Maneater: Truth Quest Review (Lilith)
If you would like to see the TL;DR, please scroll to the bottom for the ⚖️Verdict.
📝What is Maneater: Truth Quest?
What you get with this DLC is simple. Truth Quest adds a new zone with five exclusive Infamy Ranks, some new enemy types, a new set of shark evolution parts, and new collectibles/objectives. It also increases the level cap from 30 -> 40, and has a new, somewhat short storyline, with additional narration by Chris Parnell.
The new zone is a military complex called Plover Island. It looks about how it sounds, and is separated from the rest of the map by a loading screen, which leads to it feeling quite isolated and uninteresting, but YMMV. You can find more of the base game's landmarks, nutrient caches, and license plates here, and the new Infamy Ranks will have you facing off against a handful of military enemy types, including helicopters. The new narration ties everything together, and is the best part of the content included, in my opinion.
After you finish the main story objectives at Plover Island, you will be tasked with doing a sort of victory lap around the original zones before a final boss encounter that concludes the DLC. This final boss can be very difficult if tackled as intended, or exceedingly easy if you abuse your abilities, which is about par for the course for Maneater in general.
All of that said, I think it would take you less than 2 hours to finish the main story of Truth Quest. In my ~4h completion of Truth Quest, the bulk of my time was spent doing the same mundane revenge/hunt objectives, and reaching 100% with the new collectible (Questers) and objective (Time Trials) that retroactively appear in the original map, both of which being awful.
✔️The Good
+ More Maneater
If you just couldn't get enough of the base game, this is more of the same, essentially. More levels, more collectibles, more narration, etc.
+ New Atomic Evolution
A new mutation for your shark that lets you fire a laser from your mouth, and is incredibly overpowered
❌The Bad
- Short
Between the story, optional objectives, and game crashes, Truth Quest totalled less than ~4h of gameplay for me. I think that most people will finish in less time, considering the pointless optional objectives likely accounted for over 50% of the runtime
- Tedious
Nothing about Truth Quest adds anything new and exciting. It's all the same fluff of the original, but boiled down into mind numbing objectives. You will have to eat hundreds of sailors to progress, with nothing changing between
- Questers/Time Trials
Speaking of tedious, the new collectible and mission type are a waste of time. Questers can be above OR below the water, and don't appear on sonar at all. You will scour the world aimlessly for quite a while to find them. And Time Trials just don't really make sense for Maneater. It wasn't fun or engaging in the slightest to race the clock, and I imagine some people struggling with the janky above-water controls
❔Your Mileage May Vary
~ Story
Personally, I was completely tuned out, so I have no determination here. Maybe the wild conspiracy theories of the narrator will capture you more in Truth Quest than even the base game
~ Plover Island Complex
The new map is... okay. I don't think it's very interesting, but it might be someone's favorite
⚖️The Verdict
The base game, while entertaining in its own right, had some tedium to it. For some reason, this DLC does nothing but amplify that tedium under a $15 USD price tag. I completed it from start to finish in an afternoon, and in the process of writing this review, I've already forgotten the majority of my experience. This DLC should be a free inclusion with the base game, and its current state reminds me of similarly lazy DLC addons from generations past. Even on sale at $5 USD, I would hesitate to recommend anyone spend their day with Truth Quest.