Predator: Concrete Jungle

Plot synopsis:
The game opens in 1930, in New Way City. The player controls a Predator who stalks and kills mob boss Bruno Borgia and members of his gang who are at war with the Irish Mob. Bruno's wife Isabella shoots the Predator in the eye, causing his blood to splatter on her and her baby son Hunter Borgia. The Predator makes a hasty escape, leaving behind some of his equipment. As he attempts to reach his ship, the roof he is running across collapses - leaving him incapacitated. The predator then sets off his ship's self-destruct sequence but this fails to kill him as he is outside the range of the explosion. Shamed by defeat and having exposed his race to the humans, the Predator is exiled by his clan to a planet inhabited by deadly alien creatures. One hundred years later, the Predator, now called Scarface, is offered a chance for redemption.
The Predator technology, derived from Scarface's abandoned equipment, has proliferated into the hands of Bruno's descendants and warring gangs who have utilized it in New Way City, now known as Neonopolis - City of Light, as well as against other Predators. The warring factions all pay tribute to Lucretia Borgia, daughter of Hunter and granddaughter of Bruno. Thus, Scarface regains his honor by battling the various factions in order to recover the Predator technology (known to the humans as "Prometheus" technology). Wiping out the Haitian voodoo gang Les Serviteurs (who were using Predator cloaking devices) and the violent drug dealers called The Dead Men (who were dealing in Prometheus weapon tech), Scarface takes the skull of Serviteur houngan King Willie and the skulls of the Dead Men Triad. Following this, Scarface proceeds to infiltrate the private island of former Italian Mafia leader Don Giovanni. After disabling the defenses and shielding around the island, Scarface aids the juvenile Pack-9 gang, who use a Ulysseus android they've stolen from the police, to break into the Don's mansion. Inside, Scarface procees to wipe out both groups, killing Don Giovanni and taking the head of his bodyguard, Vincent di Angelo, as a trophy.
Scarface finally targets the Mexican-American gang Los Matadores, led by Fidel "El Hongo" Perez. After seeing his Matadores gun dealers killed, El Hongo asks Lucretia Borgia for help, but is rebuffed. However, with the death of the Matadores prostitutes and pimps, El Hongo again asks for her help to save him from "El Demonio Invisible". Lucretia sends a group of mechanically-enhanced Russian Mercenaries known as the Machine Men—led by Viktor the Chechen—to New Way Field to deal with Scarface. However, the four mercenaries are butchered by the Predator, who takes Viktor's head. Lucretia is shocked when El Hongo later calls her to tell her the Machine Men have been killed, and she sends El Hongo to a high security black market trading depot at the docks, which is protected by Borgia Black Ops disguised as Ex-Porn Star Hookers, led by Baby Blew. Despite his cloak being disabled by jamming equipment, Scarface infiltrates the facility and destroys the generators for the jamming tech as well as a shipment of Prometheus weapons before finally killing El Hongo and later Baby Blew.
Scarface rides one of the drone trucks to the weapon depot, infiltrating the facility and destroying it. However, his true origin has been discovered by Lucretia after seeing him on camera, and several waves of The Monster Squad——genetically altered cyborgs—are deployed. Despite valiantly fighting the Monster Squad (taking the skulls of the first wave), Scarface is overpowered and taken back to the Borgia labs. Scarface suffers flashbacks to his hunt for Bruno 100 years ago, including tracking Bruno to the New Way Museum, killing corrupt Police Chief O'Brien alongside many mob members and police officers before his final confrontation with Bruno, which saw the "New Way Devil" take the head of the "God of Gangsters" before showing it to Borgia's wife, Isabella. Due to an underestimated anesthetic dose, Scarface breaks free and recovers his equipment, freeing some of his captured brethren in his escape.
Following instructions from MOTHER, the computer controlling Neonopolis, Lucretia activates the weather stations to make it rain so Scarface can't use his cloak while unleashing three brainwashed 'bad blood' predators against him. Despite this, Scarface kills two of the bad bloods—Swift Knife and Long Spear—and disables the weather machines. Working his way towards Lucretia's penthouse, Scarface battles wave upon wave of enemy forces including Lucretia's three Ronin Bodyguards—samurai who are trained in "ten thousand ways to kill". Scarface defeats them but they escape before he can finish them off, jumping onto Lucretia's car as she flees.
Lucretia heads for Borgia towers, with Scarface following and killing everyone and everything in his way, including another wave of the Monster Squad and the final bad blood Predator, Stone Heart. Eventually it is revealed that MOTHER is actually Isabella who, along with her son, have aged slowly and kept alive by Scarface's blood.
She reveals both herself and Hunter have been kidnapping and experimenting on Predators. As Scarface prepares to kill Isabella, she activates a shield and unleashes a hive of Xenomorphs against Scarface. Despite this, Scarface disables the generators and wipes out the hive, leaving Isabella defenseless. Isabella reveals her unnatural love for Scarface - saying that Hunter was just a 'stunted weakling' without him. However, Scarface impales her with his Combi-Stick, killing her.
Lucretia runs to her father, discovering to her horror that Hunter has used the Predator's genetic data to slowly transform into a hybrid of Human and Predator. An aggravated Hunter kills Lucretia before Scarface battles Hunter. Lucretia's ronin bodyguards sacrifice themselves to avenge her and assist Scarface in a final battle against Hunter on top of Borgia headquarters and finally onto a statue of Bruno Borgia, with Scarface eventually emerging the victor. Before taking Hunter's head as a trophy, Scarface plays Isabella's voiceover about Hunter been a 'stunted weakling' without Scarface's blood. Scarface uses Hunter's artificial Predator blood to paint his clan sign on the statue of Bruno Borgia before been recovered by his clan on a ship.
In the epilogue, Lucretia is revealed to have survived, been turned into a cyborg by the recently merged Weyland and Yutani corporations, who install her as the new MOTHER computer controlling Neonopolis.

Tags: violence

Review:
I originally played this game when it first came out, and my opinion now that I have seen hundreds more games come and go is quite different, though both opinions are positive.
I recently had the urge to play this game and was able to find a PS2 version, which I play on my Playstation 3, at my local Gamestop.
Originally, I played through the Xbox version.
All I can say is that this game is great!
All I can say is that this game is great!
They make excellent use of the different Predator weapons and gadgets, and some of the levels require you to play with intelligence rather than just running around killing everything in sight.
The controls take some getting used to, but after awhile they have a very natural feel to them and you really start to get the feeling that everybody in the city is a just a pawn for you.
If you are going into this game with the perspective of comparing it to games on the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, you will be sorely disappointed.
The graphics were outstanding for their time and still hold up well.
The animations are very smooth and the transitions are seamless.
You can go from sniping with a spear gun to scanning enemy brains to pick out targets with minimal effort, something which comes in handy in later levels.The story is interesting, maybe not the best thing going for the game, but it's unique enough to make you want to finish the game.
So many games these days focus less on having a plot than providing button mashing opportunities for the 12 year-old crowd.
The game has great replay value if only for trying to get all the secrets and unlockable weapons.
This was made in the days before achievements, where we all played for the love of the game and it's a better game for it.
One thing that I didn't realize I missed until playing this game is that it used to take a really long time to beat a game.
Nowadays, I usually clear an Xbox 360 or PS3 game in a matter of hours.
New games are designed to get you achievements/trophies for the sole purpose of bragging rights and as a result, you get much less of a game.
The achievements are there to keep you interested just long enough to get them so the programmers no longer have to make games like this where they rely on the game play and story to keep the gamer into the game.This game understandably gets mixed reviews.
The controls could put some people off at first, as they take some getting used to, but simply doing the training levels will get you plenty of experience in working with the Predator.
By the end of the first level you will be jumping around the city like a psychotic, plasmacaster wielding monkey on steroids, just stalking your prey at will.
And there is blood, lots and lots and lots of blood.
There's an odd satisfaction in sneaking up behind a guard and ripping him in half while his buddies are unaware of your presence.
They also did a good job of mixing up the variety of enemies.
Simply put, your gadgets won't get you very far if you aren't playing smart.
Some enemies are just brainless drones, par for the course, which you just slaughter mercilessly.
Others, however, have the technology to see right through your cloaking and will actively hunt the hunter.
Knowing the right tool for the current job is a big factor in this game.
Unlike the movies, you don't just go around annihilating everything with the Plasmacaster.
You can, I suppose, but you will get far less game that way.
Overall, if you are looking for a solid Predator game to get you by until Alien vs.
Predator launches in 2010, then this is definitely the game for you.
It's not a game for kids by any means.
I would classify it as one of those games you play in the dark to enhance the overall feel of being a super-hunter preying on a city gone bad.
You should be able to pick it up relatively cheap used at pretty much any game store, as it was very popular when it launched.
In Summary: It's long, it's brutal, it's bloody, it's got an excellent portrayal of the Predator and all his gadgets, it's addictive and it's just a lot of fun.
Enjoy the game!.
Impressive predator feel.
I will not review graphics or sound since you can find more accurate opinions elsewhere.
But lets go to the feeling:1.Story is fine, very original and once you pass the game, you'll really like it.It is not common for AvP games to have such story - so much different from movies and all the franchise.
This brings you somewhere else.
2.Predator character-is just great.Cosutmes are perfect and are partly taken from movies predator,AvP1,predator 2.It gives you great feeling and sometimes I just catch-ed myself observing predator's great look for 10 minutes standing unmasked behind unwarned prey and then performing execution.
3.Yes, executions-wonderful and one of the best thing in the game.Together with...
4.Weapons.Weapons from the game really enrich AVP world.E.g. maul is a thing for master predators and even I know there is acid from aliens killing you slowly when you switch from combistick to maul or glave, I prefer blade weapons, because that is the feeling of hunter.Not mentioning other great stuff.
5.Game is greatly re-playable-you can repeatedly try to hunt 200 aliens or humans in certain levels.Usually, there is no limit to number of enemies you have killed.There is you record of how many you have killed ad what way.It is great to see these statistics.Overall very good game.Any predator fan will love it.Even we have new generation of games, I recommend to buy it anyhow.
It is not relict.
Since Rebellion's 1999 AvP game, there was not as good game catching atmosphere of being predator the way this one does.I even do play it again on xbox360 simply because this game is so enjoyable.And it takes really long long time to finish it.
Which is a plus - in this case..
Awesome Game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
I give this a nine because there is no doubt that the fans won't enjoy this game.
If you just play games that have a training option and you don't do it, I can tell you one thing, on this game, DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!
There is no way you can get the feeling of this game if you don't train, because believe me this is one heck of a game!
If you don't really want to go into story mode just yet, do the training but don't finish it, it will keep you entertained until your ready to go story mode.
When I first played it I didn't really like it because I couldn't get it, but the next day I went back to the controls and away I went, played it for hours that day.
Bottom line it is an extremely entertaining game but if you don't like it when you first play it, play it the next day, trust me you'll like it then..
Hate it or love it....
I bought this game because I'm a huge fan of the predator movies,this is a game which stays true to the predator franchise...it has all the cool sound effects and the weapon's.This is a game that only hardcore fans will like and the person who likes stealth games.If you are not a predator fan then you wont like this game.
As i said the game has got cool sound effects and good weapon's,but the game play becomes very repetitive after a while and the camera is terrible.The graphics are just OK,the predator is very well detailed,but the humans are like game boy characters,blocky and basic.
The gore element in this game is good,body's will become slashed in half and blood pours everywhere.
If you liked Alien VS Predator then you will like the second last level as you have to battle the creatures from the Alien films in an Alien like surrounding.
Overall,this is a game where you either hate it or love it!!.
Good for Fans Only.
The first paragraph contains opening spoilers.
Minor spoiler, but it is a spoiler.In the 1930's, a Yatja (a.k.a Predator), sought glory in his tribe by slaughtering mobsters in the hot climates of Louisiana.
After succeeding in his mission, he made his way back to his ship with his trophy in hand.
As he was about to approach his ship, he becomes trapped and tries to self destruct, but accidentally surviving the explosion.
Man learning about the species because of the explosion, he is banned from his tribe for 100 years.
Then, there is a chance to redeem himself.
He must return to Earth, now the 2030's, and destroy the weapons humanity has created modeled after what the Yatja left behind in the 30's.
That's where the game really begins.
Basically, you play as the Predator trying to restore his honor.The game play for this game takes a little while to get used to, but eventually comes natural.
They have a training section that you use to learn the ropes which is extremely helpful, without it, it would be difficult to play.
Even I still don't understand how everything works, but you learn enough to keep going.
It's hard to get lost in the game since most of the time there is a flashing triangle that tells where to go, which is a good help.
There is first person mode which you can use to get a closer look from far away.The graphics are decent, the movie parts of the game are so detailed it's amazing, and the Predators look like real actors in costume.
The look of the game is very detailed, especially with the Yatja, but not as detailed as the FMV movies.
The Predator and the background look good, but the people could look better.
One of the coolest parts is when you are hurt, you receive damage.
The more you're hurt, the more you're bleeding, if you're not hurt, no blood.All of the weapons that you have seen in the movies are here, the combistick, smart disc, everything!
You also have the famous stealth camouflage.
You live by honor.
You don't kill defenseless people or it hurts your reputation.
If you kill too many innocent people, you will fail your mission.
There are also bonus missions that earn you things like alternate costumes and health upgrades.This game gets mixed reviews.
It's understandable.
When it gets down to it, this game could have been better.
The look is good, but more detail could have been added.
The different visions are difficult to master.
To access different weapons, you have to push the select button, but with no load time in-between pushing select and playing, which is a good thing.
You can't climb up any building you want, just a few specific ones.
So it has a few tedious things, but overall good.Here's the bottom line, if you are a Predator fan, odds are you'll eat this up.
Just being a Predator in a third-person environment with the world at your disposal is fun.
But if you're not much of a Predator fan and you're just a casual gamer, rent this first.
I suggest that fans and non-fans may want to rent it first.
It's good, but there has been mixed reviews.
You'll either like it or hate it, that's for sure.