HomeReviewsPredator: Hunting Grounds
Wot I Think - Predator: Hunting GroundsBetween two ferns
Between two ferns
Did you know? Much like how the shark in Jaws isn’t actually named Jaws, the Predator is never referred to as the Predator in any of the four hundred movies made about him and his Predator friends. At no point does anyone ever point towards him and say “watch out, it’s only the bloody Predator”. Rather he’s officially known as “the hunter”, a plainer moniker that looks slightly less enticing on a movie poster but more accurately describes the character’s preferred method of doing his big murders, which is less “cheetah” and more “crouched in your neighbour’s petunias at 3am”.
Some nice ideas have been appropriated from the film. Humans can slather themselves in mud to become invisible to thermal vision. A wounded Predator will leave behind a trail of glowing green blood. Sometimes you’ll spot a surprise pig. And – spoiler if you haven’t seen the movie – the Predator can rudely self-destruct once he’s been sufficiently battered, giving players just a few seconds to sprint out of the blast radius or bravely attempt to defuse him through a simple pattern matching game. This ends the match, though I’m still not totally sure who it constitutes a victory for. The pigs, maybe?
With just three maps to choose from, all of them set in the same jungle and pretty much indistinguishable from one another, it will only take a dozen matches before you’ve seen every which way that things can shake out. It’s at this point that Predator: Hunting Grounds really does feel like the interesting-but-limited multiplayer component of a much larger game, and no amount of loot crates with customisable cosmetic skins, unlockable sniper rifles and fancy new dresses for the Predator can hope to liven things back up again.
It’s a shame too, because I could spend ages running around the jungle as everyone’s favourite Schwarzeneggar-botherer, leaping over temples and howling at the sky in unbridled agony each time this supposedly rock-hard alien has to give himself his little injection of health medicine. There’s a really excellent Predator in here, waiting to be set free.
