Zanzoken
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2014
- Messages
- 3,585
Bit of a rant coming.
I used to play this hunting sim back in the day called Deer Hunter Gold. It was exactly what it sounds like -- you pick a rifle and scope, sight it in on the range, then go hunt deer. It had the basic items you use in hunting, like scents, calls, spotting scope, tree stands, ground blinds, etc. But all you really gotta do is find a good place to set up your stand / blind, spray some deer piss, hit the grunt and rattle a few times, and wait for a big buck to come along so you can bust his ass. 12-year-old me thought it was a pretty chill way to zone out and relax after a long day.
Well, that was twenty years ago, and now the PC hunting genre appears to be almost dead. The only hunting game I can find that looks worth a damn is "theHunter: Call of the Wild". Stupid fucking name, but whatever. It's on sale, so $10 gets me the base game, tree stand DLC (wtf), and the ATV DLC. This game has a lot of fucking DLC, but the rest seemed unimportant to what I wanted to do, so whatever.
I used to play this hunting sim back in the day called Deer Hunter Gold. It was exactly what it sounds like -- you pick a rifle and scope, sight it in on the range, then go hunt deer. It had the basic items you use in hunting, like scents, calls, spotting scope, tree stands, ground blinds, etc. But all you really gotta do is find a good place to set up your stand / blind, spray some deer piss, hit the grunt and rattle a few times, and wait for a big buck to come along so you can bust his ass. 12-year-old me thought it was a pretty chill way to zone out and relax after a long day.
Well, that was twenty years ago, and now the PC hunting genre appears to be almost dead. The only hunting game I can find that looks worth a damn is "theHunter: Call of the Wild". Stupid fucking name, but whatever. It's on sale, so $10 gets me the base game, tree stand DLC (wtf), and the ATV DLC. This game has a lot of fucking DLC, but the rest seemed unimportant to what I wanted to do, so whatever.
I install and launch. Game looks and sounds really good, controls are all right. There's a short tutorial where you shoot a deer who is obviously programmed to stand there and get shot by you, while the game warden or whatever talks to you on the radio and tells you what to do. Okay, easy enough. Game warden gives you another task to go climb a nearby watchtower and have a look around. It's close so no big deal.
Unlocking the watchtower is where things start to get suspect. The map is absolutely fucking huge, and this is just one of several hunting reserves available to you. I really didn't want to play a big open world game, but whatever -- I am sure I can find a couple of good hunting spots nearby, and will worry about exploring the rest at my leisure.
Game warden says, hey you should go find a base camp to get set up. Okay, there's one not too far away, so I head over. This unlocks a small cabin to rest, ATV, stash, and item shop.
Then, the game warden comes on the radio AGAIN and starts telling me about some wilderness survival LARP dude who lives on the reserve full time. Game warden says "I know you probably have other stuff to do" -- uhhh yeah motherfucker I just want to shoot a big ass deer -- "but would you mind going to check on LARPer dude? Something ransacked his camp."
So now I'm pissed because I am realizing this isn't just a tutorial. This game has fucking story missions in it, which is completely stupid because I JUST WANT TO HUNT. Thankfully you can turn the missions off, so I do. Before I can hunt I want some better gear, since the starting gear is really basic, so I go check out the item shop before I head out.
Mother. Fucker. For some idiotic reason, these dumbass devs decided to make every item cost an insane amount of in-game currency. The tree stand -- the one I paid real money to get the DLC for -- costs $16000 FUCKING DOLLARS in-game currency. For comparison I have like $3000 from starter money + tutorials. Other items are similarly priced for maximum absurdity.
At this point I'm fuming but I figure, fuck it, maybe kills pay a lot of money. Yes, for some idiotic reason, the devs made it so you get paid whenever you shoot an animal. Despite having no gear or skills, I manage to locate and bring down a nice 8-pt whitetail buck. It was actually pretty easy, because the animal AI appears to be completely retarded. My reward for this? Like $800.
What this means is in order to actually enjoy a proper hunt with good gear and setup, I either have to (1) murder the fuck out of every animal I can find or (2) do a bunch of unnecessary lame as fuck story missions for the game warden. And this is the point where I say "fuck this game" and so long to the $10 I wasted buying it because I am just past the 2 hour mark and can't get a refund.
The autism rate on Steam must be sky high because the game was rated "Very Positive" with tons of good reviews. It probably is a fun hunting game once you've done 100 hours of grinding to unlock all the pointlessly gated content, but I will never know. GG devs, congrats on fucking up what is probably the simplest video game genre known to man.
Unlocking the watchtower is where things start to get suspect. The map is absolutely fucking huge, and this is just one of several hunting reserves available to you. I really didn't want to play a big open world game, but whatever -- I am sure I can find a couple of good hunting spots nearby, and will worry about exploring the rest at my leisure.
Game warden says, hey you should go find a base camp to get set up. Okay, there's one not too far away, so I head over. This unlocks a small cabin to rest, ATV, stash, and item shop.
Then, the game warden comes on the radio AGAIN and starts telling me about some wilderness survival LARP dude who lives on the reserve full time. Game warden says "I know you probably have other stuff to do" -- uhhh yeah motherfucker I just want to shoot a big ass deer -- "but would you mind going to check on LARPer dude? Something ransacked his camp."
So now I'm pissed because I am realizing this isn't just a tutorial. This game has fucking story missions in it, which is completely stupid because I JUST WANT TO HUNT. Thankfully you can turn the missions off, so I do. Before I can hunt I want some better gear, since the starting gear is really basic, so I go check out the item shop before I head out.
Mother. Fucker. For some idiotic reason, these dumbass devs decided to make every item cost an insane amount of in-game currency. The tree stand -- the one I paid real money to get the DLC for -- costs $16000 FUCKING DOLLARS in-game currency. For comparison I have like $3000 from starter money + tutorials. Other items are similarly priced for maximum absurdity.
At this point I'm fuming but I figure, fuck it, maybe kills pay a lot of money. Yes, for some idiotic reason, the devs made it so you get paid whenever you shoot an animal. Despite having no gear or skills, I manage to locate and bring down a nice 8-pt whitetail buck. It was actually pretty easy, because the animal AI appears to be completely retarded. My reward for this? Like $800.
What this means is in order to actually enjoy a proper hunt with good gear and setup, I either have to (1) murder the fuck out of every animal I can find or (2) do a bunch of unnecessary lame as fuck story missions for the game warden. And this is the point where I say "fuck this game" and so long to the $10 I wasted buying it because I am just past the 2 hour mark and can't get a refund.
The autism rate on Steam must be sky high because the game was rated "Very Positive" with tons of good reviews. It probably is a fun hunting game once you've done 100 hours of grinding to unlock all the pointlessly gated content, but I will never know. GG devs, congrats on fucking up what is probably the simplest video game genre known to man.