Developer: Raylight Games
Publisher: KISS ltd, Maximum Games
Platform: PC
Deer Hunt Legends – Review
If you’ve always wanted to become a hunter, or you simply want to shoot things other than humans and aliens, Deer Hunt Legends from Raylight Games is certainly the game to play. Except, you cannot take the game all too serious for it also has some very extinct, yet vicious dinosaurs in very beautiful and realistic crafted landscapes.
Story
There is no storyline in Deer Hunt Legends. The game focuses purely on the gameplay that is all about shooting wild animals, including some rare ones that some believed to be extinct.
Graphics
In all fairness, the visuals are outstanding. Both the animals and the foliage of the landscapes are beautiful and the animations are great, although repeated often. There is a certain realism to the graphics, except for the extinct animals you will face such as the T. Rex dinosaur. The game is not a third person, nor is it a first person shooter since you never see your gun.
Sound
The ambiance sound in the menu is an instrumental sound on a constant loop, one you’d rather switch off than on. Luckily the ambiance sound during gameplay isn’t an annoyance. Animals you’ve shot all have a very distinct sound. This, combined with the clear audio designs of the variation of weapons, make the game quite realistic.
Gameplay
While it is a shooter, the player is not able to move across the given landscapes. The player, or in this case the hunter, can only change their viewing angles which is done with WASD.
As for the gameplay, there are four regions you can go to as a hunter. Each of these regions have five hunting areas and each area has two levels to complete. Certain levels have an extra level. Upon completing the extra level, the hunter gains a skill point which can be used to ‘upgrade’ any of the following: precision, reloading time, heart rate and health. The last level of each region is a boss level where you will be facing rare animals such as the Smilodon, the T. Rex and Gastornis.
The variation of the animals you’ll be facing is dependent on the region you’ll be hunting in. The Great Lakes region will have dire wolves, does, deer and moose as well as some rabbits and feathered creatures. The Rocky Mountains on the other hand houses mountain lions, bears, critters and a few of the previous ones. Some of these animals will never make a move on you but there are a few such as the dire wolves and moose that will hunt the hunter, giving the game a more dangerous edge.
You are given clear objectives for each level which need to be completed within a given time limit. Given the large variation of animals, there is a healthy variation in the objectives in the game: avoid killing does, kill the dangerous species, tag animals, shoot animals without letting them come too close, kill them in a vital position and a few others. Certain objectives are not always clear from the start, especially if you do not know the difference between a deer and a doe but you’ll learn that eventually since points are deducted when you do something ‘wrong’ – a mechanic most will remember from the classic Duck Hunt game on Nintendo consoles. This is best explained with an example of an objective where you have to tag wolves. Accidentally killing wolves, or tagging other animals, will give you penalty points which in the end will be deducted from your total.
The game is clearly a hunter game and with that comes a small arsenal of weapons. While you cannot make your own loadout, the game does provide the necessary weapons needed to complete the job such as a tag rifle, sniper rifle, crossbow, shotgun and a handgun. Additionally, animals have a chance of dropping power-ups such as health packs, camouflage, moose spray, extra ammo and much more.
The above sums up the gameplay but if the hunter dies, the game is pretty much over for the player. You can still go through your trophies and skills but you cannot hunt in the world anymore. However, as the game tells you that you do not have enough lives, it also asks you if you want to go to the shop. A feature that simply doesn’t work, which brings up the question, why add in a non-working store?
Conclusion
Deer Hunt Legends is a good hunting sports game, which might learn you a thing or two about wildlife animals, but you cannot take it serious due to the dinosaurs in the game. You won’t be playing the game for hours and hours as the game does get repetitive after a while but the game has a healthy dose of variation of animals, weapons, objectives and scenery for it to be enjoyable for a short period.
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