Way of the Hunter Review - A Struggle Through the Wild — Too Much Gaming

Way of the Hunter is a hunting simulator that aims at delivering a realistic wildlife hunting experience. The name of the game is patience, as any sudden movement can ruin an opportunity for a clean kill. It’s tough, but the pivot to realism in the game’s hunting mechanics makes each success more satisfying and exhilarating when you’re in the thick of it. There’s just a couple of things that get in this hunter’s way.

A forgettable background story

You play as River Knox, a hunter that heads to his grandfather’s hunting lodge to help him maintain the place by doing some hunting of his own, a passion that blossomed when he was young. It's unusual, but I appreciate seeing some story injected into a simulator game. It’s a stale story that mostly revolves around River’s family, the people he used to know in the area, and their relationships with one another. The story elements of Way of the Hunter felt out of place, as I struggled to really care about them. The more I learned, the more I felt discouraged to move forward with this family drama, but I went along with it anyway, as I wanted to earn cash to gain access to more equipment.

Thankfully the game doesn’t push you to engage with the narrative, but It’s there if you want some kind of tale, as it’s presented through letters paired with narration, flashbacks, River talking to himself of the “good ol’ days”, and conversations with other characters via radio, as most of the time you’re all alone in the cabin or out in the wild.

You can either do these quests, take on other tasks found in the world, or just go out on your own and hunt whatever you want. Most tasks are mundane and uninspiring. You’ll either encounter a boring trip to another cottage by car to drop off a book, or hunt certain animals for some cash. I find more comfort going out on my own and just hunting whatever I find.

The option to explore and do anything is open to you early on, and all you can do in Way of the Hunter is, well… hunt. The game sticks to being a hunter simulator and doesn’t stray from this in the slightest. There’s no specific activity or event to change things up a bit besides the story and the quests. All you have to work with is a massive open world filled with animals in their own habitat going about their business. Once you’re given the basics, the game throws you into the deep end and lets you figure out the ways of the hunt.

It’s just a big sandbox to satisfy those itching for this type of realism in a hunting game. A place to scout, plan, and really position yourself for the perfect chance at a good kill. While exploring the massive landscapes, you’ll come across camps sometimes containing a quest, hunting towers, other lodges, and animal spots, all of which populate the two available maps.

As I scout the area more, I find more of the same thing but opportunities for different hunts as hunting a Mule deer in an open field is nothing compared to a herd chilling and eating on a steep mountain side. The real strength in Way of the Hunt is the different approaches and terrain to hunt these animals, as each approach is different depending on a variety of factors, so those appreciating that kind of depth in hunting will appreciate the scale of the game.

The thin line between challenge and frustration

The realism is there if that’s all that matters for you in a game like this. The clues left from animals are vague but enough to give you a good idea where you should be looking. The direction of the wind can carry your scent, and if blown directly at wildlife, it can expose your position and spook them sooner rather than later. Weapon sway, bullet drops, and the amount of damage based on where you hit the animal are present to deliver a realistic approach when taking shots. They even have a detailed replay system for each shot taken after claiming your kill, giving you information to assess future shots with the same animal.

Getting a kill with a single shot is the best outcome, but if your target is still moving and starts to run, you’ll have to continue the pursuit and follow the blood trail to finish what you’ve started. Blood trails come in different colors, showing how much damage the animal received. Red is nothing significant, while other colors signify a shot in vital organs - a good touch, as it gave me a good idea how badly damaged my prey is and whether it’s worth pursuing.

With enough scouting (plus trial and error), you’ll eventually learn where certain animals will go on certain days. This results in hunts being too quiet and long for my own taste, with sound being an important factor for gathering information and keeping yourself concealed. Running is never a good idea, as slightly brushing up against a bush will be enough to spook most animals.

This results in players requiring massive amounts of patience to find any kind success in this game. Most of my hunts will take over 30 minutes as I'm constantly crouching, using the game’s hunter sense to gather clues, and staying hidden and quiet as much as possible. It’s punishing in the sense that you can easily spend an hour hunting a specific animal, but come out with nothing in the end thanks to one single mistake. Though this is something that I'm sure happens in real life, most of the time it does not translate into fun gameplay.

In addition to the time you’ll need to invest in each hunt, I was also up against a lot of bugs and issues that occurred while I was playing, which spoiled my time on multiple occasions. UI problems occurred often, such as my character or car icons disappearing, or markers not properly going away when prompted. I encountered sound bugs where, once I passed by a waterfall, the sounds of the waterfall never went away, even when I was out in open fields with no water in sight. All of these bugs can be easily resolved by reloading the game, but they ruin your immersion and the game’s flow.

There’s also weird glitches like spooked animals getting stuck in environments or my character’s knee randomly clipping through my gun when crouching.There are environmental pop-ups that occur when driving fast, and the FPS can sometimes drop below 20, then shoot back up to normal ranges. These add up to too many unnecessary distractions in a game that requires you to be patient 95% of the time.

Not fit for all kinds of hunter

Way of the Hunter feels more catered to a specific group of players, as I feel it lacks the ability to ease newcomers into this world of realistic hunting. The game has a really steep learning curve, so much so that players unfamiliar with wildlife hunting will struggle to fully understand how to succeed in a game like this. There are easy tasks at the start, but even they don’t feel like enough to ease a player into this super-realistic kind of gameplay.

As a hunting game simulator, the hunting process is so wonderfully done that players well-versed in this type of gameplay will appreciate the finer details found in this game. It's unfortunate that everything around it – tedious quest designs, lackluster story elements, plus various glitches and bugs – heavily drags it down. The two maps available are massive and gorgeous to look at on any given day and populated with an impressive roster of wildlife to observe and appreciate. It’s a solid foundation, but missing a few marks to really bring it home.

[This review does not provide an impression of the multiplayer portion of the game as we weren’t able to test the game with another player during the review process. Way of the Hunter will feature 2-player co-op at launch.]

Score: 7/10

PROS

Jaw-dropping environments and detail
The process of tracking and hunting a specific animal in this realistic manner was long but satisfying
Massive open world with various animals naturally living their lives

CONS

Mundane quest system and story that can be easily ignored or forgotten
Various glitches and bugs that are consistent that get in the way of the hunting
A steep learning curve for those not familiar with hunting simulators