Hunting Simulator 2 PS4 Review.

[Farticus]

I bought this game on release for the PS4. I've sunk in about 8hrs into the game so far and here is my review. This is just me writing with whatever comes to mind and hopefully this will give you guys a clear and in depth look into deciding if you should buy this game or not. I am anticipating patches and updates as the PC version nears release.

The hunting: The hunting is great. The dog is an excellent addition to the game. It will sniff around looking for tracks and then it's up to you to tell the dog to track or move on. The callers work great. Hearing an animal in the distance is always exciting. Using the caller and getting into position is very satisfying. If the animal gets away, you can just use the dog to track the blood. Unfortunately you can't tell the dog to permanently stop tracking so you can move to another location and then ask the dog to start searching for tracks. You also can't tell the dog what type of animal you want it to look for which is annoying because sometimes it will find tracks for animals that you don't have a license or gun for. When your license runs out during a hunt because you've killed 5/5 deer or instance, you can't purchase another license while hunting. You have to return to your lodge to make another purchase.

The dog has 3 stats - Stamina, experience and how much it likes you. The dog will like you more then you reward it after finding a track. It gains stamina by walking and running around and experience from finding and tracking tracks. The dog also doesn't have sound effects when swimming or walking through water. There are no sound effects when moving through bushes.

The hud is very basic. There is no information for how much noise you are making or how visible you are to animals like in COTW. Animals no longer have the 3 point sight, smell and noise like in the first game. It seems that within 50m the animals become alert. They have an icon above them that changes from white to orange then red for alert. You can literally run up behind a deer when it's running away. You can run as fast as a spooked deer in this game.

The game feels like No Mans Sky on release. The game looks like it has a lot going on but eventually, it falls flat. The weapons are cool and they do have recoil. The dog is a great addition to the game when it comes to tracking and collecting small game. The graphics are a hit and a miss but the lighting and weather effects are amazing. There are 3 regions with 2 locations for each varying in map size and animals. You have different time of day, morning, evening and afternoon which you select at a bed from the hunting lodge before heading out. You are rewarded cash penalties in the game like shooting a female animal, shooting an animal with the wrong ammo, shooting an animal one to many times and so on. There are no missions, no levelling or unlocks in the game. Everything is available to you from the start and you purchase items with in game money that you earn from hunting animals. All maps are accessible from the start. You need to buy animal licenses for each location for what you want to hunt and each licence gives you a limit of how many animals you can bag. For instance you can bag between 1-5 deer and 1 bear, moose or any other larger animal. The larger animals give the most money.

Where this game falls flat....For instance, some maps just feel empty. You can walk around for a very long time before you hear or see anything. The European maps have these wide open areas and when looking around, it's all empty. At most, I have found 2 pairs of animals together. So 2 deer, 2 elk, 2 of whatever. Never more then 2. Unlike in the previous game or COTW you can find groups of up to 10 deer drinking by the river. The maps in this game feel empty. The maps have towers and shelter things that you can hunt from. You have to find them first because it won't show up on your map. There are also tents, which you also have to find, and they only let you fast travel around from tent to tent or back to your cabin. You can't customise or get more ammo from the tents like in the first game. You always have to return to your cabin to claim what you've hunted. From there, you can either sell it or claim it as a trophy. You are given extra stats on your kill when you go back to your cabin. From the cabin you can change your loadout and get more ammo but you can't change the time of day or the weather. The weather and time of day isn't dynamic. When you select a map to hunt in from the lodge, it will tell you what the weather will be like. You can buy clothing which give stats for different weather conditions and visibility. The weather effects are awesome. The rain and fog in this game are really cool. When it's raining, your screen becomes slightly foggy and rain water drips down the sides of the screen. Really cool.

Animals just seem to walk around and eat or drink. I haven't seen any animals sitting around or sleeping.

The game says that different time of day influences different animals behaviour. I don't know how true this is. They also said in a trailer that predatory animals will hunt other animals. I have not seen this or seen any dead animals lying around. I have not seen a pack of wolves (because their are no packs) circling and attacking a deer or whatever. Guns and ammo also don't have any stats. You don't know what the firing range/distance is of the rifles. You also have no stats on damage, penetration or expansion with the ammo. I find shooting an animal within 100m gets a double vital kill. There is no bullet cam like in the first game. Not sure if guns and ammo have stats or are different in any way. You also don't have any information about animal behaviour regarding different times of day. When hunting, the weather and time of day never changes. If you go out when it's raining or foggy or normal in the morning, that's how it will be no matter how long you play. It will never stop raining and never stop being foggy. Normal weather won't change to anything else. Morning won't change to afternoon and so on. No dynamic weather or day system in this game. You also can't fast travel from anywhere on the map. You have to go back to the cabin or find a tent. If you quit out of the game without claiming what you've hunted from the cabin, you'll lose all those animals. Trekking back to base is a huge pain in the ♥♥♥.

The graphics up close look like PS3 and PS1 graphics. Playing on the Texas map, next to the river are textured rocks in the ground if you know what I mean. It looks like something from a PS1 game. Draw distance isn't amazing but better then the first game. When your in a forested area the game looks good. In open space, in the distance you can see textures pop in and further out, the mountains looks like a PS1 game. The branches of the trees and the bushes don't look very impressive.

The scopes range between 2.5x and 8x. You can't adjust the scopes like in the first game. Binoculars and rangefinders see further to the point where the game hasn't rendered in any grass. It's just textured surface. You also can't adjust the binoculars and rangefinders like in the first game.

Gun models, gear, dog and animals look fantastic. Gun sounds are great. The maps are still fun to hunt in, particularly the forested maps. The hunting aspect of this game is awesome. It really holds this game together.

Hopefully with future updates and patches the maps will be more populated and will see more quality improvements. There is also no night hunting like in the first game.

I hope this has helped and I'll answer any questions from my experience with the game. I still play it and I'm still enjoying my time. It's not a terrible game but just like with No Mans Sky, that was ♥♥♥♥ upon release, it had potential and with work put into it by Hello Games it's now a completely different game. Perhaps the same will happen for Hunting Simulator 2. I imagine it will be because getting licensed weapons and gear probably wasn't cheap and with that kind of investment you'd probably want to commit yourself to making a solid hunting game.

[DamZe]

Thank you for your review, it sadly confirms alot of the reservations many of us had about this title.

As far as the post-launch support and patching is concerned I will believe it when I see it, as the first HS game was abandoned pretty quickly after it was launched back in 2017.

[Farticus]

Oprindeligt skrevet af DamZe:

Thank you for your review, it sadly confirms alot of the reservations many of us had about this title.

As far as the post-launch support and patching is concerned I will believe it when I see it, as the first HS game was abandoned pretty quickly after it was launched back in 2017.

I hear you. I bought HS when it was out for a few years so I got it when the developers said they were no longer working to fix the game. For what it's worth, HS had some excellent content and features. I enjoyed playing it. It would be a shame if they didn't build onto this title.

[Farticus]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Σηη:

it's quite simple really, if you like the look of HS2 and want to see improvements made with future patches and DLC - then buy and support the game for what it's worth!

if however, your intentions are negative then it expect to have the opposite effect due to lack of support - you can't have your cake and eat it too!

Hey, I agree but I'm not hearing much from the developers in regards to building onto the game. I've only seen the videos they put up on Youtube. Have you heard any news about a road map or any future updates?

[Farticus]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Σηη:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Farticus:

Hey, I agree but I'm not hearing much from the developers in regards to building onto the game. I've only seen the videos they put up on Youtube. Have you heard any news about a road map or any future updates?

that's because the former publisher BigBen Interactive (now, Nacon) have a stranglehold over the developers output!

Nacon holds the reins? What do you think about HS2? Do you think it looks promising for the future or just another cash grab?

[Farticus]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Σηη:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Farticus:

Nacon holds the reins? What do you think about HS2? Do you think it looks promising for the future or just another cash grab?

it looks very promising, providing the changes i've suggested are forthcoming but that will all depend on its initial success!

What have been your suggestions? Do you have a link?

[Farticus]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Tenzin:

I looked up a few video's and I am in Roosevelt Forest.It is very dence, and stuff. Maybe I should have a look at the other Colorado map in that case. Maybe I have more luck there. I did already find half of the towers, and tents in Roosevelt Forest.

I find the European maps to be the most empty. There really needs to be a guide for this game. After the tutorial I bought a gun without realising that I already owned the gun from the tutorial. I just had to buy a scope. Remember to buy different clothes so you're less visible. The first map in Colorado give you unlimited White Trail Deer to hunt when you buy the license. I got started that way. You can look at which ammo you can use for each animal when looking at licenses by pressing triangle. Medium to large animals use the same ammo.

Good luck.

[Machin Shin]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Tenzin:

I have been playing this game for 6 hours by now, also on the PS4.

I still don't know if I wanna continue with it or sell it again, because I was really looking forward to the game and with the starting money I could buy a good gun, scope, some ammo and some licences for a certain reserve.

However you can walk around and not see much animals. The graphics aren't that great, but the lack of animals is a issue. The map feels empty to me. And if I do find an animal alot of times I don't have a licence to kill it or I need different ammo then I got. So I can't even shoot it.

I played this game for 6 hours, and in those 6 hours I only managed to harvest 6 animals.I also shot a couple more, but even if they have a vital hit (arrow marker you can turn on) they just keep on going.

sorry but a hunting game where you find 6 animals in 6 hours sounds perfect for me.... it should not be a shooter and in YT Videos so far it looked like its a shooter