Alien vs. Predator
This is the other reason to own a Jag
By Gregory D. GeorgeMarch 1, 2001
Do you remember the reason you bought
your Jaguar? The game that you drooled over in the magazines
waiting...waiting...waiting for it to be released? This was the game for me. I
held out buying a Jaguar until this game was released and when I first played it
(at Disney World's EPCOT Center no less) I had to get it.
In Alien vs. Predator you play the role of a space marine who wakes up
from solitary confinement to learn that his station has been overrun by not just
one, but two species of alien. Apparently, the Predators have decided that the
station would be a good hunting ground for the Xemomorph aliens and thus the
battle begins.
AvP is by far one of the best games for the Jaguar. It's much more
than a mindless shooter like Doom. Your ultimate goal is to set the
self-destruct and evacuate the station. Naturally, your adventure will take you
to every part of the station where you'll need to traverse the many areas including the infirmary, the (annoying) training maze, offices, the
alien ships, and (what else) the air ducts. While jumping into air ducts seems
commonplace today, it was quite cool back in 1994.
One of the most indispensable tools of the game is your heads-up-display.
From it you will view your on-screen map, your motion tracker, your weapons and
your health. The map is one of the most useful components of the game.
When it was originally released, I was blown away by the graphics. I had
never seen Doom before and felt that this was the pinnacle of video gaming. The
textures are well done and look just like the do from the movies. The aliens
could use a few more frames of animation for added realism, but this is a
forgivable problem.
I always liked the close-up graphic (on your face) of the facehugger! My
favorite graphic is of the Queen. She's a bad mama jamma!
This game has some really great sound effects. I love the alien screeching
and the Predator's roar! I also get a laugh every time I pick up a new weapon! I
can't wait to hear what Lance will say! "Bug Soup!" Heh heh heh... The motion
tracker sound is dead on as are the weapons. One common complaint to Jaguar
games is the lack of music. This really isn't an issue and adds to the already
horrific atmosphere.
The whole arsenal is here. My only wish is that the pulse rifle had that
"pump action grenade launcher" from the movies. But just get your hands on the
smart gun and all is forgiven. That thing is an absolute monster! It can drop an
alien in about a second!
This is, without a doubt, one of the scariest games I've ever played. Maybe
it's the lack of music, or the fact that those buggers pop up behind you and
scare you to death. This game is intense. Try making it to the escape pod in the
time allotted to see what I mean.
Now, it's true that you can play as the marine, predator, or the alien. The
marine mission is certainly the most developed, but the the other two are fun as
well.
The predator's mission is to claim the skull of the alien queen. To do this,
you must use your invisibility cloak sparingly. Killing while invisible will
lower your honor points which you need to gain better weapons. There are several
invisibility modes, but none of them are very useful. The weapons are very nice
especially the shoulder mount cannon.
The alien's goal is to find the queen. You can move especially fast as the
alien and you must use your jaws, claws, and tail to attack your enemies. Of
course, there are no ranged attacks which can make this mission especially hard.
In order to keep the game going when you are injured, you must cocoon enemy
marines. It takes time for these new aliens to gestate and you'll be forced to
backtrack to that cocoon when you die.
Truly, this is one of the best games for the Jaguar. It even spawned two PC
sequels and a theatrical movie! If you own a Jaguar, but don't own a copy of
AvP, shame on you! Stop complaining about the crap games and get this one
now!
Game Data |
Scores
|
| Title |
Alien vs. Predator |
Graphics |
90% |
| Publisher |
Atari |
Sound/Music |
85% |
| Genre |
Adventure |
Gameplay |
85% |
| System |
Jaguar |
Control |
80% |
|
|
Overall |
95% |
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