Alien vs. Predator: Extinction (Xbox)

[Nanobyte]

First off, here's the link.

And before I start, I'd like to mention that due to certain conditions of my being, I cannot play this specific genre well enough to be good at it. Fastidiousness is a disease, not a blessing.
AvP:Extinction is a strategy game. In my biased opinion, a very hard one. The reason for that is due to all of the restrictions. You can have x units within any given time, each unit costing y amount, and your net income equalling about z. In the case of this game, x is no bigger than 25; y, for the base unit, ranges from $150 to $200; and z is never greater than $10K. You can win this game without upgrades of course, but only if you're a considerable strategist. Upgrades go from $200 to greater than $750.
I've managed to beat strategy games before in the past (Red Alert is about all that comes to mind), but only because I raised an excessive force and nearly drowned my enemy in combat. In AvP:Extinction, you can't do that. The quotas don't go so high. In fact, they can hardly see the ceiling. In the beginning, you're limited to 14 units for the predator campaign, 25 for the marine, and 45 for the alien. Now take into account that you're facing an enemy close to two or even three times that amount.
I'll only go over a level from the predator campaign because I don't have the energy to complain about all three. In said level you are given your base of operations, kind of like the castle/barracks of the predator race. It takes up four spaces from your total 14 unit cap, and is required if you plan on requesting any additional units/upgrades. It is capable of combat, and does boast a whopping 1500 hp, but that's about it. A trio of flamethrowers can demolish this thing within a few short minutes. That leaves you with ten spots left to create combat-oriented units. Unless you plan on keeping the same ten for the whole level, you'll also need to give your BoO a reasonable defense. This can be a few units, a turrent (x2 units), etc.
Your objective for this level is to kill five marine units called smartgunners. Why you only have to kill five of them is because they're supposedly the strongest units at that point in the game. I think the flamethrowers are better qualified. The problem here is you have a small group of hunters (again, ten or less), and you have to traverse an entire map to find, kill, and retrieve the skulls from five units. That means you're going to be facing a lot of other marines along the way. Infantry (ranged grenade attacks do the most devastation), synthetics (can detect cloaked hunters), and flamethrowers (the worst of the bunch) don't stand around handing out coupons. If you think you've got the advantage with just one, there's sure to be twelve hiding in the obscurity.

Well, that's all for now. I've got some homework to finish so I can go to bed, and catch up on my z's.

edited: also, I rented this game believing it was the one some of you have mentioned here before. It isn't.

[ 01-15-2004, 12:01 AM: Message edited by: Nanobyte ]