First off I want to say I truly love this game. I love nearly everything about it and I think its as close to a online Predator game as it can possibly get. Sound design is great, playing as fireteam feels natural and not clunky at all, music kicks in at appropriate moments, you really nailed the atmosphere of the first movie. The cosmetics and the amount of them is amazing and the urge to unlock all of them is going to keep me playing for a very long time. Maps all look amazing and despite all being in a jungle they all have their own feeling like derailed’s big open warhouse train yard, backwaters village and radar station, and the aztec ruins. I really love the maps. Animation work for the Predator is also fantastic I love watching him move through the trees so smoothly and his cinematic executions are great. I truly love the game and it has become one of my faves of the Predator/AVP game franchise.
Now onto feedback.
NPC AI and threat.
The enemy AI is terrible. Not so much as positioning etc but more that they are not a threat in the slightest. They can for the most part be completely ignored as the damage they do is minimal only the sniper feels like he does any sort of damage and that is if he ever fires his gun it seems to take him for ever to pick a target and fire. They dont run either they do a very slow jog which to be honest hearing one say “Fuck this im going for the alarm” and then take a very relaxed jog to said alarm is laughable. My main feedback for the AI is please try and make them more of a threat and or at least make them run. They are barely even an annoyance unless they somehow stackup in 20 man groups and even then they are only a danger to 1 lone fireteam member. I dont even feel the need to take cover from the NPC’s as they do so little damage and this just doesnt feel great and feels very very forgiving and I feel like iv been treated like a child who cannot play a first person shooter on anything but very easy mode.
Weapon progression.
For the fireteam this is done perfectly in my opinion. You get new weapons/variants as you level up and you can see and compare the stats of each of these weapons and each one feels like a straight up upgrade of the previous ones such as the submachine gun and pistol variants.
However with the Predator we do not get these stats to compare. I would love to see how much damage each predator weapon does alongside with the description of the weapon that is provided. Id love to be able to compare the damage output of the elder sword compared to the wrist blades or the maul with the combistick and I honestly dont understand why these stats are not included for Predator when they are for fireteam. Being able to see how much damage a charged bow arrow does compared to an uncharged one and similarly with the shoulder cannon would be great.
Cloak.
This is a big issue for me and I can tell you why. I did not get to play the beta trial weekend and I missed release day because I had to go into eye surgery for my right eye which is my dominant eye. I was able to play the day after release but with limited vision. The entire vision in my right eye is blurry it is as if I am looking through a frosted window I can barely make out a thing with my dominant eye. So with 50% of my vision completely useless I can still clearly make out a cloaked Predator. This is a huge issue. I literally have 50% vision and I can easily see a cloaked predator far away and in the trees in this game. I honestly think I have a harder time seeing a decloaked predator than a cloaked one at a distance. I dont know how this can be changed but the Predator 100% needs a better cloak ability.
Predator audio cues and second wind
I think the Predator footsteps are too loud I can clearly make out where the Predator is and whether or not he is in the trees or on the group fairly easily. Given that Hunter and Scout have much more of a reliance on stealth this is an issue. For Berzerker I think it sounds fine as he is much bigger but this in itself is a problem I think all Predators having the same big thump sounding footsteps gives new Predator players a feeling of being a big bulky tanky monster and I think this is related to why so many new Predators just simply charge in at an entire fireteam and get gunned downed immediately. Perhaps lighter sounding footsteps for Hunter/Scout compared to Berzerker could solve this? Also Second Wind needs a big looking into. 90% of the time if a Predator has entered Second wind against me and my team we have easily been able to chase them down. Its gotten comical at this point. Second wind might as well just be straight up death for every Predator apart from the Scout. His white glow indicating he is in Second window looks terrible and it makes it incredibly easy to follow him through the dense jungle as he sticks out like a sore thumb. And if the Predator does somehow manage to get out of our line of sight to heal? The audio of him healing is incredibly loud and allows the fireteam to easily pinpoint just where he is hiding. The audio of him healing wouldn’t be an issue if he healed faster from second wind. I also think the Predator should at the very least get temporary unlimited stamina when entering second wind to give him a better chance of getting distance on the fireteam as anyone who has taken the double time perk can easily keep pace with him. Please think of taking another look at Second Wind as if you are anything but a Scout Predator your chances of getting away are incredibly slim.
Predator Weapon Balance.
All of his weapons honestly feel fine to me apart from the Combistick and I only think the Combistick is strong on the Berserker. I think the Combistick works perfectly fine for Hunter and Scout as they have less health than the Berzerker so they cannot go on a rampage with it nearly as much. Once the Combistick is unlocked all the other melee weapons become useless and I was hoping there would be more of tactical choice between which melee weapon to bring instead of it pretty much just default to the Combistick. The Elder Sword would be fine if its animations were faster as it is it is just too slow and leaves the Predator open to attacks. The same can be said with the War Club although the damage increase is great it is just too slow with the animations. I think you need to relook the melee weapons as I was really hoping it would be a tactical choice. For example picking the Sword for speed, War Club for the Slam/knockback, and Combistick for larger area of attack. The Plasma Pistol just doesnt feel good I admit I have not used it much but the few times I did I did not notice it doing much damage at all even at close range. I was running after the last survivor as scout right on his heels and was shooting him in the back with it and I must have shot him a good 6 or 7 times and he just kept on going so I just finished him with my wristblades. Smart Disc feels fine but I do think it being so visible is a bit silly. I think the audio cue is more than enough to let the fireteam know a disc is incoming.
Fireteam classes.
I am not entirely sure why these are in the game as all classes seem to play more or less exactly like the other classes. This is in contrast to the Predator classes who all have their own distinct feel. The Hunter is all about planning and choosing the right moments to either go melee, or ranged and with a decent gear list for variety of playstyle. The Scout is the stealth ranged sniper. And the Berzerker is the well geared hulking brute that tears the fireteam apart at close ranged.
The fireteam just doesnt feel like this. Apart from them feeling faster/slower than the others it just doesnt change the playstyle much at all as I can simply just use a sniper rifle on my assualt instead of on Recon. At least that is my opinion on it. Perhaps if certain weapons were locked to Certain classes this could change this but I can understand why that would be an unpopular decision.
So in short I think you are far to forgiving on the Fireteam. The NPC AI does little to no damage to them and I think the Cloak is terrible and the Predator Audio cues (Apart from the clicking because I love me that clicking) are just dead give aways to the Predator which is for the most part a creature that relies on stealth. Second wind needs a big look over as again it is far too forgiving on the fireteam in that they can easily see,track, and hear the Predator in Second Wind and just kill him. And I think you need to rework the Predator Melee weapons as the Combistick just makes the wrist obsolete.
So thats my feedback I am inlove with this game and I truly think with a few tweaks and fixes that you will have a real Gem of a game here. Also please check out my bug report thread as it is the only bug I have encountered on the game and it is driving me insane.