To play as an Alien hive firstly you will need a queen to lay eggs, every alien starts with an egg. Once you have your queen happily laying you will need to collect some hosts to gestate your new aliens. Once you have killed a few Humans, Predators or any of the planets indigenous animals you may drag them back to your hive where a freshly laid face-hugger will infest the host, shortly after a chest-buster emerges, cocoons itself and becomes an adult alien. The type of Alien it becomes depends on the host. The Alien bestiary is excellent and features Queens, drones, runners, warriors, pred aliens, carriers & ravagers. You can also upgrade your aliens to further strengthen your hive.

To play as a Predator clan you will need to collect honor points, the predators are simply cruising the universe collecting trophies. These trophies are the skulls of any victims the Predator clan kills. Once an Alien, Human or indigenous animal has been killed the predator must collect their skull - this trophy is then converted into honor points. All ordering of new units and upgrades happens through the predators shrine which travels with the clan. Buying new predators is fun - as again the bestiary is cool. Brawlers & hunters are the standard Predators with Spear masters, Stalkers, Disc masters, Vanguards (scythe warriors), Hydras (missile specialists), Blazers (multiple attack) & Predgun's (plasma cannons). All predators are cloaking experts and can recharge their energy & heal when not in battle.
To play as the Colonial Marines you need to earn credits (currency) by killing enemies and repairing Atmos (atmospheric processors) with your Comm-Tech. You receive a continuous stream of credits as long as the atmospheric processor is operational and hasn't reached its maximum amount of credits. Once you have gained the relevant funds you need to contact your drop-ship via your Comm-tech and this is how you order new troops. Your drop-ship will deliver your new troops. The Marines bestiary is also impressive including snipers, guys with flame throwers, sentry guns, synthetics, medics & you can even have an Aliens movie style Exosuit that upgrades to carry twin M103 torrent cannons that fire simultaneously.

Graphically AVP Extinction is not quite up to scratch with some of the PC based RTS games. Although, the Xbox version look and feel is neat and clear at all times even though the terrains can be a little dull. The sound is pretty good borrowing heavily from the movies creating spooky atmospheres and keeping the tension high.

Overall AVP Extinction is just what the Xbox has been waiting for. If RTS games are your thing then as an Xbox owner you will be very glad of this release. The only major fault in my eyes is the exclusion of any skirmish or online multiplayer mode so the replay value is very limited. There is definitely room for improvement within the genre and graphically the console could be utilized to better effect. But with the depth of character of the movie behind the characters and a spine chilling gaming atmosphere plus some challenging and enthralling missions AVP Extinction is a must buy and a welcome expansion of the Xbox games arsenal.

8 out of 10