AVP must surely be responsible for selling a large percentage of Jaguar consoles on the strength of its name and screenshots alone. There are a number of reviews on the internet which award the game 90-100%, which, frankly, I find astonishing! Most of them praise this game and hold it aloft as one of the Jaguar's finest, and they are right, it is. But it's nowhere near as good as some people would have you believe.

Set in a space station which has been overrun by Aliens, the Predators arrive on a hunt. The story wouldn't win any prizes for originality, but it sets the scene nicely.

You can play as the last surviving Marine, an Alien or a Predator, which is a nice touch, but its all downhill from there.

While the game looks good in screenshots, you need to see this game in action to believe it. Aliens come hobbling towards you as if they have been severely crippled by arthritis, happily bumping into walls and other objects. Things are so bad that as the Marine you can walk backwards faster than the Aliens can run forwards. See a group of Aliens and don't have any ammo? Simply walk backwards without bumping into anything and they disappear into the distance. Or, even better, watch as they get confused by a large table, giving you plenty of time to stop, turn around, and stroll to safety. In fact, as the acid left behind when an Alien is killed does damage to the player when walked over, it's best to use these tactics to get to an open space and wait for the Aliens to (eventually) turn up than shoot them in a corridor.

When playing as the Alien things are better speed wise (you can move much faster than the Marines, as Aliens should), but problems still exist. The only real danger comes from groups of Marines. Thanks to the games dodgy AI, lone Marines are quite happy to stand still while you charge towards them, and often manage to get themselves killed without even firing a single shot.

Despite all this AVP is still pretty playable, and it makes a nice alternative to Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. Just don't expect too much from it.