There’s been a renewed call for an Aliens vs Predator 2 remake, and it’s come from the most unexpected of quarters: a wrestling fan’s cardboard sign. No, we’re absolutely not making this up. At a recent AEW wrestling match, one audience member had a sign reading “Let Nightdive remake Aliens vs Predator 2”. And you just can’t ignore a message like that.
We’re absolutely on board, as is at least one Nightdive employee. But it’s not the run-of-the mill Xenomorphs that have us wanting a remade or even remastered AvP2. Nor are we aching to play as a marine or Predator. What makes us crave an Aliens vs Predator 2 remake is the sheer joy of crawling around as a facehugger, searching for some hapless victim.
Other Aliens vs Predator games have, in the Alien campaign, sadly overlooked the earliest stage in the alien life-cycle. Take 2010’s Alien vs Predator, for example. The facehuggers are there to menace the marines and Predator, but they don’t figure into the Alien campaign at all. The same was true of 1999’s AvP.
"LET NIGHTDIVE REMAKE ALIENS VERSUS PREDATOR 2"
I totally agree. pic.twitter.com/XslEr6tQSR— Samuel Villarreal (@SVKaiser) March 31, 2024
But Monolith’s Aliens vs Predator 2 absolutely delights in letting you play as a facehugger, and it’s amazing. What was intended as a tutorial became our favourite aspect of the game, one that later bled over into deathmatch. It helps immensely that the game takes place in flashback. As fragile as your facehugger self is, you know that you’re already the downfall of this whole complex.
We felt so wonderfully wicked as we skittered through vents, eavesdropping on the mundane conversations happening beneath us. Admittedly, the movies’ facehuggers tend not to be nearly that smart. But we’re happy to overlook that, in exchange for the sensation of gruesomely one-shotting an NPC.
Sure, there’s only one ‘correct’ victim who you can infect unobserved, but just flinging ourselves at other NPCs never, ever gets old. They can spot you beforehand, which usually results in you being introduced to the business end of a flamethrower. But it’s still a rush, as is crossing the ceiling above them, knowing it’s within your power to just pounce.
AvP 2’s multiplayer mode takes things to the next level, letting you play as a facehugger in deathmatch. Wrapping yourself around the head of some hapless Weyland Yutani employee is one thing, but it’s extra satisfying to know there’s a real human player freaking out as you fill their screen.
And just when you think the fun’s over, the single-player campaign pulls its next best trick, turning you into a chestburster. You literally have to gnaw your way out of your host’s torso, before finding a suitable place (and food source) to further gestate. We knew there was a big body-horror element to the Alien’s life-cycle, but we never in a million years dreamed we’d be inflicting it first-hand.
Does this make us horrible people? Absolutely, but we’re still hoping against hope that AEW guy’s plea for an Aliens vs Predator 2 remake actually is heeded, and that Nightdive does get their hands on it. Who wouldn’t want to waylay some underpaid colonist and nom their way out through their ribcage, all in glorious 4K?
