AvP2 Gold Version 2.5

Yo, what up -- I mean, welcome to another exciting episode of the MODotW, Z! On our last episode, SMIDku was left without anything to review, and was forced to twiddle his thumbs for two weeks! But now, the evil Bloody Tears has arrived, ready to send his moddy minions across the face of the planet; showering the community with their enhancements!

Or something like that.

What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is Bloody Tears' baby. A cute little mod by the name of, "AvP2 Gold Version 2.4." Not to be confused with the AvP2: Gold Edition, this is a modification and not the re-release of AvP2 from Fox Interactive, as some have suggested.

Now, sit back and enjoy this review, as we bring you the many pros and very few cons of this MODotW.


Acid Glow has hit us with another winner, ladies and gents. From the deepest, darkest depths of a (now defunct) backwater modding site, he has proven that he is a force to be reckoned with.

While this mod's name may appear completely unassuming, it is indeed worthy the title of MODotW. With more than a few menu, audio, graphical and skin changes, we've got a lot of ground to cover, and not much time to do it in. Here we go!

First up for mention is the GUI (graphical user interface) - the group of menus you must navigate to play the game. You know what I'm talking about: the menus. From what I can see, the menu-text has been changed red; new sounds play when you move your cursor over the buttons; and even the loading and introduction screens have been changed to accommodate the mod. A new ambiance piece also plays in the background, adding depth to the game.


Once you get past the menus and into the actual game, you find the meaty, chewy center of the mod. While still sporting a multitude of cosmetic changes, the inner-mod also has revamped gameplay and de-whored some of the weapons.

We'll start off with the predators; they always seem to be up last. Our Yautjan friends all have new skins, which makes them all a non-reflective black, and the whole lot of them look like something you do not want to run into in a dark alley.

All the predator weapons have also been re-skinned, with a newer, more silver look to them. I swear, you can even see your reflection in the disc. It's real nifty.

What's more nifty? All the predators can now crouch-jump higher; and their regular leap carries them farther forward, so to catch those running oomans; their running speed has been reduced some, however.

The shoulder cannon and disc no longer track, but the cannon no longer uncloaks you. Once you pull the trigger, it now hits exactly where your cursor is pointing, with no drift or drop due to gravity. The disc also moves much faster, but its lack of tracking makes it a better weapon for slinging in tight corridors and small groups. The pistol fires its regular single-fire, but the new secondary slings three super-fast bolts that fly straight and do a good bit of damage.

Other things of interest: all the weapons have new sounds, the speargun reloads after seven shots and some of the class weapons have been reworked, so that every predator, except the heavy predator, comes with a cannon and disc.

There's some other cool changes that are worth a look, but I don't have time to mention it here.

Next up are the bugs - the aliens. All re-skinned to the same matte black that the predators are, the bugs sport the same abilities as before, save for a few speed increases, and the increased ability for praetorians to jump higher.

The corporates are up next, sporting the new and improved human weapons. First to be mentioned is Rykov, who's still the same obese Commie he's always been. I know what you're thinking: will he ever lose weight? I don't know, but I do know his new grenade launcher now reloads after three shots, with the main grenade flying a lot straight, now. He also has the new shotgun, which fires a lot faster, has a new, more assault shotgun-esque sound and has a wider spread when fired. He also sports the new dual pistols.

Dimitri and Ivan are next, with their corresponding weaponry. The minigun now fires faster; with no spin-up, and no secondary spin-up button, it's now great for instant kills. The pulse rifle has a blue firing effect, and brings back the original AvP sound effects. The grenades explode slightly smaller, but do a bit more damage.

Dunya is last, sporting the new and improved sniper rifle. The new rifle fires five shots - then actually reloads! The weapon also sounds more like a sniper rifle, now, than a rail gun (which sounds darn good to me). Not to mention the new scope graphics that look very nice.

Last, but not least, are the marines. While they, like the corporates, get no new skins, they still have new weapons. I'm sure the first to be noticed is Johnson's new shotgun, with her flamethrower (now sporting the original AvP sound effects) coming next.

Harrison has a new and improved rocket launcher which no longer tracks, but sports a new primary fire mode: "Nuke." As you've already guessed, this basically incinerates everything within a large radius. Instantly. The secondary fire mode still locks on, but the rockets fire straight. You can still use it to find cloaked predators; you just have to aim for yourself.

The smartgun fires and tracks the same as before, but now sports the blue firing effect that looks so cool in a dark corridor. Really, it does.

Jones and Ichiro still sport their regular weapons - except Jones has lost his rocket launcher, and instead gets a handful of other weaponry.

All humans get the new knife, which swings three times faster, and the new dual pistols.

That's about it.


Unfortunately, like every mod, this one has its bugs. Firstly, the sound effect for the menu buttons is neat, but if you run your cursor over several button accidentally, it plays repeatedly - and grates on your nerves.

One of the other problems is the pistols. Someone should really try to find a way to get the left pistol to use a firing effect in-game. This problem has plagued many mods in the past, and is still an issue.

Third are the sounds. The original AvP sounds get overused a lot. There are other games out there that have good sound files, you know. The "Natural Selection" mod, made for the Half-Life game, has some very nice shotgun sound effects, for example, that I'd love to hear in-game.

Finally, the sniper-rifle-zoom animation zooms in fine, but when it zooms out, the weapon seems to slide out of the player's chest. This looks weird... and painful.

Overall, the majority of those complaints are with all mods; not just this one. Some, like the pistol problem, cannot be helped. Without the source code, these problems cannot be addressed.

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