This is not my usual game. I have played a few hunting games in the past but I am not usually a fan. Been hunting a few times and I have enjoyed it. The games I’ve played tho just failed in every way to capture that thrill of hunting. The searching, the excitement of seeing your soon to be dinner. The heart break of a miss and the pure joy of a kill. Until now.
Just to get this out of the way, if you don’t have the patience to simply wander around for 30 minutes or an hour or even longer just following a trail, trying to line up the perfect shot then possibly following it some more if your shot fails to hit its mark and drop your animal quickly, this game probably is not for you.
The game is beautiful. Maybe not the best graphically but the views in the two insanely large areas are nice with plenty to see. Ponds, ridges cabins and more to explore. You can easily spend hours just wandering around seeing what you can find. In fact my first 3 hours playing I shot 4 animals and only because I randomly ran into 3 of them. And yes much like the real world if you wander around making a ton of noise chances are you won’t be seeing much of anything.
Wondering around however is not a waste of time. Tracking animals or finding new sites will actually gain you experience and money to buy better weapons, or an ATV to make travel much easier and trust me. You want the ATV, it is a long walk to across the map on foot. Animals won’t stick around so you will want to park it when you want to hunt. I saw someone in the PC version crash the ATV and have to walk and even crash it into a bear, but I don’t know if the PS4 version allows for it.
At the end of the day tho if you like hunting or even just relaxing in a massive open world by all means give this game a shot, but if you like more action this game is not for you. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
