#honestly i hope they add asymmetric stuff soon if not just to make a more accurate grox

[makingyourfavindti]

welcome to the ecosystem! i saw you in my mentions so i'd like to start you off as a welcome. how about you make a grox from spore [2008] in dress to impress?

-making-you-in-spore

but of COURSE

i made grox from spore (2008) in dress to impress

@making-you-in-spore

[the-desolated-quill]

Predator: Hunting Grounds - Video Game blog

No spoiler warning because... well... there’s nothing to spoil.

When Sony announced that we would be getting a Predator game, I was extremely excited. For those who don’t know, I’m a huge Predator fanboy. I love the movies, I grew up with the comics, I even liked that Alien Vs. Predator film from 2004 (AVPR and The Predator can go and fuck off though. What even was that shit?). Predator is just a great concept with loads of potential and it’s about time the big game hunter from outer space got the same love and attention as the Xenomorphs get. It’s tiring, you know? Watching all you Alien fans play the shit out of Alien: Isolation while I’m sat here going ‘Hey! Where’s my Predator game?’ So Predator: Hunting Grounds came as a fantastic surprise. And it was, at the time, announced as a Playstation exclusive, which was just even better as Sony have been knocking it out of the park recently with Horizon Zero Dawn, Spider-Man and the new God Of War.

Then things went silent on the whole Predator front until just over a month ago when the beta was released and people were largely disappointed by it due to numerous bugs and glitches and absurdly long wait times to get into matches. After that, the game was spat out onto Playstation Network with no buildup or fanfare whatsoever. I only knew it had come out because of a random YouTube video in my recommendations.

So I bought it and played it. What did I think? Honestly... it’s alright. It’s not terrible. I had fun with it, but it’s not exactly an amazing experience either. It’s just... okay.

Predator: Hunting Grounds is an asymmetrical multiplayer first person shooter developed by Illfonic Games, the guys behind that Friday The 13th game a few years back. Each match consists of five players. Four of them become members of a Fireteam called Voodoo (nice Predator 2 reference btw. Me like a lot) who have to complete a series of missions and evac successfully within fifteen minutes. The fifth player takes the role of the Predator, whose goal is to hunt down the Fireteam. The match ends when the Fireteam completes their objective and escapes via helicopter, the Predator kills them all, the Fireteam kills the Predator, or when the timer runs out. Simple.

The Fireteam plays like any other first person shooter pretty much. You pick a class, kill baddies, protect the flag, all that stuff. What makes the game more fun is the Predator. That’s by far I think the biggest compliment I can give to this game. It’s amazing how just changing one element can be enough to completely shake up a traditional formula. What starts out as a fairly mediocre play experience very quickly becomes unpredictable and genuinely terrifying when the Predator starts trying to hunt you. Normally your best bet is to stick together as a group because while the Predator is tough, it’s not indestructible and four squadmates can overpower it if they work together. However, in the heat of battle, it’s very easy to forget that and I’ve honestly lost count of the number times strategy went out the window as soon as the Predator showed up and we all just panicked and scattered.

When playing a match as the Fireteam, you have to choose whether to prioritise the mission objectives or take down the Predator. As I said, four players working together can overpower the Predator, but it’s easier said than done. The Predator is a bullet sponge, can move super fast and can leap really far. The point is you’re never safe, giving each match real tension. You can cover yourself in mud to hide yourself from the Predator’s heat vision, but it doesn’t work for long. A good Predator will always find you eventually and you end up becoming paranoid as a result, scanning the trees for flickers of light and reacting to every little noise. It’s genuinely unsettling.

Playing as the Predator however couldn’t be any different. The game here is played from a third person perspective and more emphasis is placed on speed and power. It’s like a cross between the Batman Arkham games and Assassin’s Creed. You’re swift and strong and you have access to all the Predator’s gadgets, including the cloaking device, the plasma caster and the net gun. You can even mimic the Fireteam’s voices, like in the movies, to trick them and lure them into a trap. The Predator is awesome to play as. You feel powerful playing as it, but remember you’re not unstoppable. You can’t charge in headfirst and hope for the best. You’ve got to be smart. Find ways of splitting the group up and pick them off one by one. Booby trap places where mission objectives will be. If you get wounded, you leave a trail of luminous green blood, which can lead the Fireteam right to you if you’re not careful. But if worst comes to the worst, you can activate your self destruct device in a last ditch effort to kill everyone.

The attention to detail is really cool with lots of Easter eggs and references to the movies. You unlock new weapons and skins by levelling up or by purchasing loot boxes using an in-game currency (don’t panic. There’s no microtransactions... yet). You can also customise your Fireteam and Predator characters, although your options are slightly limited. Also, one little nerdy criticism I have, you can play as a female Predator, but it’s the typical female body type you usually get in these games. You know, small waist, big boobs? Which sucks because a) Predators are reptiles, so them having breasts doesn’t make sense, and b) in the comics it’s established that female Predators are bigger, stronger and more aggressive than the males. So if anything, the male Predators should be the slim ones and the females should be the hulking bodybuilders. I mean I guess you can play as a female Berserker, but that’s not the point. I want to play as a muscular female alien monster goddammit, and Illfonic was too cowardly to commit. #FemPred #Womencanbeuglymotherfuckerstoo #Feminism

But in all seriousness, I think the customisation options best sum up the experience of playing Predator: Hunting Grounds. Cool, but limited. It’s fun playing as the Fireteam and the Predator, but after a while it does get really repetitive. While the Predator adds some much needed variety and unpredictability to the game, at the end of the day you are basically playing the exact same level over and over again. It also doesn’t help that the game only has three maps. Namely the jungle with temple ruins, the jungle with warehouses and the jungle with sewer pipes. Couldn’t they have expanded it to include other locations from the movies? How about Los Angeles from Predator 2 or Antarctica from AVP? I don’t know, just something other than a poxy jungle.

What’s worse is that the wait times between matches can be annoying. If you choose to play as Fireteam, the wait isn’t too bad. It’s usually between thirty seconds and two minutes. If you want to play as the Predator however, you have to wait between five and ten minutes to get into a match, if you’re lucky. The only way I got a chance to play as the Predator was in a private match. Maybe it would be better if the roles of players were randomly chosen rather than asking players what their preference is. Because obviously everyone wants to be the Predator, which means there’s going to be a long fucking queue. Or maybe they could expand the game so that you can have more than one Predator in a match. Maybe have a level where you have five Predators in an open world map competing to see who can get the most trophies before the time runs out. Maybe have that be an AVP event or something. There’s a lot of potential here, which is what makes it so frustrating. It’s not as if I hate the game or anything. It’s enjoyable to play. There just isn’t enough stuff to do.

Which brings me to my biggest complaint. The price. I paid £30 for this game. A game that consists of one level and three maps. For £40 you can buy the Deluxe Edition, which consists of one level, three maps and an exclusive Fireteam and Predator skin. I’m sorry but that’s just highway robbery. £40 for basically a beta game? What the actual fuck?!

Now apparently Illfonic’s last game, Friday The 13th, wasn’t very impressive at launch neither, but over time it was expanded with new content. Predator: Hunting Grounds looks like it’ll be going the same way. Illfonic have already announced a roadmap. This month we’ll be getting an Arnold Scharzenegger skin, which is nice and all... except it’s paid DLC. So I’ve already forked out £30 for not even a base game, it’s one level and three maps. And I’m now being expected to hand over more of my money in order to eventually get the complete game. Fuck off! This is basically EA’s Star Wars Battlefront reboot all over again.

Is Predator: Hunting Grounds a bad game? No. It’s a fun experience. If you’re a diehard Predator fan, you’re bound to get some enjoyment from this. However I cannot in good conscience recommend you pay full price for this game. There’s just not enough content to justify it at this time. My advice is wait until there’s a sale or when the game of the year edition comes out. For now, £30 for one level and three maps plus extra for DLC? No fucking way.