It is a dark and difficult time. People have long forgotten about a peaceful and quiet life, since two races of monsters - Aliens and Predators - settled on the earth. Powerful, swift, feeling no regret, remorse or pain. They will quickly destroy you if they fight you one on one. Alone you have no chance. Therefore, people acquired the habit of walking in groups and always carrying weapons with them. It has become as mandatory as washing your face or brushing your teeth. The only thing that makes the situation of the human race a little easier is that Aliens and Predators want to destroy each other no less than to deal with the human race.

It is in this nightmare world, full of death, blood and shooting, that you have to live. Moreover, you have to fight tooth and nail for one of the races.

Who is this game for?

The game Alien vs. Predator is quite difficult. Therefore, the authors recommend it for adolescents over 12 years of age. The number of players is 2 or 3. However, there are separate rules for two players.

What is in the box?

In the game set you will find everything you need:

• Two playing fields (one is a diagram of an underground sewer system, the second is an above-ground city with its buildings). During the game you have to move from the lower level to the upper one and do it quickly if you want to survive.
• Hero and weapon cards.
• Figures of Soldier, Alien, Predator and Hybrid.

To win, each race must complete a level 5 task or destroy all opponents. But be careful, you will lose if you lose the head of the clan (for Predators), the Hybrid is destroyed (for Aliens), or all the soldiers are destroyed and you have no one in reserve.

I express my gratitude to comrade Mangertus for the opportunity to play this game.

This time the review is dedicated to the game Aliens vs. Predator, released in early summer 2011. This game is the next edition of the Zvezda company using a famous brand taken from the film industry. In principle, the company’s desire to use recognizable names from films to promote its products among inexperienced people is understandable. However, even a more advanced board player will be happy if the interesting mechanics are successfully combined with the theme of their favorite TV series/movie/book (for example, Battles of Westeros, Battlestar Galactica, War of the Ring, etc.). But, as you know, there is one nuance here - if the game’s mechanics are disappointing, there are many shortcomings or even broken, then no successful theme will save the game. The author of the game is Sergey Dyachuk, known to the gaming community for the game Cars (which I personally didn’t have a chance to play, but according to reviews it’s quite good) and shark(for the game Hey! That's my fish!). In this review, I will describe the components of the game and try to convey my impressions of the mechanics after the game.

The game was announced back in 2009 along with the game Terminator. May the savior come, but was released only in 2011. I had a chance to play Terminator, and I must say that the game made a pretty good impression on me. There were some minor complaints about the miniatures, but the gameplay was at a high level for Russian games. It will be interesting to compare the quality of the miniatures, and other components of the new product, with the “old Terminator”.

Game components.

The box has a hinged lid, standard for Zvezda games. As practice shows, such boxes are inconvenient to store, since they tear quite easily in the fold area, especially if something is on top. Of course, these are small things, but a couple of games from my collection with such boxes have to be constantly stored on top of the piles, and, in general, protected in every possible way so that they do not become unusable.

What components await the player who opens the box? Let's see:

Two playing fields: large and small. The large field is a bird's eye view of a small town. The small one depicts a dark sewer with the appropriate surroundings, located under the city. Both fields are lined into cells, and numbers are also placed along the edges of the field so that you can use coordinates like (x,y) to specify a specific cell. These coordinates in the player's memo specify the cells necessary to complete tasks. The memos are A4 sheets that present all the available tasks for each side of the conflict. I will tell you more about the tasks in the section describing the gameplay.

The fields are made quite well, the drawings show a lot of small details, and here and there you can see blood stains to build up the atmosphere. But, when illuminated by lamps in the club, the surface of the field gave off quite strong glare, which made it difficult to see the details. The picture merged, and the white walls of buildings on the city map, which are important for the gameplay, became difficult to distinguish from the white lines dividing the city into squares.

The tokens in the game are made of plastic and have different, clearly visible colors. You can, of course, complain that they are not made of wood, but this is not very critical. The plastic is of fairly good quality and does not cause unpleasant tactile sensations. The tokens are easy to hold and move; they are large and do not tend to fly all over the table at the slightest breath of wind.

Each player receives their own set of cardboard tokens, which can be used to indicate tasks on the playing fields and wounds for the Alien player. The chips are different colors and represent the side of the conflict to which they belong, so you can’t confuse them. The cardboard is of quite decent quality, not thin, like the field, covered with a reflective coating.

Miniatures. The box contains 19 multi-colored unpainted figures (7 Guard Soldiers, 10 Alien, Hybrid and Predator). The Predator figurine is made of gray plastic, the Hybrid is made of brown, regular Aliens are black, and each soldier has its own color. The figures are clearly distinguishable, and there is no chance, for example, of mistakenly resembling a Predator instead of a soldier. The detailing of the miniatures is at a fairly good level; if you look closely, you can see individual teeth on the Aliens’ tails or small folds on the soldiers’ uniforms.

Although there is a downside to the coin, if you look closely, you can also see excess plastic left over from the mold in some places. If necessary, this plastic can be easily removed with pliers. If we compare the miniatures of this game with the miniatures of the Terminator, then it should be noted that the plastic itself in the new game is of higher quality and pleasant to the touch, and the detailing of the new figures has also increased, so in terms of figures there is obvious progress, which cannot but rejoice.

Each side gets cards of heroes, weapons and equipment for the game. Aliens have the easiest time in this regard, they only have two cards: the Hybrid card and the Alien card, which contain the characteristics and abilities of these game characters. There is only one hybrid in the game, and Aliens, no matter how many of them there are, use one common card for everyone. The Predator's arsenal already inspires more respect: there is only one character card, but then cards of various high-tech weapons and equipment are added, designed to help the Predator in his difficult in fact.

People got the most cards: there are separate cards for each of the seven soldiers, and many cards for three types of small arms, and even first aid kits and grenades. First aid kits are needed for emergency treatment of soldiers in the field, and grenades, accordingly, must be thrown at enemies, and you can throw them around a corner to eliminate the enemy hiding there.

The cards have a smooth finish, the quality and thickness of the cardboard are at an average level. Hero and equipment cards contain their images, characteristics in the form of a table, as well as special properties, if any, and the cost of acquisition in tactical point tokens. The illustrations are in the same style and convey the theme of the game well. All characteristics are represented by pictograms, which are, in principle, understandable. My only complaint is with the designation of Action Points and Range of Use. Both of these characteristics are shown with arrows, which causes a little confusion and inconvenience at first.

Background and gameplay.

The game's plot is based on the 2007 film Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. A brief background is as follows: a Predator ship makes an emergency landing on Earth, on board which is a Hybrid (Alien, obtained from the body of a Predator). Finding himself in favorable conditions, the Hybrid begins to produce new Aliens in one of the quiet American towns. To carry out the cleanup, a Liquidator Predator is sent to Earth, whose goal is to remove all traces of Aliens and other Predators being on the planet. The US National Guard is also involved in the conflict, who need to save civilians and have time to evacuate with the captured Predator technologies before all life in the city is destroyed by a nuclear strike.

As has already become clear, the game is designed for three players. Moreover, here, unlike the Terminator, the third player gets a full-fledged game for one of the three sides of the conflict. Different game tactics are promised for each race. Aliens are overwhelming in numbers, the Predator has superiority in technological equipment, but people are neither fish nor fowl :) Each player chooses who he wants to play for: Humans, Aliens or the Predator. Despite the fact that the game is called "Aliens vs. Predator", it is not people who are an optional addition to the conflict, but the Predator. Consequently, when playing with two players, there is a struggle between Humans and Aliens. But in this case, the Predator either did not reach Earth due to problems in the spaceship, or he became too lazy to clean up the garbage after all sorts of losers, and he found more interesting things to do.

One way or another, let's look at an example of a full-fledged game for three players using the example of the game we played.

It was easy to recruit three people for a full-fledged party. Two game fields fit comfortably on a medium-sized table. Each player also needed some space for cardboard counters, figurines, hero cards, weapons and equipment. In the game, all cards are kept open - there are practically no secrets from other players. The rules present only one game scenario with its own missions, therefore the initial balance of forces is always the same: the Hybrid is in the sewer, and the soldiers and the Predator are at different ends of the city map.

Each player receives cards, figures, and tokens assigned to their race. An error was immediately found in the rules stating that the Predator must receive 10 green health tokens, although on the Predator card and later the rules stated 7 everywhere. Perhaps the rules were revised during testing, and this artifact remained from the old version.

No one receives yellow tactical point tokens at the beginning of the game. Tactical points are effectively the local currency. On them, players for Humans and Aliens can place additional figures of their race on the field to strengthen their ranks. Predator and Human players can also purchase additional weapon and equipment cards, using them to equip their characters. How to get the necessary tactical points? To do this, you need to familiarize yourself with the missions.

All players receive sheets listing all available missions. We need to dwell on this point in more detail. Missions are tasks that the player must complete in order to receive yellow tactical point tokens. In tasks, conditions are usually given like: “occupy a certain cell with your character and skip a turn in it,” “go through a certain set of cells,” “kill a certain target.” All missions are divided into 5 levels, with three missions in each level except the fifth. The player can complete only one mission of each level of his choice, and he must start from the first. Having completed the mission from the first level, the player can move on to the second, then to the third, and so on. You cannot jump over the level. For each completed mission, the player receives tactical points - the higher the level, the more points. The first player to complete the fifth level mission is declared the winner.

There is also one rather interesting feature associated with missions - some missions for different players are paired (the rules use the word “common”, but I don’t like it, since it gives the impression that such a mission must be completed jointly). Paired missions for the same level for two players are mutually exclusive. That is, for example, if the Human player destroyed the Alien hive in a paired mission at the third level, then the Aliens will not be able to complete their third level mission to develop this hive. Since all the missions are on the hint sheet, you can specifically select and complete paired missions for which many points are given in order to hinder the enemy.

In the process of reading missions, we came across the fact that in order to determine the coordinates of cells on the field, it would be nice for players to get a ruler, since the eye gets confused if the required cell is located in the center of the field. In order not to move your fingers across the field every time in search of the desired square, you can use cardboard chips, but this is a double-edged sword - if you place your chips on a specific mission out of three, then the other players see what you are aiming at and can interfere . Alternatively, you can place chips on all available missions of the level, but then the problem arises that you can mix up chips from different missions. It would be nice here if the chips were numbered, but the creators of the game did not think of this before. Well, I had to play as is.

Players for the Predator and Aliens start with one figurine, and the Predator is represented in one copy, so if this figurine is lost, it is eliminated from the game. The humans have three soldiers with weak rifles, low health (3 health tokens each versus 7 for the Hybrid and Predator) and a small supply of action points. A few words about action points. The game uses the standard action point mechanics (Action Point Allowance System), that is, each of your characters at the beginning of the turn has a certain number of action points, and there is a list of actions, each with its own cost. You can spend your available points on actions as long as you have enough, then move on to your next hero and repeat the process. At the start of the next turn, action points are restored and can be spent again. Yes, as noted, the game is reminiscent of battles in the X-COM series of computer games.

The Hybrid has regeneration, which restores one point of health to it at the beginning of its turn, this very useful property makes the Hybrid practically unkillable with reasonable care. The Predator has the best weapons at the beginning of the game and in a direct one-on-one collision is capable of destroying any enemy. But the Predator is held back by several factors: he cannot restore his lost health until he has accumulated three tactical tokens in his first aid kit, and to use equipment and small arms he requires energy tokens, which are restored only one at a time. There is also a deterrent in the form of the Visor, which must always be kept in one of two states - against people or against Aliens (accordingly, the visor gives a penalty to the accuracy and range of small arms when shooting at Aliens or people in these states).

And so, having figured out the arrangement and missions, we began the game. Each of the players immediately began completing missions in order to quickly gain much-needed tactical points. When completing missions, it is worth planning your actions so that after completing one mission, you can smoothly move on to completing the next one, and not run across half the map to a new destination. When playing with two players, you can not try to win by completing a level five mission, but simply, having gained an advantage in manpower over the enemy, quickly surround him and destroy him. When playing with three players, such tactics will most likely lead to a loss, since the third player, who was not involved in the conflict, will be able to take advantage of the fact that his opponents are busy with each other and complete all the required missions in turn.

In our party, all the players followed the path of completing missions; the Predator, even meeting a lone guardsman hurrying about his business, did not attack him, remembering that his fifth-level task was to destroy the Hybrid, not people. Several times we encountered the inconvenience of determining the coordinates of the cells required for missions, but this was not particularly critical.

Finally, there was a clash, and the Aliens met the people in battle. Combat in the game is quite simple: each weapon has an indicator of the range at which it operates. The range is calculated in squares, and you cannot count diagonally. Normal weapons cannot fire around corners, although there are a couple of exceptions in the form of Guard grenades and the Predator disc. Ranged weapons have an accuracy rating; you must roll a die to determine if there was a hit. If the value on the die is greater than or equal to the indicator, then the shot hit the target and the damage indicated on the card is inflicted on the enemy. Often a weapon has two types of shot - they can differ in all respects, most often a more powerful or longer shot costs more action points. Melee weapons always have 100% accuracy, and the outcome of the attack does not depend on the die.

In our first battle, the guardsman unsuccessfully missed with his rifle and was chewed to death by the Aliens. For killing an enemy, by the way, you also get tactical points, so this is often doubly beneficial for the players; you can deprive the enemy of a figure, and buy something yourself with the points you earned. All purchases, both equipment and new figures for tactical points, occur at the beginning of the player's turn. Weapon and equipment cards are laid out in front of the player, so that everyone can see them, and new figures are placed in appropriate places on the map (hives for Aliens, starting cells for people).

The Predator, who completed four tasks the fastest, was faced with the fact that to win he only had to eliminate the Hybrid. It’s easy to say, but not easy to do - despite the fact that the Aliens made the least progress in completing their missions, they multiplied in the sewers into a very large brood, which, moreover, kept in one crowd, which made any attempt to break through to the Hybrid suicidal. The people had to complete their tasks of the fourth and fifth levels, their task was complicated by the fact that there were only three of them left, albeit with quite serious weapons in the form of sniper rifles and grenades. The people had both missions in the city.

The aliens, in turn, decided not to bother with missions, but simply to take advantage of their numerical superiority and destroy first the people in the city, and then the Predator. The entire brood of Aliens crawled out of the sewers and sat in ambush near the place where the people’s mission was being carried out. Seeing this, the Predator and the people concluded a temporary truce and began to jointly move towards the ambush. This undermined the Aliens' self-confidence and they began to stupidly climb back into the sewer, which led to the people completing the fourth mission without losses. People could only evacuate to the helipad.

Here the Aliens player completely capitulated, and another one sat down to play in his place, throwing all his strength into preventing the people from winning. The Predator, having its own goal, rushed into the sewer after the Hybrid, leaving the Aliens and people to figure it out on their own upstairs. The hybrid, on the other hand, did not want a direct collision and ran away from the Predator quite easily, fortunately he also has seven action points, and after shooting at him from something long-range, he could regenerate quite well, while the Predator accumulates energy for a new shot . In general, after looking at the current situation, a proposal arose to end the game in a draw (that is, with a nuclear strike according to the rules), although, in principle, in the current situation, people would most likely win.

What conclusions can be drawn based on this game? Yes, the game allows three players to fully play, and playing for different races differs significantly in tactics: Aliens may not try to complete all the missions, but simply take advantage of their numerical superiority to take the other two factions out of the game. It is beneficial for people to get involved in conflicts less, quickly complete their missions, and win.

Another interesting feature can be noted that in the event of a large-scale battle between people and Aliens, it is more profitable for each side to be closer to its point of appearance of troops in order to quickly bring in new forces that can be purchased for tactical points received in battle.

The remaining Predator in this game is the weak link. Why did the most powerful hero find himself in such a situation? Yes, because in order to win, the Predator must destroy the Hybrid, which, given the same number of action points as him, is practically impossible. If the Hybrid does not go into hand-to-hand combat with the Predator one-on-one, then the most the Predator can count on is shooting at the target from afar, but since these shots consume a lot of energy, the Hybrid will easily have time to regenerate while running away. People could help the Predator by intercepting the fleeing Hybrid, but they are completely uninterested in doing this, it is more profitable for them that the aliens run after each other and do not interfere with missions. In general, the creators of the game have done something clever, and the Predator player has to play just for fun or, hoping that the Alien player will make a mistake and give him a chance to win.

I would also like to speak about your interest. There is only one game scenario, and although players have a small choice of which missions to complete, in my opinion, the replay value is low, and the game should already get boring by 3-4 times (after you play once for each side). The game could have been saved by new scenarios, but there are none. It can also be noted that in the game a situation is possible when one player can be taken out of the game, and he will have to either watch the others or look for some other activity. I'm not against this feature, but it needs to be taken into account when planning the game.

Well, to summarize, I would like to note the main pros and cons of the game.

Pros:

Very good detailed miniatures for fans of the genre;

An interesting asymmetrical system with different combat tactics for each race.

Minuses:

Inconvenient storage box;

The game fields are poorly made (glare, building walls are hard to see, difficult to find coordinates);

Not all icons on maps are intuitive;

An unbalanced winning system in the game, making it unlikely for the Predator to win;

Low replay value as there is only one game scenario.

Today's blog reader Artem Platonov shares his impressions of the old domestic game "Aliens vs. Predator" and concludes: this game is not for everyone. You can play it, but only to fans of the universe. And so - combat with dice, randomness, and even kingmaking available.

About 15 years ago, when I worked as an administrator in a computer club and a game about a clash between Predators and Aliens had just come out, my most vivid memory of it concerned a cooperative game online against alien bots: “- Cleanup-ah! (throwing a grenade into a bunker infested with Aliens) - Fuck, I’m in the bunker!!! - BUBUMMMM! - Well, my... In the board game, released back in 2011 by Zvezda and Sergei Dyachuk, players are offered a different mode - every man for himself.

Before the start of the game, everyone chooses one of the parties to the conflict - the US National Guard, Predator or Aliens, and receives all the cards and tokens due to it. The goal of the game is to kill your opponents the fastest or complete the task of the last, fifth difficulty level.

All possible tasks are known to all parties and have several options for each level - the player himself chooses which one he will perform at this stage of the game. Despite the abundance of thematic text, almost all tasks boil down to “run there and wait there.” It doesn't look very good, but some tasks are common to two players, that is, whoever completes them first is the best - and this only aggravates the conflict on the field.

The reward for completing missions is some tactical points. People and the Predator can spend them on expanding their arsenal (the guards also have new fighters attached to their new weapons), and Aliens can spend them exclusively on their own reproduction. Missions are not of equal value: those that are simpler bring fewer tactical points. On the other hand, they are faster to complete and will get you to victory for completing the level 5 task faster.

You will have to survive the clashes on two maps: a residential area of ​​the city and the sewers underneath it. You can move between them using the blue teleport, that is, ugh, sewer hatches. Thematically, the Aliens start the game just underground.

Each character has two characteristics: the amount of health and the number of action points (the Predator also has a third parameter - energy, which is needed to perform certain actions). Actions are spent on moving and attacking. The combat in the game is based on a die: if the target is in the affected area (each weapon has its own range), then a dice is rolled to see if we have passed the test. In general, in the game it is easier to hit than not to hit, but failures sometimes occur, which, given the small number of throws, greatly influences the outcome of the battle. But we will return to this later.

Actually, this is how I described the whole game - we run around the map, complete tasks, shoot at everything we can reach. Since the sides are asymmetrical, the tactics of playing for each of them will change: despite the fact that the Predator and the Hybrid have a lot of lives, they can easily grab them if they get into trouble. The Guardsmen are strong in long-range combat, but due to their own frailty they will die one after another if Aliens or a hunter get close to them.

Due to the fact that the rules are simple, the game is very dynamic - as they say, hit and run, and that's good. Well-made character figures add atmosphere, and customization of “purchasable” equipment makes the game more flexible and interesting.

But, unfortunately, the game still has more minuses than pluses. The above-mentioned dice combat can greatly influence the outcome of the battle and the game in general: for example, for the Predator and the Hybrid, mistakes and the loss of a certain number of lives are not critical (there are already many of them, and the Hybrid can even heal every turn), then for people it is fatal : Humans who miss are instantly cut down by superbeings. And, perhaps, they drop out of the game - and watching for another forty minutes while your comrades play and you don’t is considered bad manners.

The second big problem with Aliens vs. Predator is the kingmaking. In a situation where there are three players, two will definitely unite against the third and take him forward with their feet, increasing their chances of winning from 1/3 to 1/2. And this third one, as mentioned above, will curse everything in the world for another forty minutes and be glued to the phone. However, if this third one still manages to escape from the villains and loses all chances of winning, he will still be able to directly influence who wins: to do this, it is enough to join one of the contenders. So, again, when victory or loss depends mainly not on your actions (if you made a lot of mistakes - you lost), but on the actions of others, this is also bad manners.

The design of the playing field also leaves questions. The gigantism of the figures in relation to the objects of the landscape causes dissonance - in the same “Zombicide” there is also a disproportion, but it is not felt at all. The monotony of the design, on the one hand, does not allow the map to be divided into separate colorful patches and look whole. But, on the other hand, this blends the color of the walls with the floor, and to understand whether you can run through that square or not requires additional visual effort, which is tiring. Finally, the chosen coordinate grid (diamonds) is, of course, original, but inconvenient to use.

Recently, the game can be snatched up at a cost much lower than the RRP or bought second-hand at a large discount, and this is exactly what you need to do if you decide to buy Aliens vs. Predator. With all due respect, the game is not worth either the advertised 1000, or, especially, 1500 rubles. Despite the large field and figures, this is a filler with not much replay value, and the filler cannot cost much. So I would recommend the game to all fans of both universes, but hardly to everyone else. If only to play someone else's copy once for fun.