Whenever you go to a gameshow event for a high-profile title/brand, there's often a bit of cosplay involved. Large press events for a Star Wars game, for example, are commonly accompanied by actors that have been hired for the day by LucasArts and dressed up in Vader, Darth Maul, or Storm Trooper suits. Predictably then, the Aliens vs. Predator press event that SEGA held last week featured three out of work actors playing an Alien, Predator, and Marine.

My hands-on was with Rebellion's latest build of AvP's multiplayer game, so you can imagine how this cosplaying added to the atmosphere. As I sat there trying to figure out the balancing of AvPs various character classes, weapon load-outs, and unique abilities, the appearance of a 6ft 5 Xenomorph over our shoulder prompted a reaction of mild terror and slight irritation. Still, it mildly bettered our standard gaming location.

For all of you who aren't up to date with AvP games and their background, here's a quick recap: the AvP cannon from comics in the early 90s originally oozed into videogame adaptations with a couple of Nintendo titles in 1993 and a Capcom arcade unit one year later. At this time though, by far and away the best game incarnation of the AvP brand was on Atari's doomed Jaguar console. This cult AvP game was developed by theinternet service dsl then small British developer Rebellion, which later developed a PC/Mac AvP game in 1999 that stunned both fans and critics alike. A sequel in 2001, although from a different studio, was also well received.

Two AvP feature films later and Rebellion has now returned with the aid of SEGA to carry on where it left off with its 1999 game. The studio has got a lot to prove, especially given the atrocious film tie-in game, AvP: Requiem that it released for PSP alongside the second AvP film in 2007. Still, licensed movie games aside, there's no reason to doubt Rebellion's ability to conjure up the brilliance of its original titles with this obviously well funded and carefully developed reboot of the much loved AvP series.

Similarly to the AvP games that precede it, this latest title boasts a single-player campaign with three separate plot-arcs - one for each main faction. The Marines find seemingly abandoned Alien ruins on a planet called BG-386; the ruins predictably turn out to be infested with Aliens, and then Predators turn up to keep the secret of the ruins under wraps. While the Marine campaign arc is more of a solitary survival-horror experience, the Predators' arc takes on a hunter-killer role, although not without revealing a couple of secrets about Predator history in the process.

This is all we know of the single-player experience though, as our hands-on was with the multiplayer. Rebellion is clearly applying as much focus on the multiplayer as it is the main campaign, which is certainly encouraging given the strong multiplayer following of the original PC games. Strangely for a game that's an FPS at its core, you actually end up doing far less shooting in AvP than you'd expect for the genre. The game's combat is instead filled with melee attacks, stealth and trophy kills, blocks and counter attacks, as well as what can almost be described as platforming. There's still plenty of shooting and ranged attacks though, which are mainly represented in the Marine class' armoury, although the Predator's shoulder cannon and smart disc weapons also apply a hefty portion of reticule oriented carnage as well.

The game's focus on other types of combat is to its credit though, as AvP would be a more maligned game had it been focused on heavy weaponry, with only the Alien class being apple to stand out for its speed and agility. Instead, Rebellion has applied almost ridiculous levels of power to the Predator and Alien, leaving the Marines languishing as mere fodder to the insatiable appetites of the universe's ugliest bad guys. With little more to defend themselves than a pistol and pulse rifle in the basic load-out (as well as shotguns that spawn in the environment), Marines are then aided with the iconic tracking device from Aliens and a torch to help them identify threats.

Aliens and Predators, on the other hand, can use a well implemented Focus mode that allows them to traverse the contours of a map at breakneck speeds. Predators boast the ability to jump between elevated areas, such as forest canopies or over the top of ruins. Aliens can then use the Focus mode to scale all of the walls and buildings in a map - whether it leaves them upside down on a ceiling or clinging onto a wall - while their jumping abilities certainly rival the Predator's. Speed is where the Alien excels though, making up for the fact that they have no weapons (other than their lethal appendages) to aid an attack. Aliens must rely on their light and heavy melee attacks (commanded across the shoulder buttons) to kill adversaries, while using the dark areas of maps to conceal their position is another crucial tactic for the Xenomorph class.

While the Predator's retractable wristblades are alsocasa estilo californianoverizon pda phone incorporatedparcela castellon ref susana into fearsome melee attacks, its impressive armoury and abilities open up more combat options than those that are available to the Alien. Predators can lay trip mines, dispatch their shoulder cannon, fling a boomerang-like smart disc at enemies (with aftertouch), and use their invisibility cloak without any time limit to help them stalk their prey. Balances to these powers include the Aliens' ability to spot cloaked Predators, the fact that using the Predator's shoulder cannon disrupts their cloak, and locking-on to enemies with the cannon consumes enough time to ensure that the Predator is a sitting duck for the duration of its use. Heat and Alien vision then provide the Predator with a counter-balance to the Marine's motion tracker and the Alien's superior senses.

It would've been nice to see an honour points system in place for the Predator though (as was the case with the PC games), because the system used to encourage gamers not to use the invisibility cloak to make a kill. With this reboot, it's a little too easy to use the Predator's invisibility cloak to sneak up on Marines from behind and use a one-hit stealth kill to take them out. Aliens can also use these one-hit stealth kills and, while it's good to see AvP rewarding stealth, we do worry that their implementation might be a bit too strong in the current build. Sneaking up on a player from behind opens up the stealth kill prompt, which can then be brutally dispatched at the stalker's will, although defences such as the Marine's motion tracker can curtail the stealth kill's effectiveness in the hands of a skilled user.

Focus kills and trophy kills (for the Predator) also provide similar dynamics to the stealth kills, although we didn't get enough hands-on experience to master their use. With all of these abilities and combat strengths for Aliens and Predators though, I did notice that it led to some interesting behaviour from people playing as Marines, who would instinctively bunch together in order to defend themselves. Playing as an Alien or Predator, this makes performing kills particularly difficult as you may be able to take out one Marine, but the combined firepower of the group will then bring you to a swift end.

This kind of balancing has obviously been purposefully applied by Rebellion, as some of the multiplayer modes then take that concept and run with it. AvP's Infestation mode, for example, starts with every player as a Marine and then spawns one player as an Alien, who then has to take out Marines (who respawn as Aliens) until there's a single Marine standing against a horde of Xenomorphs. Heavier weapons are then dropped into the map to aid that Marine's survival and, if they can survive the onslaught for the mode's allotted time, then the Marines win.

Similarly, Predator Hunt spawns one player as a Predator with the rest of the lobby playing as Marines. Moving in groups is key for the Marines' survival and, if one Marine does manage to kill the Predator, then they respawn as the Predator while the downed hunter then becomes the hunted as a Marine. Certain balances do ensure that Marines still have a chance of survival if they come across the Predator in a dark alley though. Wristblade melee attacks (and Alien attacks as well for that matter) can be blocked by Marines, while a swift counter-attack then gives the Predator a hefty whack so that a Marine has the time to unload lead into them. Rebellion is also promising more weapons for the Marine class (such as the Smart Gun) to help bolster their fire power, while the Predator's firepower won't be limited to the build we saw either.

Rebellion revealed a host of other multiplayer features to me during my demo at EuroGamer but they weren't letting me golondres monmouth coffee house hands-on with at the time. These included a reconfiguring pyramid map that's similar to those seen in the AvP film saga, where a pyramid's walls and shafts move around in the map to produce a labyrinthine environment that's constantly changing. As well as the 18 player adversarial multiplayer modes, which will include the usual deathmatch options as well as Infestation and Predator Hunt modes, there will also be a 4 player co-op Survival mode that Rebellion is touting as the spiritual successor to Skirmish.

Aliens vs. Predator's multiplayer offerings are certainly refreshing, not only because they're willing to give different character classes such strong powers and abilities, but also because the gameplay does so much more than merely shooting the whole time. I can't wait to see how this one pans out next year.

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