Predator Concrete Jungle

Predator: Concrete Jungle is a 2005 video game developed by British game developer Eurocom Entertainment and published by Vivendi for Playstation 2 and X-Box. Critical reception was mostly negative towards the game when it came out.

Official Description

Banished to a remote planet for 100 years, the Predator returns to Earth in 2030, seeking to redeem itself for a century-old transgression. When the code of honor protecting the secrecy of an alien race was abandoned, strange and powerful technology fell into the hands of evil men. The Predator must now restore that honor through the complete destruction of those who violated it.

Features:

• • Experience the hunt from the perspective of the Predator – kill at will or hunt with honor.
  • Original story ties into established Predator mythology, including back story about the origins of the Weyland-Yutani empire.
  • Arsenal of quintessential Predator weapons such as wristblades, plasmacaster, combistick, speargun and smart disk.
  • Highly responsive combat system that enables the Predator to stylize its attack moves for different prey.
  • Four different vision modes to enhance the hunting experience: Thermal Scan, Neural Scan, Prey Scan, and Tech Scan.
  • City environments of the “concrete jungle” are the perfect hunting grounds for the Predator.

Gameplay

Predator Concrete Jungle is a third-person action game that takes place on Earth between two separate time periods, 1930 and 2030. In a fictional city called New Way City, and the future downtown area of Neonopolis. You see city building from the 1930 to the futuristic city of the 2030, the Harbour, inside chambers of the hidden secret labs of the Mafia and the  inside of broken down churches. The Predator has over 20 different kinds of weapons that are based on the old movies as well as concept ones that didn’t get used. The player has also has four different vision modes: thermal, neuroscan – to assess threats and personalities, prey scan – assess threats of potential victims, and tech scan.

Development

Comic-book writer Grant Morrison wrote the game’s story. Some things were cut out out of Predator Concrete Jungle such as having a bigger world to explore. The reason to not have a PC release was simply down to the genre. Associate Producer Tim Tran said that third-person action games were more suited to the console platforms whereas PC players prefer fast-paced first person shooters.

In total, the game took two years to make and runs on a proprietary cross-platform game engine built and refined by Eurocom over many titles. It handles most of a game’s needs right from the start but, as new games come along, each demands slightly different features which are then incorporated into the engine and made available for future projects.

Covers

X-Box (UK Front Cover)

X-Box (UK Back Cover)

Screenshots

Concept Art

Wallpaper

Predator Concrete Jungle Wallpaper

Magazine Articles

OXM (July 2004)

OXM (June 2005)

PS2 Magazine (June 2005)

Gamepro (July 2005)

Downloads

Walkthrough
Complete walkthrough of the game in DOC format with pictures.

Download: Guide (2.40MB) (3 downloads)

Trailer
This was a trailer that was released for the game.

Download: Trailer (2.85MB) (1 downloads)

Intro Scene
This is the animated introduction to the game that shows a Predator falling and activating his ship’s self-destruct.

Download: Intro (11.08MB) (1 downloads)

Cut Scene
This is an animated cutscene from the game that shows the Predators on their ship.

Download: Cut Scene (4.84MB) (1 downloads)

Reception

Predator: Concrete Jungle received mostly negative reviews upon its release. Reviewers complained about the poor gameplay, controls, story and graphics while the Predator model itself was praised as well as the faithful sound effects. Official X-Box Magazine gave it 2.4/10: “Sadly, we can’t even write this mess off as a movie tie-in rush job. It’s just unforgivable.” Official PS2 Magazine scored it 3/10: “The Predator name is ripe with potential, but Concrete Jungle squanders it to make a completely unrewarding experience.”

Gamepro Magazine scored it 2/5: “There are probably fanatics out there who will require this game, but even they aren’t likely to find much lasting fun beneath Predator’s blood-drenched veneer.” IGN score the game 5.5/10 saying “For true, diehard fans who don’t care about it being a lousy game and who simply want to control the Predator, well, this won’t disappoint you too much. The Predator model, animations, textures, abilities, and sounds are all very good. Too bad those qualities alone don’t make for a good game.”