Predator Hunting Grounds guide 2020

Predator: Hunting Grounds is an asymmetrical multiplayer game, pitting a team of four human soldiers against a single roaming Predator across three almost indistinguishable maps set in dense jungle environments. When you're playing as part of the human fireteam, you have a string of objectives to complete before a timer expires, shuffling you from one AI enemy-filled camp to another. When you're the Predator, your objective is even simpler: Hunt down the fireteam and take them all out before they're able to complete their mission and extract, while avoiding confrontation with AI enemies and using the chaos they create to your advantage.

Playing as the titular Predator is the most appealing part, and while its mechanics often allow for smooth, fun, and engaging moments, Hunting Grounds' framework doesn't adequately support them. The brutish assassin is as fast and nimble as you'd expect, with an easy-to-use parkour system letting you effortlessly navigate the twisting mazes that the canopy of trees create. A single button press sends you scampering up a tree, after which you can automatically move between branches and adjacent trees by moving in any direction. It lets you focus on hunting your prey instead of having to focus on intricate navigation, while also making you feel empowered through the sheer speed at which you're able to traverse the map. The press and release mechanic for the Predator's leap is less elegant, however, and tricky to use when you really need to get some distance between you and your enemies.

It also doesn't help that Predator: Hunting Grounds lacks any real variety to each match. There's a single mode to play, and each match doesn't last much longer than 10 minutes at a time. Without changing objectives or the variety of alternative modes, the shallowness of Hunting Grounds' gameplay loop quickly becomes apparent. Levelling up grants you access to more weapons, perks, and equipment for both the Predator and human characters, but without any changes to the matches that you use them in they provide little more than momentary reprieve from the same routine. None of Predator's higher-tier weapons necessitate certain strategies from human players, and similarly the loadouts of the fireteam don't influence the strategies a successful Predator needs to employ to win, both of which make victories and losses feels equally inconsequential.