There aren't a lot of franchises as iconic as Predator. And while the alien trophy hunter has had, at best, a mixed relationship with games in the past, the upcoming Predator: Hunting Grounds by developer IllFonic shows enough promise to get fans of the franchise excited for the future.
A new gameplay trailer of Predator: Hunting Grounds revealed at the Gamescom Opening Night Ceremony shows off a little bit of what players can expect in the forthcoming game. The trailer offers brief glances of both Marines and the Predator itself, including some of the Predator's iconic powers. The first-person shooter side of the game does look a little bit generic, but in a way feels reminiscent of the Aliens vs. Predator game from 2010. While that game did receive mixed critical reception at launch, it's commonly regarded by fans as one of the better games in the franchise.
The trailer shows off some jungle scenery, complete with some flayed corpses dangling from the trees - a mainstay in the Predator franchise. As the group of soldiers slowly advances through the jungle, they're eventually ambushed by the Predator, who uses cloaking techniques and some signature weaponry to quickly rack up a body count. The Predator rapidly moves about the trees, stopping only to blow away a few more enemies. Some people may find the footage somewhat upsetting, but it certainly wouldn't win any awards for best horror game, as the developer's other projects might.
In Predator: Hunting Grounds, players will play as the group of soldiers trying to complete paramilitary operations before the Predator finds and eliminates them, or as the Predator, tasked with hunting down the soldiers. The concept is similar to Friday the 13th a horror game that sees four players attempting to escape Jason, the iconic serial killer, which was also developed by IllFonic. However, that game is currently wrapped up in a legal battle, and further development has been canceled.
Predator: Hunting Grounds was announced during a PlayStation State of Play back in May, but there's been relatively little information released about the game thus far. Of course, Gamescom is now in full swing, and there's a pretty good chance that more information about the game will be released as the conference presses on. What that information will actually wind up being is a mystery.
Predator: Hunting Grounds is scheduled to release in 2020 for PlayStation.
More: Sony Buys Spider-Man, Ratchet and Clank Developer Insomniac Games