With the launch of Predator: Hunting Grounds, players can take on the role of a savage, brilliant Predator who stalks his human prey through dense, tropical jungle. With three classes available, players have a broad range of play styles to choose from.
Three Classes To Choose From…Eventually
Everything in Predator: Hunting Grounds is gated behind player level, which is increased by playing the game and completing objectives. Unfortunately, two of the three Predator classes are gated from a fresh account. By default, players will only have access to the Hunter class, which is a well-balanced character with equal attribute distribution among Health, Stamina, Movement Speed, and Gear.
The Scout is the second class made available, unlocked at an account level of 20. The Scout sacrifices quite a bit of Health and Gear but maxes out its Stamina and Movement Speed, making it a nightmarish blur among the trees and able to quickly dive in and kill a player who is even slightly out of position. The lack of Health means that players must be careful, but the lack of gear can be offset with a perk.
The final, and most exciting class in out opinion, is the Berserker, a Predator that looks like it has been to the gym and never skipped leg day. This class maces out the Health and Gear attribute, and does heavier, more brutal melee attacks. It sacrifices Stamina and Movement speed, but obviously is meant to get in close to shred apart Fireteam members. Since this class is locked until level 44, players will not experience any play with it for some time.
Cloaked Does Not Mean Invisible
Much of the Predator gameplay and strategy comes from diving into games and learning by experience. One major point to consider is that the cloak does not make a Predator invisible, it merely makes harder to spot in the thick of combat. In the image below, it may seem like it's hard to see a Predator, but this is not true. In game, the Fireteam will be searching for a cloaked figure, and it's easy to spot with practice. To maximize the efficiency of the cloak, players need to be extremely mobile.
Practice And Don’t Get Discouraged
Right now, the Predator might feel weak compared to the Fireteam, but this is to be expected in a new game. Asymmetric games by their design are not meant to put players on equal footing, nor to even be balanced, some would argue. Players who are diving into the game expecting to be as powerful as Jason in Friday the 13th: The Game or any killer in Dead by Daylight are in for a rude awakening.
The Predator bleeds, and “If it bleeds, we can kill it.” If anything, the strongest Predators we have seen so far, those who wipe out entire Fireteams, were patient and waited for the perfect time to strike. Those who rushed in, died quickly.