The Alien Films, Games, and what Aliens: Colonial Marines did right.

EvaUnit02 on 21/2/2014 at 20:25

Cool. Were you one of the eight people in the whole world who bought that console?

ZylonBane on 21/2/2014 at 21:33

More like ~200,000, but yes.

Jag AvP was made by Rebellion, the same company (though not the same people, IIRC) who made the 1999 PC version.

catbarf on 21/2/2014 at 22:14

My family had both a Jaguar and that game as well. I think I first played it when I was about seven, which in retrospect was probably a bad idea since it scared the hell out of me for years.

There were some technical limitations that combined in a special way. The enemy pathfinding was dumb as bricks so they'd get hung up on walls (say, in the seemingly-empty room you're about to enter), and nothing makes sound when it moves. Combine these with the sloooooow turn rate, and the level transition system which tended to spawn enemies in the player's face, and there was a lot of suddenly getting mauled with no warning.

Anyways, I think the most interesting aspect mechanic-wise of that game was the Alien spawn system. As an Alien you could use a specific attack combo to cocoon Marines, to a maximum of three, and then once ready they would essentially be revert points when killed. The exploration element of the Marine campaign was definitely cool though, it's the only Alien-based FPS I can think of that starts you off with absolutely nothing and forces you to find the equipment you need. I remember finally finding the motion tracker being an amazing relief. The Predator campaign had an honor system that required you to behave in certain ways to unlock better weapons, which I don't think has been repeated. The game is unique amongst the AVP titles in a number of ways.

june gloom on 21/2/2014 at 22:39

I would kill everyone to play the Jag version.

ZylonBane on 21/2/2014 at 23:24

Quote Posted by catbarf

The exploration element of the Marine campaign was definitely cool though, it's the only Alien-based FPS I can think of that starts you off with absolutely nothing and forces you to find the equipment you need.

Yup. One of the genius bits of design is that the Alien-infested, goo-encrusted deck of the station is available right from the start of the game-- all you have to do is hop in the elevator and go down. But you don't go down there. You go down there before you're packing heavy weapons, you die. It instills that deck with a real sense of dread because you have to decide when you're ready to brave it.

Apparently part of the reason for the low frame rate is that the game is running AI on every single critter in the level simultaneously... and they ALL know exactly where you are. So they're always jumping out of unexpected, but completely fair, places.

I'm pretty sure the ROM is playable on current Jag emulators.

catbarf on 22/2/2014 at 00:06

I've been trying to get an emulator to work but I can't find one that works with sound and without constantly crashing.

Volitions Advocate on 22/2/2014 at 03:36

I totally forgot about the Jag version.

All signs point to Alien: Resurrection being shit. Watched a few gameplay videos and it seems pretty underwhelming. I thought it had been released for PC since I remember the trailer and the blurb at the end "For Playstation and Windows 95 Cd-rom" but I guess development took longer than expected, It was only ever released on PSX.