Way of the Hunter

I’m going to have to pre-load this one with some important context: I don’t have any particular interest in hunting. Lest the comments below fill with extremely lazy criticisms of my writing, some additional context: yes, I eat meat; no, I haven’t hunted before (although yes, I have shot guns); no, I don’t want to kill animals; yes, I recognise the hypocrisy — maybe even cowardice — in taking this position, while being apparently happy for other people to do it on my behalf. Despite all of the above, it’s hard to deny that there is something romantic (‘Wanderer Above The Sea Of Fog’ romantic, not ‘chocolates and flowers and candlelit dinners and long walks on the beach’ romantic) about the act of hunting; the companionship, the oneness with nature, the tracking, the build-up, the catharsis. It’s just the whole slaughter part which is a bit off-putting. But wait! This is the 21st century, where we have smartphones, LLMs, manmade horrors beyond our comprehension, and Way of the Hunter, which allows us to simulate the experience of recreational bloodletting without all the mess. WotH is one of two hunting simulators which, judging by other reviews, is broadly popular among the kind of person who is interested in hunting (and perhaps already hunts) but doesn’t want to go outside, and hence appeared to be a decent — if imperfect — place to do a ‘shallow dive’ into the culture. The first thing that is immediately apparent is that this is a fundamentally American game at its core (despite the devs hailing from Slovakia, of all places), which meant more than a little effort on my part to adapt to and understand, as a Brit living in the urban south. The player character — River Knox, an incredibly irritating guy who can’t help but share extremely earnest and tame quips every few minutes — is apparently a Hollywood-based stunt double who is visiting (or perhaps moving permanently to?) his grandfather’s hunting lodge for a taste of the good life. It’s made clear that River gets on very well with his grandfather — who is mysteriously absent, being in hospital for some undisclosed illness — and less so with his father, who is represented by a shirt-and-glasses wearing, scowling stick-in-the-mud who is disgusted by his father-in-law’s pastime and wants nothing to do with it for him or his son. I really can’t go on without talking about the attitudes the game takes to hunting and its proponents and opponents. From moment one — and regularly after, if you play the story missions — it is bludgeoned into us that there are capital-G Good, Ethical hunters, and there are Bad, Unethical hunters: Ethical hunters shoot for food and herd control); they use the correct tool for the job; they act cleanly, efficiently, and professionally, ‘scouting twice and shooting once’, and generally causing a minimum of suffering for whichever poor organism is down the wrong end of the sight on that day. Bad hunters shoot for sport (or sadism?), show no interest in personal improvement or efficiency, and leave the mangled, still twitched remains of their quarries for the vultures. While I can’t disagree that what’s being advocated for is preferable to the alternative, the sheer volume and frequency with which this is explicitly laid out comes across as more than a little bit defensive. What’s a little more suspect is that all Ethical Hunters (particularly the grandfather) come across as extremely chill and live-and-let-live, while everyone with any type of qualm against hunting comes across as whiny, ignorant, and — in some cases — actively malicious. The vast majority of all this is relayed by the grandfather in letters and ‘comics’ (in the form of short animations), which is another quirk of the game: there are no visible NPCs besides the animals themselves. At one point you acquire a walkie-talkie with which you can actually talk to another person, although you don’t seem to ever meet them; the closest you come to meeting a human in the flesh is a child holed up in a treehouse with the door bolted shut, which really fuelled my ‘we don’t have a 3D modeller able or willing to model people’ theory. While it’s true that meeting other NPCs isn’t necessarily the point of a hunting game, it does make the world feel more empty and lonely in a very early-Fallout 76 kind of way (this can be somewhat mitigated with up to 4-person multiplayer, but this isn’t something I ended up engaging with). Speaking of ‘isn’t really the point’, some of these faceless NPCs will occasionally give you missions in a way which progresses the story of the game (the story itself being entirely optional, since the game is basically a sandbox otherwise). These missions come in precisely two variants: hunt some arbitrary number of animals with an arbitrary restriction (specific gender, specific weight, specific ‘fitness’, etc), or ‘go here and touch this’. The latter of these missions are, being as gentle as possible, extremely boring; the map is vast and genuinely stunning to look at — even as it makes my GPU sound like it’s about to enter orbit — but driving for several minutes across the map in order to touch one thing (and then fast travel back) does not make for riveting gameplay. It’s a problem made worse by seemingly arbitrary restrictions around the fast travel system: you can fast travel to very specific locations, but these are few and far between and virtually never near where you actually want to be (hunting stands, animal need zones, landmarks, etc). These missions reward you with money, which you can use to buy more guns and tools, or on taxidermy for your successful hunts so you can display them in your lodge. Not being someone particularly interested in guns or taxidermy, I ended up just letting it accumulate without much to spend it on. We’re about 800 words in and we’re finally going to start actually talking about the hunting mechanics in the hunting simulator. The hunting mechanics are… generally pretty good! Animals are apparently persistent on the map, and will follow pre-defined routines which take them to different ‘need zones’ (eating, drinking, sleeping) depending on the time of day. It seems that the best approach is to map out those need zones — following the animal tracks which link most of them together — and simply wait until the appropriate time, then approach on that area. All of this is explained in a reasonably paced tutorial, topped up with a large number of tips that also sometimes share some charming real-world trivia. The animal reaction mechanics take some getting used to, as simply walking within 200 metres of virtually any animal can cause them to scarper, with that number being much less forgiving if you are located upwind of them. To an extent the somewhat daunting learning curve can be mitigated by the use of ‘hunter vision’ — which highlights need zones and gives visual cues for nearby animal noises — but this has the unfortunate effect of being both essentially vital to anyone without eagle-tier vision while also making you feel completely inadequate, needing to rely on flashing lights and ultimately being hand-held through the game. Perhaps this is just me being a little harsh on myself (i’d hardly expect to be immediately professional at any other game i’d just picked up!), but while hunter vision was vital, it never felt good to utilise. FULL REVIEW LINKED IN COMMENTS

日本語のSteamレビューは世界と比較して辛口気味（または気になる部分があった場合のみレビューを書く傾向がある）らしく、平均点を引き上げるためにあえて日本語をローカライズ対象外にすることもあるみたいです。面白いゲームがあるのにそういった理由で日本語化されていないと悲しいので、いいゲームにはいい評価を付けられるよう心掛けています。 ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー -90%セールをしていたので購入し、難易度ノーマルでストーリークリア＋マルチを少しプレイしました。結論から述べますと、私は定価で買っても損はしないと思えるくらい楽しめました。再度-90%セールがあった際は是非購入をご検討ください。ただし、追跡～狩猟の一連の流れは技術が必要、かつ時間がかかりますので、一度に2～3時間以上のプレイ時間を確保でき、ある程度辛抱強いプレイヤーにお勧めします。 このゲームの狩猟は本当にコツが必要で、思うままに獲物を追いかけて撃つだけでは全く狩猟できません。1から技術を習得するのを苦としないプレイヤーはいいですが、そうではないプレイヤーも多いと思います。これから始めるプレイヤー向けに狩猟のコツを書き留めておきますので、行き詰った際はご参考ください。 ～捜索編～ ●マップを思うままに歩くのもいいですが、早く獲物に出会いたい場合は、川沿い、沼、湖といった水辺の探索を重点的にしてください。探索範囲が絞られるほか、木や茂みが少ないので見晴らしがいいです。 ●獲物を双眼鏡で視認できたらピンを刺してください。獲物までのおおよその距離が分かるようになります。難易度や獲物の種類にもよると思いますが、300~350mくらいまでは走って近寄っても大丈夫です。200~250mくらいまでは歩きで近寄り、それ以上近寄りたい場合はしゃがみで近寄ります。ほふく前進は使ったこと無いです。 ●獲物が風下の場合、序盤は長距離狙撃できるライフルもスコープも無いので、あきらめた方がいい結果になります。斜め45°くらいずれていれば狙えますが、時間で風向きも変わるので注意が必要です。 ●狙いの獲物が見つからない時は、昼寝しまくってOKです。キャンプと水場が近い場所はリセマラ感覚で使えます。 ～狙撃編～ ●スコープの距離の変更はかなりの頻度で行うので、デフォルトのキーボード↑↓からサイドボタンに変更をお勧めします。サイドボタンが無い場合でも、ZXなど手の届きやすいキーへ変更してください。 ●狙撃は精度が重要なので、まずは16倍スコープを購入してください。基本的には最初にもらえるレミントン783と無料DLCでもらえるベルガラの2丁に16倍スコープで問題ないです。たまにカモやアナグマといった小さい獲物のミッションが入りますが、そのときだけ安いショットガンを買って使います。有料の弾薬は使わなくても問題ないです。 ●シカは基本レミントンで撃ちますが、ミッション等でどうしても仕留めたい場合はベルガラを使用します。16倍スコープがあれば、200mまで近寄れれば射程範囲です。150mまで近寄れれば盤石です。レミントンの百科事典には250m狙撃可能と書いていますが、骨に当たると威力不足になることが多いです。 ●狙撃で狙う場所は、心臓>眉間>肺>脊椎の順でおすすめです。獲物が正面を向いているときが一番簡単で、心臓か眉間を狙います。心臓は思ったより下にあるので注意が必要です。側面を向いていれば肺経由で心臓を狙います。これも思ったより下、かつ前にあります。どうしても背面から撃ちたい場合は、できるだけ近寄って背骨を狙います。遠いと骨に弾かれます。 ●狙撃は必ず獲物が止まっているときに撃ってください。動いているときに撃つと偏差に慣れていないとほぼ狙い通りいきません。 ●メインストーリーが進むと結構なお金がもらえます。余裕ができ次第、シカ笛を購入してください。笛で寄って来るときに獲物が正面を向くのでかなり楽になります。 ●さらにお金がある場合は、3.5-21倍スコープ>ミッション状況に応じた笛>三脚スタンド>銃=車両の順で揃えればOKです。三脚スタンドは獲物が近いけど見えない時に使用すると、見えるケースがあります。21倍スコープとレミントン7600、ステアーカーボンが揃うとかなりの長距離狙撃が可能になります。 ～追跡編～ ●ここはあまり言うことが無いです。心臓・眉間・脊椎を正確に射抜き、一撃で仕留めることで追跡フェーズ自体をスキップできるようになると大幅に時短になります。 ●血液の量が少量の場合、ほぼ追えないので諦めた方がいいです。中量で気泡が混じっている場合、肺に命中している証拠なので近くで息絶えている場合が多いです。異物交じりの場合、腸にしか当たっていないとかなり粘られます。 ●獲物が完全に水に浸かっている場合、血痕がマップに残らないので注意してください。撃つ前にピンを刺しておくと保険になります。

Much better than the second one. If you like this sort of stuff, get this one.

очень крутая и реалистичная игра за свои бабки

With over 500 hours in "the other one".. I can categorically say this is better. The animals are more realistic, the tracking is MUCH better, it looks great and the immersion is superior. There is nothing I miss from the other one .. I am a complete convert. The Devs are either geniuses .. or good listeners (maybe both)

пройдя двухдневное обучение морского пехотнца с охотой на оленя я окунулся в сетевой гейминг с Гоханом ну короче купил прицел за 850 а он хуже дефолтного бесплатного с обучения, кому надо продам по дешевке пишите в лс,Гохан не купил, он же не лох вроде кротов американских за 2 рубля постреляли вначале чуть не загрызли нас, риск не оправдан мочу оленя и кал лося попробовали, почему-то на самой легкой сложности турист все звери чувствуют нас за тридевять земель и уже выйдя с машины надо ложиться на пол и ползти по траве со скоростью 0км/ч чтобы сраный волк не убежал в испуге обычно наша охото шла так: я че-то там стреляю всю обойму, а к зверю мертвому подбегаю и пишут: НЕ ТВОЯ ДОБЫЧА Поздравил Гохана с дабл килом и пошел по своим делам чуть посерфили со скалы, Гохан с двумя шкурами волков а я без лута, упали, отжались, разбились, рассчет окончен Графон красивый за 130 рублей, но мой коллега только и говорит, что в дейзи круче, ну оно и понятно манок на утку юзлесс так как стоит 450 а селезень который клюет 1 рубль - инвестиция номер 2 (первая это прицел) так же не увенчалась успехом я у нас ответственный в охоте по занюху мочи лося сибирского канадского вологодского разок с наездом заехали на чужие платные земли, Гохан говорит смари медведи и стреляет по волкам, мы сразу в испуге по машинам и газу назад домой чтобы вакбан не дали олень северный весом 15 кг решил не умирать и принял волевое решение убежать в точку с 5 пулевыми от меня 30 км по озерам, болотам и лесу, у Гохана проще он стреляет и зверь раненый с тычкой идет хромая ему фидить короче еще прикол создаю супер скрытый сервер закрытая сессия и пока захожу Гохан уже с ружьем и в панаме на серваке стоит и смотрит как будто он создал короче пока выхожу из машины гохан уже стрелюную всю обойму и все разбежались я тока затвор дернул козел\ ЭТО НЕ ВАША ДОБЫЧА! ЛЮБАЯ ДОБЫЧА НЕ МОЯ ПОЧЕМУ-ТО сюрф + рпг горы скалы в целом нормас но пока не двигаемся там, потом заглянем на огонек

просто залип на 60 часов

I would highly recommend this game! It has so many maps to explore, each being pretty large. There are so many different animals to hunt! The maps are very beautiful and fun to explore!