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Alien vs Predator

**NEXT GENERATION - ISSUE #1**

"RIPPIN"

Rating: * * * * (four stars out of five)

One of Atari's first holiday titles, Alien Vs. Predator is a Doom-like, first person action game with an interesting twist. Players can choose to take on the role of the Predator, the Alien, or the Marine, all trapped in the same base. Your choice here is more than superficial, it determines not only how you fight and where you can go, but what you're actually trying to do.

The Predator is probably the easiest character with which to start, and comes with plenty of nasty weapons and the ability to turn invisible at will. Here you gain points by 'honorably' killing (no you can't just turn invisible and start swinging) the other inhabitants of the base. Your end goal is to collect the skull of the Alien Queen.
Alien characters have the advantages of speed and numbers. Although unable to use weapons, you are able to increase your number of extra lives by placing eggs into the bodies of fallen enemies. When you die, you can continue by living the life of your newly-hatched children. Your goal is to find your breed Queen.

Playing a human may not sound like fun, but it's actually the most like watching the movie. As a human charcater, you lack the strength or speed of either of the different races. Instead, you must depend on high-tech weaponry and human craftiness to carve out a path. Your only real goal at first is to merely survive.

On the down side, the game is plagued with ultra-slow load times that really shouldn't be present in a cartridge release. Controls aren't as easy as they could be (sidestep and weapon select buttons are difficult to get to in a heated fight), but neither of these quirks stops AVP from delivering some really good play. Definitely the best Jaguar title we've seen so far.