Predator: Hunting Grounds

Predator: Hunting Grounds looks and sounds like the cult-classic film Predator, but unfortunately doesn’t feel like Predator. As Alan Silvestri’s iconic score swells, you can’t help but feel like you’re about to embark on an action-packed, skull collecting adventure. But you’ll soon discover that under all of the nostalgia is a game that lacks a soul (or spine). Predator: Hunting Grounds by no means is a bad game, just one that feels as though it is one of those tacked-on multiplayer modes from a by-gone era. Fun for a few hours, but ultimately wears thin once the amount of content is dried up. 

Throw in drawn-out que times (which is symptomatic of the genre, not server issues), bland soldier gameplay, and infuriating Predator gameplay, and you have a game that wears out its welcome quickly.

Que times have been an issue that has plagued the opening weekend of Predator: Hunting Grounds, an issue that plagues most multiplayer games on launch. I’ll never dock a game a lower review score based upon the server issues upon launch, as most of the time those issues are rectified quickly. Instead, I’m more concerned with the implementation of player choice for finding matches, which ultimately leads to longer matchmaking ques. As obvious as it may be, the main allure to playing Predator: Hunting Grounds is to play as the iconic hunter itself. The decision to give players the option to que up to solely play as the Predator is baffling, as this creates a massively imbalanced que time ratio between playing as the Predator or as a soldier. 

For example, if you were to que up as a soldier, it should only take you thirty seconds to a minute to find a game. Compare that to the Predator que, and you’re sitting in a matchmaking que for around 10-13 minutes at a time. This isn’t a server issue, this is a gameplay issue. Inherently people will prefer to play as the Predator, simply for the fact that it’s the best part of the game. 

Playing as part of a fireteam of four soldiers is ultimately a lackluster experience. Players squad up and pick a location on the map where they’ll spawn so they can carry out whatever mission that game lays out for them. Off the bat, I very rarely ever saw anyone opting to choose where to spawn in as the lobby lasted only a few seconds to give players the time to decide where they want to play. Once they’ve spawned, players make their way through various objectives to complete to carry out their mission and eventually call in the exfil helicopter, all while being hunted by the Predator. The objectives themselves are fairly simple and easy, ranging from “collect these documents” to “protect the bomb”. I never found the objectives to be confusing, but often I almost felt like I was on auto-pilot by how simple they were. From start to finish I don’t think I’ve had a match last less than 10 minutes, which is ultimately a problem for the Predator (which we’ll get to later in the review). There are only a handful of maps and missions available at the launch of the game. And with every mission lasting under 15 minutes, I was able to experience everything in less than a few hours.

My biggest issue with the fireteam gameplay is just how overpowered a squad of four players is. For the first few games, I genuinely felt scared of the Predator; until I realized that all four players could just lay into him and down the hunter in a matter of seconds. I’ve only ever lost one or two games as a Fireteam, and those games were only due to team members running off in separate directions. For a game about one of the universe’s greatest hunters, it just never felt right that I was never scared of the Predator. He/She just ended up being a nuisance. 

As previously mentioned, playing as the Predator is the main draw to the game. Fans (myself included) will jump at any moment to play as the iconic hunter to rip some spines and collect some trophies. Ideally, playing as the Predator should feel similar to games like Doom: Eternal: the fantasy to play an iconic overpowered creature that seemingly can’t be stopped while using otherworldly tech to achieve its goal of essentially filling up its trophy room. It’s quite unfortunate that my time playing as the Predator in Hunting Grounds was filled with frustration and hopelessness. 

The goal of the Predator is seemingly two-fold: hunt down and kill all four fireteam members and don’t die. You will die as the Predator. A lot, and often quickly. More often than not playing as the Predator, I was quickly gunned down by a team of four fireteam members using the Mini-Gun secondary weapon fireteam members have available to them. Side-note: it’s once again baffling to me that the mini-gun, the highest unlockable fireteam weapon available in the game, was made as a preorder bonus. It quickly created an imbalance between Predator vs. Prey, but I digress. 

Until I leveled up and unlocked the Combistick at level 42, I never felt intimidating or powerful as the Predator. Melee attacks with the wrist blades are locked into animations that fireteam members can quickly run away from, which in turn leads you to being gunned down. Early on players unlock a Net Gun to trap their prey, but the aiming of ranged weapons is nearly impossible as enemy players seem to move faster than you can aim/shoot. Add in the fact that if you use the Net Gun on a player while on the ground, the netted player can still run around and often outrun the Predator itself. 

That being said, the Combistick weapon is easily the best weapon the Predator has at its disposal. Being both a melee weapon with wide swings (wide enough to hit multiple grouped up players at once) and a ranged weapon makes it very versatile. It’s just disappointing that the other Predator weapons feel weak in comparison. 

There are several Predator classes for players to choose from: the Hunter, Scout, and Berserker. The Hunter being the most balanced between the three, the Scout is more focused on speed and agility, while the Berserker is essentially the tank focusing on improved health and stronger melee attacks. Other than the Berserker, it felt as though the Hunter and the Scout were both very fragile when it came to any sort of damage from fireteam members. Since Predator: Hunting Grounds is a multiplayer game, players caught on pretty quickly that the Predators are overall pretty weak and its best to stick together. This often results in either completing the missions in under 10 minutes or killing the Predator, only to escape his nuclear detonation. 

That’s not to say that all of Predator: Hunting Grounds’ gameplay is infuriating. Several cool mechanics have been baked in to boost the believability in the world. For example, the ability of a Fireteam to shoot off a Predator’s mask is a great feature as it stops the Predator from being able to use its thermal vision and plasma caster aiming. It’s not fair to the Predator, as it just makes them weaker than they already are, but it’s a cool touch. 

Another great feature of the game is its cosmetics, especially for the Predator. Yes, the game does have a sort-of loot box feature where players can spend in-game currency on a crate to unlock 3 random cosmetics; but there isn’t a way to buy the in-game currency with real money. It all has to be earned in-game. Players also have the opportunity to save up their currency to purchase their specific cosmetics, which is also a nice touch. The amount of customization you can do to your Predator is fantastic, right down to the ability to choose different “Predlocks” and skin patterns. Everything about Predator: Hunting Grounds looks like Predator (1987).

Predator: Hunting Grounds is a game that on paper should make you feel like the most powerful hunter in the world, as well as a badass commando who can gun through enemies on a whim but cowers in fear when you’re face to face with an unseeable threat. But the game just doesn’t encapsulate that fantasy of Predator. Instead, the game almost feels designed around the idea that you’ll sit down and play the game casually with your friends. But once you hop into a public match, Predator: Hunting Grounds’ cracks start to show. I’m invested enough in the Predator franchise to see what Illfonic has up their sleeves in terms of additional content for the game, but I find it hard to recommend to those who are looking for the ultimate Predator fantasy.