Way of the Hunter Review (Tigerkadse)
Overview:
I've been wanting to play Way of the Hunter ever since it was first announced. I was really hoping for it to be a good hunting simulator and as a fan of the similar game "TheHunter: Call of the Wild" I am going to compare both games but not too much in case you are new to the genre.
This game is as fun as I was hoping for! It's a more realistic approach to the genre compared to "TheHunter: Call of the Wild". Especially the hardest difficulty makes it feel like a realistic hunting simulation rather than an arcade game. There are currently 2 huge maps with I believe 14 animal species on each map. The game is beautiful and focuses more on perfectly hitting that one shot and I think that is way better than shooting one after the other. The game really wants to advertise ethical hunting, especially with the main story in singleplayer.
What really blew my mind is the herd management in this game. You can actively remove the low trophy animals with bad genetics from your herds to help the high trophy animals to reproduce, throwing their good genetics into the pool.
Singleplayer:
The singleplayer part of the game is pretty solid compared to the multiplayer issues at the moment. The main story is fine. Probably not needed for a lot of people but I am actually motivated to progress. It's way better than the lacklustre, boring approach of "TheHunter: Call of the Wild". The side missions are nice little stories that don't only give you money - you can also get hunting licenses for free that allow you to hunt in certain areas.
Multiplayer:
The multiplayer however at the time of this review is very buggy. Sometimes unacceptable buggy. I will mention them in a later section. I hope those things get fixed ASAP since I really want to play this nonetheless awesome game with my ahem.. friends if I had any.
Difficulty:
You can choose from 4 difficulties. The first 3 difficulties include the "hunters sense" mode, which basically lets you see all information for animals and tracks you see, shows you where noises of animals are coming from, calculates bullet drop and wind and shows you where your bullet is hitting etc. The last difficulty is the only one without this mode so it's arguably the best way to play this game. Like a real simulation with no fancy tips. But of course you can play it the way you want and I think that's really awesome. The difficulty of hunting itself can probably be pretty high for people new to this genre so just pick the easier difficulties for starters and animals won't be getting scared as easy.
Worth to mention: You can deactivate the hunters mode or adjust what type of help you want if you don't want to play on hardest difficulty but still want a realistic experience.
Bugs:
Here is a list of all the bugs I have encountered:
Single- and Multiplayer:
Missing blood tracks (already partially fixed)
You can get stuck in a tree, changing stance will fix it
Game crashes are common apparently, haven't experienced any
Performance issues - it's not that bad for me but could certainly be better. I'm at 50-60 FPS most of the time with a RTX 3070. For full specs you can visit my profile.
Only in Multiplayer:
Taxidermized animals don't get saved
The right difficulty doesn't show up on trophies
Animations of other players can look very odd sometimes
Look into the future:
The developers just pushed out an update fixing some issues such as the blood tracks missing and adding stuff the community has asked for such as ultra widescreen support, a FOV slider and key bindings. They also released a roadmap where they focus on fixing the game but also releasing some content not too far in the future. Content for FREE! That's right, we are getting new weapons, missions, animals, vehicles, ammo types, hunting gear and more for free! Now you might be wondering what is the DLC for? It's for 2 new maps.
Conclusion:
Overall this game is an amazing realistic hunting simulator and does so many things right. The developers are focusing on fixing issues and planning to push out free content. I recommend this game if you are looking for the best hunting simulator on the market.