Welcome to our review of Hunting Simulator on Nintendo Switch, do you have with it takes to become the best hunter?
A true simulation of hunting, Hunting Simulator offers players hours and hours of immersion in the open wild with single and multiplayer modes, a multitude of hunting areas, and hundreds of objectives to accomplish. Developed using the Unreal 4 Engine, the game presents some of the most well-known hunting regions such as the mountains of Colorado, the oak forests of France, and the snowy plains of Alaska. Each hunting area is populated by numerous different and realistic looking animals, each possessing an authentic set of behaviors.
Featuring no less than 37 wild animals on your way to become the best hunter out there. Setting out in 12 regions and over 100 different items at your disposal, Hunting Simulator has a lot of variety to offer and I have to say, I was impressed in my original gameplay and at the same time very annoyed.
When you start off, you are led through a big tutorial which might feel lengthy but do pay attention as it teaches you everything to get going. From learning to hold your breath to stabilize your gun so you can shoot your target to running around and sneaking up on animals. It is imperative that you pay attention because the details in the tutorial are beyond reproach.
Once you get out to the wild and past the tutorial, you got a mission to finish which is usually shooting a specific type of animal. So let’s say we need to shoot a deer as our example. There are a few deer in the area you walk around in, but you will mostly encounter other animals, like sheep or foxes or turkeys.
It takes the clues from the game to find out what way to run off to and once you get closer, make sure you spot the target before they spot you. So you will do a lot of running around and taking aim just to see what is really around you. At times I really hated this part. A clue saying you were 2 hours out from your target and the next one still saying two hours and so on. As if I was running around in circles when suddenly I spot the deer.
I take aim and immediately do the stop breathing skill. I used motion controls because they are more responsive to my personal preference and I shoot. I miss. I missed a lot of bullets, as I assume the real game to be, mind you I do not hunt in real life, nor will I ever. On a game, sure, but actually hurting an animal, that is something that is not in my personality.
I take aim a second time, this time the deer is running away, uphill even. Suddenly my bullet goes into action time. I see the bullet approach the target and it hit the deer. Sadly the deer was not killed. It still ran off. I pursued and ended up spotting a fox. I manage to take it out but I lost track of the deer again.
Remembering where it went off to, I decide to approach from the top side in the direction the deer ran off to. I do not see it anymore. I wonder if I did something wrong. I just completely lost track of it.
Suddenly I see it again. Looking right at me. I aim and realize I am out of bullets, so I try to reload as soon as possible. Thankfully, the deer is still there, so I take aim again. This time I managed to take it down. I won the level and I suddenly realized I just hunted a deer for the past 50 minutes.
I realized the game really immersed me in its atmosphere. Which is the amazing thing.
The annoying thing however, following clues without any sign of where the target really is. I feel there is too much mindless wandering around, which I am sure is an added layer of realism to the game, but it annoyed me. Even the free hunt mode did not just have an option to get “more animals” for easier target practicing.
But all in all, I had a good time with this game, surprisingly. With a few exceptions in mind, the majority of hunting simulators never fully appealed to me. But this one, it did keep me playing for a lot longer than I expected. I even stayed up playing in bed till 2 am, my wife asleep next to me and I was hunting a cursed red fox…
In conclusion, this is not the hit game you are looking for, Hunting Simulator games usually attract a very specific crowd. I recorded around 15 minutes worth of free hunting and it will be up on our YouTube channel to give you all an idea of what the game looks and feels like.
For me personally, I enjoyed it and my rating is 75%
