Way of the Hunter is as it sounds, it is a hunting sim, and I know what most are people are thinking; “How does this game stack up to theHunter: Call of the Wild™”.
Way of the Hunter is pretty different from Call of the Wild. For starters, the game does look drastically better. This is to be expected as Call of the Wild is a five year old game. The landscape is pretty large and diverse and definitely looks realistic.
The game play is where the games drastically differ. Way of the Hunter goes for a more realistic and slow approach to hunting. It takes more effort to track down animals in this game. For starters, it feels like there are less animals on the map in Way of the Hunter than in Call of the Wild. This honestly feels more realistic as you have to do a fair bit of tracking and traversing the land before running into a herd of deer.
The animals in Way of the Hunter also seem to be spooked more easily so you have to approach them more carefully. You have an ability called Hunter Sense that allows you to spot the general location and status of animals at around two hundred and fifty meters when standing still. This is not really that big of an advantage as animals seem to be able to notice your presence at around three hundred and fifty meters or so.
The other use of Hunter Sense is to be able to spot animal tracks and signs of feeding and resting and the frequency at which the animals return to that location. Once you discover enough signs that an animal was there, it will unlock a marker on the minimap and you can use this information to plan ahead.
In Way of the Hunter, I seemed to be doing more work making note of locations that animals were likely to return to and waiting at the likely spots than tracking a herd and slowly following them hoping to catch them unawares. Way of the Hunter definitely felt slower than Call of the Wild. People looking for a more realistic and immersive game will probably enjoy the mechanics while people looking for a more arcadey or action heavy approach will probably find the game to be tedious and time consuming.
Also to note here, Way of the Hunter does seem to have less branded guns and equipment available compared to other similar hunting titles as of its initial release.
The game also has a nice ballistics report on each animal shot. It will show the bullet trail and the damage to the specific organs and tissues.
Overall, Way of the Hunter is a pretty decent hunting sim. It’s definitely not for everybody as the game requires a lot more patience and meticulous attention to detail but that is also definitely part of its charm. While a successful hunt may take longer, it does feel more satisfying.
Ducky Obrien 