Real-time strategy games have a terrible reputation on consoles, starting with poor control schemes and half-hearted ports. Aliens vs. Predator Extinction is a RTS designed specifically for the console from the ground up, resulting in a great control scheme and a more action based gameplay, as opposed to mind-numbing resource gathering. It also succeeds where many games fail by taking three races and managing to make them play distinctly differently from each other. While it lacks the graphical and audio punch of the movie properties it's based on, Aliens vs. Predator Extinction is the game to get for RTS fans craving some console action.

The game starts out shaking up the general RTS clich?s. You will not be building structures very frequently; the races only have one permanent structure each. Instead of building a base to defend against attacks, you order (or in the case of the Aliens, breed) the units that you want using resources gathered in battle. The Marines can repair Atmo Generators to gain some extra money, but these run out quickly and then self-destruct, leaving nothing behind that needs defending. The focus of Aliens vs. Predator Extinction is almost entirely in offense; creating the right team, upgrading and repairing them, and reaping the rewards. The way each race goes about this is refreshingly unique. The Marines have Commtechs who can call in and order new units, which are then brought in by dropship a half a minute later. Predators have a shrine, which will attract new units with the honor collected during the hunt, and they drop in individually. Aliens have eggs, from which hatch the familiar facehuggers. Facehuggers have to go in search of a host, or you can have a drone bring unconscious bodies back to the nest, and will eventually become an alien type based off their host. This makes the Aliens both the most difficult race to learn and the most interesting to play.

Without good controls even the best gameplay would be irrelevant. Thankfully, a lot of care was put into the way you control your units, making it easy to get who you need where they are needed. There are several different ways to select units and group them, making sure you only get the units you need. You can also assign groups to the directional pad, making it easy to manipulate multiple teams through the game. A simple click of the R2 button lets you set your units' behavior, from how aggressive they should be to what actions they should be performing. Each unit has a special ability that can be activated with R1, from the Predator's cloaking ability to getting a Marine medic to heal his teammate in battle. Detailed tutorials for both the main controls and the race-specific ones are available in game and fully prepare you for the full missions.

There are a few places where Aliens vs. Predator Extinction does not shine. The most obvious is in its graphics. The backgrounds are not very dynamic, and you'll see map after map of very similar areas. The creatures themselves are fairly simplistic, but at the distance you view them this doesn't hurt much. The types of Aliens aren't very distinct from each other until you get into the rarer and more expensive types, so you sometimes have to scroll over each one individually to pull out the one you need. The sound also isn't quite up to what you expect from a console game these days. While there is a booming orchestral soundtrack, it's not always playing. The comments your Marines make while being clicked on are muddy, and the voice for the Synthetics is terrible. Some sounds from the movies have been directly ripped into the game, such as the triumphant cry that your Predators make when they harvest a skull. These sounds tend to be much louder than the rest of the game and underline the weaknesses in the rest of the audio quality. Also bringing the game down is the lack of replay value. Each race has 7 missions with fairly linear goals. You can play them again to beat your own time, something which the game thoughtfully keeps track of, but there's no real incentive to do so. There's also no multiplayer at all, not even a splitscreen mode.

This game has the basics down with good gameplay and excellent controls. What it's missing is the icing; the graphics and sound to back up that gameplay. Fans of the movies will enjoy how differently each of the races play and how incredibly alien the Aliens feel when you take control of them. Aliens vs. Predator Extinction is a good investment for real-time strategy fans.