REVIEW - Predator 2 (1991)

GENRE(S): Action
RELEASED: 1991
AVAILABLE ON: GEN, GG, SMS
DEVELOPER(S): Teeny Weeny Games
PUBLISHER(S): Arena Entertainment
PLAYERS: 1

Predator 2 is a prime example of a late 80's-early 90's movie sequel that was made for cash, not the best of viewers in mind. Well, the movie was bashed by most critics and Predator fans alike, and its success at the box office was quite minimal considering the impressive investments made on the behalf of the promotional material - which unfortunately included a few video games. The first game was developed for home computers by Arc Developments and published by none other than Konami in 1990. Another completely different one came out in 1991 for the Sega Master System. This version was ported to the Sega Genesis a few months later, and gods did not smile on that day.

A West Coast vacation gone wrong

Los Angeles circa 1997 is not a good place and time to raise your children in. Jamaican and Colombian drug lords are at each other's throats, and a massive heat wave is making everyone one step crankier. It's a perfect place for the Predator to begin another manhunt. L.A.P.D. Detective Michael Harrigan truly takes offense to the alien's brutal methods after he kills a fellow officer, and begins a manhunt of his own, not knowing what he's really dealing with.

"I'm too old for this shit!" Oops, wrong movie.
Again.

Predator 2 - a movie that had everything going for it. A decent enough plot - I personally think they could've went to places with the new setting - a fair cast even without Arnie in tow, and of course, a brilliant chance to explain the Predator and his urge to hunt and kill. After all, they made it very clear in the first film that the Predator isn't a mindless killing machine, but a methodical, highly intelligent humanoid creature to whom killing is a sport. Well, the movie explained nothing, it didn't take the franchise anywhere. It was an unnecessary sequel, made by people who knew damn well of its unnecessity and didn't even bother to try to work on it a little bit further. If they had left the easter egg - that appears during the last 15 minutes of the flick and ultimately resulted in Alien vs. Predator becoming a true franchise - out, I doubt anyone would even remember the movie.

Predator 2 - a video game that never had anything going for it. It's basically a random idea for an arcade shooter quickly spliced together as a game based on Predator 2, in which Danny Glover goes from Roger Murtaugh mode to a supercop on steroids and the Predator's feeling lazy, as he "hunts" for unarmed hostages instead of aggressive criminals.

At least the game doesn't look quite as horrible as it is, just dull and I don't really get the deliberate cartoonish style. It's surprisingly violent - the Predator's victims literally explode in a quite graphic fashion, with eyeballs and guts flying towards the screen. Seeing that this is a game released in a time of merciless censorship, I'd like to give the graphics a whole extra point all thanks to the occasional second of some good, old-fashioned gore - no wonder this game was never released on a Nintendo system. The music is God damn horrible and totally out of context to boot! I don't know about your artistic vision, but I didn't quite expect Predator 2 to sound like a happy hour at a jazz club. The retarded voice samples of the hostages will drive you out of your mind in just a short while.

What keeps that guy from running, I wonder.

The game is a clumsy isometric shooter in which you (attempt to) control Roger Murt... Michael Harrigan through seven near-identical levels, shoot a million bad guys and save bound hostages before the Predator can fix his crosshair on them. If you die from injuries or allow four hostages to have their guts spilled all over the screen, you lose a life. Lose them all, it's back to the title screen with you - but, each level has a password, a real word instead of some incomprehensible gibberish, at that - so no, Predator 2 isn't really the hardest game around... but Christ alive, it is boring.

If played quickly, the game lasts for about 30 minutes. After those 30 minutes have passed and the credits roll, what you'll realize is that you've just been cheated out of yet another valuable moment in your life by an amazingly dull game that offers no rewards. The controls are clumsy, to say the least. It's really hard to get Harrigan to aim in the right direction and whenever there's a whole gang of thugs surrounding you - stall for one nanosecond and it will happen - it's nearly impossible to escape the situation without a scratch. The bosses take a gazillion hits before they go down, and each and every one of their shots will, of course, hit you at a 90% certainty - and, of course, Harrigan is weak as hell. Actually he can only take one bullet or other sort of heavy attack before dropping dead - the health meter indicates the remaining strength of his bulletproof vest.

A less pleasant cruise on the Predator warship.

From the beginning to the end, the game's all about rescuing hostages and shooting bastards - mostly thugs, but a whole army of Predators shows up in the end of the game to ruin your day for good. The game doesn't change even then; the Predators just absorb even more bullets than any standard enemy in the game - hell, one Predator can take almost as many hits as a low-level boss. Their respawning rate is just as ridiculous as any other enemy avatar's. There are some make-believe power-ups in the form of syringes and cigarettes and other junk, but all they do is add to the completely useless high score. Even if you manage to bear the game's awesome dullness, it'll be over quickly, and the aftertaste will not be too juicy, I assure you.

Predator 2 is just as pointless as the movie. As an arcade game, it might've been worth a quarter or two, but as a home video game, it simply has nothing to offer. Since it's so different, I at least expected a more entertaining game than Predator on the NES, but it isn't even that much of an effort. Mind on the money, money on the mind.

GRAPHICS : 6.9
SOUND : 3.0
PLAYABILITY : 4.8
LIFESPAN : 3.5
CONCLUSION : 4.3

TRIVIA

GameRankings: 40.00%

The first Predator 2 game, first released for DOS in 1990, is a rail shooter. Even though a total of six ports of the first game were made, it isn't very well known.