Hunting Simulator

Disclaimer: I have only played the single-player content, since I'm not interested in multi-player gaming.

What first attracted me to this game was the open-world environments and my fondness for sniping games. I was hoping for something really immersive, with a decent amount of depth and plenty of content.

Let's start with the negatives shall we: in the Campaign mode the missions have a time-limit attached to them, there's the occasional pop-up of flowers when looking through your scope, the lack of a more detailed tutorial. The above listings however, had no significant impact on my experience, and are not bad enough to warrant a lesser rating. They feel more like nitpicks when I take the whole experience into account.

In fact, my biggest complaint about this game concerns the game's title, since it's rather boring to simply name something 'X simulator'. They should have called it something more fun and unique, as it would have added more personality to the game. Also, with its current title it can easily find itself being grouped together with the plethora of half-assed games with 'simulator' in their title, which I feel would be highly unfair to this particular game.

So let's look at the positives then, which are abundant:

A lengthy Campaign consisting of 100+ missions. If you only aim for the main objective, for example 'shoot a deer', you can complete a mission in 15-30 minutes. However if you aim for the secondary objectives, for example 'shoot a rabbit as well' or 'kill the animal by hitting it in a vital area', you can easily spend 1-3 hours on a single mission. If you enjoy sniping you'd want to do these extra objectives, they are a fun additional challenge. As a result, the Campaign can easily last you a hundred hours or so. As a single-player gamer I couldn't be happier about this, it's awesome.

Note that this does not take into account the other game modes, like the free-roam/sandbox mode, or the multiplayer. So there's lots of content here.

A rich and diverse range of settings. From Texan plains, rocky mountains, coastal rainforests, deserts, arctic tundra and so on. Each temperate zone has its own unique atmosphere, climate, and set of animals. They also come with their own unique challenges as far as gear and tactics go. It all adds up to a highly varied experience.

The gameplay mechanics feel solid; the controls are smooth and reliable. Moving about does not feel clumsy or stocky. Keep in mind this is a stealth game, you are not supposed to run around like crazy as in a Call of Duty or Battlefield game. The shooting mechanics remind me of the Sniper Elite and Ghost Warrior games, and is just as good in my opinion.

Randomness. While the target animals are always located somewhere within a specific region of the map, the map is big enough to make it a challenge finding them. The wind direction however, is random every time you enter a map. How the wind behaves dictates the path you take and perhaps even what tactic to use. This also adds to the variety and challenge of the game.

Visually the game looks really good, however don't expect it to look like Horizon Zero Dawn, the budgets behind these two games are vastly different. Still, I do think the game looks very attractive, the lighting effects in particular are very nice. It adds to the whole romanticism of the hunt.

Depth of animal behaviour. I'm not a hunter, so I can't tell if the way animals behave in the game is realistic or not. However, for a video game they feel realistic enough to be convincing. If you make too much noise or don't hide well enough, animals will start fleeing the area. Some animals you can get relatively close to, others will spot you very easily. Every animal in the game behaves diferently from the others, that's impressive to me. The result is that each map in the game does feel like its own little ecosystem.

A wide range of weapons and gear. As you make progress you'll unlock more weapons and hunting gear. It has a long list of rifles and shotguns to eventually choose from, as well as different kinds of scopes. There's also a wide range of scent-types and lures to pick up. Each rifle has its real-life attributes concerning range and damage. It's a big list of things to unlock, which adds to the sense of accomplishment you seek as a gamer.

Good atmospherics. The game has daytime- and nighttime transitions, all kinds of weather effects (snow, rain, etc), and sounddesign that is tailor-made for each location. This is definitely a game you should play with your headphones on, to osmose yourself with the surroundings. It's a quiet and relaxing-yet-tense type of game, a "focused calm" if you will.

A good sense of progression. What made me want to move forward in the game was the immersion of the environments, the excitement of unlocking new stuff, the fun of hunting a prey, and the extra challenge of having multiple objectives. I think they made a very good job of keeping you hooked as a player.

Adjustable difficulty or realism. The game gives you the option to play it as "hardcore " as you want; for example, if you don't want trails to be marked for you on the map or the screen, you can deselect that option and only use your "naked" eyes. By default the game has the assists on.

To conclude: quality simulators are difficult to find, and this is a very good one, as it has content, depth and quality. For what this game is then, it's excellent; it gave me exactly what I was hoping for, together with a few positive surprises. It's one of my favourite games from 2017.