Developer: Perfect 10 Productions Publisher: Arena Released: 1992 Genre: Action
Predator was the action movie experience of my childhood. I will freely admit that I was entirely too young to be watching it in the theaters. But that was the 80s for you. Instead of being terrified I thought it was awesome, because it was. Sadly Predator did not get the video game adaptation that it deserved. The NES game was way too long, repetitive and all around dreadful. Considering Predator 2 was a disappointment as a film it should come as no surprise that the Genesis game is similarly bad. The developers made a valiant effort but in the end the game is just bad.
Predator 2 was interesting for a number of reasons. After the testosterone filled jungle adventure of the first movie the setting was changed to the streets of Los Angeles. The “urban jungle” if you will. You got less of the Predator stalking and killing its victims and more of people sweating profusely as they tried to track it down. Ultimately it let down everyone but one could always hope the game would turn out better. Yet somehow with a ton of action it is overall boring. How they managed that is a mystery but what it means is the game isn’t worth buying.
Rather than following in the footsteps of its ill-fated NES predecessor Predator 2 is a top down shooter. For the most part the controls are simple and responsive. You can move in eight directions as well as lock your fire to strafe enemies. There are a few secondary weapons such as a shotgun, machine gun, and bombs. Unfortunately they look exactly the same as your normal pistol and don’t feel especially strong. Even worse you can’t strafe with these weapons which is flat out odd.
The object of each stage is to rescue a set number of hostages and find the exit. Arrows will guide you to the nearest person that needs help but you have to be quick. If you wander aimlessly or take too long the Predator will target the closest hostage. Depending on the difficulty level you can only afford so many before it is an automatic game over. I suppose this is supposed to be a makeshift timer but it completely goes against the character of the Predator. But I digress. There are occasional boss battles to break things up but saving hostages is the main focus.
While Predator 2 is mostly mechanically sound the overall design is where it completely fails. The game has the pacing of Smash TV. Although that may sound exciting it does not work in an open environment for a number of reasons. A near infinite supply of enemies will always attack in large groups. At first they only have clubs and are easy to deal with. But by stage three they come packing heat and it becomes a shit show. The game shows no moderation as they swarm like killer bees. Your life bar is quickly torn to shreds as gun fire comes from off-screen, cars and motorcycles run you over and bombs explode constantly. The best strategy ultimately comes down to making a bee line for a hostage as trying to fight it out is pointless.
That is the game’s worst “feature”. What good is a shooter where the best course of action is to avoid it altogether? Had the game shown some restraint it could have been decent. The game throws an incredible amount of enemies on screen. It certainly isn’t lacking in the action department. But when the entire game is this unbalanced what good is all of that? The over the top difficulty is partly to mask the game’s short length. There are only seven stages and if you know where each hostage is they can be completed in two or three minutes. It makes the presence of a password system kind of silly in retrospect. I would have preferred more levels and better balance over the blatant padding that ruins it.
Outside of the masses of enemies attacking simultaneously there is nothing impressive about Predator 2 visually. Even Dynamite Duke managed something similar with larger sprites and that was a near launch title. The movie took place in the gritty streets of Los Angeles during a heat wave which added a layer of grime to it. Here the game is uncharacteristically bright. In fact outside of the two or three times the Predator shows up this could be any other game.
In Closing
Predator 2 came close to being a good game. But the polish that comes at the end of development isn’t there. Predator 2 is a cheap, frustrating mess of a game that will make you angry rather than entertain you. Spend your money on something, anything else.
