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It's 1997 and the greenhouse effect has turned up the heat - downtown Los Angeles has erupted like sweating dynamite. Rival Jamaican and Colombian drug gangs are turning the streets into blood-splattered killing grounds, their high-powered weaponry taking out dozens of innocents as they fight out WWIII amongst themselves. LA detective Mike Harrigan is a hardened street cop determined to bring peace, but even Harrigan is appalled by the latest series of crimes...

Ten years ago, an alien known only as the 'Predator' all but wiped out a special forces team led by Arnie who ultimately managed to kill it. Arnie's fantastic tale told of the Predator using a neat little invisibility gadget, being extremely well-armoured and capable of great speed. He hunts humans for fun and to give them a sporting chance he limits himself to using spears, nets and razor-sharp discs. Research has revealed Predators have been visiting Earth for 700 years and the US military is determined to capture one. A special FBI team is secretly formed to set the trap.

LA's latest drugs war begins when two motorcycle cops stumble over a drug stakeout. Harrigan is dispatched to fight his way through the massed armies of the drug gangs and apprehend a Drug Lord (Level 1: The Streets of Los Angeles). The drug battle continues into his building (Level 2: The Penthouse Apartment), a massive conflict with some nice touches such as shattering plantpots and rather idiotic innocents. It turns out some of the Drug Lords have been brutally murdered in the Predator style, something which has brought the secret FBI team into action. They don't bother to tell Harrigan though!

Eventually Harrigan learns the truth and tracks the Predator into the subway (Level 3: Los Angeles Freeway). The Predator escapes but Harrigan follows him to his lair (Level 4: The Slaughterhouse). The FBI already have their capture plan in action; unfortunately it backfires badly and it's up to Harrigan to save them and kill the Predator(s).

Predator 2 is an Operation Wolf-type game which amazingly packs four varied, horizontally scrolling levels into a single load. Ironically, by far the largest part of the game is taking on the drug dealers. In the early levels, the Predator is invisible, shown only by a faint outline. Avoid shooting him, though - his armour is too tough and it just irritates him into firing at you!

Your green outline aims according to the cursor you frantically move across the screen. Initially you're armed with a .45 Magnum and unlimited ammo. More powerful weapons can be collected by shooting at them (!): these take out most enemies very quickly, but also use up any ammo collected. Once one of ammo you're given the next-best weapon which you've collected (if any), together with five more ammo clips.

All this hardware soon gets the streets jumping with lead. However, you are a cop and killing innocents is frowned upon. If your LAPD shield is taken, it's game over time. Don't worry too much though: draining the colour from your shield takes at least a couple of dozen dead innocents... so don't be too cautious! After all, enemy fire is intense and the grey horizontal energy bar is soon down to zero - collecting body armour restores you to full strength.

Predator 2 is total enough to make continue-plays essential. Level one, in particular, goes on for ages and joystick elbow soon sets in. Gameplay is hardly original, but it's well executed. The mid-level opponents in the middle of the road are a bit small, but the close-in baddies are nicely detailed, as are the furthest placed enemies (some of whom shoot from windows and doors). Level 2 has some great swinging bodies, while the speeding train and lighting blackouts on level 3 are impressive. It's doubtful how addictive the unoriginal, somewhat repetitive gameplay would be alone, but the film's strong atmosphere will carry most people along in the best Operation Wolf clone yet.

It's good to see 221b have concentrated on the action: there's more slaughter here than in the film!

It really is great fun getting the Mark I and letting rip! Sure, we've seen this style a good few times before, and it may well suffer slightly because of the unoriginality, but the graphics are well animated and numerous enough to keep the adrenalin going. Gameplay is fun if unoriginal, a more serious flaw is that I've already got to level four!

The big plus with Predator 2 is the simplicity of gameplay with its strong hook. After a few goes I was addicted - the single load helps enormously. Unmissable for fans of coin-ops such as Operation Wolf/Thunderbolt and Line Of Fire.

Presentation 64%
Single load, continue-plays, nice 'game over' pic. Interlevel text and good manual help set the scene.

Graphics 79%
Good for a single load, with nice, distinctly different level backdrops and nicely animated sprites. Best of all, there's always a lot on screen.

Sound 62%
Moody title tune, spartan in-game music and good FX.

Hookability 84%
Couldn't be easier to get into, all-out blasting and no mistake!

Lastability 72%
Four levels provide a reasonable challenge, but not a particularly original or varied one. Robin's already got close to completing it, but it's good fun and being a single-load, it's easy to come back to.

Overall 78%
An unoriginal but fun blast-'em-up!