Alien vs. Predator

Everybody that knows me knows that I am not the biggest fan of First Person Shooters. It's not that I'm against these sorts of games, or have anything against their fans, I have simply tired of the theme over the years. I haven't always been this way, though. When Doom first came out on the PC I was as big a fan as anybody. I even enjoyed many of the copies, and what not. However, over the years I have simply gotten sick and tired of playing the same game over and over and over. When Alien vs. Predator was released on the Jaguar it was the show piece item I was looking for on the Jaguar.

If more first person shooters were made like Alien vs. Predator, then I would be a bigger fan. What makes this game so good, though, is that it throws out all conventions of the genre, and paves an entirely interactive one player experience. Each of the three games presented on this cart are different enough to keep you playing them over and over, and there is so little bad to say about the game.

To say that Alien vs. Predator is simply a first person shooter is kind of misleading. While there is a fair share of shooting, and some pretty pulse pounding moments, it's no more an action game than, say, Resident Evil is. For most of the Human's game experience you are simply searching, and getting through a maze. The Alien and the Predator have a more action based game to play, but even then, it's mostly searching for the way out.

The game is super hard, too. Some may even classify it as being frustrating. There really aren't any continues, so if you die, you get to do it all over again. This is bad programming, but it does add to the urgency of getting everything right. You are able to save at any point in the game, but this game could have used a continue system that didn't force you to back up every step you make. And while we're knocking the engine down, the game plays a bit slow.

Recently they released an updated version of Alien vs. Predator ... but even then, it lacks the story mode the Jaguar version had. Maybe one of these days we will see an updated version of this gem.