Alien vs. Predator

Review

by Colin Williamson

Alien vs. Predator is a first-person shooter like Doom or Castle Wolfenstein, but offers significant improvements in terms of game play and suspense. In a rather ingenious move, Aliens vs. Predator lets you play as one of three characters: the standard colonial marine, an alien, or a predator. The marine wakes up from hypersleep to discover a ravaged ship infested with aliens, and it's up to him to clear out the ship with the leftover firearms, set the ship to self-destruct, and manage to escape in an emergency pod (a la Ripley in the original Alien). This is, by far, the scariest mode--limited ammo, fast-moving enemies, and acidic alien blood keep things tense at all times. You'll have to navigate through air ducts, and make your way up and down elevators to figure out the ship's labyrinthine layout.

The predator's game puts more emphasis on killing with honor. From your stock wrist blades up to a hand-cannon, you've been loaded up with hunting goodies that let you make some sweet kills. You can also turn yourself invisible, though killing enemies in this mode subtracts "honor points" from your total score. It's your job to infiltrate the alien hive, and destroy the queen--and snag her skull to use as a hood ornament on your '62 DeSoto (or something to that effect).

As the alien, your goal is to wax any humans or predators you come into contact with, and keep your race alive. Though the alien is very fragile and is killed easily, you have the ability to "breed" fallen humans via face-huggers, and re-spawn as new aliens after you've been killed. Keep tabs on face-huggers, though--it takes a while to cultivate a human into an alien, and you only have three cocoons to use.

Graphics in this game are interesting and diverse; even though the engine limits itself to 90-degree angles, excellent texture work and good-looking enemies make this a game loaded with eye candy. Though there's no in-game music, ambient sound effects and various alien screams make the overall experience scary as the dickens. You'll jump out of your seat the first time you encounter an alien--we promise.

All in all, Alien vs. Predator is one of the few must-buy titles for the Jaguar, and is certainly worth checking out if you're a fan of first-person shooters. Give this game a try -- but just remember to conserve that ammo....