Techtite's PC Game Reviews!

"On the one hand, it's no Mysteries of the Sith. On the other hand, let's be fair; it's hardly the worst expansion I ever played. "

---from the review

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Sidebar :

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The shower scene... I suppose this will someday be nicknamed as "pulling a Kate Archer," since the prologue of No One Lives Forever similarly has Kate in the shower washing off before a big mission. Well, why not? For one thing, it isn't as if these shower stalls --with well-placed metal bars blocking the "naughty bits"-- are leaving nothing to the imagination. They also set the mood nicely. It also enhances realism (come on, now; when is the most likely time for your phone to ring?). Let's put it this way; if technology tries harder and harder to make a guy's head explode more realistically in a game, I'd just as soon have other games work equally hard to have their female heroines in a gratuitous cheesecake scene. After all, what better way is there to make you feel like you're "close" to the character, other than letting you see them while in the shower...? 

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Once upon a time, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight released its oen expansion disk, in 1998. Subtitled Mysteries of the Sith, it might as well have been called Dark Forces 3. It was that good. The only downside: all expansion packs sence then have been put to an unfair test. Furthermore, recent releases like Serious Sam 2, which are sold for a paltry $20, raise the bar of such expansion disks as well. That said, when I tell you that Aliens Versus Predator 2's expansion disk,  Primal Hunt has 10 new missions, three new character types, and a "predalien," shouldn't that be enough? Well...yes and no.

Let's start with the concept of the "predalien," since it is the whole big sales pitch of buying this mission disk. Imagine a predator with his same high-tech arsenal, yet with acid for blood, and spring jaws! Imagine an alien with cloaking capability! Well, keep imagining that, because that isn't what you get here. This is just an alien that, for reasons not totally explained, looks halfway like a predator. Otherwise, it's just another "alien." How disappointing.

Wisely, the mission disk doesn't begin the single-player story with the disappointing "predalien."  You begin, instead, as the corporate soldier, Dunya, whose prologue truly makes you empathize with her character; a good thing, since her fellow soldiers in the original game were trying to blow you up! Her conversation with Dimitri while she's taking a shower may be gratuitous cheesecake, and yet its lifelike little moments like this that I really love in single-player storylines. It also makes her obsession to save Dimitri later even more understandable, after seeing their closeness first-hand. Yes, it's a little risqué for a video game, though come on; you're about to "frag" your opponents into kibble. This is no more PG-13 than an afternoon soap opera, yet sets the mood perfectly.

Of course, it helps that new characters like Dunya are fun to play. Unlike your character in the original game, she may not need to use welding torches nor computer hacking software (thankfully), though she does have a dual-pistol option, a la Lara "Tomb Raider" Croft. As a corporation mercenary, she also has authority to pick up all those automatic mounted gun turrets, and place them wherever she wishes. Her motion tracker is also improved, since the corporation isn't trying to send their own security personnel on suicide missions per se. All told, "corporate soldier" is a cool character type, both in the story (Dunya) and in multiplayer games.

This alludes to the true sales power of this expansion disk: the slightly altered characters, each an adaptation of the original three. In addition to corporate soldiers, there are now "ancient predators," who have the upside of a barbaric "Energy flechette" though the downside of no futuristic weaponry (including the multiple-vision helmet). The predalien is just like its multiplayer counterpart in the original game, except he now has a headbite attack. As for multiplayer, the coolest addition is the predator's ability to self-destruct --and take all nearby enemies with him-- if his health is less than 10%. If these additions sound good to you, the expansion delivers.

However, if you're looking for a storyline to rival Mysteries of the Sith, look elsewhere. An "ancient artifact" quest is all that keeps these missions from seeming incredibly rag-tag. Dunya attempts to get said artifact, only to lose it in order to save Dimitri. The ancient predator missions, spoilers notwithstanding, lead to a conclusion that I won't spoil for you, aside from saying that it sucks. As for the predalien, he/she/it tries to get the artifact as well, and still fails! Forget asking what their motivations were to find this artifact in the first place; what is my reward, for playing these missions at all? You never possess the artifact long enough to know what the big deal is.

Regardless of all the above, this is hardly as disappointing as that so called Star Trek Voyager Elite Force "expansion pack" last year. That pack had little to add except for a black and white "simulated mission" (!), and the ability to explore the decks of the Voyager ship. I'll give this pack that much credit; it does indeed have one or two cool enhancements to the original game. It is also nice to play new missions --even a mere 10 or so-- of what was, to many people, the action game of the year for 2001. Given the original game, it's easy to have expected more, though.

With all these pluses and minuses, rating this pack is a tricky thing, as if it were balancing on a tightrope between thumbs-up and thumbs-down. On the one hand, it's no Mysteries of the Sith. On the other hand, let's be fair; it's hardly the worst expansion I ever played. It isn't even one of the top ten worst expansion disks I ever played (you can thank all those years of third-party Doom & Quake expansion packs for that). It's also a mere $20. I would not recommend this expansion for anyone saving their pennies for the likes of No One Lives Forever 2 or Unreal Tournament 2003. However, for diehard fans with $20 burning a hole in their pocket, it may be worth it.