Screenshots :.
The Hunter
PC
Matt
25-03-2009
"A fine looking game as I am sure you'd agree."
"Your prey react naturally and often hide. Gits."
"TURKEY ATTACK!"
"Could you shoot this? I did."
As curious as this might sound, I think I have found an FPS that’s hugely relaxing and rather calming to play. Running around World War 2 blatting Nazis and reclaiming Europe might be a heck of a lot of fun, granted, but when it comes to something like The Hunter the fun lies elsewhere, in the spirit of one man going alone into a wildlife park to bag himself a deer or turkey. No one can shoot you (unless the deer get guns later on, which I kind of doubt) and there are no landmines waiting to trampoline you into the air minus a few limbs; instead, it’s the camouflaging nature of the surrounding woodland that’s your worst enemy. Oh, and the vast proportion of the game is free too. Bonus.
On paper or in pixelated lettering this might sound slightly dull (apart from the free part, obviously), but it all works really, really well. By going down the route of realism and plonking it straight into a gorgeous-looking setting you kind of become one with your hunter as you plod across the landscape finding clues and chasing after your ever-moving prey, with the moments where you come across whichever variety of wildlife you are aiming to shoot becoming really rather tense. Spending 15 minutes carefully tracking your target and finally bagging him thus becomes somewhat of an addictive pastime.
After a pretty rapid setup process on the game’s website you’re then allowed to download the game and log in to the game’s servers, although at this point in time there’s no multiplayer aspect to be found (one is on the way, possibly). From here you equip your chap with guns, ammo and a peculiar-sounding deer call box that seems to bleat out some sort of noise when you wave it about, as well as a pair of binoculars for the frequent times when you need to pause and scan the horizon for any potential signs of life.
Those expecting to then be plonked into the middle of some sort of deer picnic are in for a bit of a shock, mind, as when you start off near your selected hut location the chances are that it will take at least a dozen or so minutes to even hit upon a trail, be it a collection of deer droppings (lovely) or some muddy hoof prints. Aided by your trusty Hunter Mate (akin to a GPS system that collates info and points you in the general direction of potential targets) you are tasked with following what amounts to a breadcrumb trail until, hopefully, you can aim your sights on a deer.
The good part about all this, though, is that the Hunter Mate is not infallible. Whilst finding tracks and piles of poo will help you in the right general direction (each being market by a slight red haze to make them a little more obvious out in the field), your targets are more often than not still on the move and hence it still feels like an unexpected bonus when you find one off in the distance. Thus, whilst the technology does prod you toward a potential target it’s your own eyes and ears that will end up being your main weapon, which is the way it should be.
It’s because of the above, lumped in with the game’s utterly gorgeous visuals, that the game really shines through as something completely different to other games that it will end up sharing the same genre tag with. Running on the same engine that developers Avalanche used for their 2006 action title Just Cause, the game produces some lovely looking foliage and some fantastic lighting effects, and these aren’t just for show either as you know perfectly well that a potential target could be lost within the scattered greens and browns of the woodland or behind the glare of the sun.
Hence, you end up with something that is really quite serene and gentle for the most part. Of course, once you have spent all that time tracking a deer you do get the old clammy hand syndrome when it comes to lining it up in case the little git runs off into the distance if you startle it (yes, it happened to me more than once), and at the same time it also instils somewhat of a moral dilemma into you. On one occasion I spent a good half hour tracking down what I thought was one deer, only to discover it was two skipping around in a nearby field. Having raised my rifle and taken aim, the sight of them mucking around made me think twice and instead I lowered the rifle, took a snap with FRAPS and left the reserve still feeling pretty satisfied.
Another point that Avalanche should be commended on is the way the game integrates itself with the game’s homepage. You could choose to simply toddle along on a hunt with no mission structure if you wished, but for those wanting a little more progression there are mission that are ‘emailed’ to your character from a task master who wants you to successfully track specific species, get a certain quality of deer etc. With other types of shooters the constant switching from the game to the site might have had a negative affect, but with the nature of the title it really gives it the feel of coming home from a hunt and then heading back out again once you’ve checked your mail and such. The only slight fly in the ointment is that certain sections of the site are currently pretty unresponsive, but one would expect that kind of thing to be ironed out soon enough.
Most of the above content is available as a free download from the game’s site, although if you wish to blat around shooting turkeys and to take advantage of more equipment and animals as they are gradually released than you’ll have to pay a small fee (a one-year pass costs just over £3 a month). Pulse-raising thrill-a-minute stuff it isn’t, but for anyone who wants a more realistic, slow-paced shooter where you have to use your noggin as much as your trigger finger, The Hunter should suit you right down to the ground.
On paper or in pixelated lettering this might sound slightly dull (apart from the free part, obviously), but it all works really, really well. By going down the route of realism and plonking it straight into a gorgeous-looking setting you kind of become one with your hunter as you plod across the landscape finding clues and chasing after your ever-moving prey, with the moments where you come across whichever variety of wildlife you are aiming to shoot becoming really rather tense. Spending 15 minutes carefully tracking your target and finally bagging him thus becomes somewhat of an addictive pastime.
After a pretty rapid setup process on the game’s website you’re then allowed to download the game and log in to the game’s servers, although at this point in time there’s no multiplayer aspect to be found (one is on the way, possibly). From here you equip your chap with guns, ammo and a peculiar-sounding deer call box that seems to bleat out some sort of noise when you wave it about, as well as a pair of binoculars for the frequent times when you need to pause and scan the horizon for any potential signs of life.
Those expecting to then be plonked into the middle of some sort of deer picnic are in for a bit of a shock, mind, as when you start off near your selected hut location the chances are that it will take at least a dozen or so minutes to even hit upon a trail, be it a collection of deer droppings (lovely) or some muddy hoof prints. Aided by your trusty Hunter Mate (akin to a GPS system that collates info and points you in the general direction of potential targets) you are tasked with following what amounts to a breadcrumb trail until, hopefully, you can aim your sights on a deer.
The good part about all this, though, is that the Hunter Mate is not infallible. Whilst finding tracks and piles of poo will help you in the right general direction (each being market by a slight red haze to make them a little more obvious out in the field), your targets are more often than not still on the move and hence it still feels like an unexpected bonus when you find one off in the distance. Thus, whilst the technology does prod you toward a potential target it’s your own eyes and ears that will end up being your main weapon, which is the way it should be.
It’s because of the above, lumped in with the game’s utterly gorgeous visuals, that the game really shines through as something completely different to other games that it will end up sharing the same genre tag with. Running on the same engine that developers Avalanche used for their 2006 action title Just Cause, the game produces some lovely looking foliage and some fantastic lighting effects, and these aren’t just for show either as you know perfectly well that a potential target could be lost within the scattered greens and browns of the woodland or behind the glare of the sun.
Hence, you end up with something that is really quite serene and gentle for the most part. Of course, once you have spent all that time tracking a deer you do get the old clammy hand syndrome when it comes to lining it up in case the little git runs off into the distance if you startle it (yes, it happened to me more than once), and at the same time it also instils somewhat of a moral dilemma into you. On one occasion I spent a good half hour tracking down what I thought was one deer, only to discover it was two skipping around in a nearby field. Having raised my rifle and taken aim, the sight of them mucking around made me think twice and instead I lowered the rifle, took a snap with FRAPS and left the reserve still feeling pretty satisfied.
Another point that Avalanche should be commended on is the way the game integrates itself with the game’s homepage. You could choose to simply toddle along on a hunt with no mission structure if you wished, but for those wanting a little more progression there are mission that are ‘emailed’ to your character from a task master who wants you to successfully track specific species, get a certain quality of deer etc. With other types of shooters the constant switching from the game to the site might have had a negative affect, but with the nature of the title it really gives it the feel of coming home from a hunt and then heading back out again once you’ve checked your mail and such. The only slight fly in the ointment is that certain sections of the site are currently pretty unresponsive, but one would expect that kind of thing to be ironed out soon enough.
Most of the above content is available as a free download from the game’s site, although if you wish to blat around shooting turkeys and to take advantage of more equipment and animals as they are gradually released than you’ll have to pay a small fee (a one-year pass costs just over £3 a month). Pulse-raising thrill-a-minute stuff it isn’t, but for anyone who wants a more realistic, slow-paced shooter where you have to use your noggin as much as your trigger finger, The Hunter should suit you right down to the ground.
8/10
