So I bought a new computer game. Its a hunting simulator. I wanted something where there was progression, but you can pick it up and leave it as you like. Something calm and slow paced. Blowing the entrails out of the back of a blacktail deer is perfect for me.
I'm not very good at the game. I keep winging all the animals and not really killing them. I've been hitting them in the shoulder blades, in the meat of their neck, in their jaws, their stomachs ... I'm not great at the kill shot. The upshot is that I'm now walking around a national park where almost all the animals are limping and nursing horrendous injuries. They are leaking blood everywhere, they are behaving strangely and not going to the places they used to ...
I was initially thinking, meh, just shoot anything that moves and if it dies great, and if it doesn't ... no matter. Its only when I came across a herd of 8 deer and found 6 of them were nursing injuries I'd already given them, I realised the monster I have become. I'm now going back to the places I've been to euthanise all the animals I missed the first time ... if I can find them which mostly I can't.
The game is really beautiful, the scenery is stunning, water and weather effects are great. The screenshot above is how the game actually looks. I like that the grass flattens when I walk on it. The animals move properly, the detailed anatomy shots showing where you hit them are great, nice to know if you smashed their spine or they suffocated on their own blood.
You really do have to hit them in the right place to shatter vertebra or pierce their heart. Head shots need to be through the brain. When you find an animal you maimed earlier, you get to see where those bullets went and why it didn't kill them. Starting to favour shooting Bambi in the spine now. That drops them fast.
There's good progression. Skills, lures, guns. Trying to shoot a moose with the rifle I have is practically impossible. They also get aggressive and charge at you. Currently a good shot will kill a black bear, but brown bears seem to soak up my bullets. Rabbits are too easy and I get a low ethics score for shredding them. I think I need to save up for a shotgun. My best kill was an elk which I switched to my 60lb compound bow and devastated its tailbone. Immediately paralysed I went to pick up the XP and in game credits. Best harvest yet. I missed a white stag, well missed isn't the best description, its still hobbling around somewhere. But you get trophy animals and rare animals.
Online reviews claim bugs etc, but its been out for a while now and I haven't found any. Perfect game for me. Just my kind of thing. Very happy with it.