Morels: The Hunt Reviews

I've never been so calm.

I ran across this game a few years ago while stuck inside due to Covid. It's a surprisingly good game and I'm still playing it in 2025.

My ATV exploded because a swan punched it, and I kinda loved it. Disclaimer: This is my first long-long review. This review had been collecting dust for a few months now, and since I still think the game deserves some love, I decided to share my feedback and ideas for the developers, as well as some "help" for newcomers who might experience the same bugs I did. After reading their news and health updates, I decided to support them by buying this game on sale. I fell in love with it and was hyped for the sequel... but I'm confused about some development decisions, and I'm not sure if they have been addressed in the sequel. Let’s be honest, the game is super chill, and "tryharding" can ruin your relaxing experience. Maybe that’s why I’m not 100% sure about recommending it - because I was searching for animals that only spawn later in the game and got really frustrated not finding them early. While the game is truly relaxing, I think some information could be disclosed earlier via a book in the game (more details below). [h3]BUGs:[/h3] -Walking sounds like someone is walking "behind" you. -AFKing at "loading the map" crashes the game, happened on multiple maps with different weather conditions. -Opening map with M and then pausing and unpausing the game(ESC) bugs the mouse. M solves it. -Photobook breaks when you delete pictures through explorer. Apparently you have to delete 1000+ pictures one by one with ingame photobook. -Some shrooms behind the fence can't be picked. A lot of shrooms spawns on the outer side of playable area fence. -Sometimes crosshair starts disappearing, or better said not appearing, when going off for any reason (horse riding, inventory UI, ...). Maybe related to H not togging UI - UI disables itself - but at this time texts doesn't block me from clicking. Restart solved the problem. -A jumping/flying duck threw me off the map. Not sure how - might just be my luck (as usual) - but I think I jumped on the duck when it tried to fly away. -Animals gets stuck in objects, freeze, bug through ground and fall under surface. -Flag can be placed in the tree which makes it impossible to remove the flag. -Sometimes spiders can't be detected with camera. -Shroom sometimes can't be picked even when it shows possible interaction (green crosshair). -You can get tick while loading the map, before you can even move. -Poison ivy animation can freeze you mid-air. -You can re-buy what you already own (example: Shoes, skins, etc.) -You can walk through some trees. -Pressing "E" breaks poison ivy's itch freeze. This could work as QTE and maybe wouldn't be annoying. -Hunter's manual Tip 16. I believe all the maps were unlocked at start, not sure if tip is meant after unlocking the book page of the map. -[b]Notification/warning texts[/b] make UI buttons unclickable. Examples: --"You can go back inside your home base to restore your energy and remove any poison ivy or ticks you have" prevents you from taking off your glasses. --"Its raining..." message makes it impossible to take on raincoat. --"You have poison ivy" message makes some flag colors unclickable. -[b]VEHICLES[/b]: --Pause menu only shows pause icon not all the options and you can't unpause for full second or 2. --Jumping over the fence can stuck your horse. --You can bug your mouse to be visible all the time which prevent you from leaving the vehicle. You can reset the mouse cursor without ALT+F4 and lost progress...M. --You can get stuck in object when going of the horse while colliding with object. Sometimes you can unstuck with "G". --In Georgia Woods you can easily gets stuck in and/or fall through mountains. -[b]SETTINGS[/b]: --Blur setting resets every restart. --"Pickup view" setting only changes poison ivy animation view. -[b]CONTROLS[/b]: ("new crosshair pickup ON") --Changing enter vehicle button doesn't work. Using alternate keyboard preset still show "press G to enter" and G doens't work even when you set G as enter-vehicle button. --Turn input settings detects X and Y inverted. (invert OFF) --In-game "controls" menu doesn't show correct buttons if they aren't default. --Changing crouch button kinda bugs the "you can crouch to dive" text. --The whole Hunter's manual book page for tips is written for default controls. [h3]QOLs:[/h3] -(inventory)SHIFT+LMB could instantly use item. -Day length setting. I think the game asks you how long days you want to have the first time you launch it, but you have no idea what does that mean and how it will affect you. -"skip day" option. Finished everything till day 55, after that I was just frustratingly looking for last 3 missing animals (viper, eagle, grizzly). -Hotkeys for torch, flags, etc. or even customizable hotbar would be awesome. -Save clothing changes (or hotkeys). -Marked north on minimap. -Camera could remember last mode. -Camera could be used on horse/atv while not moving. -Camera should stay in use if you have photo animation ON. (Now you have to use camera after every picture. Imagine trying to take multiple nightmode pictures with photo animation ON.) -Option to bulk delete photos from photoalbum would be awesome. -Button to call horse, maybe as upgrade (example: box of treats for 2000). -Possibility to downgrade light might be good. Maybe similar to changing camera mode. -Shoes could be upgradable 1>2>3 instead of straight to 3. -"Toggle camera view" all the time, not only on horse with "R". Preffered key would be "V". -Clear indication which items are consumable (one time use only). -Info about Hunter's manual's page unlocks. There could be "requirements to unlock this page" instead of blank page. -List of fish and shrooms per map, similar to list of animals in Hunter's manual. And maybe its secrets, like portobellos spawning at night. With this aproach you can get double amount of book pages, and with that we get more goals and unlocks (more dopamine). -Quantity up/down button could add 10 items on hold (or with SHIFT). Or sell flags in bundles of 20 or even more. -Option to create new save slot/file. -Shrooms could get better spawn positions, because sometimes there are zero shrooms of one kind, or they are spawned outside of player's access or even hidden in other objects. Just make sure weekly objectives aren't ruined by RNG. -Seagulls usually doesn't live in mountains like in this game where they are everywhere. While its kinda funny its still kinda weird. -Headlight is so strong it blinds you on horse in 1st person view. Also pic animation blinds you and is unrecognizable with light on. The floor near you gets blindingly bright, so bright you can barely see shrooms. -Other cool things page as last page was totally useless for me. I kinda finished everything before I unlocked the last page. IIRC some things (some tips and goals) are also duplicated. -Walkable picture animation. TL;DR: I was glued to the game for 20 hours straight, then it became a bit frustrating due to me not knowing some animals don't spawn yet. Can't wait for next sale to buy sequel.

Is this even a horror game? The night feels like it I don't like it I don't like it I don't like it I don't like it also it feels more of taking pictures to animals rather than picking mushrooms. Also disabling spiders as arachnophobic, witch I did but now taking pictures of "bunny balls" won't five me the check for tarantulas I really don't wanna turn them on just to get it checked fix that plz

All those deer hunter games that have been taunting me with their beautiful photorealism since the 90s, minus the inexcusable redneck stuff, but with more gameplay than a typical story trek (yeah, that's what walking simulators should be called)