theHunter: Call of the Wild - Review

This is the first time that I have played a hunting simulation game, I had a good idea of what to expect but reserved judgement until I started playing.

I have to admit that it was exactly as I was expecting it to be. Lots of waiting, lots of crouching, and lots of frustration.

These aren't the most exciting of games, and this could be seen within the first 10 minutes of the game. When you start, it takes you through a kind of tutorial to show you how to do the basics of the game, such as learning to use the binoculars, check tracks of animals, and the use of the map.



I saw a deer within the first 10 minutes, then after this, there was around an hour or so of aimless walking around tracing tracks, going back upon myself, checking out fresh droppings, which you would have thought would have meant that the animal in question was quite close. In this case, no, no it wasn't. The funny thing about this was that when I managed to finally see a deer, it was on the other side of this massive lake.... Droppings I had just inspected were 'Very Fresh'.... How fast is this deer?

I managed to ping it from distance with my rifle, in which it ran off, and I was then on the trail of blood... More mindless wandering, especially as I had to walk around the lake and try and keep an eye on the spot that the deer was shot at, just so I can keep the trial. Followed the blood and found nothing, the bleed rate was high, so I was presuming it must have bled out something, but after 10 minutes of following tracks, there was nothing... Literally, everything had stopped, no more footprints from this said Deer, it had vanished into thin air. How does this even happen?

I will give it to the game that the Call of the Wild, it is a very good looking game and the lighting, as well as the weather effects within the game, look good. Lots of detail have been placed into it and it is lovely to sometimes stand in the lookout points which are dotted about the parks just looking at the views.



You have an array of weapons at your disposal from Sniper Rifles, Handguns and the more stealthily ready Crossbow. You start with the Sniper Rifle, which the scope I found on it wasn't the best, as there wasn't much zoom to it, so trying to get animals at distance was a bit of a task. However, you can customise the guns to add different sights etc to them.

However, there is one thing that I can't ignore with this game, and that is the fact that it is very boring. It might be because you need to have a lot of patience for this game. Lots of slow movements, staying in positions for a while so that you can scope out your prey.



I didn't have the patience for this at all, I like to be constantly doing something, and it kind of reminded me of Everyones Gone to the Rapture. Just aimlessly walking around, the only difference with this was that there was an aim to it, however, the amount of time you were walking around following tracks and dropping, didn't make it very inviting.

Another thing within the game, I only ever saw Deers when I was at the first park and I have to admit, I felt like I had walked a thousand miles. I heard foxes cries and everything else but never actually saw them.

There is a multiplayer mode within the game, however, I wasn't able to try this out as I know no one with the game to try it with. There are apparently challenges and other things to do, however, I can't see how hunting with other people would heighten the game? There would be just more people fighting over Deer, and if it's anything like my experience, then a lack of Deer and other animals. Plus there would be a lot more noise to scare off any animals, and there would have to be some good communication.



I'm honestly not sure how there is a market for games like this? It's the same with other simulation games such as farming and the latest one I found, firefighting simulator. I can see that people who are into this type of thing would be interested in it, but at the end of the day, does that amount to enough sales to keep bringing these type of games out?

Like I said above, the appeal to people who are into hunting I can understand, but to myself, I don't see it. Hunting isn't my thing, and it's something that I don't condone, especially when it's hunting for sport.... I now have Mr Burn's from The Simpsons singing See My Vest running through my head....

6/10