After much anticipation and hype, the Kickstarter-funded “Friday the 13th” game was finally released for funders and late purchasers alike from developer Illfonic to mixed reviews. It would take awhile before many of the game’s issues were ironed out with the core gameplay becoming more enjoyable thanks to people learning incredible tactics to avoid or administer death. Two years after Jason Voorhees became a digital nightmare again, it was announced Illfonic would take their chance at giving another iconic monster from the 1980s the opportunity to terrorize its habitat and whomever has the misfortune of entering its hunting grounds: the Predator. I really enjoyed “Friday the 13th”, yet found the beta of “Predator: Hunting Grounds” a bit underwhelming mostly thanks to technical issues and how the Predator handled. Giving the developers the benefit of the doubt, I took the dive and checked out the full release to see if it was worth being the hunter, or was this a cat & mouse game that should be put down.
Did I Complete “Predator: Hunting Grounds”?
Illfonic’s latest take on the asymmetrical, multiplayer genre looked to be the truest video game adaptation of the universe’s greatest hunter. Gamers take control of customizable mercenaries or the agile killing machine sporting various tools unlocked as the player levels up thanks to experience points gained via completed game sessions. Beyond simply playing as either the Predator or the mercenaries are some grind-heavy trophies & achievements including claiming 1000 Fireteam trophies via executions or some luck-based ones such as killing an entire squad waiting for the evacuation chopper. And then there are the customizable features for the Predator and the Fireteam members offered via leveling up and loot boxes with the latter being both bought with in-game currency or earned following most missions. Slowly but surely I’m collecting more & more trophies while getting better at both being a stone cold mercenary and the beast itself.
Did “Predator: Hunting Grounds” Live Up to the Hype?
Like “Friday the 13th: The Game” before it, “Predator: Hunting Grounds” is built around the premise of a single killer trying to wipe out a group of players controlling characters looking to complete a mission & escape a map in under fifteen minutes. As the one of up to four mercenaries that appear on the map at one time, players will have multiple objectives that show up one at a time upon completion. Most of these mission moments boil down to entering an area, finding an object that must be secured or destroyed, move to the next section to do something similar like uploading or downloading information, and then escaping via a helicopter. There are some variations to how said mercenary missions play out, but the majority of them are all the same. The main variables are the adversaries mercenary players will encounter. AI-controlled soldiers litter mission objective areas that are easily executed even if they call for reinforcements via destructible alarms. While stealth is an option against the AI enemies, most of the time it’s simply a firefight until the end.
Going against the Predator is where everything changes. The Predator has a plethora of abilities & weapons depending on the level of the Predator player. Low level Predators usually only have the beast’s wrists blades while others may have long-range weaponry. Though the mercenaries may seem at a disadvantage no matter what Predator they are encountering, a unified team with players who have taken part in first-person shooters will rip the Predator apart if they are patient & persistent. By downing The Predator, the players will end up with one of three options: run away to avoid being caught in the blast radius of the Predator’s self-destruct sequence; diffuse the bomb ticking away before it kills everyone; stop the self-destruction by putting enough lead in the Predator that it dies. If the Predator is able to complete its self-destruction and the players are in the blast radius they obviously die. But if the Predator is completely killed by its prey, the mercenaries will have to protect the Predator’s body from a few waves of AI soldiers in hopes of delivering the corpse for a great amount of experience points. Unfortunately for Predator players it’s more than likely one of the three options resulting in the Predator’s death will occur.
Predator players have to be expert stalkers; knowing when to hit and when to run. The core options for Predator players include an ability to turn translucent, activate a heat signature scan that includes briefly surveying the map for the Predator’s main targets, a parkour system where the Predator can move across certain tree limbs, and the ability to leap for a slam attack that completely empties its energy core. A majority of Predator’s stealth & defensive measures uses its rechargeable energy core that automatically refills when things like the body heat scan isn’t in use. The energy core can also short out if Predator is in ankle-deep water. Unfortunately, moving from tree to tree feels stiff & rigid at times with the Predator going in directions not dictated by the player. Predator is more likely spotted moving through trees than on the ground even when translucent.
When it comes to combat, Predator flourishes against the dumb AI who rarely pick up on the inhuman creature standing near a dead body. Predator suffers from a lack of health & armor especially against human players. When scattered, Predator can pick apart a Fireteam even at the expense of some health. But as per the norm, teammates will stick together and when one gets hit or goes down the rest will swarm the Predator for an assault that the Predator most likely won’t survive thanks to how long it takes for the beast to heal itself. Even if the Predator gets the jump on human players, the amount of strikes & attacks needed to deplete a Fireteam member’s health is disheartening in comparison to how easily the Predator’s health goes down. Another potential safety net for Fireteam players is the fact those slain in battle will return to the battlefield as “reinforcements” if their partners can hold on long enough; forcing Predator players to re-kill those squad members. When everything clicks and you have a rather skilled set of players it is a blast being either the hunter or the hunted. But the flaws on the Predator side of things are so exploitative that it’s hard not to take advantage of a potential damaging situation.
One big way to help both the Predator and the Fireteam members is by adding “Perks” to one’s load-out. “Perks” provide minimal or substantial benefits to the characters including reducing the amount of energy used by the Predator’s defensive abilities or giving a Fireteam member a second chance to avoid death when their health drops to zero. “Perks” – which are attained via leveling up the player’s profile – can really benefit one’s quest for success unlike the weapon & character skins that are associated with the game’s loot boxes, “Field Lockers”. Both the Predator and the Fireteam have classes that affect base stats like overall health and speed, but a majority of players just play the initial classes on both sides.
Technically, “Hunting Grounds” definitely suffers from some grand issues. Beyond an underwhelming graphical presentation and frame rate drops, actually getting into a game is ridiculously long winded if you want to be the Predator. The option of playing as a Fireteam member will most likely take a player some one to three minutes to get a game going. Wanting to be the Predator, however, may end with the player watching the clock tick upwards of ten minutes (not to mention the potential two to three extra minutes when in the lobby) with no immediate rematch option post-game to avoid waiting significantly to enter another lobby. This is a terrible problem not only because some games may not last as long as the player waited to get into said session, but also because of glitches including characters getting stuck in the world or because of something absurd like the game refusing to accept an input and freezing the character; resulting in the player being kicked out of the session due to inactivity. There is also no level matchmaking, meaning new players on either side may be matched with high level beserkers for a quick & humbling session.
“Hunting Grounds” is a greatly flawed experience that still provides a fun experience when everything works well, players are knowledgeable of how to get the most out of their characters, and the game doesn’t ask someone to wait longer than ten minutes to start a session.
Should You Play “Predator: Hunting Grounds”?
“Predator: Hunting Grounds” could have been the apex of its genre. When everything is running smoothly there is so much fun to be had thanks to tense moments no matter what side of the mission the player is on including as the Predator. But when lag kicks in, glitches occur, players don’t know what to do, and the game fails to get a connection to a lobby in less than ten minutes, “Hunting Grounds” become an effort in tedium that will kill the community sooner than later if it’s not improved soon. Even if you’re a die-hard FPS player and/or a “Predator” fan, it would be wiser to rent this and play a few rounds as both the Fireteam and the master hunter itself. Similar to “Friday the 13th: The Game”, this is an overall entertaining experience held back by technical flaws and some core gameplay issues that will either leave you disappointed with the outcome of a mission or bellowing like a wild beast after claiming a slew of bloody trophies.
