One of the gems of an ill-fated system
This title has something over the other Jaguar games, variety, and alot of it. You can choose from three things to play, the Alien, the Marine, or the Predator. In playing with each, there comes objectives that you must meet to continue on, all of which are explained, in game, so that you understand just what you're doing and why you're doing it! The primary mission of each character class is to survive and make it all the way through the ship in one piece, but the branching out of each species has in terms of what it is that they have to do to survive is staggering. Keeping with the general theory of what each specks is, you'll find that the secondary missions are what really make the game, and with the Alien, strategy is key to winning and making it all the way through!
You'll find that playing this game will cause you to learn alot of things right off the bat. First, with certain situations, you can't blast everything, or kill everything you see. With other situations, killing everything in sight, is a must, while in others, silence, and stealth in when and how you kill, is a must learn. As the Predator, you have to gain Honor Points to progress through the levels, in order to do that, you have to go head to head with your target, not from behind, and without honor. If you can't do this, you can't complete the game! As the Marine, it's your job to clear out the bad elements, and make it out alive. For each objective completed, you gain a rank. Simple enough to perform, or so you would think while playing, but in all reality, it really is extremely difficult. As the Alien, which in my opinion, is the hardest, you have to colonize the level with hosts. This makes the game so much harder, because as the Alien, you can be killed right off the bat with a well-placed flamethrower. Again, this makes for great gameplay, giving you challenges to complete!
Okay, a bit off kilter. Depending on whom you play, as all of the characters play differently in what they do, and what they can perform. As the Marine, your job is just to blow everything up (typical, eh?) and make sure you don't get nailed in the process. As the Alien, you need to envelop your victims, to give yourself more lives if you happen to get killed. This takes time, and yes, alot of patience to pull off. You can crawl walls, and ceilings, and sneak up on your targets. Nice touch. As the Predator, you'll spend your time moving about stealthily, think of an ancient version of Metal Gear Solid when playing as the predator, and in what he does. It's all about being silent.
Probably some of the best visuals that you'll find on the Atari Jaguar are found in this game. It's Doom-style, of course, and it has alot of high points in the graphics, that will make you wonder if you're playing a game, or watching a movie. Pixels...yes, the dreaded word of all gamers everywhere today, but for a game on such a dis-used system, this game has relatively low-pixilated graphics, you'll see when a face hugger jumps on you. Nothing but clear, crystal clear, pictures! The levels are detailed enough to keep you moving through them, always looking around, and running into the bad guys, depending on what character you pick, will make you go nuts. The actual screen interface of the game is also something that should be noted, as each has a bit of personality to it is specific to the character you're using. Where the Marine has a standard interface, the Predator has one that is in an Alien language and the Alien is something along the lines of archaic writing.