TheHunter: Call of the Wild Review (suedcrown)
walk for 4 hours, shoot animal, track for another 4 hours, shoot animal or find dead body, shove dead body into bag, display it's face on your walls.
This game is a walking simulator, not a hunting simulator. Go have fun.
My review wasn't really clear so I'm adding this on to it. Do not expect to be shooting animals left and right in this game. I went in expecting it to be easy and not at all time consuming. Watching those videos where people seemingly find animals in minutes and expecting it to be the same for you is bad expectations. they can edit the videos, you can't edit real, live gameplay. You should expect to walk more than you shoot, or use callers and lures more. sometimes callers don't even attract anything. Only buy DLC if you are sure you are going to be playing for a long time. I do recommend the weapon packs and equipment packs before you go to different reserves with completely different animals. Do expect to be attacked sometimes by animals. you are not the only thing that can fight, if you are looking for a more easy and less time consuming hunting game you should play "Hunting Simulator" either the second one or first one, it is on most devices and easy for anyone to get into and is less grindy than this. If you think I enjoy the walking for hours before you see an animal, I don't, you probably wont either. the best way to find animals is just to set a marker and walk in that direction. there are tons of guides for new players. Sometimes the nature is beautiful and it's fun to enjoy it in-game, but do not buy the game just to look at the birds, because the bears will kill you. don't buy the game if you are looking for a quick and easy "shoot and kill that deer" type of game. If you are okay with spending large amounts of times, and looking at the nature before being able to kill anything, buy the game. There are some animals you will come across, but you can't shoot because you don't have the right ammo. this game is the definition of boring. I like the game for the hunting aspect, which takes hours to get to. should I have rated this a negative review? probably. Did I? no. This game is not for people who only want to look at the trees. this game is for people who are fine spending hours looking for animals in different landscapes. Of course the ATV DLC makes it much easier to move around but it scares animals. Like I said, this game is for people who REALLY want to explore for hours and shoot an animal. This game tries to capture realism, and it does it well. I think this game portrays hunting well because of the long times you spend tracking, the scales of the maps, the amount of times you just won't hit a shot or will barely kill something, or the times when you call an animal for 30 minutes and it doesn't work at all.
The trophy system is not easy and will make you want to break your own fingers. You might need to spend money on a dlc to get a hunting lodge for your trophies (which I recommend if you need more space or if you buy a new reserve dlc) There are some trophies that need one animal but sometimes you have a high expansion ammo and it just completely hits the wrong organ and now you cant taxidermise it. you might hit it's head because your used to all the shooter games (when you should be aiming behind the shoulder) and you can't put it up on that wall. there are also special trophies that need even more animals of different genders and species. if you seek to get all trophies, you will probably need to pray to whoever you believe in to even find the animals you want. the only animals worth taxidermising is a special animal, like a diamond or a rare coat. You will work your ass off just trying to find it's tracks.
I can't stress this enough: DO NOT BUY THE GAME TO LOOK AT THE BIRDS AND THE TREES. Buy the game for a realistic hunting experience, in which this game aims to give you. there are plenty of hunting games that are easier, and much quicker than this game. sure a lot of them are straight garbage and won't really be fun, but this is the best hunting game out there as of 2024, in terms of realism. If your computer can't handle it, get a different game or get it on a console. In conclusion, this game is not for the feint of heart, and is only for people who want a realistic experience.
That is all from me, I may edit the review more if I feel I did not get my point across. Let me know if there's any more you want from me.