The Hunter: Call of the Wild
First Impression Review
We open to a beautiful forest scene. Take a few steps around to get familiar with movement. Wow this is beautiful I tell myself.
The first task, is to find and hunt an animal, which seems fitting for a hunting game. So I move around a little bit, and try to get a handle on the controls. Okay, seems pretty straight forward, lets see what we can find. Moving around in this open world seems very fluid, and comfortable, and then I come across my first task. Directly in front of me, down a small hill there is a deer, this is what we came for. Take my time, get in position, slowly, creeping forward to get a good line of sight.
*Snap*.....
Stepped on a twig... the deer perks up, and bounds away.
Damn.
Apparently this game has a ton of mechanics that I would never have thought to be in a video game. Okay, lets try to get this mission out of the way, I am sure that I can find another animal to shoot somewhere around here. As I walk forward, I come across the tracks from the deer that I spooked a few moments ago. Okay, well maybe I can have another chance to get that same deer. I begin tracking this animal, it takes me for a trek through the woods, probably close to 1 km before I can find her. There she is, in the middle of a small clearing standing still not too far out of range, but not close enough to get a kill shot for certain, so again I will have to creep closer. Ever so cautiously, making sure i do not step on any twigs, or collide with tree branches as I slowly move ever closer to the target. Up comes the rifle, up comes the scope. Clear shot.
*BOOM* the rifle goes off.
She twitches a bit, and bounces off into the tree line again. How could that be? I am certain that the bullet hit the target, perhaps there is more to this than I am reading. I move in to inspect where the deer was when I took my shot. Oh, what is this? Blood.... I inspect the blood patch and it informs me that the bleed rate is very low, but that informs me that I have indeed hit the target, so now its time to track her. I follow the deer tracks through the trees, into another small clearing, and then into the trees again, and after about 400 m, I find the trophy. My first kill. Upon inspecting the trophy it informs me that the bullet did in fact hit, but no contact with vital organs or the spine, which means that it was not an instant kill.
Using this information for my next target, after tracking a deer through the woods, and across a river, and into a field for approximately 20 minutes in real time, I had more experience. Also having played around with some buttons while tracking and messing around, I came to find out that one can actually zoom in the scope. Great! Now i wont have to push so close to the deer to be able take a shot. Safely from the tree line, hidden in cover, I wait. The deer saunters around casually, and I keep my patience in check. Finally the deer stops, and perks its head up.
*BOOM* the rifle goes off.
The deer drops immediately. Excellent. I walk over to inspect the trophy. The shot came in at a perfect angle and hit the spine killing the animal immediately.
Game Overview
After deciding on a whim to buy this game and play it without having any previous knowledge of it, other than word of mouth that it was the most realistic hunting experience a video game has ever offered, to which I do not have much experience, as I have not played any, I am quite satisfied with the first few hours of playing theHunter. I will say immediately that this game is not for everyone. This game requires something very specific to be able to enjoy it, and that is patience. On some hunts, it can take upwards of 30 minutes to even see an animal to shoot, and all it takes is one twig, one shrub, one tree to spook the animal and waste all the effort that was spent tracking it.
While the game does offer some basic information as to how to play, and what to do, I will say that it does not give much information. I had to play around with the controls for a while before I was able to understand how to switch between equipment, and as pointed out earlier here, I was not even aware that I could zoom in on the scope on my rifle until accidentally pushing a button while looking through the scope.
This game does have so much to offer anyone that wants to experience hunting in a video game, I have not even come across a list of all of the animals that can be hunted, but what I am aware of is many different types of Deer, Elk, Moose, Bears, Fox, Coyotes, Boars, Rabbits and Geese, and I imagine there are more that I have not discovered yet.
From my initial impressions I will certainly recommend this game to anyone that would be interested in a hunting video game. Also will perform a more in-depth complete review when I have played for more hours to get a final opinion on the game.
First Impression Review
We open to a beautiful forest scene. Take a few steps around to get familiar with movement. Wow this is beautiful I tell myself.
The first task, is to find and hunt an animal, which seems fitting for a hunting game. So I move around a little bit, and try to get a handle on the controls. Okay, seems pretty straight forward, lets see what we can find. Moving around in this open world seems very fluid, and comfortable, and then I come across my first task. Directly in front of me, down a small hill there is a deer, this is what we came for. Take my time, get in position, slowly, creeping forward to get a good line of sight.
*Snap*.....
Stepped on a twig... the deer perks up, and bounds away.
Damn.
Apparently this game has a ton of mechanics that I would never have thought to be in a video game. Okay, lets try to get this mission out of the way, I am sure that I can find another animal to shoot somewhere around here. As I walk forward, I come across the tracks from the deer that I spooked a few moments ago. Okay, well maybe I can have another chance to get that same deer. I begin tracking this animal, it takes me for a trek through the woods, probably close to 1 km before I can find her. There she is, in the middle of a small clearing standing still not too far out of range, but not close enough to get a kill shot for certain, so again I will have to creep closer. Ever so cautiously, making sure i do not step on any twigs, or collide with tree branches as I slowly move ever closer to the target. Up comes the rifle, up comes the scope. Clear shot.
*BOOM* the rifle goes off.
She twitches a bit, and bounces off into the tree line again. How could that be? I am certain that the bullet hit the target, perhaps there is more to this than I am reading. I move in to inspect where the deer was when I took my shot. Oh, what is this? Blood.... I inspect the blood patch and it informs me that the bleed rate is very low, but that informs me that I have indeed hit the target, so now its time to track her. I follow the deer tracks through the trees, into another small clearing, and then into the trees again, and after about 400 m, I find the trophy. My first kill. Upon inspecting the trophy it informs me that the bullet did in fact hit, but no contact with vital organs or the spine, which means that it was not an instant kill.
Using this information for my next target, after tracking a deer through the woods, and across a river, and into a field for approximately 20 minutes in real time, I had more experience. Also having played around with some buttons while tracking and messing around, I came to find out that one can actually zoom in the scope. Great! Now i wont have to push so close to the deer to be able take a shot. Safely from the tree line, hidden in cover, I wait. The deer saunters around casually, and I keep my patience in check. Finally the deer stops, and perks its head up.
*BOOM* the rifle goes off.
The deer drops immediately. Excellent. I walk over to inspect the trophy. The shot came in at a perfect angle and hit the spine killing the animal immediately.
Game Overview
After deciding on a whim to buy this game and play it without having any previous knowledge of it, other than word of mouth that it was the most realistic hunting experience a video game has ever offered, to which I do not have much experience, as I have not played any, I am quite satisfied with the first few hours of playing theHunter. I will say immediately that this game is not for everyone. This game requires something very specific to be able to enjoy it, and that is patience. On some hunts, it can take upwards of 30 minutes to even see an animal to shoot, and all it takes is one twig, one shrub, one tree to spook the animal and waste all the effort that was spent tracking it.
While the game does offer some basic information as to how to play, and what to do, I will say that it does not give much information. I had to play around with the controls for a while before I was able to understand how to switch between equipment, and as pointed out earlier here, I was not even aware that I could zoom in on the scope on my rifle until accidentally pushing a button while looking through the scope.
This game does have so much to offer anyone that wants to experience hunting in a video game, I have not even come across a list of all of the animals that can be hunted, but what I am aware of is many different types of Deer, Elk, Moose, Bears, Fox, Coyotes, Boars, Rabbits and Geese, and I imagine there are more that I have not discovered yet.
From my initial impressions I will certainly recommend this game to anyone that would be interested in a hunting video game. Also will perform a more in-depth complete review when I have played for more hours to get a final opinion on the game.
Courtesy of XGC Axecident - XG News Team Writer
