On the Subject of The Hunter

Some Random Model

I had never heard of The Hunter until it popped up on a forum recently. It was being compared with Crysis, at least graphically, and I have to admit that initially I scoffed at what seemed to be some crappy redneck hunting game. Look at those shitty avatars! Crysis?? Yeah, right.

But first things first. Subsequent online discussions about the game have tended to disintegrate into impassioned, if pointless, arguments about the nature of hunting in general. Mindless bloodlust or sensible population control? A means to provide food or a means to provide wall trophies? I have no interest in hunting in real life. It's difficult to be impressed by someone dropping a deer at 200m using a rifle. I'd be impressed if the hunters took them down bare-handed. Or if the deer could shoot back. Don't confuse that with me giving a fuck about poor, innocent animals, though, because I don't. Hunting simply doesn't appeal, in the same way that I have no interest in opera or knitting.

Still, the trailer looked pretty, and the idea of a more leisurely-paced game was attractive, and best of all the basic game is free.

It doesn't look as advanced as Crysis, let's settle that one right away. The graphics reminded me more of Stalker, which isn't a criticism, just an observation. On the other hand the island reserve is nice and big (and seamless) and the forest nice and dense. Well, it's nice from an aesthetic point of view, not so much when you're trying to spot a bastard deer. There's a dynamic day/night, or rather dawn/dusk cycle, and just like in Far Cry 2 the game can look stunning in the morning and evening. In full daylight it can be a bit harsh, a bit electric green, but even then there are cloud shadows rolling across the hills and grass. Some of the meadows especially are gorgeous. And it runs pretty well too, although I've had a couple of crashes. Overall, far more impressive than I was expecting.

Then there's the game play. It should be understood that this is no run-and-gun FPS. In fact there's not much gunning at all, and you're not going to get very far if you run (in either sense; the run speed isn't exactly a sprint, and any deer will hear you coming a mile off). It's barely a walk-and-gun, more like a crouch-and-then-prone-and-then-spot-and-maybe-gun-if-you're-lucky. It's a much more measured, thoughtful experience which will immediately alienate all the "hardcore" online FPS fans and for that alone it deserves respect. It turns out that for me at least, and naturally my opinion is the correct one, The Hunter is enormously immersive. It's amazing how much time you can spend in it, simply tracking and exploring and perhaps spotting the odd animal along the way. You can sit in a watchtower (or whatever they're called in hunting circles), camp your favourite meadow or beach or forest clearing. Well, ok, there aren't that many options for things to do, but that makes it all the more impressive that it's such a compelling game. There's the carrot-and-stick element of "if I just follow this next track...", or "if I just wait here a little longer...".

It's not perfect, but then no game is. There's a slightly bizarre, and incredibly annoying 4 hour / 10km limit before it kicks you back to the hunting lodge. That might seem like plenty of time/distance, but when it kicks in while you're trying to track a wounded deer like it has done for me twice this week, it couldn't be more frustrating. According to some posts on the forums it is done to prevent server overloading or some such rubbish. No one seems to know why they can't let you "rest" in the same position rather than forcing you to retrace several kilometres of slow jogging, by which time the tracks are long gone.

Not being a real hunter I can't comment on the realism of the animal AI. The deer cetainly seem to be verrrrry sensitive, and I've often approached at what I thought was a very restrained pace only to see the deer bouncing off over the horizon. It wasn't until I figured out how important wind direction is, and located the smoke bottle in the inventory, that I started making progress. It makes a close encounter quite nerve-wracking, and it requires a lot of patience to get that perfect shot. Or luck.

Anyway, in terms of value for money it's unrivalled, and that aside it's the best game I'm played so far this year. Of course it's early days, but The Hunter will certainly keep me occupied while I wait for Burnout Paradise to download on Steam (finally!).