This Switch port runs surprisingly well, with most slowdown resigned to menu navigation rather than actual hunting gameplay. It’s a system designed to make you get the most out of one map at a time, but considering most are sparsely populated collections of rocks and trees, the result is an experience that fails to consistently reward those without the time-honed patience of a veteran virtual hunter. You also have to complete all the hunting challenges on a map - which require you to kill and collect the carcasses of specific species - in order to unlock the next. Considering much of the game’s core premise is based on investing a great deal of time - from slowly crawling around a map, to setting up the perfect shot - this unreliable tracking system too often ruins a hunt. Bodies will appear on your HUD, but hurt animals often disappear as they bolt from the map. These tracking spots are instead generated by the game in advance, presenting you with a rough circle on your map where your chosen target species may be grazing.Įven if you wound an animal, there’s no blood trail to follow, which is doubly frustrating if you strike an animal but fail to mortally wound it. Your own avatar - which can be chosen from a series of laughably poor character models in the menu - leaves tracks, yet for whatever reason, your prey does not. In fact, the beasts themselves don’t make any tracks at all. The problem is, these tracks aren't made by animals in real time. These are usually droppings, which when checked, will reveal the type of animal, the amount of time elapsed since they were made and a few seconds of tracks to show you in which direction the animal went. When you enter a map for the first time, you’ll see a series of white marks scattered across the map. Meanwhile, bears or wolves can smell you a mile off, so you’ll need to use a chalk-like item in your inventory to check the direction of the wind to ensure your scent isn’t needlessly alerting them to your gun-toting presence.Ĭombined together, those two elements of Hunting Simulator are immensely rewarding, but they’re let down by an artificial tracking system that robs each map of a true sense of life. Deer, for instance, have exceptional hearing so you’ll need to crawl to a good vantage spot. The myriad species that populate its 32 maps (which cover everything from the mountains of Colorado to the snowy drifts of Alaska) all boast very different levels of perception. There’s no consideration given to bullet drop or wind sway, so at its core, you’ll simply hold your breath and shoot, a successful shot producing a Sniper: Ghost Warrior / Sniper Elite-style bullet cam. For instance, the gunplay is quite forgiving. The game’s own mechanics are often at odds with one another, the strength of one system ultimately dragged down by the mediocrity of another. You’ll boast a couple of shotguns or sniper rifles at any one time but you’ll use them sparingly. You can sprint, but you’ll never use it (not unless you want every animal on the map to immediately run like the clappers). To get the most out of it you need to leave your usual shooter muscle memories at the door. It's an experience that demands a great deal of patience. This is the anti- DOOM a slow, measured experience that purposely makes you take care with every step, punishing you for making too much noise or failing to take note of the wind when it changes. If you are a shooter fan, this is not the kind of fast-paced, death-dealing frag fest you’re used to.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |