Primal Hunt was released to extend AvP2 (developed by Third Law Entertainment). The pack included several new weapons (dual pistols and sentry guns for human players; energy flechette for Predator players), new indigenous wildlife and new multiplayer maps. Its single player campaign also tied up several loose ends in the story of AvP2 (including the identity and nature of the artifact sought by the corporates in AvP2). However, factors such as the shortness of the single player campaign, and the sometimes clumsy nature of the pack's additions limited its appeal.
Setting
The expansion takes place in two time periods. The first is roughly five hundred years before the events in AVP2. The second time period is in 2230, about five weeks before the beginning of the Alien's game in AVP2.
In both time periods, the game takes place on the planet LV-1201, the site of AVP2. The expansion revisits the Forward Observation Pods, a group of elevated habitation modules which comprise one of two main human facilities on the planet. Specifically, the player visits Pod 5, which was destroyed prior to the events in AVP2. The cause of its destruction is revealed in the expansion. The player also visits "Zeta Site," a portion of a Xenomorph hive alluded to in the main game. Zeta Site contains Pilot technology and Predator ruins.
Characters
The player can choose from three characters, each of which plays a different role in the expansion's intertwining storyline.
- Major Dunya is a member of the Iron Bears, a mercenary group employed by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to maintain security on LV-1201. She also plays a small but important role in AVP2 as a non-playable character. She is engaged to Dimitri, a fellow Iron Bear.
- The Ancient Predator was the first of his species to hunt on LV-1201. He discovered a hive of xenomorphs there, and his clan quickly built a facility among the hive from which to organize their hunts. When the hive facility was breached, he was accidentally put into stasis while trying to make repairs.
- The Predalien started life as a facehugger which assaulted the Ancient Predator as they went into stasis. It birthed from his chest five hundred years later in the human-built Pods.
Two other characters also play important roles.
- General Rykov is the leader of the Iron Bears, who runs an operation smuggling Pilot technology off-planet behind the facility administrator's back. He sends Dunya on a mission to retrieve one such piece of technology at the beginning of her campaign. He plays a crucial role in AVP2; he is the final enemy faced by the Predator Prince.
- Dimitri is Dunya's fiance, who is endangered by xenomorphs in the expansion. He appears briefly in AVP2 before he is killed by xenomorphs. His death gives Dunya part of her motive for her actions in that game.