Could've been great, but good enough
- The most lifelike animals I've ever seen in a video game -- particularly their behavior, modeling, animations, and sound
- Lots of interesting, varied missions and random encounters
- A unique wildlife photography sim. Ability to manually adjust both aperture size and shutter speed with realistic results (eg. motion blur, depth of field, exposure)
- Realistic, positional sound effects of animals & ambient noise, such as wind and water
- Upgradeable cameras with noticeable difference in picture quality
- Interchangeable lenses
- The Big Game Trophy missions are very entertaining & informative with some truly bizarre moments (the giraffe fight is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen)
- Ability to export photos to the hard drive
- Over 100 missions (took me almost 50 hrs to 100% complete)
- Relaxing, zen gameplay. A game to play while listening to the Giant Bombcast
CONS
- Very scripted world. Animal behavior & interactions as well as weather aren't as dynamic as they could've been
- Only five areas to explore, each of which aren't that large
- No voice acting or overall story
- Poorly optimized in general. Doesn't take advantage of the PS3's power
- Low framerate while driving or when quickly looking around
- Takes 2 minutes to load or save. WHY?!
- Environmental textures are very lo-res, which look even worse when set against the hi-res animal models
- Not many missions require using a wide-angle lens. The majority of the time you'll be using a telephoto lens zoomed-in
- Sometimes difficult to spot the Trap Cam positions
- Can't manually control the jeep during night missions
- The 200 photograph limit is too low considering I took over 1,000 photos by the end
- Very niche. Probably won't enjoy this if you're not interested in photography or animals
- PS1-era driving mechanics, presentation, and interface
- Smaller animals, such as lizards and beetles, are difficult to find without using a FAQ
MISC
- The "sneaking & shooting at the perfect moment" gameplay mechanics make it feel like a sniper game
- Rated E 10+. Animals are killed in-game but with no blood shown. However, some of the unlockable National Geographic footage contains graphic animal violence (ex: a lion killing a baby zebra, a leopard biting into a dying impala's neck)
- Easy to get the platinum trophy but requires a lot of time and patience
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