Way of the Hunter Reviews

So relaxing and beautiful. The story is nice and the fact that there is so much content makes this well worth spending a little on DLCs. I just wish there were more to choose from.

[h1]This game is frustrating[/h1] Not because it's difficult. But because it has some great game mechanics that the developers sabotage at every turn. [h2]The good[/h2] Animal herds are persistent. Know the general route that a herd of Mule deer take? Come back tomorrow and you can find them there again. Kill all of the does/bucks in that herd? That herd will eventually die out in a few in-game days (A new herd will generate later). Individual animals have their own "Trophy" ratings, if you cull the lower rated animals, you'll promote the growth of higher rated animals in that herd and visa-versa. The game focuses on "Ethical" kills, meaning you need to use the right ammo for the right animal and place your shot as well as you can. This is what you should get taught when you're growing up hunting IRL (it's what I was taught). You don't want the animal to suffer. It makes sense. There are other property owners that you can "meet" (through letters left in their cabins) and do jobs for them so you can hunt their property. Or you can buy the rights to hunt that property without having to do the jobs for the owner (it's a lot of in-game money though). [h2]The bad[/h2] Know all those great mechanics? Do you think the game focuses on those and builds around them? [b]NOPE[/b] Instead of building a game around these mechanics, the objectives that are given to the player are things like: [list] [*] Go over to a rock so the character can awkwardly yell into a canyon. [*] Go to an area and pick three flowers. [*] Harvest 10 kg of duck meat (not quality duck meat, just get as much as you can, kill kill kill) [/list] [i]These are real quests from this game.[/i] Know how you can do jobs for other property owners so you can get the rights to hunt their land. It's a nice way to allow players to get access to other properties without having to shell out a lot of in-game currency. [b]BUT[/b] What happens when the job you're doing for a property owner requires you to hunt a property that you don't own? You better go spend more time walking around doing more ridiculous quests so that you can hunt where you want. [i]OR[/i] you can pay the in-game currency so you can continue their quest-line for no reward now. It's just plagued with poor quest-design. You could argue that all the quests that have you traveling around the map are meant for you to see where animals are so you can come back later and hunt them. That's all well and good, but I didn't shell out $40+ dollars to come back and hunt later after I've done an annoying fetch quest. The point of the game is to HUNT. [h2]Minor Gripes[/h2] The game's quality of life is abysmal. You have 9 gear slots, it takes your character ~5 seconds to switch between things. To access your gear you have to hit the 1-9 keys or you can scroll on the mouse wheel. Hit the wrong key? Well that sucks, you still have to wait the 5 seconds before the game will let you switch. Can you use the scroll wheel to get through multiple slots faster? Nope, when you switch with the scroll wheel you HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE ANIMATION TO FINISH FOR THE NEXT GEAR SLOT BEFORE YOU CAN SCROLL AGAIN. This could be easily remedied with a selection wheel, like you have in theHunter: Call of the Wild or Grand Theft Auto. How many arms are there? ~20 even with the DLC. In a hunting game. A game about using firearms/bows to hunt. There's only ~20 firearms/bows to choose from. They even have deals with Remington and Steyr, and there's only ~20... Are there firearms you can unlock through quests? There's a handful and the developers have [i]hinted[/i] that they want to add more in a future DLC. So, kinda. [b]And there are no decoys in the game. In a hunting game. There are no decoys.[/b] Can you hunt geese? Yes, but there are no decoys so just try to sky shot 'em I guess. It just feels like the developers have never actually been waterfowl hunting before and/or they just don't care. [h2]Playing to your strengths[/h2] Instead of leaving this review with nothing but moans and complaints, I want to end this with how I feel this game [i]could[/i] have been made better. If you've spent years refining core gameplay mechanics, your game should revolve around them. No uninspired quests given by faceless people you don't care about. First off, put more gear in the game. Now, we have mechanics centered around improving animal ratings, right? And we "own" the property that we're hunting on, right? What if the game centered around you improving your property. Picture this; you own a run-down hunting resort. To promote your resort you need high rated animals. As a player, to improve your resort you need to HUNT the lower rated animals so your resort value goes up. The higher your resort score the more money you're given, the more money you're given, the better gear you can get, and then the cycle continues. Period. The gameplay loop now promotes the hunting mechanics. No fetch quests, no weird storyline BS. Just hunting.

Beautiful, relaxing and fun. Playing on "explorer"/easy feels really well balanced, as I don't have time to spend 1-2 hours calling, stalking and tracking an animal, but leaves enough of a challenge to make the experience of doing all the above enjoyable with about 20-30mins per animal. The graphics and audio are fantastic. Zero crashes, FPS slowdowns or other bugs. A really well made game.

I'm just a filthy casual when it comes to hunting games. However, I also have a few hours into The Hunter: COTW, and between the two I would say that WOTH is a far more slow-paced "simulator" experience, and that's not a bad thing at all! The controls and gameplay are more intuitive and natural to my tastes. Visuals? Pretty tasty! I think comparing them to COTW is subjective, but at the same time, the world just feels more alive and immersive. If you're on the fence about which Hunting game to get, figure out your play style first! If you want a more fast-paced gaming experience, pick COTW. If you want a more Hunting "Sim" with a much slower-paced feel, then Way of the Hunter is the game for you!

the best game in the would so crazy looking and so esay to play and fun to kill

Good game, but I think they overdo fair chase. There need to be more semi-automatic weapons. They need an AR-15, AR-10, and even though it's a lever gun it's a bummer they don't have the 45-70 govt. Great game I highly recommend it; I just wish they had more guns and bows. Melee/ throwables would be cool too.

This game changed my life for the better. It taught me patience and to take my time, while also helping me respect the animals that I hunt. That combined with the gorgeous graphics and engaging gameplay loop create an experience worth remembering. I would recommend this game.

I love the herd management mechanics and the shot cam function. I'd prefer to have more animal species to hunt on a single map, but overall the game is really fun if you have patience and know what you're doing. I recommend watch some videos about the game, because you might just get frustrated without proper knowledge on where to shoot depending on the angle, how to find animals or how to approach them.

This is at the moment the best hunter game for me, it is beautiful and i love the herd management, and i can see it's getting improved even more this upcoming month. A relaxing and stunning game, take your time and explore!

I've been enjoying this game quite a lot, but it has some jankyness to it that players should be aware of if they plan on playing multiplayer/co-op. The game runs well, multiple difficulty levels make it perfect for those who want a casual experience and those who want a more realistic experience, quite a few different weapons and accessories to unlock, many different animals, beautiful landscapes, a lot to enjoy overall. However, in multiplayer, there are issues I run into every single time I play the game: -Inevitably one of us will have a soft crash trying to check the map. Could be 2 hours into a game, could be 10 seconds, but eventually one of us will open the map and be met with a blank screen and no way to exit it except for force killing the program -Sometimes the other player won't see my vehicle. They'll spawn over to a parking lot where I'll be waiting in my vehicle, but they won't see me. I can still run them over, but in order for them to see me I need to respawn the vehicle -Sometimes when I'm trying to get out of my vehicle I'll be met by a completely black screen, this only happens though if I try to get out before my vehicle is completely stopped, so I have to hit the brakes and try getting out again -The base maps are not a lot of fun. Pretty to look at, but Alaska/Africa are significantly more entertaining to traverse and hunt in Still have absolutely gotten my moneys worth and would recommend it with the above caveats kept in mind.