I love weird, niche simulators like this, but besides enjoying hiking through its stunning wilderness, I found The Hunter far too dull to hold my attention. It’s so nice that it’s almost a shame you have to ruin the peaceful, serene ambience by shooting animals with a gun. The sound design is fantastic too, from the crunch of dry leaves under your feet to the gentle chirp of birds. The autumnal forests feel wonderfully organic, with foliage swaying in the wind, motes of pollen floating through the air, and realistic lighting and shadows courtesy of the engine’s global illumination tech. It’s a gorgeous game, and one of the most convincing digital recreations of nature I’ve seen on PC. Weirdly, what I enjoyed most in The Hunter wasn’t the actual hunting, but the world. Actual entertainment is sparingly drip-fed in The Hunter, which makes playing it, for the most part, pretty tedious. There’s a lot going on here, making it a fairly deep simulation, but at the expense of some accessibility and, crucially, fun. And your score for killing an animal is even determined by how ethically suitable the ammunition you used was. Skulking behind trees and bushes will make you harder to spot, but the rustling will scare your prey. Animals will give a warning call if they sense you nearby, meaning they’ll be more likely to flee if you get close. This does give the game a nice sense of tension, and makes it genuinely challenging, but it requires-no, demands-an extraordinary amount of patience. And if you spook an animal it’ll sprint away and remain in a state of alert for a while, meaning the chances of finding them again are quite slim. I enjoy a slower-paced game, but it’s too ponderous even for me. But the problem with this is that The Hunter is a game largely about quietly stalking animals, which means you spend most of it crouching and edging through the forest at an incredibly slow pace. If this happens, the best thing to do is crouch and move slowly. Walking quickly or through thick brush will alert the animal to your presence. Then it’s just a case of patiently following the tracks, trying not to make too much noise, until you catch up with it. Interact with them and your character will use his magical hunter senses to determine which direction the animal is moving in.
As you creep through the trees you’ll see tracks highlighted on the HUD. There are a lot of places in the woods for an animal to hide, and your first job is usually tracking one down, which can take a while. Being a simulator, there’s more to a successful hunt than pointing your gun at the first creature you see then shooting it.
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