Chapter 3 - Marine Strategies

Special Abilities

Boasting a heavy arsenal of long-range weaponry, it should come as no surprise that the Marine isn't exactly stocked in the special abilities department. If you choose to play as a Marine, your weapons are your primary offense and your last line of defense.

Motion Detector
One of the unique properties of the Marine is his motion detector. But, as neat as this device looks (and as cool as it sounds), don't rely on it to save your life. Spotting upcoming Aliens or Alien Facehuggers doesn't always work as planned, as you almost never know exactly where this thing is pointing out enemies. Further, if you turn on the image intensifier, the motion detector doesn't even work. In short, while it's somewhat effective in spots, rely more on your eyes and ears to find Aliens.

Fighting Aliens

Key strategy: lots of bullets. Seriously, when engaging the standard Alien enemy, use the pulse rifle or smartgun as your primary weapon. These guys are almost a dime a dozen; you'll find tons and tons and they'll keep on coming. Plus, as fast and aggressive as these things are, they really aren't that durable. A few rounds of the pulse rifle into the cranium or chest and they'll keel right over.

Another reason to use your pulse rifle or smartgun is that you really don't want to get too close to these killing machines. With the flame thrower, you'll have to wait till the beast is almost on top of you before it's in range. As for the other weapons, like the SADAR or minigun, those are too powerful to waste ammunition on standard Aliens. For clearing out a whole herd of Aliens maybe, but not for the single foe.

After you've got the correct weapon in hand, next will be scouting them out and surviving the final battle. As pointed out above, proceed through the dark levels with extreme caution, turning on your image intensifier in pitch dark spots and checking every direction for these wall-climbing maniacs. Aliens are much easier to defeat in smaller groups; charge through rooms, and you'll soon have a whole pack on your tail and it won't be long before you're restarting the level.

Fighting Predators

Unlike with Aliens, you'll need some serious firepower to take down a Predator. First off, you'll have to deal with his cloaking mechanism, which will make the tough foe really tough to see. Next, you'll need to use some special weaponry, probably the pulse rifle's grenade launcher or a SADAR (or anything big and powerful you come across). Keep dodging whatever the Predator throws at you while getting in plenty of licks of your own. When you run across the Predator in the single-player game, it's usually right at the end of the level, so you shouldn't need to worry about ammo that much. Unleash some grenades or rockets on him, but still make every attempt to be accurate. The Predator often stops to line up good shots; use this opportunity to envelop him in a fiery explosion.