Aliens Versus Predator 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Sierra On-Line for Microsoft Windows in October 2001, and for Mac OS X in July 2003. The game is a sequel to Aliens versus Predator (1999); both games are based on the characters of the Alien and Predator media franchises as well as the Alien vs. Predator crossover series. It is set on the fictional planet LV-1201, which houses a vast series of ruins infested with Aliens that is routinely visited by a clan of Predators who hunt the creatures for sport.
The game is played from a first-person perspective. In the single-player mode, players control one of three characters, each with their own abilities and individual story modes. An online multiplayer mode, which allows players to play as one of four teams in competitive modes, is no longer officially supported and requires a community developed patch to enable multiplayer.
An expansion pack titled Aliens Versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt was released in 2002. A "Gold Edition" of Aliens Versus Predator 2 followed, combining both the original game and the expansion pack into a single package. There was never an Aliens versus Predator 3 nor any plans for a sequel, but in 2010 Rebellion Developments made a reboot simply titled Aliens vs. Predator.
Plot[]
The three story lines in Aliens Versus Predator 2 intersect and impact one another, unlike the preceding game.
Alien[]
From October 15, 2221 to some time in early 2222, "Expedition One" was tasked with studying a then-dormant alien hive on LV-1201. The Hive "woke up" on or immediately prior to New Year's eve, resulting in mass casualties. The only survivor was Dr. Eisenberg, who was rescued from Observation Post 4 but left traumatized by the experience; there are hints that he ate some of the other expedition members.
At 10:13 PM on November 23, 2230, one day and 7 hours before the Incident, Dr. Eisenberg is discussing some of the facility's problems with a fellow Weyland-Yutani employee. Meanwhile, a shipping crate hiding a Xenomorph egg is delivered to the colony, where an accident awakens the egg and releases the Facehugger. The Facehugger leaves the ship and begins to track an irritable guard through the POC. When the guard retires to his quarters for a nap, the Facehugger springs on him and infects him.
In due time, a player-controlled Chestburster hatches. It flees through an open window and proceeds through the POC until it feeds on a captive cat. After feeding on the cat, the chestburster grows into a full Alien drone.
In the early hours of November 25, the alien fights its way through the POC, releasing other Xenomorphs being kept as test subjects along the way. It reaches the lower levels, finally encountering a Predator. It fatally wounds the Predator, which activates its Self-Destruct Device, severely damaging the circulation and waste flow systems and creating a breach that facilitates the Xenomorph invasion into the POC. This invasion prompts the U.S.S. Verloc's deployment.
Six weeks later, the alien infiltrates the Pods during a brief security failure caused by Corporal Harrison. As the Xenomorphs attack the Pods, they weaken the defenses and release an artificial hive in the process.
Eisenberg has taken advantage of the Marines' arrival to initiate the Large Mass Specimen Extraction, AKA Operation Savior, a project to capture the Xenomorph Empress. As part of the plan, combat synthetics have wired explosive charges throughout the tunnels of the Hive. After leaving the Pods and armed with this information, the alien disables these explosives as it tracks the Empress.
The Empress is successfully captured, but the alien pursues her captors, including Eisenberg himself. It tracks them through an archaeological site, killing numerous guards, civilians, and Iron Bears mercenaries, to a dropship landing pad. It kills two Predators and sabotages the pad's support machinery, causing the dropship to crash. Furious, Eisenberg attacks the alien directly. The alien incapacitates Eisenberg, who is later "cocooned". The final scene reveals that Eisenberg now has a synthetic body; notes in the Marine and Predator campaigns hint that his father was involved in prosthetics research that allowed Eisenberg to replace some or all of his body at the cost of radical personality changes.
Marine[]
In January 2231, on board the USS Verloc, the ship is carrying a small contingent of the U.S.C.M (United States Colonial Marines) to planet LV-1201. Contact has been lost with the research facility on the planet, and the Verloc is the closest ship, but is also significantly undermanned, having lost 8 marines and one android in a recent operation. Therefore, their orders are to search for survivors, fortify, and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
At 5:25 AM, two dropships are deployed to the Primary Operations Complex, but they are separated by hurricane winds and the one carrying Harrison (the player character) and Major McCain is damaged and forced to make an emergency landing outside the POC. Red Team and Sergeant Hall are ordered to restore the main power core, White Team is ordered to locate security control, and "Blackwell's boys" (BlackWell, Shugi, and Harrison) are ordered to head to the East Landing Bay. Harrison takes point but a structural collapse blocks BlackWell and Shugi from following him, and disables his radio transmitter, allowing him to hear but not talk to the rest of the marines. Harrison manages to reset the generator in the East Landing Bay and reactivate the beacon there on his own, and McCain's dropship immediately lands there. After reuniting with his team, Harrison is then sent to the nearest security office to activate the POC's automated defense grid. He succeeds, but accidentally wakes up the POC's alien inhabitants in the process. McCain's dropship departs without Harrison, who is ordered to rendezvous with Hall's team, which he does by commandeering an APC. Once reunited with what is left of Hall's team, he is informed that Hall has been taken by the aliens. Most of the team gets inside the APC and stays there while Harrison attempts to rescue Hall on foot, but by the time he finds her, she has already been impregnated with a Chestburster. She dies as Harrison finds her. He then returns to the APC, and depart in it to reunite with the rest of the Marines at the Southern Landing, which has been secured by White Team.
At 6:55 AM, the Marines attempt to reach the Pods via the tunnel network connecting them to the POC, but the doors are locked. They can only be opened from the inside, and only one at a time, like an airlock. Harrison is sent ahead to open the doors so the Marines' APCs can proceed through. Upon reaching tunnel section 4, Harrison is able to shut down the primary control terminal, allowing "Mother" (presumably the Verloc's computer) to disable tunnel security entirely. However, due to unique modifications made to the security protocols, this also temporarily disables all security measures and defenses at the Forward Observation Pods. During this time, Aliens attack the Pods and six of the Iron Bears are killed before the Marines manage to arrive at the Pods.
Harrison attempts to establish a communication link with the Verloc. In the process, he begins receiving a message about dead scientists, but it is cut short by a computer error. He is then knocked unconscious by one of the Iron Bears, dressed in a convict's uniform (the pods and POC had both been using convict laborers), put in a prison cell, and declared dead. Harrison's cell mate gets into a fight with a guard, enabling Harrison to escape his cell. As he wanders around the forward observation pods, he releases the Predator player character from stasis, and then is contacted by a scrambled voice offering to reunite him with his team if he retrieves a "package". The voice guides him to the implantation lab, where the "package" is revealed to be a CD. The voice then guides him from Pod 2 to 4, and from pod 4 to 3, which has an elevator down to the canyon floor. On the way down, the voice-scrambling software malfunctions and Harrison is surprised that the voice is female. The voice explains to him that his team (Red Team?) appears to be headed to an alien hive, but Harrison cannot get to them on his own because the tunnels have been sealed. Harrison decides to head back to the POC and reunite with White Team to get their help with rescuing the other Marines.
On the drive from the forward pods to the POC, the voice explains that her name is Tomiko, and that the retrieved disc contains proof that her brother, Kenji, was murdered while working on LV-1201.
Harrison finds several members of White Team, but they are all killed by Xenomorphs and Predators before Harrison can activate the landing beacon for an incoming dropship. Harrison manages to kill a Predator himself before reaching the dropship. Tomiko transmits the coordinates of an old entry site to the Hive, and Harrison, now in his own Exosuit, proceeds after his fellow Marines whom Rykov has stranded. Harrison's Exosuit is damaged during a fall, and he must proceed the rest of the way on foot. He locates his team in a massive chamber where the fossilized remains of a Space Jockey reside. A Xenomorph "Empress" attacks the squad, but Harrison is able to repel the Empress so that he and the rest of the Marines can escape via dropship. The Empress tries to stop them, but the dropship bombards her with missiles, killing her.
As the dropship puts distance between itself and the Hive, Tomiko overloads the fusion reactors in the Pods, destroying them and killing herself to save the marines. When the Marines return to the Verloc, Major McCain recommends abandoning any further rescue or salvage attempts on LV-1201, as they depart back to Earth.
Predator[]
On the night of July 3, 2211, a Weyland-Yutani research facility on the planet Korari came under attack by at least one Predator. A young Rykov, who was a Marine at the time, was among the survivors, but suffered a major injury to his back; he was honorably discharged from the Marines and began working as a mercenary shortly thereafter.
By November 2230, several predators have arrived at LV-1201; their arrival is brought to the attention of Rykov himself, who is now providing private security for the Weyland-Yutani installation there. The hunt lasts for at least a week, during which time one Predator self-destructs after losing in combat to an Alien ("the Incident") and two more are captured by the Iron Bears. Pursuing his captured clan-mates into the Forward Observation Pods, the player character eventually succumbs to electro-magnetic pulse grenades which render his equipment useless and result in his capture.
Rykov places the Predator in a lab where it remains in stasis for over five weeks. It is revealed that this Predator is responsible for Rykov's injuries and his burning desire for revenge. Saved from being impregnated with a Xenomorph and inadvertently released by Corporal Harrison, the Predator powers through a horde of humans, reclaims his equipment and sets off in pursuit of General Rykov.
After escaping aboard a corporate dropship, the Predator fights through the Alien infested caves and tunnels beneath the pods and eventually manages to signal his clan using human technology to broadcast the signal to them. The Predator clan promptly arrive and re-arm the Predator, who then sets off to finish Rykov.
Following Rykov, now encased in an Exosuit, deep into the Xenomorph Hive, the Predator fights his way into the heart of the Hive for a climactic battle with General Rykov. Overcoming his enemy, the Predator rips through Rykov's body, and claims his spine as his trophy after 19 years of chase. The Predator reunites with his clan and departs the planet in order to pursue the U.S.S. Verloc.