As a Predator, you are a master of the hunt. You walk into battle calm and self-assured. Nobody hunts you and lives. Extremely well armored and armed, you're here for the thrill of the hunt and the glory of the kill. You have a cloaking device that makes you difficult to see for humans, powerful weapons to chew apart your enemies, and various image enhancers that allow you to find your prey and shoot them with pinpoint accuracy. Overall game play is like most FPS, but with interesting additions. You have many technological advantages over your prey, which you must use for maximum success. Predator game play is aggressive and fast.

As an Alien, you are an animal killing machine. Your hard chitonous exoskeleton protects you from falls, but the powerful weaponry of the marines and predators will cut you to pieces. With your fast powerful claws, devastating tail, and piercing jaws, you kill with ease, but only up close. You can leap thirty feet through the air to escape your prey when they turn their guns on you. What makes you truly unique and powerful is the fact that, unlike the other lesser species, you are not constrained to the floor. You are fully capable of travel on any surface in any direction. You run on the walls and ceiling as if they were the floor. You move fast as lightning, and strike with tremendous ferocity then dash for safety before the firing starts. Alien game play is amazingly different from any other FPS. It's liberating and tons of fun.

The single-player mode of AvP is split into three sets of missions, one for each species. The game play of each is based around the specific abilities of that particular species. This essentially means you get three games in one. Level design is moderately open and allows you to choose your own path within limits. Missions are interesting and creative. Rebellion did an excellent job of it.