Aliens to get them on the ground before riddling them with bullets, however it ended up with all the aliens just heavy attacking me from the off instead... In that sense i think there needs to be more interrupt with the heavy attacks. Supposedly light attacks are good counters but i find the heavy attacks just have the range to keep out of an interrupt. Also the marine's melee itself is a bit pathetic, was expecting at least some stun on a normal melee but it just seems to do nothing. At least make the guns interrupt a melee animation...
Manage to get some kills in each species, spent most of the time getting disorientated playing the alien.
The demo is quite fun.