theHunter: Call of the Wild is a first-person immersive hunting experience. The game was initially released on the 16th February 2017 for PC, and it was then released on 2nd October 2017 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It is also available free with Xbox Game Pass. theHunter: Call of the Wild was developed by Expansive Worlds and published by Avalanche Studios. Expansive Worlds believes in creating games together with the community, and Avalanche Studios aims to create huge open world games full of explosive and immersive gameplay. The game is available to play in both solo mode and multiplayer mode. Multiplayer mode offers both co-operative and competitive gameplay where you can join with up to eight friends.
Customize Your Hunter
At the beginning of theHunter: Call of the Wild, you have the option of what your hunter can look like. It is pretty limited but will still allow you to feel like your character has been customized. You choose from a selection of pre-made skins, and then you simply choose the gender of your hunter and the skin colour. After that, you will be taken through a tutorial of how to hunt, and from there you are free to explore the open world. You can choose from two maps and switch between them freely as you traverse through different areas of the map whilst taking down different types of animals that would typically be found in the wild.
theHunter: Call of the Wild also offers players immersion through weather changes and a full day to night cycle. When it rains, it will make it slightly easier for you to hide from animals because they will struggle to hear you coming. If the weather is clear, you will have to rely on stealth to gain a surprise advantage. Players will also have the opportunity to use a variety of call sounds, and these will allow players to trick the animals into thinking you are one of them. The game offers a large number of missions and side-missions to complete that can range from killing a deer to killing a certain type of bear at a specific location.
The Call of the Wild
The greatest thing about theHunter: Call of the Wild is that it is very realistic and fun to play. Hunting is not something I would do in real life, so it is great to play a game that offers the experience without actually hurting an animal. It is extremely immersive, and it can be fun to mess around with the different call sounds. I found it especially funny making a bear noise near a deer and watching it run off in a panic. The game is quite challenging but also feels very carefree because it is quite laid back, and you can do most stuff in your own time. It also offers hours and hours of gameplay with non-stop action.
Harder Than You Think
There are few issues I found when playing theHunter: Call of the Wild. The main issue is how difficult it is to get used to the gameplay. There is the short tutorial in the beginning, as I have mentioned, but this only gets you so far. It doesn’t provide much instruction, and I found that I didn’t feel comfortable with the mechanics of the game until I had played quite a bit of it.
Some of the missions that need to be completed also feel quite pointless. They can be unnecessarily complicated. I love a bit of a challenge, but sometimes it can take hours of waiting around just to get a picture of a certain type of animal near a specific location. The game also has a huge problem with glitching issues. There were times when the animals would get stuck in trees or on rocks. Other times they don’t even try to run away. This didn’t happen very often, but when it did, it would break the immersion of the game completely.
Final Thoughts
Overall, theHunter: Call of the Wild is a great game. It is very fun to play and is extremely realistic. There are a few issues, so it is definitely not perfect, and sometimes the game can feel a bit pointless. It is quite difficult to get used to, but it is very immersive and offers a great experience. Glitching issues break the immersion of the game, but there is an upside to them. There is a specific place on the map that seems to glitch every time, and if you chase animals towards that location, they will all gather there with no way out, and you can reap the rewards.
theHunter: Call of the Wild will offer hours and hours of gameplay that is both carefree and challenging. If you don’t particularly want to go out and hunt for real, theHunter: Call of the Wild will be perfect for you to enjoy the hunt without actually hurting any animals.
Developer: Expansive Worlds
Publisher: Avalanche Studios
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4
Release Date: 16th February 2017 (PC), 2nd October 2017 (Xbox One, PS4)
