Hunting online. That's really what the modern gaming community really lacked. After all, becoming a real hunter is quite an expensive pleasure, and many representatives of the strong half of the planet want to feel like a getter. And it happened - it came out worthy online game on the topic of hunting - The Hunter, and not just a game, but practically a social network for hunters. But first things first.

The Hunter is a simulator of a hunter and that would say it all if not for a few "buts". This time the developers have released a really catchy hunting simulator. And he catches the fact that we can now hunt down and shoot the animal with friends, and this gives a lot more fun than dull walking through the forests and fields alone. Don't believe? Watch the videos and you will understand everything.

Screenshots of the game:

Graphics in The Hunter is separate story. Beautiful landscapes, mountains, everything green, everything sways in the wind and casts shadows in which forest living creatures hide. Have you seen Skyrim? Well, here is something similar - the picture pleases the eye and does not bother.

The sounds are also well made. Lovers of relaxation and meditation will especially like it. Birds sing, grasshoppers chirp, woodpeckers hammer and all this grace is broken only by the periodic sound of your gun shots. Well, if you are not a fan of calm walks in the forest - turn off the sound and extinguish the animals under Rammstein or what are you listening to there?

Weapon. The game has many different rifles, shotguns, pistols, bows and crossbows. You can also buy all kinds of equipment and equipment - clothes, tents, decoys, baits, aerosols, binoculars. Keyword in all of the above - "buy". The free game set includes:

  • Bolt-action .243 rifle
  • Binoculars
  • Decoy for deer
  • License to shoot black-tailed deer.

It is quite possible to play with this set, but if you want complete freedom in the choice of locations and shoot from anything at anyone, if you please, pay. You can buy everything separately or you can buy a subscription that will give you access to all features for a certain period of time.

Video review The hunter:

To register in The Hunter, you need to go to the site, register, download the client and install it on your computer. After all the updates are downloaded, you can launch the game from the site by selecting "HUNT NOW" from the menu.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the game has a lot of potential. Social network for hunters in itself is not bad idea, and if you also add the possibility of online hunting here, you get an excellent cocktail. The browser component with all your achievements, photos of killed animals, trophies - make the social part of the game interesting, and beautiful open world+ the ability to play with friends brings computer hunting to new level.

In order to attract the attention of the audience, the developers of Avalanche Studios (publisher - Expansive Worlds) shot in all directions. The Hunter game is not technically a new word in the hunting simulation genre. Realistic mechanics, excellent graphics - all this was already present to one degree or another in Big Game Hunter from Activision or Deer Hunter by the notorious Atari studio.

An interesting enough decision by The Hunter was the division gameplay into two almost independent parts. All organizational issues are resolved through a browser-based Launcher, made neatly and in a minimalist style. With it, players can communicate, view statistics, manage finances and equipment, sign up for competitions, as well as select a game mode and a hunting reserve. And only after setting all the details, the user starts the client part of the game. In which, in fact, he remains alone with wildlife and a victim to be found...

The Hunter: Among forests and fields

A close look at the client side of the game gives rise to an understanding: yes, the developers tried, but without fanaticism.

A very beautifully drawn world, which is not without reason compared with Skyrim, is absolutely not interactive. After loading into the hunting camp, you can stumble on doors and various objects, but you will not be able to activate almost anything. Gatehouses and sheds are boarded up tightly. You can’t go into them, admire the trophies and rummage through stocks that did not fit in a backpack. There is also no minimal in-game ammo store with a colorful and witty seller. There are only a few shooting ranges, the meaning of which is not particularly clear, because they do not give any bonuses. Unless they allow you to practice shooting at a long distance, for example with a bow.

The same will happen in the open spaces of hunting grounds. Of the points marked on the map, only observation platforms and towers will be useful. Everything else is silent scenery, interaction with which is reduced to zero. After half an hour of exploring the world, there is a slight feeling of loneliness and the realization that there is no one besides you and potential prey in this reality.

However, such a meager implementation of reserves can be interpreted in different ways. One way or another, it creates a certain atmosphere. It is much harder to come to terms with the flaws in the mechanics of movement, because of which the game seems to be damp. The Hunter's nature is filled with scenery, but only a fraction of it actually exists. Like a disembodied ghost, the character passes through bushes and fallen trees. At the same time, a ridge of stones, for some reason hanging in the air at waist level, stops her and makes her go around.

Heights are a separate issue. Any rise at an angle of up to 70-80 degrees to the horizon is overcome by our hunter without much difficulty. With slight envy, you watch how he climbs almost sheer slopes, slowly moving his feet, stepping through the air and plunging into the textures. In fairness, it should be noted that there are still unsupportable rocks in the game, there are just not enough of them. To overcome such obstacles, the developers have introduced climbing equipment into the in-game store.

The same can be said for all other aspects. game mechanics. The whistle, which is supposed to scare away animals, only works on birds. It can break if dropped. At the same time, only the most ingenious will find a key combination that can be used to leave the game without "Alt + F4" if there are no first-aid kits or supplies for teleporting to the camp in the inventory. You can look out for prey from towers with binoculars for a very long time. But you never know that the animals are drawn at a distance of no more than 220 meters.

All these moments are sad, given that the very first version of the game appeared back in 2009.

A separate word must be said about the Russification of the project. Both in the launcher and in the client, there is more of an illusion of translation than the translation itself. As we move away from content for beginners and services, Russian words and sentences become less and less.

On this, perhaps, it is worth temporarily stopping the flow of criticism and moving on to those aspects of the game that the developers have succeeded in glory.

The Hunter: Chasing the Beast

Although the study of the surrounding reality in The Hunter is slightly lame, the hunting process itself is done perfectly. Kill an animal from sniper rifle- a simple matter that takes no more than 5 minutes. It's much harder to track him down. Sometimes the search for prey can take up to 5-6 hours. But thanks to a competent logical study, this process does not bother for a very long time.

All animals in the game leave traces that the hunter is able to detect. For convenience, they are highlighted with red circles, visible from afar. After finding the trail, you need to use the HunterMate smartphone, an indispensable companion on any expedition. On pressing a special button, it will show:

  • The type of animal to which the prints belong;
  • The direction in which it moved;
  • The speed at which it was moving.

Moreover, the portable assistant is able to distinguish between traces of different individuals of the same species. Therefore, one can pursue a certain deer for as long as necessary without fear of confusing it with others and losing the right direction.

Sometimes animals call to each other. These sounds can also be used for tracking. HunterMate correctly shows the approximate point on the map from which the last signal came.

Thus, no mindless wandering around the map. The maximum is up to the first detected trace. Then the game turns into a real detective stealth adventure. Here we are sneaking behind a peacefully walking deer, trying not to frighten it away. So he sensed something was wrong and accelerated to a trot. We haven't found the next trail yet, but we already know it's running. We saw how the bastard just rode over that hill. We check on HunterMate - indeed. Here the rain starts. In the meantime, two hours have passed...

You can go the other way. Even in the beginner's starter kit there are special mixtures that attract animals. In a place of high concentration of traces, a decoy is laid. Next, an ambush is set up (something like a dugout), in which the hunter is waiting for his prey. And sooner or later, it will make itself felt. The main thing is patience.

The number of factors on which the success of approaching the victim depends inspires respect. The hunter can move in four modes: running, walking, sneaking and crawling. The wind, the direction of which can be determined by moving clouds, can attribute our scent to the beast. Therefore, it is worth using special deodorants. In order to better blend in with the terrain, special clothing and camouflage should be worn.

There is also a risk in the game of being maimed by one of the aggressive animals, such as a bear or a wild boar. There will be no very sad consequences from this, but the game session will be interrupted if there is no first-aid kit in the inventory.

There are more than enough animals to hunt. Among them: deer, hares, wild boars, bears, kangaroos and several species of birds. For each of them there is a list of allowed weapons. Kill the prey from the wrong gun: not only will it not be counted, but the reserve will be asked to leave. There is also a kind of role-playing system in the game. During successful search traces (tracking) and detection of animals grow the corresponding skills.

Multiplayer

hunting in real life is not only the excitement of tracking and the adrenaline of encountering wildlife, but also a sport. Competition, the results of which can be boasted in a suitable company. This is what Avalanche Studios developers played on, screwing a kind of "social network" right into the game's Launcher. With its help, players have the opportunity to:

  • See your place in the world rating table. It depends on a variety of factors, ranging from the number of frags to the kilometers traveled through the reserves;
  • Participate in competitions. Most of them are played in single player mode and require, say, killing three deer with the maximum weight in total;
  • Keep all your trophies and winning shots in one tab that everyone can see.

It was this competitive vein, coupled with the relatively good implementation of locations and mechanics, that could bring the genre of hunting simulators to a whole new level within the framework of a single game.

What you should not look for in the online component of The Hunter is the reasons for new acquaintances. The motivation for players to interact, other than to measure the size of the trophies, is minimal. There is a multiplayer in which you can hunt together. But why, if any players joining your session are just competitors? Some fans are trying to bring real-life entertainment like driven hunting into the game. If such ideas do not fail, they are the exception rather than the rule.

Perhaps if the fines for a collision with aggressive animals were more serious, then there would be more joint hunting stories. At the moment, The Hunter is a solo game. And its networking capabilities are aimed more at maintaining a constant interest than at a joint pastime.

The Hunter: Everything costs money

And The Hunter, ideally, is also considerable. The donation system is perhaps the heaviest stone in the garden of this game.

And it's not even that it does not live up to its Free-to-Play name. Yes, beginners are actually only allowed to hunt black-tailed deer. The beginner's arsenal is extremely poor. And yet, even this is enough for several hours of exciting gameplay. In addition, the people who created this great entertainment for millions should not work for free.

The point is the number of services that will have to be spent for a successful game.

A license is required to shoot any animal. It costs about 600 rubles for three months. Pay-to-Play system? Quite a common idea. Blizzard with World of Warcraft has long broken into the bright future of the computer industry with this payment system.

But not every weapon is suitable for the chosen beast. And the initial set of accessories is extremely small. The simplest solution is to purchase an advanced beginner's kit. It costs about 2000 rubles, gives an annual license for all animals and quite a suitable set of things in order to play comfortably.

Is this where it all ends? Yes, if you do not claim top places in the ratings and are ready to play for your own pleasure. If the game is a sport for you, then get ready for mandatory spending.

There are two types of currency in the game. The first one is bought for real (em), the second one (gm) is given for competitions and completing single missions (like “hunt down and kill a deer with 6 branches on its horns”).

Play money can be spent on consumables like ammo, deodorants, and climbing equipment. Moreover, not so much is given for gm quests, and what is most unpleasant is that the tasks end. Win the competition... Well, if you manage to win among the world leaders of the game, then it's good, of course.

However, if the quests are over, you can update them. It will cost about 500 rubles.

In addition to the basic equipment, there are many more improved items. Not just beautiful, but rather providing small bonuses while searching for animals. These include: more advanced models of clothing and ambush that reduce noise or smell, decoys for certain types of animals, traps and other useful gadgets. Recently, dog companions have appeared, extremely useful when hunting ducks and rabbits.

All this is bought for em, that is, for real money. And if you decide to compete with the world leaders in the ratings without spending a penny more than the subscription amount ... Then you should remember what advantage an equipped hunter has over a regular one. Even in real life.

Outcome

The Hunter could have been a masterpiece with a little more detail. And even though there are few weaknesses in the implementation of reserves, it is very good. And the creation of a kind of social network in which you can compete and share achievements immediately brought Avalanche Studios and Expansive Worlds to a new level of popularity compared to their more experienced competitors.

With all your positive traits the game could turn into the founder of the whole esports discipline of virtual hunting. But high level donata will not allow her to do this in the current version.

Nevertheless, The Hunter game will find its permanent audience of hunters thanks to smart mechanics and a large number of different tasks. And try for yourself a hunting simulator for guest account can be advised to any gamer who has a few hours of free time. For it is definitely worth looking at this well-tailored product with at least one eye.

Hunting is a hobby for me. This is a whole culture, to access which you must certainly have at least your grandfather’s gun and a thick mustache over the fireplace, and I don’t even have a fireplace, what are you talking about. Closer than running errands for mushrooms in the Siberian forests, I never got close to her and I’m unlikely to ever get close for a number of reasons. One of them is theHunter: Call of the Wild.

The new iteration of the once-free simulator offered a low-cost and visually enticing way to experience the joys of hunting. According to the description - everything is the same minus the accompanying inconveniences. Sit yourself, then, in an easy chair with a seagull at the ready and enjoy the process while your avatar fights off mosquitoes and wets your pants in the reeds. Perfect, isn't it?

Finally, we have arrived! One has only to arrive at the place, as the pocket walkie-talkie begins to burst with voices, the most insistent of which advises to take a walk around the district and find something to shoot. Then, as if by order, a characteristic rustling is heard from the nearest clearing. large animal, not otherwise. Trying not to make too much noise, I get closer - and indeed: right in the center, a bear is found, lonely trampling bizarre shapes on the grass.

So, now how to teach. Take aim. Hold the breath. Slowly pull the trigger. Shot!..

…And nothing happens.

The brown tramp turns and freezes with a puzzled look on his face. No, it was impossible to miss. It's just a bullet that didn't hit anything vital. This happens, for sure. Now, a few more seconds - and you can collect prey.

After three minutes of mutual staring, I still decide to approach the stubborn victim - and find that she died a long time ago, having forgotten to play the appropriate animation before that. And at some distance, it turned out, another bear was sitting and humbly watching all this, not being afraid of either the roar of a rifle or a suddenly leaning relative. Hmm, it's awkward.

Well, yes it is Not good stable simulation. The above case is not unique - much here fails more often than allowed. There is nothing wrong with the animation flaws, however, but the bugs of the behavioral model of animals blur the impression. Somehow, you suddenly stop feeling like an experienced hunter, when coyotes are literally lost in three pines, and deer completely turn off their brains at the sight of a player. “Buy a decoy, otherwise you won’t achieve anything in life,” a local expert suggests, but the fauna, meanwhile, strongly proves the opposite:

If these troubles are thrown aside, Call of the Wild perfectly depicts hunting as a full-fledged craft. It is not enough to learn how to shoot accurately and run fast, this is no longer Counter-Strike - animals are smarter and more agile. You need to watch the direction of the wind so that your disgusting human smell does not blow into the wide nostrils of the moose; stay in the grass and, if possible, not move; look for traces, wait at watering places and favorite places of rest; finally use bait. Perseverance, resourcefulness and attentiveness are more important than ever - and the higher the conditional level of the animal, the more efforts will have to be made to catch it.

It is especially pleasant that all this is available for any layer of players. Beginners are supported by a detailed interface that will explain in time, help and highlight where necessary - it is absolutely impossible to get lost with such a system. The more experienced audience can easily turn off the extra tinsel, because the game world is quite informative in itself, not least thanks to the amazing work with sound and graphic bells and whistles like crushed grass and foliage picked up by air currents.

In some story missions, you can't get rid of the feeling that you are playing Firewatch for nerds.

In general, there are no noticeable complaints about the sports side of the issue: camping in the bushes for 20 minutes, chasing your land Moby Dick, turned out to be surprisingly interesting. Much harder to enjoy yourself shot. From murder.

Perhaps a little PETA activist is growing in me, who tomorrow will feel like pouring blood on passers-by in fur coats, but even in a virtual manifestation, hunting carries some kind of repulsive emotional coloring. Call of the Wild invites you to a beautiful, peaceful world, but only to destroy its idyll. She spews hit statistics, relishes the details of the shot through the intestines, revels in bleeding and counts the seconds until the death of the animal. Yes, everyone you meet here calls for the humanity of the process, but somehow it doesn’t get any easier.

And before we get into talking about animal life and calling for veganism, I’ll clarify - this is too much for an interactive entertainment. A game that emphasizes the naturalness of the murder being committed does not allow you to treat yourself with the same carelessness with which you send tigers to the next world, say, in. And entertainment in the full sense of the word it can no longer be called.

Of course, no one forbids living in harmony with nature, but there are desperately not enough funds to make a pacifist's leisure time exciting. But the solution is right under the nose - more precisely, in the player's arsenal. Based on the camera, which in its current form simply replaces the screenshot button and is required for a couple of dreary tasks, a whole sphere of virtual activity could be organized.

Why, for example, does a magic locker that exchanges money for weapons and ammunition not sell gadgets for photography? I clicked sparrows, earned money for a new lens with a crazy zoom, pumped up the skill of stealth photography - and rushed off to catch a herd of deer dancing around a yawning buffalo. You don’t even need to reinvent the wheel: the mechanics, up to shooting, are all the same, except that the lungs don’t burst from the click of the shutter. Well, only some "Instagram" for naturalists would have to be fastened.

After all, the very nature of the game, bewitching and diverse, asks for it. Whether it's the sun's rays breaking through the majestic pine trees, raindrops beating on the surface of an ordinary swamp, or the moon hanging over the mountains - everything looks so beautiful that you want to compose dozens of compositions, play with shutter speed, focus and filters in pursuit of a perfect shot. But this is not provided. Even the seedy "Ansel" from NVIDIA was not found.

Its beauty, however, the engine

In order to hunt in Evergreen, you first need to make sure that your computer meets the minimum system requirements:

Anyway

you will need a permanent connection to the Internet (if the connection is lost, the game freezes and waits for the connection to be restored), a screen with a minimum resolution of 1024x768, you must have a video card that supports Shader Model 3.0 (so most likely the game will not work on laptops with Intel video cards) and mine advice - it is best to play with headphones to exclude third-party noises and sounds of the offline world, which can easily prevent you from hearing the sound of an approaching animal.

for online games

requires a 2GHz dual-core processor, 2GB RAM and an NVidia 8 series (8800 or better) or ATI Radeon HD 2000 series (2400 or better) graphics card with 256MB of memory (for low and medium graphics) and 512-768MB (for high graphics depending on on the number of players), internet speed 512Kb/s. in both directions for the network game client and 1-2Mb / s. for the creator of the network game. at the same time, the creator of the game must provide a frame rate of at least 25-30 frames per second, otherwise the physics in the game may fail.

for single player:

A Pentium 4 processor (3GHz), 2GB RAM, an NVidia 7 series (7600 or better) or ATI X1900 (or better) graphics card with 256MB of memory (for low and medium graphics) and 512MB (for high graphics) will do.


then you need to go through a short registration procedure on the site www.thehunter.com, create your account and your character. if the information on your personal web page is displayed in an unknown language, you need to click on the gear at the top right, select language (language) and change the language to Russian in the window that opens. Not everything has been translated yet, but a lot has already been done. then you need to go to the "download" section, download the launcher (about 18Mb) and install it. after installing the launcher, you will be prompted to immediately start downloading and installing the game (about 1.5GB), but you can install it later, when you start the first hunt, the launcher will automatically check for updates and download all the necessary game files.

the game is always launched through the Internet browser from your game account. to start the hunt, you must press the orange "hunt" button and select one of the options for starting the game. you have two options to start the game out of the available three. first - create single player, the second - to join a multiplayer game (if the creator has allowed players with a guest license to connect to the game and / or has not set a password), the third option - to create a multiplayer game on their own is available only to subscribers (members).

to start a single-player game, you must select a reserve, one of the bases to start, the start time of the hunt and click "start game". the launcher window will automatically start, which will download and install the game the first time it is launched. on subsequent launches, it will only check for updates and automatically download and install them. I want to draw your attention to the gear in the upper right corner of the launcher - here you can set all the necessary graphics settings. after checking and installing all the updates, an orange "start" button will appear in the lower right corner of the launcher - feel free to click, the game will start.

Finally, I want to give a few tips that will remove seventy percent of your first questions:

  • spend 30-40 minutes and study your personal web page, interface, structure, there is a sea of ​​information, poke everywhere, go to your profile (for this you need to click your avatar with a nickname in the upper right corner), look at the profile tabs.
  • see what the profiles of other players look like. to do this, you can click on the "friends" icon in the upper left corner and enter any letter in the search box - a list of players whose nicknames begin with this letter will appear, click on any and you will get to his profile, look at his statistics, skills, achievements and etc. even better - go to the leaderboards and click on the nicknames of the players there and get into their profiles.
  • take four short courses. everything is available and understandable in Russian. You can get into the training through a pop-up window by hovering over the orange "hunt" button on the main page of your account.
  • add friends by clicking "send friend request". friends can send messages through the site for this you need to click the "letters" icon next to the "friends" icon in the upper left corner. considering that you will be primarily interested in Russian-speaking members of the gaming community, you can start with me, my nickname is ohotnikna. then you can see my list of friends in my profile and add them to you (note that not all Russian speakers are there).