Developer: Drago Entertainment
Publisher: Ultimate Games
Platform: PC,PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tested on: Switch
Treasure Hunter Simulator – Review
Treasure hunting is something that easily piques the interest of many people. Stories of finding a huge chest of gold or some statue worth a lot, like in Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider, might even get the adrenaline flowing. In reality, these stories are often not much more than someone with a metal detector who goes over the beach or goes into a forest. In Treasure Hunter Simulator, we get the less adventurous version and just go around with a metal detector. This way of searching for treasure is mostly regarded as a fool’s errand for those who are convinced that there is something valuable on the beach. While we aren’t a fan of getting strange looks while showing off our summer body with a metal detector in our hands, we decided to opt for Treasure Hunter Simulator instead.
Story
The story in Treasure Hunter Simulator isn’t a complex one. You, the player, are a person who searches for treasures in different parts of the world to add to your collection or for a paid job. It seems that the story in this game is the same as in many cheap simulator games, and it quickly takes the backseat throughout most of the experience. Even though one of the options is the so-called story mode, it doesn’t feel like they are telling a story. Story mode in this game feels more like a choice between slow progression and everything being unlocked. It’s not uncommon for games such as this to lack any narrative value.
Graphics
The graphics in this game aren’t the best, but that’s not uncommon for ported titles such as this. The quality is low, and everything indicates this was a quick and lazy port, especially considering the amount of clipping we experienced. When digging on a slope, we often glitched out, making what’s under the map visible. The bushes look like they are made out of paper, which also quickly ruins the immersion. All in all, everything feels cheap and unpolished.
Sound
The soundtrack in Treasure Hunter Simulator is alright. The music playing in the background is calm, and it changes depending on the area you find yourself in. The ambient sounds are decent and add to the otherwise relaxing atmosphere of the game. It’s still a barebones experience, but the sound design did get a lot more care and attention than the visuals.
Gameplay
Treasure Hunter Simulator is a first-person simulator game. When we start the game and select to follow the tutorial, we get some easy-to-understand instructions on how the game works. After the tutorial, we go back to the office, and from here on out, your career in treasure hunting begins. The office can be explored a bit, and you can see collections that you can complete. The computer serves as your valuable tool to actually start going on treasure hunts.
Our first job was a cleanup job, which was easy to complete as it used the basics from the tutorial. Use the metal detector when there is a treasure nearby, and go around the region to find items. Once the detector is yellow, we dig. After simply digging twice, we already found our first item. This did sound a bit simple, but it’s the first stage, so we didn’t assume anything bad. Sadly, we already encountered our first visual bug here, the one we already mentioned above. This happened every time we dug something up on a slope. Identifying our finds was easy, and the clean-up process happens automatically. This way, it feels too basic, as we wouldn’t mind getting our hands dirty as well. It would have been great, for example, to clean up the item ourselves.
The way to make progress is by getting money and experience to unlock better detectors and locations. The best way to get those is to complete jobs. Selling some of your unearthed findings does earn you some money, depending on the condition and the rarity of the object. This isn’t the case for the exploration mode, which is basically the creative mode where everything is already unlocked.
Another indication as to why this is a cheap port is how the game handled item selection. You’ll still be working with a regular mouse cursor, the same way you would when picking up the PC version. It’s just tedious having to do this, and seeing this is a Switch port, it would have perhaps been better to have touchscreen controls. Of course, this would require some additional work and effort to be put into this port. The D-Pad also does nothing, which makes things even more of a slog.
Conclusion
Treasure Hunter Simulator is a fairly basic simulator title that received a poor port. The gameplay loop is what you’d expect of games such as this, as you gain experience, level up, spend cash for better tools, and so on. The Switch port graphics are subpar and with many graphical glitches, they fail to impress near the end of the handheld’s lifecycle. The sound design is decent, albeit nothing to write home about. Menu navigation is tedious due to the game still sticking to its original mouse controls with no touchscreen functionalities. If you have the option to pick up the original, we suggest doing so, as this port is forgettable and very rough around the edges.
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