theHunter: Call Of The Wild Review

Hunting is something I'm incredibly conflicted on, I think killing innocent animals is wrong but I also respect how hard hunting actually is. theHunter attempts to cash in on the hunting market, providing players with a huge sandbox to hunt in.

Players start off with a basic set of weapons and through hunting animals and discovering the world, they will then move on to hunting bigger game and earning more money. It's a fairly simple game premise but one that fits hunting quite well.

The first thing I need to mention is the UI. It just about works in a functional sense but it's near unusable if you decide to plug a controller in. It took me almost 15 minutes to figure out how to reload, because rather than auto-filling your ammo when you've purchased more, it makes you take unnecessary steps to put bullets in your gun. I kind of get the concept of marking your ammo feel scarce, as individually loading clips makes you pay attention to the amount you are reloading. In terms of gameplay and flow, it just does not work and feels incredibly unnecessary.

Gameplay is a mix of tracking and shooting. You have to find an animal by either visibly spotting or marking its tracks which will then highlight any subsequent movements. This turns into a game of hide and seek with each animal as players are punished for being too noisy - make too much of it near an animal and they will scarper. It's a great idea as a concept but the delivery could be better especially considering how easy it is to mix the tracks you’re following with that of the other animals that inhabit the world. The biggest issue facing the tracking of animals is just how slowly players move through the world - the sprinting is about as fast as an average game’s movement speed.

The variety of animals on offer is impressive and the developers clearly did a lot of research going into the project. Animals all have their own distinct calls with their own variations that signify what they are currently doing. Unfortunately, the animal AI often stumbles and falls short of what I would expect from a simulation title. Animals often walk into walls, and sometimes they will simply just run directly at you, two things that really break the illusion of this being a hunting game.

Graphically, it's an impressive title. Animals look realistic and emotive alongside colourful and reactive foliage, something that imitates the experience of hunting out in the woods (not that I've ever been). The game is fairly well optimised, giving players the chance to change various aspects of the foliage and lighting effects in order to secure a better framerate.

There is a story that players can follow, but it serves as more of a continuous tutorial that teaches you how to traverse the world. There are also locations and landmarks that players can find around the world, which grant players more insight into the local areas whilst providing experience - encouraging players to find these points in order to level up.

There's an RPG-like levelling up system in the game that grants players perks based on their personal preference and playstyle. They are minor perks that are supposed to make the game slightly easier without making the player overpowered. It's a bit shallow to be honest, and feels like it serves nothing more than giving players an actual goal in the world - rather than going on endless hunts.

At £29.99, it's incredibly hard to recommend theHunter: Call of the Wild. There just isn't enough content to justify spending £10 short of a full retail release. The hunting is fun if that's what you're​ into, but it doesn't take long for you to find the gameplay loop somewhat monotonous. The world itself is incredibly large, but considering you're just there to hunt animals, it doesn't feel as if it makes that much of a difference.

theHunter: Call of the Wild is a game that will appeal to those who have a genuine passion for hunting, but due to the general lack of content, a poor UI and the horrendous movement speed, I don't think those outside of the hunting world will enjoy it.