SavageWhiteDude's savage review, the good bad and ugly

[SavageWhiteDude]

I haven't spent much time ingame yet but enough to give my .02 on a few things. Any paragraph that has -- in it means anything after the -- in that paragraph is explanation beyond necessary and should be skipped unless you're interested in my personal experiences/explanations of my previous statements.

Graphics: The game looks good. REALLY good. I get the blur affect people are talking about and I think it could be sharpened up just a bit. Also up very close the animals do look a tad bit cartoonish IMO(Don't get me wrong, they look better than any hunting game out there) but at any appreciable distance they look fantastic. Movement looks good. We could do for a bit more variety in animations(the "death jump" at a lung shot, stopping and staggering from loss of oxygen to the brain just before collapsing etc.).

Controls: The game feels good. A little more fluid than THC. Haven't found a way to map the keys myself yet but haven't really tried either, if that's not a feature it needs to be. Also give us a darn slow walk/creep button!!!! -- In real life the quietest way a human can move is walking. It's how we are designed to move. The only counter to that is the lb/ft footprint is a lot smaller and heavier so it's less forgiving if you do misstep. I am not saying that ingame it should be quieter to walk(balance vs realism) BUT I should be able to move while standing very slowly and quietly to sneak around a tree to get a shot. Not "crap I don't have a shot" *go prone* *crawl* *stand up*

AI: BUGGY!!! When the AI works it works great. A spooked deer will often run off a ways, stop, check behind them. Needs a LOT of polishing though. I'm sure the devs know this. Also a question of sorts, there are many more animal numbers in bedding/feeding/drinking areas(finally a game tha replicates real behavior at least a bit) BUT does this game also have more activity BETWEEN those areas(travel corridors)? If it doesn't that NEEDS to change. Hunting travel corridors is one of the best way to harvest trophies.

Animals: As I said animations are good. Animal numbers are maybe a BIT high but I don't think it's as bad as some say. What is bad is the number of big animals. 75% of the deer you see should not be wallhangers.. Really? It completely takes the excitement out of seeing a trophy. I quickly stopped caring about finding big deer or the biggest deer. Part of that to is the lack of a trurack system. BRING BACK TRURACKS FFS!!!!!! I know it probably takes a lot of dev time to make that program which is hopefully why we didn't get it at launch. That's fine, id rather they take the time to do it right. But by God that had better be a top priorty that the devs have top men, TOP MEN! working on! It makes the game knowing every deer you see has a unique set of antlers on top of it, you never know what you're going to see next and a trophy really feels like a trophy.

Overal experience? So far good. The game isn't the game I want but it has all the building blocks to get there. The immersion factor is great. The locations look good, makes me feel like I'm actually still hunting slowly through the pines on my property up north. The animals look good, having a deer trotting, zig zagging in and out of sight your way as you crouch in the tall grass...already had a few very fun experiences so far. Good work devs. Maybe released a bit early for some but at its current state i'd rather have it to play this weekend and deal with the bugs than not have it at all.

Needs:

ultrawide support - Ok, this is a no-brainer and should have been done before release. UW support is an absolute must. Fortunately I had a normal widescreen sitting waiting to get returned because its defective but usable but after that my time ingame might be cut shorter because of the lack of UW support. It's playable but you lose a lot.

TruRacks - nuff said...the hunter isn't the hunter without it.

portable treestands/blinds - the tower idea was neat but nothing beats scoping out the perfect tree.

more content - will come with time but at the moment the amount of weapons/equipment will only keep us happy for a limited time

effective camo - camo has no effect on our visibilty? Really? o.O

slow/creep button - I should be able to control my pace more than run/walk


So far, so good. Long ways to go but I really hope the devs support this game for a long time coming. It has a LOT of potential. Reading some of the reviews and experiences on here just after release while I was in class had me a bit worried but thankfully I'm content with the game at the moment. Needs work but seeing what they turned THC into, if they put the effort in this could be THE go to hunting game.

[76561198349709834]

Excellent review of the game, thank you for being so honest and detailed about it. This is exactly the feedback we need.

I want to address a few things:

"Also give us a darn slow walk/creep button!!!!" - I've forwarded this to the Devs this morning and they are looking into it.

TruRacs - Also forwarded this morning, but I can't share any info on it so far but will do so if it becomes available.

Ultra Wide Screen 21:9 - We're aware of it and we will work on a solution for it as it affects quite a number of players.

Portable Treestand and other content: For the time being our main priority is to fix the critical issues first, such as the multiplayer for example. Once that is done we will, in time, announce additional content.

We will push a second patch later today - In fact as we speak.

Cheers,

Stefan

[WINTERSTELLAR]

Can't wait to see this Stefan !
Keep up the good work

[76561198349709834]

We will - The studio is busy as a bee hive. I'll keep you posted in the announcements as information becomes available.

The new patch is live btw. - Patch notes are in the news section on Steam.

[SavageWhiteDude]

Escrito originalmente por Melo:

Ok, so apparently you don't even know what the issue actually is. This has nothing to do with THC or whatever.

Again:
If you're playing with a controller, you can fine-tune your moving speed. You can walk so slow that you're not making any noise at all, which obviously enables you to get *really* close to the animals.

Right now, that simply isn't possible when playing with keyboard/mouse, because you're always moving at maximum speed, causing maximum noise levels. There's not even a difference in noise levels between walking upright and crouching.

Last night I tried to hunt down a Red Fox, and I couldn't even get close enough to *see* it because of the distance he kept hearing me from, despite using crouch only and avoiding all branches and bushes.

So of course this is game-breaking when you can't even get close enough to the animals, when it's a walk in the park to achieve when playing with a controller.

Escrito originalmente por SavageWhiteDude:

You're comparing buying a broken toaster to a game that needs some updates? LOL

What's so funny about it? Contrary to THC, this game is a one-time purchase. So once they got your money they are done. It's 2017, don't be naive and automatically assume that devs fix all the issues when they already got your money. Look at all the Early Access games out there who are in development limbo because the developers already got all the money and don't have any incentive to keep working on the game.
Please, don't be that naive.

This is not Early Access or a closed beta, this is a final product (that's what they advertise it as) for which they are charging full price for, so I'm going to treat it as such. Very simple actually.

No, it's not game breaking. That is a load of crap. Get over it. The devs are aware of the issue but this game is a "new game" from THC but built somewhat in it's image. We got along fine with things the way they are in THC for years. You can too if you put your big boy pants on and deal with it until a change comes(I won't even call it a fix because it isn't a bug).

It's a one time purchase, right... how is that worse than being charged a monthly fee you have to pay every 30 days to play a game that had major issues like THC did when it was released?

I'm not being naive. You can try and trump this up all you want but you're starting to sound very petty. Hunting games are this companies bread and butter at the moment. I see no reason why they will not further develope this game and fix the issues we are seeing. That dino hunting crap they released was a step out of there wheelhouse and I saw it for what it was. Didn't bother buying it as I knew it wasn't going to last. This? This is a continuation of what they have been doing for the last 10+ years.

And if by some fluke I'm wrong and this ends up dead in the water(which there is NO indication of that happening) then oh well, I'm out 30 bucks. Life goes on. For me the game, as it sits now, is already for the 30 dollars.

[Xanton]

Escrito originalmente por SavageWhiteDude:

I haven't spent much time ingame yet but enough to give my .02 on a few things. Any paragraph that has -- in it means anything after the -- in that paragraph is explanation beyond necessary and should be skipped unless you're interested in my personal experiences/explanations of my previous statements.

Graphics: The game looks good. REALLY good. I get the blur affect people are talking about and I think it could be sharpened up just a bit. Also up very close the animals do look a tad bit cartoonish IMO(Don't get me wrong, they look better than any hunting game out there) but at any appreciable distance they look fantastic. Movement looks good. We could do for a bit more variety in animations(the "death jump" at a lung shot, stopping and staggering from loss of oxygen to the brain just before collapsing etc.).

Controls: The game feels good. A little more fluid than THC. Haven't found a way to map the keys myself yet but haven't really tried either, if that's not a feature it needs to be. Also give us a darn slow walk/creep button!!!! -- In real life the quietest way a human can move is walking. It's how we are designed to move. The only counter to that is the lb/ft footprint is a lot smaller and heavier so it's less forgiving if you do misstep. I am not saying that ingame it should be quieter to walk(balance vs realism) BUT I should be able to move while standing very slowly and quietly to sneak around a tree to get a shot. Not "crap I don't have a shot" *go prone* *crawl* *stand up*

AI: BUGGY!!! When the AI works it works great. A spooked deer will often run off a ways, stop, check behind them. Needs a LOT of polishing though. I'm sure the devs know this. Also a question of sorts, there are many more animal numbers in bedding/feeding/drinking areas(finally a game tha replicates real behavior at least a bit) BUT does this game also have more activity BETWEEN those areas(travel corridors)? If it doesn't that NEEDS to change. Hunting travel corridors is one of the best way to harvest trophies.

Animals: As I said animations are good. Animal numbers are maybe a BIT high but I don't think it's as bad as some say. What is bad is the number of big animals. 75% of the deer you see should not be wallhangers.. Really? It completely takes the excitement out of seeing a trophy. I quickly stopped caring about finding big deer or the biggest deer. Part of that to is the lack of a trurack system. BRING BACK TRURACKS FFS!!!!!! I know it probably takes a lot of dev time to make that program which is hopefully why we didn't get it at launch. That's fine, id rather they take the time to do it right. But by God that had better be a top priorty that the devs have top men, TOP MEN! working on! It makes the game knowing every deer you see has a unique set of antlers on top of it, you never know what you're going to see next and a trophy really feels like a trophy.

Overal experience? So far good. The game isn't the game I want but it has all the building blocks to get there. The immersion factor is great. The locations look good, makes me feel like I'm actually still hunting slowly through the pines on my property up north. The animals look good, having a deer trotting, zig zagging in and out of sight your way as you crouch in the tall grass...already had a few very fun experiences so far. Good work devs. Maybe released a bit early for some but at its current state i'd rather have it to play this weekend and deal with the bugs than not have it at all.

Needs:

ultrawide support - Ok, this is a no-brainer and should have been done before release. UW support is an absolute must. Fortunately I had a normal widescreen sitting waiting to get returned because its defective but usable but after that my time ingame might be cut shorter because of the lack of UW support. It's playable but you lose a lot.

TruRacks - nuff said...the hunter isn't the hunter without it.

portable treestands/blinds - the tower idea was neat but nothing beats scoping out the perfect tree.

more content - will come with time but at the moment the amount of weapons/equipment will only keep us happy for a limited time

effective camo - camo has no effect on our visibilty? Really? o.O

slow/creep button - I should be able to control my pace more than run/walk


So far, so good. Long ways to go but I really hope the devs support this game for a long time coming. It has a LOT of potential. Reading some of the reviews and experiences on here just after release while I was in class had me a bit worried but thankfully I'm content with the game at the moment. Needs work but seeing what they turned THC into, if they put the effort in this could be THE go to hunting game.

I think you sum it up well when you say "The game isn't the game I want but it has all the building blocks to get there." In fact, you pretty much sum up everything I feel ab out the game here. Thanks for the review!

[GeneralKayoss]

Def needs Truracks or some sort of custom rack system.