Lately, asymmetrical multiplayer has become something very popular. We remember, for example, Evolve, and even if it was a commercial failure, the title somewhat paved the way for a lot of other games, often smaller in scale but more sustainable. This is particularly the case of Friday the 13th, released in 2017 and designed by the same studio: IllFonic. A real surprise revisiting the slasher genre, it pitted a player in the skin of Jason against seven others, embodying just as many poor young people. A deliberate imbalance of forces that had convinced the community, leading the American firm straight to the realization of another project of the type: Predator Hunting Grounds, a game published directly by Sony for its PS4, but also for the PC. Here, it's 1 versus 4 games with a Predator, in the third person, against four soldiers in FPS view. A winning recipe? Yes and no.
THERE IS THE GOOD HUNTER...
Very clearly, Predator Hunting Grounds is largely inspired by the first feature film to establish its game design: a group of four soldiers (straight in their boots with military objectives to be accomplished at all costs) are released into a thick jungle in which prowls the famous alien. The goal of the latter could not be simpler since it is a question of identifying and then killing the opposing players. On the other hand, that of the soldiers turns out to be more complex. They not only have to complete missions to hope for helicopter exfiltration, but also repel the AI-controlled guards and of course the terrible creature. A game of cat and mouse since undeniably, the Predator well deserves its status as a hunter thanks to tools and extraordinary faculties, while humans will have to cooperate intelligently to get by.
Embodying a Predator turns out to be a fantasy several times made possible through video games. If the first person view of Alien vs Predator, released in 2010, was frankly not missed, IllFonic has opted for an external camera here, probably for better visibility of the action. Three maps are available in Hunting Grounds and these are rather dense and have several strategic points, as well as our anti-hero must move quickly in his environment to better spot his prey. This is also the first objective he must accomplish: to see his enemies in this stifling jungle and, most of the time, the task will be carried out in height. A parkour system is thus proposed to twirl from branch to branch and thermal vision, as well as a rechargeable scanner, will make it possible to direct towards the enemy troop. Except for jerky animations (a purely graphical criterion) and a few pathfinding bugs, this tracking dimension is quite effective. Thanks to the temporary invisibility, the sensation of prowling around its victims, on the ground and focused on its own objectives, is quite enjoyable. On the other hand, the long-awaited fateful moment, that of taking action to make heads roll, turns out to be much messier than imagined.
The sad bottom line is that controlling the Predator isn't necessarily fun because of its loose precision or time-consuming evolution, not to mention endless matchmaking.
Mastering your arsenal well will indeed require some playing time, especially the slightly more interesting weapons (but not necessarily brilliantly successful like the combat disc or the Yautja bow), which will only be unlocked after very many hours of play, forcing you to fall back on imprecise weapons for a long time (themselves only being accessible after dozens of games). However, the ingredients of the Predator formula are there and serve the gameplay. Once injured, the fluorescent green blood of our man will indicate his movements and, if he proves defeated, he can trigger his famous bomb which will kill all the opposing players if he remains within the perimeter of the explosion. Similarly, it is possible to execute opponents who have fallen to the ground awaiting resuscitation: a wild and satisfying cutscene but which also resulted in real exposure to enemy fire. To say that Predator Hunting Grounds was not thought out intelligently would be in bad faith, many bonuses and penalties are certainly relevant. However, he mainly suffers from other more drastic problems, impacting the pure and hard feelings of play, which sometimes serve him a lot. The sad bottom line is that controlling the Predator isn't necessarily fun due to its sloppy precision or time-consuming evolution, not to mention endless and annoying matchmaking (about six minutes to find a game in which embody the Predator, even after the update!). Points which automatically tarnish the picture and which could discourage more than one.
AND THE BAD HUNTER...
Then follows the other facet, more human, that is to say the one allowing to team up with three other commandos. Here, the game dimension changes completely: Predator Hunting Grounds becomes a pure down-to-earth FPS in which it is possible to build classes made of a main weapon (an assault rifle or a sniper rifle), a secondary weapon (a pistol, a submachine gun or a shotgun) and bonus accessories to be unlocked as the levels progress, such as grenades, ammo bags or even care kits. In each category of weapons, a handful of blasters exist and all have improvements concerning scopes, magazine types or the barrel tip. It's classic, not very exhaustive but enough to bring a little bit of depth to a very banal gameplay in its realization. As a pure-and-hard shooter, IllFonic's game barely comes out on top: here we are on the basics of FPS, executed correctly but far, very far from being sensational. And if you couple that with a technique that will greatly depend on which version you're playing - a topic we'll talk about later - then the feeling can take a serious uppercut to the nose.
Once again, this feeling of being inferior, of feverishly distinguishing a transparent silhouette sailing from tree to tree around you, of hearing noises of an unknown technology before engaging in a decisive combat proves to be particularly stimulating. .
However, it is clear that a real effort has been made in the architecture of the parties. Many random objectives are then requested (destroy hard drives, open chests to recover sensitive data, collect and analyze samples, destroy laboratories, etc.) in different places on the map, allowing situations to vary correctly. If the AI, frankly stupid, does not often present a real threat, the altercations with the Predator then come to put sacred sticks in the wheels of our commandos. Once again, this feeling of being inferior, of feverishly distinguishing a transparent silhouette sailing from tree to tree around you, of hearing noises of an unknown technology before engaging in a decisive combat proves to be particularly stimulating. . In addition, the developers have thought of several ways to end a game, all of them quite satisfactory: wait for the helicopter to leave the jungle to the chagrin of the Predator, or else... put the latter down. When the vile enemy is about to pass the weapon to the left (and he is not so invincible as that), two solutions are available to you: the first is to remove his mask to avoid self-destruction and to finish him once and for all, leading then to the exfiltration of his corpse which we will have to keep in good condition. The second is simply to escape the explosion, either by deactivating its countdown with a stressful mini-game, or by escaping from any berzingue in the radius of the explosion. In any case, the victory on the side of the soldiers emanates from a rather welcome, rather amusing tension, which we must underline.
The victory on the side of the soldiers emanates from a tension rather welcome, rather amusing, which one must underline.
Predator Hunting Gounds relies on several clever and pleasant points, but also suffers from hard to forgive flaws. Above all, his technique sits comfortably at the top of the list. Not that the game is not beautiful, on the contrary, it is much too greedy to run correctly on PS4. Whether on the Pro or Standard model, the dense and ambitious jungle of the map leads to a graphic calamity at all times. Well below 30fps (and certainly not constant), the framerate greatly contributes to this inconceivable feeling for a 2020 FPS, easily bringing it back a generation. Worse still, the sincerely painful and pervasive aliasing makes playing the environment anarchic. A visually aggressive result, particularly damaging, because on PC, the experience is quite different, much more accessible. But as it stands, Predator Hunting Grounds should have seriously made concessions in its decorations – or invested more in optimization on consoles – to ensure a minimum of the potential of its ideas. Graphics don't make good games, that's for sure, but the graphics must definitely match their support so as not to seem too pretentious and then act as a drag.
Fortunately, we live in an era where many problems can be fixed with updates. If we doubt that IllFonic can completely retype their title, we are hopeful that the firm will tackle many patches focusing on the essential problems stated above, matchmaking included. Then there is also this content, including the lootboxes (allowing you to recover cosmetic bonuses), which are struggling to really satisfy the players. It would probably take a lot more items, including weapons, even more original for the soldiers as for the Predators, to maintain the community over time. Predators Hunting Grounds isn't inherently bad: it builds on some thoughtful and thought-provoking ideas, sadly dragged down by average gameplay and annoying technicality on PS4. We really hope that the software improves over time...
