True Redux Review: Alien vs Predator

In honour of Alien vs Predator recently being released for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, I've decided to take a walk in the past. More specifically, September, 1993. It was in that month, of that year, that Alien vs Predator was released in North America for the SNES.


First Impressions

So yeah, we're initially greeted by a quick introduction containing the basic storyline. In it's most simple form, the game takes place in the year 2493, on planet Vega 4, in the city of New Shanghai. Humans uncover eggs, containing Aliens. They send out a distress call. Predators, flying by in their space ship, pick up the distress call on their way to hunt humans. However, learning the nature of the distress call, the Predators decide to take on the Aliens instead, as they seem to be more of a challenge.

The Game

Oh! The humanity!

This game succeeds in a couple of areas, but fails overall. The first good quality is the sound and music. Though it's not on par with the high tier games on the SNES, it does get the point across. It has a futuristic vibe to it, mixed in with some 'Holy $%$#, we're in trouble'. The second good quality is the fact that the game is relatively short; Activision decided not to torture anyone who bought or rented the game too much.

Now, onto the game's failings...

Firstly, the game is game is extremely ugly. I don't mean the graphics are poor; you can make out what everything is just fine. What I do have the problem with is the lack of imagination and variety. You'll spend most of your game traveling through dark and gloomy areas that are relatively typical of this style of game. They made no attempt to make the areas you're fighting through interesting or original at all. In addition to that, the majority of the enemies you fight, with exception of the bosses, are simply palette swaps.

The game varies in difficulty. The game is simply punching and kicking whatever comes your way. Unfortunately, you find that you can simply jump kick opponents over and over again, without giving them an opportunity to actually attack. In the later levels, the enemies health bars get large enough that it becomes extremely tedious to even continue playing.

The controls 'work', but having the attack button as the same button used to pick things up can cause some disturbances; you don't want to be near death, ready to punch an incoming alien, but end up picking up an item instead, ultimately leaving yourself open to attack. You also get a special weapon that has different effects depending on how much you charge it, but it can't save this game from the boredom monster.

The bosses are the only things that can offer a break from the monotony, for the most part. The issue with the boss system is the final boss in particular. The attack patterns are setup in such a way that it can kill you in a single, unbreakable combo. That's not cool.

As a final insult, after forcing you to tolerate six stages of awfulness, the game offers a terrible ending as well. Basically, you get a little image of a Predator holding an Alien skull, followed by a brief animation of their ship leaving Vega 4. The text at the bottom explains that the humans celebrated and thanked the Predators for saving them, but the Predators needed no thanks. Sitting through the credits offers no little bonuses, as it's followed by a simple 'The End', quickly ending the torture the game had inflicted upon you throughout the entire playing process. Having a lackluster ending probably suits the game though, since as a whole, it didn't possess much in terms of content.

Overall, it stands a massive and complete disappointment.

Score: 2/10