Review: Predators

2:00 PM on 07.21.2010   |   Jim Sterling

128 comments

You know what Predators is? It's a pretty good movie. Some people are whining about it, mostly because they expected more Predators than we got, but screw those guys. Predators was a solid action flick, and I liked it perhaps more than any previous Predator film. 

You know what the Predators iPhone game is? It's actually pretty good too! Read on for the full review.

Predators (iPhone)
Developer: Chillingo
Publisher: Chillingo
To be released: July 16, 2010
MSRP: $2.99

Predators puts players the role of an iconic, vagina-faced hunter, charged with the task of demonstrating its honor with a series of deliciously violent tests. It's an arena-based brawler full of blood, iconic Predator weaponry, and lots of pathetic humans just asking for death. 

The general flow of the game remains pretty constant -- kill everything. Sometimes you'll have to kill everything while cloaked, or using a certain type of attack, but the main focus is on killing, killing, killing. Admittedly, it gets a little repetitive, especially with no map variation and a segmented arena style that eventually wears thin. However, combat is solid and the game does a pretty good job of making you feel like an alien badass, despite the iPhone's limitations. 

Players start out with standard claws, but eventually earn extra toys like the obligatory plasma cannon, heat sensor, combat staff and cloaking device. Each of the weapons can be upgraded with Honor Points earned during battle, and various masks based on the movie's Predator characters can be purchased as well. 

Predators uses a virtual stick for movement, and has both attack and block "buttons" in the lower right corner. There are melee and projectile icons on the lower middle portion of the screen for cycling weapons. It's a pretty solid control layout that shouldn't lead to too many problems. 

The bread-and-butter of Predators is in the melee weaponry, which even features a rudimentary combo system. The important combo is the attack+block which uppercuts enemies and leaves them impaled on the Pred's claws. Players can then tear the foe apart or rip his head off for the all-important trophy kill. While these combos are cool, getting them to work is often a case of pot luck. Many times the impaling attack simply doesn't work, and repeated attempts usually end with the enemy dying before the trophy kills can be initiated. 

Predators is a fun game, and with a more reliable combo system along with more maps, it could have been a great game. As it stands, Predators is still surprisingly good and well worth the considerably cheap asking price. Three bucks for some simple Predator-themed violence isn't too bad at all. 

If you like the Predator franchise, then this is recommended. If you've never been a fan, this certainly won't change your mind. 

Score: 7.0 -- Good (7s are solid games that definitely have an audience. Might lack replay value, could be too short or there are some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.)