Predator: Hunting Grounds - Preview, a revenge for IllFonic?

The software house IllFonic has managed to color the video game market multiple times in her recent career. For example, let's talk about his crucial help in the development of Crysis 3 and Evolve, as well as his officially licensed game Friday the 13th: The Game. Unfortunately, the latter has not met with enormous success, due to the many problems that have unfortunately sunk him not allowing him to compete with the competitor Dead by Daylight. It was in fact a further asymmetrical multiplayer, a genre that the software house decided to re-propose under a completely different perspective within Predator: Hunting Grounds.

A new licensed project and a new 4 vs 1 with renewed development philosophies, which want to bring to the market a completely different game, able to compete with the most famous multiplayer titles of 2020. To fund the project, making it to everyone the effects a significant production, there was also Sony Interactive Entertainment. Prior to the release of Predator: Hunting Grounds on PlayStation 4 and PC, set for 24th April, we were able to try the work on this last platform: let's see together if it managed to show teeth and claws!

Perpetually hunted

It should be noted that the game does not feature any single player modes in the beta, and it is not even said that he can hold one after his release, but we can only well hope for that. The concept of Predator: Hunting Grounds is extremely simple, but it explodes unpredictably once you enter the game. Four soldiers armed to the teeth, who once off the helicopter must carry out important missions, relatively simple in their difficulty and understanding. It is about finding certain objects, destroying others, or killing criminals for a reason that is briefly explained each time. Nothing exaggerated therefore, of the simple objectives that in and of themselves add nothing to what has been seen to date in other titles, while presenting extremely solid and well-kept gameplay and gunplay, with really well-made artificial intelligence enemies.

However, the title of the game is clear, a fifth player is able to sneak into the aforementioned missions to create panic and tear apart as many players as possible with his weapons. Let's talk about the Predator, an entity already made known within the cinematographic world, which in this production manages to shine more than ever in its wickedness and voracity. Where does the beauty come from? Well, the monster is controlled by one of the players, who can climb and hide to attack the soldiers at any time, providing himself with the perennial and real feeling of always being hunted down. A continuous observation, which could come from any position, given the possibility of becoming invisible that the Predator enjoys, whether it is a tree or any structure. Individually the monster has no problems against a player, but he will have to be careful with the group because in this title the killer can be defeated with bullets, ensuring a mathematical mission victory for the soldiers.

It is right there feeling anxious that manages to make - as proven - Predator: Hunting Grounds a production that is nothing short of unique, which transmits emotions never so emphasized in the reference genre. It is an idea and an apparently successful realization, very different from the Dead by Daylight clone that Friday the 13th: The Game tried to be. Let's not forget the many customizations present, which can be obtained simply by playing through interesting ones loot box, along with unlockable sets as you level up that grant additional weapons for soldiers and the Predator. We also specify that to enter the game it is not possible to choose your own class, which is assigned randomly. Although it seems that everything is going well, we are unfortunately forced to dampen the enthusiasm, as the beta has made us turn up our noses on several occasions.

A decidedly uncertain beta

Predator: Hunting Grounds has strongly sinned on the technical and graphic side in its first version, showing itself in a not particularly dazzling form from this point of view. Let's be clear, the visual impact is more than successful and the models are really well made, these make the environment more immersive than ever, but some features have unfortunately not seen an excellent manufacturing quality. Let's talk about lighting, for example, but above all about game menu still extremely immature.

We do not find fundamental customizations at the appeal, at least in the PC area. Graphic presets are our only resource for trying to optimize a game that it requires exaggerated computing power, which will undoubtedly be revised. Therefore, there are no single items of graphic customization, and it is good to consider that the present setting levels create a more than visible difference in height from each other, but not providing adequate performance bonuses for a worse performance. In the context of the gameplay we have instead one command mapping not customizable, as well as one non-diversifiable mouse sensitivity for the shooting and movement phases, which involve serious difficulties in the actual gameplay with mouse and keyboard.

Summing up Predator: Hunting Grounds 

One month after its release date, Predator: Hunting Grounds looks ready to offer us a sensational experience, we are really in front of a jewel - raw - of the videogame panorama linked to the multiplayer world. At least on PC, however, the factors to be reviewed are different, and we are not talking about simple precautions but about extreme technical chasms currently present. However, we hope that the game can be filed down where necessary, as well as implemented with additional content before and after the approaching day one.