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Review: Why they never finished the Game

Atari Lynx,

Play Alien vs Predator Online

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MechaMento
01-12-14 09:02 AM

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MechaMento
01-12-14 09:02 AM

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Atari Lynx

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01-12-14 09:02 AM

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MechaMento

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Alien vs Predator - Atari Lynx

With Wolfenstein and DOOM available for computers First Person perspective Shooters were growing in popularity at insane speeds also attracting attention from other companies to almost spin off the games or at least try their best to emulate the genre mechanics.
Nintendo were preparing a Port of Doom and Sega had Duke Nukem on the Genesis (Mega Drive) so with Atari still lagging behind on 8-bit their task was difficult. So difficult the game sucked and the Developers were wise enough to cancel it and make the game again on the Atari Jaguar.

Graphics

The graphics are the only thing that I can talk positively about but even they were bad.
The Atari Lynx was the most powerful 8-bit console at the time, and this game showed it off a little. I don't think this could of been played on a Sega master system or maybe even an NES but then when we look at the consoles bigger hits like Blue Lightening, Batman and Toki this game is embarrassing. The only impressive part is the artwork in the objective screens, everything else looked chewed up, smudged and basic.
The Hud is pointless other than to try and look pretty. You have a compass to the left which is almost unnecessary because it tells you nothing useful, you don't know where to go and it is very hard to remember where you have been a map would have been a lot more useful. You also get a radar which does nothing. No matter where an enemy is the radar does the same thing, even when everything is dead it does the same.
They reused the graphics so that no matter whether you are the Human or the Alien you are always fighting these marines. Even worse all of the walls look the same. Then again you can argue that this game is unfinished, we you could say that for any of my insults to the game but it is believed that this game was 70% complete and I really can not imagine a whole texture pack design to make up the 30% left if the game was finished, at least nothing major and revolutionary would happen just maybe a variety of enemies and walls.

Sound

This is one of the worst parts of the game, the sound. Usually I would talk about the music in general but since there was no in game music I have to try and come up with something to say about the bleeps and the bloops. This is probably the only case where I can forgive them a little for the game still being in production, it is usual for a BETA to have some music missing but what I am going to insult is the game sound mecaniques.
The quality of the sound is horrid, it sounds the like the typical noises your Atari 2600 would make. The noises are random as well I could never work out what they were signaling. I hear a bleep I think there is an enemy near so I turn to look for it, nothing shows up. I hear the same sound again later on I ignore it only to find there is an enemy there trying to kill me. It does matter anyway since the enemies do nothing to you but I will get onto that latter.

Gameplay

This time you really cant blame it on it being bad because it was a BETA, the gameplay mechanics were embarrassing when you hear that this was still in development in 1994 after DOOM, Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein 3D.
There is no freedom of movement other than going forwards and turning left or right and there are no animations between looking one way and another so when you press left you instantly go from looking at one wall to another. Everything feels random like most Atari 2600 games and enemies and objects will only appear in the same cube as you are in, you can not see them if you are a head. It is pure isolation from the freedom you got from DOOM, a game released before it. The movement almost reminds me of selecting something in a menu it is that bad.
For me it is almost impossible to navigate and back track. If you missed something then you are screwed because everything looks the same because you are looking at a wall 80% of the time and all of the walls look the same. There are no marks of were you have been, enemies just disappear, no animations no nothing even when they are alive.
Staying on topic with the enemies, it is I think impossible to take damage let alone die. They don't attack you when you are not looking at you and they don't attack you when they are or if they are I cant tell because they don't move. You don't even need to shoot or stab the just walking in to them does the same. This is probably the easiest game I have played, weren't 8-bit games supposed to be tough?

Overall

Because this game was unfinished I knew it would be poor but this was just awful. I really don't recommend it, even if you just want to play it as a joke. I can imagine this being on the 2600 if you just got rid of the textures of the walls and title screen. I am so glad they waited until the Jaguar to release an Alien vs Predator game because the movement isolation is sickening and makes the game unplayable, oh and just add that you are invisible, you get lost instantly, there is no music in game, the sounds are relatable to the Atari 2600 and that the graphics are unfinished yeah you could say that this game is a load of crap.
This is definitely in my top 3 worst games I have played and it is a great shame because if they had got it right and had released it and it sold well, Atari could of had that little longer time to improve the Jaguar (maybe) to make it so it was not faulty.

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