On Friday the 17th, I was given the opportunity to Preview "Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 11." Fanali opened up the traveling trailer thats part of their "Hunt Across America Tour." Now lets get something straight, this trailer was not just some cramped place to preview a game. It was loaded with scenery and it made you feel like you were actually in a hunting environment; dangerous animals included!
So armed with my trusty gun and curiousity, I watched as Fanali showed me some parts of the campaign. These segments were unlike any other Cabela's game I have played or seen. They were dramatic, cinematic, and overall gave a hunting game a true story to follow. The first one had your main character in a cave with two of your buddies. Essentially, you were following tracks that led you to this cave. Immediately erie music kicked in and the anticipation built up for what was to come. The flashlights broke, and this mysterious animal, that you will be spending your time in the campaign tracking down, assaults you.
He then jumped to another section of the game in the Alaskan wilderness that is early on. It involves you proving your manhood by shooting at targets and orienting yourself with the controls. As the story progressed you ended up hunting a group of caribou that led to the imminent danger of a pack of wolves tracking you. As you follow this path, you can hear the wind whipping and wolves howling. You end up getting attacked by a wolf and falling into this old graveyard, where you must defend yourself from the vicious pack.
During this sneak peek at the main story, there were a few things that really stood out. The controller you use for the game has a scope on it, which when used, gives you hunter vision and allows you to see animal tracks and blood trails in the game that you wouldn't otherwise be able to see. Also, the cinematic quality of this game stood out. Its not to often you get a gripping hunting game that has animals trying to rip off your arms. Overall, the story looks promising and I think that once the final game is released it will provide people who have an interest in hunting games with an enjoyable story line.
The Other Game Modes
I got to play both the shooting gallery mode and also a type of survival mode. These modes offered over 32 levels for you and your friends to hunt on and score points. You were given a rifle and a shotgun. The shotgun was strictly for birds, while the rifle was for everything else. It worked on a points system, where you scored for killing animals, getting head shots, not shooting females animals and collecting bonuses that were attached to animals like the ability to not have to reload and a score multiplier. This mode was extremely fun and made me feel like I was at a live shooting gallery. The controls for the most part were tight. There were some hiccups where the reticule would ocaisionally jump off screen, but I feel that was due to the lack of calibration. But I was told that the release copy would allow for the player to calibrate the gun for much more precision on screen.
The survival mode basically pitted you against your friend in seeing who could last the longest with deadly animals coming at you. The points system was generally the same and this mode offered another set of challenges to complete alone or with a friend.
These two modes, along with the story, look to provide for a good amount play time depending upon your skill with the gun and if you decide to play with a friend.
The Controller
This piece of hardware, made by the same people who brought you the guitar hero controllers was very solid. The gun had an adjustable stock, with the controls tightly mapped. Nothing felt awkward when using the controls, even the reloading mechanism was solid and very responsive.(Just imagine all those people who wanna do one handed reloads, you can, its definitely effective!). The only problem like I said was the reticule disappearing from time to time. But this was most likely the calibration, or my shoddy aiming.
With the released scheduled for October 26th of this year. This hunting game made by Activision is looking promising. With an awesome story, and a ton a single and multiplayer challenges in the shooting gallery this has the potential to put hunting games back in your crosshairs.
Be sure to check out the photo gallery here: Screenshots
Heres the trailer too:
