Predator: Hunting Grounds Review

Illfonic are back with another game based on a film. I say ‘again’ but the recent release of Predator: Hunting Grounds on Xbox Series platforms is actually a re-release (and repackaging) of the 2020 Predator game that came out on PC and PlayStation, now with a full suite of unlockable content, improved visuals, and tweaked gameplay.

Predator: Hunting Grounds is an asymmetrical multiplayer. Its main mode ‘Hunt’ has one player as the titular alien, while up to 4 other players play as OWLF operatives – a group of CIA backed operatives.

The Operatives, playing in first-person perspective, are tasked with a series of missions before they can extract from the level safely. This can be an assassination, finding specific items, or defending a data upload. The person playing as the Predator, who gets a third-person perspective instead, has one objective – wipe out all the operatives and collect some skull trophies.

Each level has the 4 Operatives choose a site to drop in and then trek across the map to their objectives. Skulking in the trees and underbrush, the Predator will have to locate them using heat vision and remain undetected using a cloaking ability to try and narrow the distance between it and its quarry.

Both sides get a dizzying suite of tools to accomplish this. There are different classes with different strengths and weaknesses, which get unlocked through player level progression, or through loot boxes. The classes get specialisations too that allows for more differentiation. For example, the Recon can decide to be hidden from the Predator’s heat vision whenever they are in water, or the Assault can choose to get a damage booster after being hit. There are also a ton of perks to unlock like extra health, making the Predator’s laser spotter less visible, or faster aiming down sights. To avoid loading up with all the best perks, classes have a limited number of perk slots with better perks taking up more slots, so strategy is required to balance out what fits the class and use the most slots.

Alongside all of these tweaks to the characters there is also an arsenal of weapons. As well as the standard Combisticks and machineguns, there are fan favourites like the minigun and the net-trap.

I cannot stress how much attention to detail has gone into the game, there are Predator designs from all the films and the comic books. Isabelle, the sniper from Predators is in the PC version and it even explores the non-canon story of her escaping the alien planet and joining the OWLF to hunt Yautja (the name given for the Predator race in the books). Anyone that lapped up the comics and surrounding fiction (like me) is going to love some of the references here. Those that don’t are just going to see a Viking Predator and think it looks awesome. I especially loved that the main menu is a diorama with a version of your customised Predator and Operative.

The detail continues in the gameplay. I’ve always been a huge fan in whoever it is at Illfonic that has worked on the shooting of games like Predator and Arcageddon. There is a fundamental understanding that the feel and the feedback of the actions need to push the player into wanting to repeat them. Headshots are accompanied by a satisfying ping sound and animated skull and crossbones. The stomping sound effects as the Predator give the bigger beast a real sense of heft on the ground, and the smoothness of the tree-to-tree parkour gives it a real grace – signalling to the player what they should do more of. I like any game that seems to be able to adjust for my own clumsiness and correctly interpret what I was trying to do, and Predator: Hunting Grounds is certainly good at that.

That is not to say that the game holds your hand everywhere, a lot of the Predator gear is deadly but hard to use effectively. Likewise, the invisibility cloak and heat vision use up energy, so they cannot be used indefinitely and need to be monitored. Operatives, as they trade shots with the NPCs and try and figure out where the Predator is, will burn through ammo and resources, as well as need to be constantly covering themselves in mud to make it harder for them to be tracked.

In my initial forays into the game with randoms, I was completely convinced that the OWLF team were sitting ducks. Frequently, a Predator would show up and that was basically it for the human team, unless one could get away and call reinforcements (which respawn all dead players). I think this remains true in Quickplay games with players not talking – however as soon as a group is talking this completely changes the dynamic of the game. A Yautja that drops into the middle of a team expecting to wail their way through opposition is going to find players parrying its attacks while the other 3 unload into its back. It becomes far harder to score effective kills, and the tables feel decidedly turned against all but the most experienced hunters.  

Speaking of experience and players – there are some people out there that have taken the art of multiplayer to a completely different level. In one game the final player on the human team pulled out his knife and waved it around, the Yautja decloaked, roared at him, and the two of them proceeded to have a melee fight like they were in Prey (I got to watch the whole thing via Spectator). In a separate game one loud human player chatted to the Predator in the lobby, met up with it at a specific point in the map and then sold us out and served us up as kills. He then revived the team, and the Predator escorted us through the level and let us complete our mission while chatting away.

With all that to consider I really appreciate the work that Illfonic have put into creating private matches. This gives newer players a place to practice in privacy against bots, or a fun place to hang out with friends. They have gone further by adding all kinds of mutators that can be toggled on and off. For example, you can add a big head mode, or a hardcore version of Hunt that removes much of the HUD elements like the ammo counter and the mini map.

All is not a pristine polished skull ready for the trophy room in Predator: Hunting Grounds though. A sound bug has impacted most of the people I know (but not me) whereby player barks and Yautja roars are missing. There have been a number of hangs and crashes that impact people trying to finish games, it has happened about twice per 3 hours of play. I’ve experienced player disconnects too, that tarnish the enjoyment as the bots are not really up to snuff.

There are also numerous niggling UI and UX issues where prompts don’t appear, or don’t respond properly. these never rise to the point of making the title unplayable, but they can confuse in high pressure points, like when a Predator has set off their self destruct sequence and you aren’t sure whether you are in the blast range or not.

Now, I have to get my real point of contention with the game. For all Predator: Hunting Grounds’ deep appreciation for lore and references to the extended universe I must now push my nerd glasses (with a plaster holding them together) up the bridge of my nose and do some ‘Um Acshutally’.  In the novelisation of the comic book Aliens vs Predator: Prey (written by Steve Perry and Stephani Perry) the main Yautja warrior has a back story where he thinks back to his home planet and in it the female Yautja are depicted as much bigger than males. Illfonic have chosen to ignore this footnote in a side book, that probably only I remember, and the female version of Yautjas are actually smaller than the male customisation. This is big-lady-Predator erasure and-

Anyway, sorry about that, I’ve just shoved the Predator-nerd version of me into a locker. Predator: Hunting Grounds is great fun, I am disappointed that a game that has been out in the wild for so long still exhibits so many bugs, but what is here is a hoot, and should cater to all tastes. I think Illfonic should get a shot at remaking Predator: Concrete Jungle.

Conclusion

Predator: Hunting Grounds finally makes it to the Xbox Series, and it has been worth the wait. The game looks good, and plays well, with tons of fan service for fans of the dreadlocked hunter. There are a couple of annoying bugs but those didn’t stop me from really enjoying this entry.