Aliens versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt

Aliens versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt
An expansion pack to Aliens versus Predator 2, titled Aliens versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt, was developed by Third Law Entertainment, published by Sierra Entertainment, and released through Fox Interactive in 2002. It was also included in the "Gold Edition" of Aliens versus Predator 2 released the same year, which bundled the original game and the expansion pack into a single package. Primal Hunt adds new weapons and multiplayer maps to the original game, as well as a single-player campaign which serves as a prequel to the storyline of Aliens versus Predator 2.

Gameplay
The player is once again able to play as either a human, Predator, or Alien character, each with its own campaign and abilities. The plot lines of the three characters intersect and set up the events of the original game.

Story
The events of Primal Hunt are set on LV-1201, the same setting as the main game, but take place in earlier time periods. The stories of the Alien and Predator characters begin five hundred years before the events of Aliens versus Predator 2 and continue in the year 2230, approximately five weeks before the events of the main game, which is also the time period of the human character's story. Primal Hunt revisits the Forward Observation Pods of the research facility and explains the destruction of Pod 5.

When playing as the human character the player assumes the role of Major Dunya, a female member of the Weyland-Yutani private military contractor known as the "Iron Bears" who are stationed on LV-1201. She is ordered by her superior officer General Rykov to retrieve an artifact from an area known as "Zeta Site" which houses part of an Alien hive as well as technology from an alien race (the race of the "space jockey" found by the Nostromo crew in Alien). The player battles Aliens through Zeta Site, retrieves the artifact, and returns to find that Aliens have infiltrated Pod 5. A Predator steals the artifact and the player defends the cargo area from Aliens until the pod is evacuated. Rykov then destroys the pod's supports, sending it crashing to the valley floor below.

When playing as the Predator the story begins five hundred years before the events of Aliens versus Predator 2. A Predator spacecraft encounters the planet LV-1201 for the first time and the player Predator is sent there to hunt. The player battles numerous creatures before discovering that Aliens also inhabit the planet. The player tracks the Aliens to their hive and activates an artifact which has the power to repel the Aliens. The game then shifts forward eight months, by which time the Predators have established a camp around the artifact. The player Predator descends into the hive in search of the Alien queen, but the artifact is deactivated and the camp is overrun by Aliens. While repairing a stasis field around a group of Alien eggs the Predator is attacked by a facehugger and the two are caught in the field and trapped in stasis for five hundred years. The Predator awakens when Dunya deactivates the artifact, and the player tracks her to the research facility's Forward Observation Pods and breaks into Pod 5, inadvertently allowing the Aliens into the pod. The player retrieves the artifact and sends a signal to other Predators who are nine weeks' distance away. The Predator is then killed by the Alien embryo bursting through his ribcage.

The Alien character's story also begins five hundred years before the events of Aliens versus Predator 2. The player begins by controlling a facehugger, exploring the Alien hive and Predator camp in search of a host. The facehugger attacks the Predator, but both become trapped in the stasis field. The game then shifts forward five hundred years to the chestburster emerging from the Predator inside Pod 5. The creature is an Alien/Predator hybrid, called the "Predalien" in the game, and the player controls it and searches for food until it grows into an adult. The player then battles human guards in search of the artifact, but is interrupted when Rykov destroys the pod's supports. The player must then battle several android guards in armored exosuits in order to escape the pod with other Aliens before it falls into the valley below.

Reception
The game was negatively received. According to the GameSpot review, "The original Aliens Versus Predator 2 was a much better game, and you'd be better off going back and playing it again instead." It was given a 5.5 out of 10, citing "being boring," "repetitive," and "giving no sense of direction as the face-hugger." Also the multiplayer added nothing new or spectacular. "Gameplay is rudimentary, frustrating, and incredibly dry to say the least. Unlike the original AvP 2, Primal Hunt is all about leading players through claustrophobic caves, canyons and corridors, and then spawning no-gooders from behind," is what IGN's reviewer had to say about the game giving it 6 stars.