Developer: Neopica
Publisher: Bigben Interactive
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch
Tested on: Nintendo Switch
Hunting Simulator (Switch) – Review
We have yet another simulator, which is lovely for people who actually like the genre. BigBen Interactive ‘surprised’ us with the release of Hunting Simulator on the Nintendo Switch, and why wouldn’t they? The concept is beautiful! Getting to know the thrill of the hunt through a digital experience. Sadly, if we are completely honest, when we entered the game it was one big disappointment. Lack of dividing their attention equally on every aspect of games is still a struggle at a lot of development bureaus, such a shame.
Story
When we entered the game, the excitement hit us, would it be a simulator with a storyline? You get to choose from five different hunters which each have a specific background. And then you enter the quest hub, yikes, not even an intro story for your character. We get the concept ‘simulator’, but: ‘Boom, here are your quests, enjoy killing the animals.’ Seems like the story developers just lack creativity, or maybe just weren’t hired at all.
Graphics
Well here we go again, even the graphics are really disappointing. Tell me, if one of the main aspects of the game is crouching on the underground, why don’t you make it at least a little bit nice to look at? Instead, they used one texture for each different type of soil and a few blades of grass. The trees and the very limited amount of different flowers are also of low quality and the animation of your character is bad. She/he floats in the air, doesn’t even look natural when she/he crouches and runs kind of weird. But we were talking about a hunter game, the animals will be nice right? NO, don’t hope for it, if we wanted to look at PS2 graphics this was indeed the game of our dreams, but that isn’t the case. The rifles and guns look decent. But that’s about all.
Sound
It will be easy to say this is one of the better parts of the game. We don’t get any background music in this game. Only the noises surrounded by a true hunter are hearable, like birds, wind, rain and animal noises. It’s only such a shame that when you move on different types of underground, they sound exactly the same.
Gameplay
Hunting simulator is, like the title refers to, a simulator game. This means that the team behind it tried to recreate the feeling of the hunt. This game is rather slow-paced, the animals can hear you from a great distance and if you aren’t laying low at that particular moment you will scare them away.
The controls, mechanics and menus of the game are rather straightforward. You’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly. When you start off with your campaign, you’ll only have a handful of weapons at your disposal. Each weapon has a mark of which animals it can kill. Be sure to take this into account when you are starting a quest. The quests are pretty much all the same as you’ll need to kill one or more animals. With the quests, you can also receive secondary objectives like: Kill it from a hundred meter distance, shoot it in the heart, etc.
When you complete the quest you’ll get a score based on the precision of your shot, vital parts are worth more points and stomach kills give you penalty points, which of course reduces your score. After each quest you’ll have a chance to unlock an environment or a weapon, this will be chosen for you. A nice gimmick in this version of the game is that you’ll be able to go to your trophy cottage, it will be filled with every sort of animal you killed. Heads are mounted on the wall and smaller animals will be stuffed and placed on different parts of the ground. If you want to look at your trophies, just scroll down the menu in your cottage. Because if you just want to look around it will be incredibly hard to get a good camera angle.
This all sounds very promising, but reality is always a deal breaker. When you start off your campaign and your first quest, it won’t be easy. The animals are skilled with the most powerful ability ‘super hearing’ and unless you are laying on the ground and crawling your way near the animal they will hear you coming (from/for) over hundred meters away. Another fun fact, they will warn their animal buddies so every single animal will be leaving the area… You also cannot jump, you just get stuck behind a rock. When you finally have your prey insight you really need to hold your breath, aim carefully at your target and kill it before you run out of breath or you will shoot the bullet when it isn’t focussed at the animal anymore. If missing the shot isn’t enough, you’ll also see all of the animals leave the area, again. Don’t bother killing other animals when you’re doing a quest, you can’t even loot them or get a trophy out of them.
If the campaign is just not the way you like to play, you’ll always have a shot in the Free Hunt mode. Sadly, there will be more animals you can’t kill than the ones you can, taking into account which gun you chose and which guns are available in your arsenal, which can be expanded by playing, oh wait, the campaign…
Conclusion
Hunting simulator tries very hard to shine. With great ambition but a poorly execution of the game we just were not convinced by this title. It lacks a lot of work in every aspect of the game, which is a pity. With a bit more effort it actually can be an AAA game, but keep in mind, the team behind it will need to do a lot of work story-wise, even if it’s just a small introduction story, on the graphical prowess, and on the game’s overall mechanics.
Hunting Simulator (Switch) - Review,
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