There are actually a lot more Predator games than most people seem to realize. It’s not that surprising once you consider that the titular creature has become an iconic character rivaling the likes of the Universal Monsters, but folks tend to only remember its crossovers with the Alien franchise when it comes to gaming.
Nevertheless, since the mid-80s, the Predator has been constantly present in interactive media, even gaining a completely new online game through IllFonic’s Predator: Hunting Grounds late last month. Today, however, I’d like to take a step back and discuss one of the weirdest interactive experiments of the franchise’s past, a flawed but unique gem known only as Eurocom’s Predator: Concrete Jungle.
Strangely enough, this genre-bending 2005 title is influenced a lot more by the under-appreciated Predator 2 than Schwarzenegger’s original encounter with the extraterrestrial hunter. Instead of mercenary-infested tropical rainforests, Concrete Jungle boasts sprawling urban environments more reminiscent of a futuristic New York rather than anything in South America. Nevertheless, we’re getting ahead of ourselves, as Concrete Jungle’s setup to this new environment is a curious thing in and of itself.
The game’s story actually begins in 1930s “New Way City”, as folks have been dealing with gang wars in the middle of a heatwave. The situation is only made worse by the presence of a certain “New Way Devil”, an otherworldly being hellbent on eliminating crime boss Bruno Borgia. Here, players take control of an unlucky Predator whose hunting trip is about to go terribly wrong.
You can’t say the game doesn’t have style!
To make a long story short, our protagonist is wounded (earning the nickname “Scarface” in the process) and is forced to enable the self-destruct function of his cloaked starship. Unfortunately, he’s too far away from the blast to be obliterated alongside most of the city, making him a pariah amongst his fellow Predators.
And so, 100 years of exile later, the game truly begins as Scarface is informed that New Way City has been rebuilt as Neonopolis, where Borgia’s descendants have been using technology recovered from his little hunting accident to capture and experiment on other Predators. Returning to Earth to set things right, players embark on a perilous journey through futuristic landscapes, taking down criminals and collecting blood-soaked trophies from an assortment of grandiose levels, eventually squaring off against Xenomorphs, cyborgs and horrific genetic hybrids.
I don’t know about you, but to me, this sounds like the setup to the greatest Predator movie never made. The sheer batshit insanity of it all only makes sense once you realize that the game was written by comic book auteur Grant Morrison, who’s best known for his new-age take on titles like Animal Man and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth.
Regrettably, the story and setting are the only stars of the show here, as the rest of the game doesn’t quite live up to the promises made by such a wild plot. While the ambition behind this title is commendable, with platforming, third-person shooting, stealth sections and hand-to-hand combat existing side-by-side in sprawling levels, the truth is that nearly every aspect of the game’s mechanics feels clunky and unpolished.
The controls are hard to get used to, the animations are unresponsive and there’s a constant feeling that the developers didn’t have a unifying vision while programming these levels. In theory, roaming around gigantic (for the time) cityscapes as a camouflaged Predator, collecting spinal cords and brutally murdering gangsters, should be a movie buff’s wet dream, but in practice, it’s really just a lot of boring ledge-grabbing in dull gray environments as you occasionally stealth attack a guard and watch one of a handful of possible executions.
Seems like they won’t be getting to the chopper.
That being said, playing around with the Predator’s massive arsenal can be fun, and I never got tired of hilariously skewering enemies to the wall with futuristic spears. The extreme violence is really entertaining, as Scarface murders goons and civilians alike as casually as Jason Voorhees. I’ll also admit that, towards the end of the experience, once you have all possible weapons and have gotten used to the clunky controls, it’s easier to forgive the game’s flaws and just zone out as a lone alien hunter out to regain his honor.
Even then, while the story is undeniably entertaining, some of the dialogue is downright laughable and Morrison was really milking that M-rating, as this is one of the sleaziest Predator stories out there. Hell, there’s even an enemy type that walks around in skimpy outfits, using reverse-engineered cloaking technology to hide their high-tech armor (not to mention a plethora of racial and sexual stereotypes that randomly pop up throughout the story).
Moments like these make the game feel like a schlocky B-movie, but in all honesty, I think that’s the most appropriate way of approaching Concrete Jungle. I can’t quite recommend it as an actual good game, but there’s so much interesting stuff to see here that it’s at least worth searching for a let’s play of the title.
I have conflicting memories of playing this on the PS2 back in the day and really wanting to love it because, in theory, it had everything that a Predator fan could want. I guess the running theme here is that everything about the game works far better on paper than in reality, but that doesn’t quite diminish its accomplishments. In fact, I’d love to see some new studio tackle a remake, or at the very least a remaster of the title.
But why stop there? A Just-Cause-styled open world sequel set in the deep jungle, with fortified military bases and villages to explore could also be incredibly entertaining. With more time and a modern toolset, I think it would be a lot easier to iron out all of the little quirks and finally deliver what Eurocom promised us fifteen years ago. For now, however, I think I’m ready to check out IllFonic’s new take on the franchise; though I doubt that game also boasts cyberpunk pimps and drug-dealers.