Predator: Trial of the Hunting Grounds – Get You Tentacle! description / test

Tour / test

After Friday the 13th, the Illfonic team once again created an asymmetric multiplayer game based on a well-known film franchise.

05/05/2020. 11:38 | from GeryG | Tour / test

Posted in 2017 by Illfonic to Friday the 13th: the game, where we dive into Friday’s 13 worlds, the iconic 80s slasher series. Thanks to the multiplayer experience with an asymmetric structure, players could be just as much fear-fearing teenage campers as Jason Voorhees. Although this sounds great on paper, unfortunately the workforce was only mediocre with the greatest benevolence, despite the manufacturers’ will and enthusiasm being felt by their thousands of cartilage. Now, almost three years after its release, the studio has reappeared a new game that is basically very similar: It is processing a popular movie franchise as an asymmetric multiplayer game. This is the Predator: Hunting grounds. But has the development team learned from their past mistakes?

The game is definitely the first, and the vast majority of fans say it’s based on the best movie, too. Consequently, the fighting scene is a dense jungle where players can control a command team or even an alien hunter. The two sides have quite different roles. Commands always have to carry out some kind of mission: obtain information about a base hidden in the forest, search for and seize ancient artifacts or even pharmacies. There are several problems with this. The first is that MI-controlled guerrillas and other bastards are as dark as Batman’s inner pocket. Often they literally run into the firing line on purpose, and even if we don’t find them at first, they help a little. So they are not a challenge, at most with their number, but not much with that. The second problem is that after a few hours of gameplay these quests get terribly repetitive and so the dirt gets boring, uninteresting.

Not to mention that command-playing players know from the first second that the Predator lurks somewhere in the trees. And of course, from the moment the alien appears on the scene, the commandos simply forget the original purpose of their arrival. This marks the beginning of a terribly lopsided battle between humans and strangers. But not as unbalanced as we might think first, because here, almost without exception, the stranger always pulls the shortest. Indeed, our monster is sadly weak, once it is an open fight, there is simply no chance against a four-armed command. Of course, the Predator fights head on in the rarest cases, but players can very quickly figure out how to fend off an alien’s biggest weapon by exploring. Because if the commands are strictly in control, they cannot be explored and executed one by one. Not to mention that even during the execution of a well-directed death blow, we can easily lose much of our vitality, which can lead to a leak. Even if we succeed by the time we treat our wounds, the commandos will revive their comrades very well …

It doesn’t help much that, over time, the Predator can amass a pretty good arsenal of weapons, as the entire character development system is messy and slow. We have to go through many failures to find weapons that are cooler and more effective than the basics for our victims. The interesting thing on the command side is that with the appearance of the Predator, it’s all over. The original targets no longer matter, just defeat the alien. If it succeeds, there are two options: Whether they end immediately, and then a defensive part may come until reinforcements arrive for the creature’s body, or if we don’t kill it, we just hurt it, the alien drops the bomb. Then we run as far as we can or try to defuse the bomb in a mini-game.

the Predator: Hunting grounds reason why it has a quite thoughtless but immature gameplay. Even if there are things that work very well anyway. Such is the movement of the Predator in the trees, which in my opinion is one of the great strengths of the game. Even the sound and music effects are so strong that they can hardly be linked to them. The visual world wouldn’t necessarily complain if it played the music correctly. Because while the graphics are basically perfect, the forest and the alien are very jagged, the sheer number of silly critters left inside is far worse. People get stuck at landmarks, elsewhere, tools and equipment float in midair.

So the situation is similar to Friday the 13th. There is a very popular franchise that would provide an excellent foundation for a good video game. But despite the enthusiasm and will of the developers also being felt here, the end result in its current form is no better than average. However, what can be encouraging is that the problems we are experiencing now are not incurable. If Illfonic spends the next few months repairing the remaining bugs inside, working hard and trying to find a balance between the parts, all it takes is a continual expansion of content to be a factor in the years to come. Predator: Hunting grounds. If, on the other hand, this does not happen, we will hardly talk about it in a few months. ■

Comments (0)

recommended reading