7 ways Predator: Hunting Grounds isn't your typical team shooter

Take a closer look at some of the ways developer Illfonic has created a unique shooter experience

ESRB MATURE 17+: Strong Language, Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Partial Nudity, Intense Violence / In-Game Purchases, Users Interact

Buy on PS Store

Find out more

1. There’s an elite other-world hunter on the loose

Maybe it’s obvious to some, but if you’re not familiar with the classic 1987 movie Predator, there’s a big surprise waiting for you in the treetop canopy…

A relentless, merciless hunter from a race known as the Yautja. The unpredictable, stealthy and incredibly powerful Predator can strike from above with no warning.

Predator classes

Expanding on the Predator universe, Predator: Hunting Grounds introduces three new classes of Yautja to play as – plus the option to become a deadly female Predator.

Hunter

Combining strength and agility, the Hunter class is a perfectly balanced warrior able to traverse the jungle and pounce with deadly force.

Berserker

Favouring strength over subtlety, the Berserker can tear its prey apart with Wrist Blades while soaking up damage from ground attackers.

Scout

Nimble and light, the Scout class favors a more considered, methodical approach to slaughtering its quarry, striking swiftly and disappearing with its trophy.

2. You’re either part of a four-player squad, or hunting alone

Predator: Hunting Grounds is an ‘asymmetrical shooter’, meaning you’ll play either as the lone Predator or as part of a highly trained Fireteam tasked with completing a series of dangerous missions.

The Fireteam

One part of a four-strong Fireteam, you'll play as the best of the best; a grizzled squad of specialist military operatives who ain’t got time to bleed. The downside? That just makes you a more prized target for the Predator to hunt down.

3. The jungle is home to squads of dangerous NPCs

While the Predator silently stalks from the treetops, it’s the enemies on the ground that pose a more immediate threat to the Fireteam – or a Predator who strays into their camp.

Guerrillas

The jungle is home to bands of mercenaries who provide hired firepower for the ruthless Stargazer group. They are the first line of defense that the Fireteam will encounter on their various missions.

PMC Soldiers

Highly trained and heavily armed, the PMC are a private military force at work in the jungle. Tactical planning, stealth, and coordinated attacks are the Fireteam’s best chance of overcoming these fighters.

Stargazer

This shadowy organization is dedicated to tracking other-world life and will stop at nothing to secure alien technology – including protecting their research and attacking the Fireteam with immense firepower.

4. Missions are about more than kill-or-be-killed

Play as the Fireteam, and you never set out to face off with the Predator. You have a job to do… while the Predator has its own motivations for the hunt.

Fireteam Missions

The Fireteam is tasked with infiltrating camps, stealing intel, taking down their communications, and countless other mission-critical tasks before you get to the chopper for evac.

Engage with the Predator and your focus shifts to staying alive. Get the upper hand, and you may need to keep it from self-destructing and taking your whole squad down. Succeed in killing the Predator and a whole new fight starts against Stargazer troops as they battle to secure the alien technology it drops.

The Predator's Mission

The Predator is driven to collect the most prized trophies – the skulls of elite fighters deemed worthy of being its prey. When playing as the Predator you’ll need to decide who to attack and how to get the drop on your quarry.

You’ll be equipped with several devices to guarantee the upper hand in most one-on-one encounters. A cloaking device renders you virtually invisible, heat sensitive vision pinpoints a target’s location, and a scanner shows that target’s worth as a trophy. Then it’s just a matter of taking out your prey and taking their skull – or for a more valuable (and grisly) trophy, their entire spinal column.

5. Both sides can find themselves facing an invisible enemy

Mud Up

With the Predator’s infrared vision tracking body heat through the jungle undergrowth, staying hidden isn’t easy. One way to avoid detection is to find a patch of wet ground and ‘mud up’, covering yourself in cold, wet mud that will mask your heat signature for a short time.

Stay Cloaked

Just like in the original movie, the Predator can become a shimmering shadow for a limited time, barely visible as it stalks through the trees.

But an injured Predator can’t always rely on its cloak – the bright green blood trails it leaves can give away its location as it retreats to safety.

6. Only one side stays on the ground

Unlike other team shooters, the opposing sides find themselves on very different terrain.

Predkour

As agile as it is deadly, the Predator can traverse the treetop canopy with incredible speed, using a system that the team at Illfonic has dubbed ‘Predkour’. As you move through the trees, available routes will glow red, showing you which branches the Predator can jump between, or where to make huge leaps to the next tree to stay on track.

Death from Above

The Predator can execute a series of attacks that can swiftly take down unsuspecting enemies, like picking off targets with the Plasma Caster, pouncing from above, or using a slam attack that stuns groups of guerrillas or Fireteam members. What’s more, traps and motion trackers can be planted at ground level to aid the hunt.

7. What you hear can be as important as what you see

Can you trust your senses?

As the Fireteam, you’ll need to keep your wits about you; with a series of testing missions to complete and tough enemies to contend with, you can’t afford to ignore the other-world hunter on your trail.

Keep your ears open and you may hear a series of sinister clicks from the treetops: a sign that the Predator is nearby and using its invisibility cloak to hide from view. Identifying their direction could be the difference between life and death.

But you can’t always trust what you hear: the Predator is a master of mimicry and can impersonate the calls of guerrillas or your fellow Fireteam members to create a decoy and lure you into a trap.

BUY DIGITAL