Aliens Versus Predator

Aliens Versus Predator for the PC and MacOS was released in 1999 by Sierra/Rebellion to very good reviews, scoring mostly between 80% and 95%.

“Where the game deviates from the norm, and succeeds beyond expectations, is in its rendering of three distinct viewpoints and its effective re-creation of the film series' unrelieved sense of dread.” -GameSpot

On release it generated a lot of controversy due to the difficulty of the game. The difficulty was compounded due to the lack (or as retro gamers called an enhancement) of saving between levels. Saves were later returned in a patch with limitations.

The game is distinguishable from other generic FPS at the time because of its choice of characters to play as. You can choose either a marine, which feels somewhat familiar; predator, which has a nice array of weapons and vision modes; and alien, which only has access to melee weapons but makes up for this by rocketing about, treading walls and drinking the juices from its victims for healing (very cool.)

Two years the game generated more controversy by having its source released to the community, allowing it to be ported to Linux. However, although this project is fully playable, it is abandoned; and no other projects have been initiated.

From here, a developer could continue the source to improve compatibility with other systems by supporting standard APIs or update the 8 year old graphics. At this point we could ask Rebellion if they would considering releasing the game as freeware to allow it to be packaged with new compiles of the source, with the possibility of including advertisements for newer games.