Predator: Concrete Jungle

The original Predator film came out in the mid-1980s and met with pretty moderate box office success.  However, in the subsequent years, the movie monster has been the subject of a cult following, sparking movie sequels, comic books and video games, albeit sharing the spotlight with other creature’s from moviedom, the aliens from, well, Aliens.  However, that is all about to change with the release of Predator, an action game with an all-new storyline in which the Predator takes mainstage. 

The story, developed by acclaimed comic-book writer Grant Morrison, follows a Predator in both the 1930’s and the 2030’s as he embarks on a quest to claim human victims as trophies. 

The game will give you use of many of the Predator’s famous toys, from the cloaking system (which doesn’t work if there is water around) to the spear to his famous three-dot aimed laser beam (which you can aim in first-person), and even voice recording which you can use to fool enemies into thinking that you are one of their comrades.  The preview I played had me jumping twenty feet from rooftop to rooftop stalking my prey and utilizing three different vision modes (heat-vision, pred-tech, etc.) to find them.  The game really has a focus on stealth, although if you need to bust out and take down a horde of enemies, you do have that option. 

Even in the preview build, the graphics were shaping up quite nicely.  Rain showed up in reflective puddles on the ground; the Predator’s character model moved realistically and even showed signs of damage in the form of phosphorescent green blood from bullet holes.  The enemies featured impressive rag-doll physics and the vision modes looked pretty nice. 

Look for Predator sometime in the fourth quarter of 2004.

For All E3 2004 Previews