Undertow Vault: ALIEN VS. PREDATOR

This is such a fascinating game for me. I first heard about it on Gametrailers' 10 Top Scariest Games countdown video (it ranked quite high). Obviously I haven't played it, since I don't own a Jaguar (most people don't), but it's still a game that intrigues me. It seems to be a mis-mash of really good aspects and really mediocre ones, and being the first Alien Vs Predator (by a very large margin) game is quite the distinction. It came out only a few years after audiences had been introduced to the idea in the climax of Predator 2 (where we see the Alien skull in the trophy case of the Predator's ship), and I doubt there had been much official content (comics, books, etc.) regarding AvP before this game was released.

The graphics, despite some ugly pixelization, are still detailed and well rendered (referring specifically to the 2D sprites), while the level design on the other hand seems atrocious; it has that horrible "hedge maze/pseudo 3D" look to it where everything exists on a single, flat plane and the walls are flat and blocky, like how Wolfenstien's levels looked, which it's a pity the developers chose to go that route instead of following Doom's example of true 3D feeling environments, but that might have been due to a lack of programming experience more than anything. I noticed the framerate is also quite atrocious, but that was sort of to be expected for console FPS games back then. Still, the Jaguar ports of Doom and Wolfenstein both ran much better than this, so it's not entirely forgivable.

Ultimately I think this game delivered on its premise and while it did (seem to) have several flaws, was unique and respectable enough to get a pass. Who knows, it might even be better than the AVP movies (then again, most films are). I think the reviewer did a great job on this one.

I'd love to know the official story behind the game's development. A console exclusive FPS at that time, let alone one featuring aliens and predators, was pretty rare.