Say what you want about Hunting Grounds. Yes, it’s rough around the edges. But at it’s core?? It’s a lot of fun. Just as with Friday the 13th, Illfonic nailed the atmosphere making something quite fun to play. At least in my opinion.
I hit Level 100 earlier today, and not by using the 2x XP Buff I got with my PS4 Purchase. Preface: I grind extensively solo as a Soldier and play online exclusively as a Predator. I will say that grinding solo gives you a better feel of each Map that helps out a lot traversing as a Predator. Throughout all of my playtime, here’s some of the things that jumped out at me the most.
As a Human:
Throwables, most notably the Flashbang, have very flaky collision/hit detection. I can toss one at the feet of a trio of AI Lackeys and not have them affected by it. Is the explosion based off of the AI’s field of view, much like the Genome Soldiers from Metal Gear Solid?? In this current state, Flashbangs are more or less useless.
I can run around, stabbing Barrels that are literally 15 feet from an AI Grunt and not have them react to the deafening explosion. The AI only acknowledges your visual presence and that’s it.
The AI can have their back turned to you when spotted. They’ll immediately start shooting WITH their back turned and will still hit you. The same can be said for when the AI activates an Alarm, E.G. they’ll be facing you/away from the Alarm yet their Arms will be extended. And the Alarm will go off.
Lastly, the AI is set to spawn in while in Alert Mode (Yellow/Red on the Mini Map). The problem here is that they’ll spawn in anywhere leading to plenty of Goons appearing right in front of you.
While playing a Private Match solo, slathering yourself in Mud is only allowed… once?? The Prompt will only appear at the start of a Match. After the initial application, I can’t do it again.
As the Predator:
There are a lot of Collision issues when using the Leap Command. You’ll have a clear line of sight when the red indicator appears but you’ll still get blindsided by seemingly random Branches, interrupting it all.
Pressing X/Jump while reasonably distanced from a Tree will still magnetize you with the Clamber Action. When in a pinch and attempting to engage/retreat, this can interrupt your gameplay terribly.
You can randomly fall off of a Branch and land on the Ground. When this happens, you’ll still have the Predkour Prompts populating your Screen even though you’re grounded.
There are multiple clipping issues throughout hilly/rocky Terrain. Example: Overgrowth has a lot of Rock Perches you can run across. While they appear accessible, you end up clipping and getting stuck more often than not.
Hit detection on a Predator’s Wrist Blades and Combi Stick feel too loose. Your first instinct feels as if there’s a auto tracking feature when there isn’t. I.E. the first swing feels flaky (no magnetism) leading to the second swing to feel like a constant 50/50 Gamble. While I could see someone argue that this is intended, near guaranteed Knife Parrying against us Yautja makes our Melee options feel sorely lacking.
That’s all I got.
Overall, Patch 1.6 feels really good and is certainly a step in the right direction.