Aliens vs Predator Extinction Review 

THE LIST - docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_K3ziSxT9zcUUGCddS4sF1uNJTWHSbOwB1CQX2Rx4Uo I'm sorry for anyone who thought this might be on AVP 1 or 2. We have to get through this.

My favourite feature from this game was that the Predaliens grew more spikes every time they were grievously harmed in battle. If they survived enough fights they would molt their skins and become even spikier bois.

"It's quiet" cameo is good.

“I can only hope nobody died on he way to that movie.” I saw that film and I assure you had I known death was one of the options I would have taken it.

"This is why audio engineers are one of many unsung heroes of video games." *slow clap*

Fun fact: I live in Alaska and bought a ford taurus. The first year I had it before winter we had to change out my radiator which was a bit of an involved process including removing the whole ass dashboard/steering wheel/glovebox the whole shebang. Anyway back in there I found a copy of this game for the ps2. Still have it in fact. Have never played it beyond the first mission though.

"Shrapnel is a fast little friend and you never know when he's visiting" is a fuckin' awesome line.

I played this game a truly shameful amount when I was young, but there's one detail you left out that defends why Aliens take so long to produce. Marines and Predators can only order 6 troops at once, Aliens are only limited by how many bodies and eggs they have. After large scale attacks on a hive, with lots and lots of bodies and a handful of upgraded eggs, I've produced 30 units at once which is far beyond anything the other two factions can manage. It's one of the reasons that I think there's actually a really, really good RTS buried under technology limitations and rushed development. If a proper remake came out today, with a higher population limit and more time put into polish, I honestly think it could be my favourite RTS. I doubt it'd ever happen, though; basically no one knows or cares about this game.

The pathfinding thing where characters wander off is a "we need to split" horror trope

3:25 "We're not getting to Mr. Bones just yet" DO NOT PLAY WITH MY HEART

"Alien vs Predator vs Brown vs Board of Education. It's a thrash metal track!" Oh my god.

"and it really shows" -Mandalore, some point in a review

Aliens vs Predator: Extinction is the most underrated RTS game ever. I played the game like absolute hell. The Xenomorphs and Predators have the best missions.

Ok, hear me out: Alien slime rancher.

This game needs a remake

In those insanely difficult early Predator campaign missions, it's the comm techs that call every existing human unit on the map to track and rush whoever hit the comm tech. The level was balanced for fighting those enemies in small groups at a time, yet someone decided the comm techs were too much of an Achilles' heel. So their quick fix was to make targeting comm techs early nearly impossible. So anyway, if they rush, they will somehow track your unit's every movement, and follow him until he's dead, before returning to their posts. They don't track your unit's position directly, but rather follow his path, as if tracing footprints. This is advantageous, as it allows you to run in wide sweeping loops buying a bit more time than if they'd been constantly running directly at your unit's position. A good solution is to know the map well and chart a safe course with a hunter, making sure he never gets cornered, and never leads enemies to the shrine. Use him to hit and run, firing plasma caster backwards as he flees. The android will run faster than the other human units, and thus take the first hits. Once a group's android is down, cloak the hunter and allow as many enemies as possible to reach his position before another android approaches. Whenever humans reach him, but can't see him, they lose his trail and give up the search. As the next android approaches, again run away, keeping just ahead of him, while firing backwards. Eventually, you'll be able to have a spearmaster approach groups of enemies undetected, assassinate one at a time with spear, running away until the partial detection (from attacking) wears off, and head back in for another kill. It's tedious but can be a fun challenge to pull off. The whole while you're accumulating honor in the clan, and requesting reinforcements at the shrine until you have enough backup that you can bring a full assault to finish them off. The theory behind this level design was to force the player not to swarm with predators like you would as humans or aliens. The predators consider it more honorable to utilize skill and strategy to wear down and defeat many enemies with only a couple predator units. If you fail to escape with the hunter, then you lose only that unit, since once he's defeated, all the humans will return to their designated posts and patrols, They won't seek out your shrine as long as you don't lead them near it.

Man this is one of those games that's frustrating because you can SEE the glimpses of the truly amazing game it could be behind weird design choices and flaws that feel like they exist because it was rushed or cut.

Mandalore you sly suit of armor, you thought i'd miss the "It's quiet" at 6:58, didnt you? :P

"Alien vs Predator vs Brown vs The Board of Education" Why, of all things, is that where I lost it?

I love two things: #1 - one that the medic just shoots the dude who got the facehugger on him. #2 - It does make you realize that the Predators in the movies are trophy hunters, and not what they are like when they get serious. In all the books they only got serious once... and welp, that place didn't last long.

What I absolutely love about this game is the beastiary. It didn't only point out different strengths or weaknesses or abilities, it also justified them with lore, both old and expanded. I loved reading about why the Xenomorph Runner's upgrade suddenly caused it's attacks to become poisonious, or why the Predator Vanguard's scythe could kill anything-no matter how powerful- in a minimum of 4 hits. Heck, even why Predators get more resources if you just have smaller squads of lower-tier units collecting all the trophies instead of expensive armies. Heck, even 'new' types of Predators and Aliens such as Military Predators and Xenomorph Ravagers had a lot of work put into their 'backstories'. And what I-funnily enough- hated the most was the sound of the 'pop' whenever the beacon(Is it a beacon?) on the Commtech's back flashed. Speaking of Marines being annoying, The Predator 3 mission became hilariously trivial if you upgraded Stalkers immediatly-bar none the most powerful upgrade in the game- and spammed them along with getting vision upgrades. Good times!

"Shrapnel is a fast little friend, and you never know when he’s visiting." -Mandalore, 2020

6:49 "It sounds like a seagull being murdered in a haunted house." That has to be one of the most bizarre yet fitting descriptions of something I've ever heard.

“Shrapnel is a fast little friend and you never know when he is visiting” Lol that’s some premium stuff right there.

“Alien vs Predator vs Brown vs Board of Education” I died

I'm *STILL* waiting for the AVP franchise to get a modern asymmetric large battle FPS worthy of its name.

"Well the doctor's in." *Doctor cures patient with a very effective "syringe"*

Maaan, don’t play with my emotions with alien hive management sim suggestions. The life cycle and hive management was my favorite part of this game.

It really is a shame that nobody ever revisited the idea of an AvP (or hell, even just Aliens) themed RTS because it's a concept that translates so well into the genre just by the very nature of the factions involved, they naturally break down well into the horde/balanced/elite archtypes with enough vagueness and wiggle room in the setting's lore for a developer to get creative with it. Of course, with the movies having moved back into being two separate franchises with how poorly both AVP films did (and the last AVP game not being too well received) it's sadly quite likely this will be the only foray we will ever see into this potentially perfect combination.

I love how “it’s quiet was hidden in the episode”

NGL, the Dredd Vs Alien comic is actually pretty neat

*opens disc box* *flips disc to mint-scented scratches* “I miss you...”

I played this as a kid back on the PS2 and playing as the xenomorphs was satisfying as hell with their life cycle mechanic. It's perhaps the reason why I got into the ant farm hobby.

Playing as aliens does feel like a fever dream, even more so than when you play as the Beast in Homeworld: Cataclysm.

I really wish this game could be replayed more. there is a lot of good ideas in this game that would work well in a rts

The Carrier is like the Oprah Winfrey of Aliens... “You get a facehugger” “You get a facehugger” “You get a facehugger”

"Shrapnel is a fast little friend, and you never know when he's visiting." What a line.

I remember playing this, and Goblin Commander: Unleash the Horde as a kid. Good times.

Holy hell, I never expected to see this game on here. Neat that someone is talking about it, though, and that now we have a video on it that's not six to ten years old and a dead-silent LP.

The closed captions on this one are a delight to read, with some good ones like "If you're reading this because you can't hear, know that you've dodged a bullet here" at 5:29.

Someone really REALLY needs to remake this

The Goosebumps music always adds to these videos

Blessed be the Omnissiah! Mandalore has blessed us with another review!

To whoever did the captions: "wailing squall of lead" is one of my new favorite phrases.

Seriously, the Alien campaign in this game, especially the first few missions, really hammers home how cool it would be to have another Alien RTS fully realized. While it might be unlikely to see another AVP RTS ever attempted, there is a possibility at least for an Alien vs. Marine RTS to take inspiration from this game and learn from what it did wrong.

The alien music, or the "Sounds like someone is murdering a seagull in a haunted house" music, used to give me shivers as a kid

The Alien faction actually seems really interesting.

Something to really haunt you throughout the October: 'IT'S QUIET!'

I never knew I needed an Aliens themed X-Com in my life until now!

Tfw only case of military-grade Preds in this game.

I played this game in my cousin's house when I was young and I genuinely thought it was some sort of half-remembered dream until now

6:58 I love how you included the subtle "its Quiet" from the fire warrior video :D

4:38 - when you see someone with "MAP" on their bio...

I miss this game so much. This was a part of my childhood.

I loved the Alien nest mechanic, dragging bodies home to the queen was just so satisfying.

It’s a pity that there hasn’t been another AvP rts game, this was a rush of childhood nostalgia- awesome video ❤️

I legit just loved how many varients you can have for both Alien and Preditor's this game was so much fun for that alone. I also adored the opening cutscene, literally one of the all-time hype up cutscenes to begin a game for me.

"ODSTs droppin in!"

I feel like Mandalore isnt even a person, he's just a walking suit of medieval plate armor. And turns into an ugundan warlord at night.

That carrier alien type is pure terrifying. How have we never seen that in recent media?!

"Halloween right around the corner." 31 days

After playing this game when I was a kid, I always hoped they would try to make another RTS of this series. At least for the xenomorphs, it was really neat.

AvP existed as comics before the Easter egg in predator 2. It’s the reason why the Easter egg was created for predator 2 in the first place.

When you meet a competitive Smash player: 4:38

My roommate: watches his anime with another "1000 yo vampire girl" Me, who came back home at 1 a.m. and stumbled upon him: 4:38

When every sound came together, it sounds like one of the marines was busy making food in a microwave. 5:02

I absolutely LOVED Extinction. Mostly for the xenomorph gameplay. I must have replayed those first few alien missions hundreds of times. I really, REALLY wish someone would make something else like this. T_T

Love your videos. I get so pumped every time a new one pops up on my feed!

Mandalore and Civvie uploading on the same day is exactly what I needed after a long day at work.

"Now is the time to breed and grow and dominate." Ideal /pol/ thread title.

Oh my god. This game. You have awakened a deep, buried part of my childhood. I remembered very few of the exact details you've discussed but I knew the *feelings* of it, like the ravager being awesome and the military predators being ridiculous.

This review was hilarious. As an AvP fan this was one of my favorite games back in the day. I still wish the movies would treat this game's world building as cannon because it would be so cool to see military preds and different types of xenos on the big screen. I find it funny that the early pred missions gave you a hard time. I played through this game on hard when I was young and bad at video games. I don't remember a huge difficulty spike. The latter missions were the hardest for me on all 3 factions and the game ran well on my ps2.

I LIVED on this game on console it was actually so goddamn good.

I got into AvPveverything pretty young and I was 15 when this game came out and holy shit this game ruled my world for like a week straight, I thought it was the coolest thing. Obviously looking back now it was not the best game but man o man the memories.

I worked on this game (my first Console release!) - so feel free to hit me up if you want to chat about it and put your tortured soul at rest ;)

This is one of those games I was pretty sure no one else on the planet even knew existed, so it's pretty cool to see a video like this on it. I was willing to forgive a lot of its shortcomings when I was younger just for the sake of the flavour in the game. I spent a long time just reading the encyclopedia's unit descriptions.

I loved this game when I was younger! The Alien variations and life cycle was the coolest part, to me - I think your idea of a hive management game would be really interesting to see. Thanks for the nostalgia!

6:34 never thought I'd hear Mandalore mention Captain Beefheart.

What i also loved about this game was the entire bestiary. Reading about the lore, strengths and weaknesses etc of every single unit was pretty cool.

The xenos seem like how I wanted the Zerg to feel like, I don't like it when my weird feral space rat army feels like biological equivalents to normal human tech. I want it to feel like I'm leading a hive.

Jesus christ, talking about getting smacked in the face by nostalgia

"Yeah?" "Ok." "Yeah?" "Ok." "Yeah?" "Ok." "Yeah?" "Ok." "Yeah?" "Ok."

I rented this from blockbuster as a kid too! I'm so glad you made this because sometimes I felt like I was the only person who played it or it was a weird fever dream

This was my fovorite game when I was a kid. Never thought you would review it.

Why don't the aliens just say that the predator should have a seat right over there? Easy win.

PRAISE BE IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR YEARS

Loved the intro, II got literal 'Goosebumps' upon the instant the video started! Brought back some nostalgic feelings that's for sure! Good video too! :D

I've been waiting SO LONG for someone to review this!

I swear mandalore is like that estranged uncle who you see once every 3 years but when you do he shows you all the games and stuff hidden and lost to time

Oh my god, somone had FUN with these subtitles. Nice work

This sounds like the kind of game that could have been very close to cult status. Nowhere near DOW or anything like that, but were it on PC and had multiplayer skirmish it would really have been something a small group would be playing to this day.

"I bought a snack, and rented it for the weekend" ah, simpler times

The numbers Mason, what do they mean?

I like how there's a joke around 0:50 that makes fun of Predator fighting (and losing?) to a bear, but since then Dan Trachtenberg and "Prey" have shown us that Bear vs Predator can be awesome.

I like when mandalore talks about sound in games

20:18 reason why this game feels half finished is because it is a console only RTS. Consoles put massive constrains on RTS games when you compare it to the PC which always have a more powerful CPU and a lot of RAM. Also the devs made this game for both the PS2 and Xbox at the same time and back then it was a lot harder to make games run of different systems with vastly different architecture and RAM. AVP Extinction should have been a PC only game like most RTS. It is a shame this game was handicapped from the start because it is on consoles. what a huge miss.

"it's an RTS game" Me: interesting "a console only RTS game" Me: big oof

God damn it!!!! You beat me to a AvP Extinction video!!!! I literally was thinking about doing this last week!!

Awesome game, honestly one my favorite RTS games to come out ever

You know we've hit the golden season when Mandalore hits the Goosebumps beat