You're a Predator warrior in the 25th century--an awesome monster with an ugly face, brute strength and very cool weapons. Trained to fight with all that Predator technology has to offer--destroy or be destroyed! You've come to New Shanghai, a city on the planet Vega 4, to hunt humans, but instead, you find Aliens--powerful, double-jawed beasts bent on annihilating life. You're outnumbered, but not outsmarted--the hunt is on. Alien drones, warriors, chest-bursters and face-huggers stand in your way. Use your lasers, blades and special weapons of destruction to win honor for your deeds. Destroy the Guardian Aliens to advance to the next level, then follow your primal instinct to reach the ultimate prey... the Alien Queen!
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Finally, after 27 unsuccessful experiments, I have finally transformed a pit bull into a predator using the wonders of modern man. Fully equipped with heat scanning eyes, shoulder canon, invisibility, and mandibles, my 100 pound murder dog can finally ravage those pesky toddlers...
why do they look like they're gonna kiss on the title screen
Highly overrated. The biggest seller of the Jaguar's line and its 'killer app' which frankly tells you all you need to know about history's most shat upon console. A few decades later you can eek a few more pixels of enjoyment out of it via emulation, allowing you to upscale and increase the fps some.
It just goes to show though that if you strip away the license, all you're left with is a poor consolised Doom-clone. There's nothing to do beyond jerk around the identical-looking levels, searching for keys and shooting the occasional enemy. The main attraction then is the chance to play as the titular Alien or Predator, each with their own abilities and problems. This alone grants it the three star rating, as the cloaking and honour system for the Predator, and incubation respawning life mechanic for the Xenomorph are unique and peverse enough to give you some fairly decent replay value.
The franchise was done far better a few years down the line with Rebellion's second attempt on the PC and its exemplary sequel. So perhaps aim a little higher and play those instead.
It just goes to show though that if you strip away the license, all you're left with is a poor consolised Doom-clone. There's nothing to do beyond jerk around the identical-looking levels, searching for keys and shooting the occasional enemy. The main attraction then is the chance to play as the titular Alien or Predator, each with their own abilities and problems. This alone grants it the three star rating, as the cloaking and honour system for the Predator, and incubation respawning life mechanic for the Xenomorph are unique and peverse enough to give you some fairly decent replay value.
The franchise was done far better a few years down the line with Rebellion's second attempt on the PC and its exemplary sequel. So perhaps aim a little higher and play those instead.
Jank, slow, trash and unimpressive. Welcome to Atari.
Probably the best pre-DOOM, WOLFENSTEIN 3-D-like anyone ever made, prefiguring games like ... what's that? This came out in 1994? Same month as DOOM II? Oh. Well ... okay.
Anyway, yeah, it's ... primitive, but it's damn good! Takes the very simple grid-based, flat-planes-and-doors FPS framework and does about as much as you possibly can with it, essentially making what might be better classified as a survival horror game. That's in Marine mode, at least. The other two playable races both have distinct mechanics that give very different rhythms to their campaigns - the Alien must use a risky special move on living Marines to cocoon them and earn themselves extra lives/spawn points to eventually wear down the humans with overwhelming numbers (appropriate), and the Predator can run around invisible but must kill uncloaked to earn honor points and unlock the weapons they'll need to take on bigger game. I don't think either is as compelling as the human campaign (which is just a well-structured, surprisingly open FPS world map with a well-designed flow of objectives and areas) but they make for nice add-ons.
The lo-fi look and feel (no music! just ambience!) works great for the subject matter. Despite this thing's limitations and playing it on my laptop in the middle of the day, I couldn't help but find myself riveted and little creeped out. I honestly kind of want to buy a Jaguar now, just to play this on hardware.
Anyway, yeah, it's ... primitive, but it's damn good! Takes the very simple grid-based, flat-planes-and-doors FPS framework and does about as much as you possibly can with it, essentially making what might be better classified as a survival horror game. That's in Marine mode, at least. The other two playable races both have distinct mechanics that give very different rhythms to their campaigns - the Alien must use a risky special move on living Marines to cocoon them and earn themselves extra lives/spawn points to eventually wear down the humans with overwhelming numbers (appropriate), and the Predator can run around invisible but must kill uncloaked to earn honor points and unlock the weapons they'll need to take on bigger game. I don't think either is as compelling as the human campaign (which is just a well-structured, surprisingly open FPS world map with a well-designed flow of objectives and areas) but they make for nice add-ons.
The lo-fi look and feel (no music! just ambience!) works great for the subject matter. Despite this thing's limitations and playing it on my laptop in the middle of the day, I couldn't help but find myself riveted and little creeped out. I honestly kind of want to buy a Jaguar now, just to play this on hardware.
I played this game when it came out on a friend’s Jaguar (he had a history of picking bad consoles). It was one of the few worthwhile games on the system.
I never finished it, as my friend got rid of his Jaguar before then buying a Saturn.
He knew how to pick ‘em.
He ended up giving me the Saturn when none of the trade-in places would take it and no one he knew wanted it lol
Good times, good times.
But the Jaguar AvP is challenging and fun.
In some ways, it’s better than the later AvP shooter from 1999. Which actually uses ideas that came up for a possible Jaguar sequel lol
I never finished it, as my friend got rid of his Jaguar before then buying a Saturn.
He knew how to pick ‘em.
He ended up giving me the Saturn when none of the trade-in places would take it and no one he knew wanted it lol
Good times, good times.
But the Jaguar AvP is challenging and fun.
In some ways, it’s better than the later AvP shooter from 1999. Which actually uses ideas that came up for a possible Jaguar sequel lol