The Beauty of the Hunt
By C.A. Ramirez
Title: theHunter: Call of the Wild
Developed and published by:
Expansive Worlds
Regrets, I’ve had a few … and not going hunting is one of them. theHunter: Call of the Wild is absolutely beautiful. Set in a multitude of nature preserves around the world, this game can turn even the most PETA pocket gamer into a carnivorous hunter. The spiritual successor to 2014’s theHunter Classic has been retooled into a graphically superior version of itself, and anyone who wants to escape into the wilderness will find that hunting and killing is not even required to enjoy this fantastic gem from Expansive Worlds.
There is a story here, and truth be told, after fifty plus hours in the game, I can safely say I’ve completed the bare minimum and familiarized myself with none of it. Scathing review so far, but it’s my fault for not paying attention. Much like 3 period Spanish so many years ago, the blame is placed squarely at my feet, or “patas.” In any case, theHunter: Call of the Wild is so much more than a story that fails to grasp this humble reviewer’s attention. It has, what some call, “class.”
The graphics are outstanding, and most of your standard, run-of-the-mill, prefabricated “towers of power” will be able to run this beauty at max settings. While the sights draw you into serene wetlands and expansive pinewood forests, the sounds will completely hypnotize you, and it is absolutely captivating as you slowly stalk that ten-point buck you’ve been tracking for the last twenty minutes. The mechanic of stalking is wonderfully executed, requires the player to level up certain skill trees, and will strain the virtue of patience in everyone who picks up the game.
Shot placement and clean kills are the main goal, netting the player the largest amount of experience. This process can take a very long time if you don’t take the proper precautions on your hunt and if you fail to judge your wind and distance from your target. Admittedly, my first hunts were a proper tragedy leaving a deer with five flesh wound rifle shots and an elk with ten. It was nearly a war crime and garnered a couple chuckles from my buds, who dropped in to take me on my first hunt. As you can see from the gameplay trailer, the game lets you see an x-ray version of your kill that shows the entry and exit wounds of your shots, along with diagnostic information regarding the damage to vital organs or tissue (2:07). This is a fantastic gameplay mechanic that spurs trigger discipline after your first introduction. The direction and speed of the wind, bullet drop, and distance will all be represented in this x-ray UI and it runs alongside your imagination, filling the gaps of why your prey galloped fifty yards before it collapsed or dropped dead where it stood.
After a few good kills and skill tree unlocks, theHunter: Call of the Wild evolves into an engrossing hunting simulator that can sidetrack you from your main objective, like the open worlds of Skyrim or Fallout. The scope and scale of the hunting reservations are breathtaking and majestic. Few games have mastered making the natural world believable enough in its realism to actually encapsulate the player without violating their suspension of disbelief with polygonal animals and hard-edged fur. Everything about theHunter: Call of the Wild is convincing and tangible. Ambient sounds of wildlife and the elements bring the entirety of this game to life right before your eyes. You can get lost, as I have, with just walking though these expansive worlds and enjoying the palpable undulations of a scenic wilderness. COVID and another round of quarantines could be on the horizon, but with the right kind of games, the isolation they foster can be taken down a few pegs. theHunter: Call of the Wild can scratch the itch of grounded hunters everywhere while turning a few city slickers on to a wild world they will want to know once the pandemic has come to an end.
