Title: Aliens Vs. Predator
Reviewer: Stryker
Developer: Fox Interactive
Date: 06.04.1999

If you ever watched any of the Alien or Predator movies, you should pick this up. A few of us picked it up last night, and played it until around midnight. The multiplayer is great. It supports TCP/IP, IPX, modem, 8-person Serial, or modem over MPlayer for free. The visual and sonic effects are great as well.

"The multiplayer is great. It supports TCP/IP, IPX, modem, 8-person Serial, or modem over MPlayer for free."

The predator can cloak, has multiple visual modes (Infra Red, Blue, light enhancing, zoom, etc.), and has great weapons. His "cloak" is not quite as good as in the movie. None of the cool ripple effects. It is more of a near-transparent skin, and is useless against the alien.

The alien's visual enhancements include "hunt mode", which looks much like a light enhancer(night vision). As the alien, you can scale any surface to sneak up on your prey, and take their heads off to gain energy. This is tough, and might even be a drawback unless there are a lot of campers in the game. You must get close enough for you jaws to retract, then hit primary fire to remove the prey's head. This is the only source of energy for the alien, and in a fast-paced DM game, you stand little chance. The marine has typical "space-marine" gear and power-ups.

One of the best roles of multiplayer is a co-op deathmatch. You and your friends can actually play as either a marine or the predator against the computer (which takes the role of the alien). It gets sort of monotonous with one map and an endless amount of aliens, but is fun never-the-less.

Overall, the "environmental immersion" effects are pretty good. You definitely get an adrenaline rush when you come around a corner, and see an Alien spiralling through the tunnels toward you. I think that one of my friends even had nightmares about the aliens. ;)

"I think that one of my friends even had nightmares about the aliens."

The maps and textures are good, but the sky (what little you see) leaves much to be desired. In the co-op deathmatch, all you could see was black with some white spots for stars. Not too emmersive. Some of the best textures were in a map called "statue". This was an Alien map that contained a huge statue of an alien under construction. It also contains other extraordinary H.R. Geiger-inspired textures. However, again, you are in an enclosed, tunnel-filled, map with no outside access. I can only hope that we missed a map or two that has some better outside areas.

You must have a 3D accelerator to run the game. It supports 32-bit color, and is almost a "must" for the visual modes. I still have my old V2s, and the quality of the "enhanced" visual modes is pretty crappy. My friends have 32-bit cards, and the visual modes are much less "noisy". Also, single player was rock solid, but when joining a multiplayer game, lockups were frequent on a machine or two. You definitely need a decent machine to get everything the game has to offer.

"You definitely need a decent machine to get everything the game has to offer."

Like most new-releases, it needs some minor tweaks, but is pretty solid overall. I can't wait for all the neat little tweaks and lists of commands that usually follow your 3D shooters. I'm keeping my eye on 3Fingers.

Click here to return to the list of articles/reviews.