Cabela's Big Game Hunter

Nov 21, 2002

Make no mistake, Cabela's Big Game Hunter is a simulator. As in real life, hunting is mostly about choosing the best equipment, and having an incredible amount of patience. Don't believe me? Fire up Big Game Hunter on the medium difficulty setting and try playing with a typical FPS attention span. Be prepared for countless hours of running in circles and staring at trees. There are no run-and-gun play mechanics to be found here. Instead we have a moderately successful attempt at a thinking man's hunting game for fans of the sport.

Big Game Hunter offers two modes of play, quick hunt and career hunt. Quick hunt lets players choose what game they will hunt in any location that has been unlocked. At the onset of the game, only Alaska is available for play. Of course the only way to gain access to new locations is through Career Hunt mode. In order to achieve any amount of success in this game it is important to pay attention to the details while setting up each game.

There are eight locations, each with a number of connected areas. Each sub-location has its advantages for spotting a type of animal. For example, Polar bears are more likely to be found fishing near icy lakes than in a dense forest, or on an ATV riding down a logging road. There is a vehicle available in each level in case players want to head to a new location without quitting the hunt. The vehicles are appropriate to the setting, a snowmobile for the Alaskan winter and a truck for the mountain roads, and have a very simple control setup. One button for gas and one button for reverse.

At the onset, character selection is relegated to six different types of hunters. There is a teenage male, mid-40's male, mid-60's male, teenage female, mid 30's female, and McNeil. Each of these characters has their own strengths and weaknesses for accuracy, strength, stealth, resilience, and tracking. Cabela is covering most of the demographics with these character ranges; however this could have been presented in a more veiled fashion. Having age and experience effect player stats makes sense, but it feels a little goofy to be choosing a character named "mid-40's male." In case you were wondering, McNeil is not some sort of ageless, male/female combination. He is the first of eight bonus characters that can be unlocked by completing each level.

After choosing a character, the next order of business is selecting a difficulty level. On the easiest setting the woods are teaming with fresh game just waiting to be bagged and tagged. Animals are also marked on a player's GPS unit as a red dot. In short, this version of the game takes little skill or knowledge but don't worry, the medium and hard settings provide enough challenge for an experienced virtual hunter. Although, the way the "challenge," is presented may have some gamers heading for the hills. In Big Game Hunter difficulty is based around animal frequency. On the hard setting, the main problem lies almost completely in finding something to shoot at. This results in a lot of wandering around in the wilderness. Granted, this is often a large part of real hunting, but hard to say how much time the average gamer will want to spend virtually sitting in the woods.

Bring Out the Big Guns In the store menu there are a wide assortment of guns including rifles, handguns, and shotguns. Theoretically, each gun has its share of strengths and weaknesses. These include caliber, scopes for rifles, and ease of reload. Like everything else in the store menu, weapons are not very expensive compared to how much money players are provided with at the onset of the game. Managing money is never really a problem unless gamers feel the need to collect every available item in the game. Ammo in Big Game Hunter is unlimited and is automatically provided and unlimited in each level.

For a game that is close to pure simulation, infinite ammo is an odd choice. A limited amount of expensive lead would partially solve the problem of easy moolah, and there should be a greater penalty for being a lousy shot. The game offers a bonus for a clean kill, and the animal models found on the shooting range detail the best place to shoot each animal. It is nice that there is such a wide assortment of weapons, but there is no compelling reason to switch between different guns. I stuck with a .308 Bolt-Action Rifle and found it to be satisfactory for deer, bear, and every other animal at any range.

The next categories of items available for purchase are geared towards camping. Hydration bladders, daily rations, medical kits, and tents all provide energy boosts. A tent can be reused and after a set amount of time will completely refill energy. Therefore, the other items become useless and are not worth purchasing. The store also offers a number of different clothing options, including light and heavy weight gear. Camouflage boosts a player's stealth and an orange jacket has a higher safety rating. Since there's an absence of other hunters in this game I'm not sure what the orange color keeps the player safe from. Unless the deer are eventually able to wield rifles and crossbows, the safety jacket is useless. Items that have an actual effect on game play are calls, decoys, and other hunting accessories. Predators can all be lured using a basic predator call but other animals will respond differently to a variety of items. For example, elk, moose, and deer each have their own call and some deer are easier to fool with a decoy or scent.

Onscreen there is an energy meter, a stamina meter, a stealth meter, wind direction indicator, a compass, and ammo. Using a GPS unit along with a map is a much easier way of traveling through the wilderness than constantly checking the compass. Health is depleted through exposure, running down the stamina meter, or being charged by an animal. If you have a tent handy, health is never really an issue. Staying downwind of an animal is very important if you don't want it to spook and the wind meter will constantly influence your method of approach. The stealth meter is important for sneaking up on animals, but it only varies with movement and character selection. A player's stealth rating will stay the same whether they are behind a tree, or standing at the top of a mountain.

The goal of Career hunt is to fill all of the tags for each region. A tag is needed to legally kill each animal that is hunted and after the first level these will have to be bought at the store. The core of Big Game Hunter is in correct item selection. Instead of random animal appearances, hunting requires animals to be lured through the use of decoys, scent, and calls. Don't expect to rack up many trophies armed with only a rifle and patience. By reading the expert tips and animal profiles it is fairly easy to gather all of the variables for a successful hunt.

Take for example my strategy for bagging a black tailed deer in the mountains of Alberta. The expert tips suggested that these animals have a keen sense of smell and good eyesight. It would also be difficult to sneak up on them without the use of scent cover and a scope. The animal profile stated that they are most often found near water or along logging roads. With that in mind I headed over to the store menu and purchased, you guessed it: scent cover, a scoped rifle and a deer call. I then proceeded to an Alberta location with plenty of gravel roads. I used each of my items and before long a good sized black tail appeared over the crest of a hill. I was a considerable distance from the animal and my first two shots sailed harmlessly over its head. However, with unlimited ammo I was able to fire away until I brought the animal down.

If an animal is successfully lured, but is able to escape, players have the option of tracking it down. The map screens are large, but not big enough to make tracking very interesting. Players will simply follow the footprints of an animal for a few minutes until they find the animal running in circles.

Graphics Like a mountain pass in Alaska, the graphics of Big Game Hunter have their ups and downs. Character models are decent; the animals look particularly nice upon close inspection. The environments are another story. My biggest complaint is that there is a noticeable lack of detail in most outdoor areas. The foliage should be denser and the terrain would benefit from being more varied. A broader range of plant life in general would add greatly to the feeling of being in the great outdoors. Many of the level boundaries have very plain textures that contribute to the settings feeling artificial and contrived.

When the camera is in third person mode, character's upper body remain fixed looking straight ahead while their legs make turns. This makes for some strange movements while running sideways, although it can be avoided by simply staying in first person mode.

The footprints animals leave are really graphic representations of a footprint and look nothing like an actual imprint on the ground. There are different weather effects, including glaring sunlight and light snow. The visual variety is welcome, but it has little to no effect on the hunt.

Sound Ah the sounds of hunting; the rustling of leaves in a cool breeze, the howl of the wind, and the dry crunch of brush underfoot. These are a few of the environmental sounds you will be treated to in the wilderness of Big Game Hunter. Actually, besides the blast from your selected firearm these are pretty much be the only sounds in the game, so get used to them. This is an intelligent choice for a simulator; the thrill of the hunt should be accentuated through environmental details, not pump up music. The ambient sounds of nature are present in the game, but more could have been done with it.

The menus feature a strange mix of heavy guitar riffs and gentle folk music. I suppose either one of these types of music could be a fitting choice for a hunting game, but to have both of them in the mix is sort of odd. Players will also hear voice clips when they break the hunting regulations for a given area. The animal calls were good enough to fool my cat into attacking a speaker.