I LOVE IT! Awesome graphics! I used to spend a lot of time camping and backpacking growing up. I broke my neck diving when I was 17 way way back in 1983 and have been paralyzed since then. This is a close as I have found to being able to wander through the woods again.

3,146 hrs on record
Luv this game because it is about as life like as any hunting game out there
Have bin a avid hunter all my life up till my disability I am 65 years old
Thank yu

As a hunter in real life, I respect this game, the graphics, and how much fun it is. It's not too easy or too hard to take down animals, so everyone can enjoy it. I don't really have any complaints about the game, besides a glitch here and there but that's not a big deal to me. The only thing I would really like to see change is to have a trophy room added to the game. It didn't really bother me much that there wasn't one, until yesterday when I harvested the legendary Red Deer in Hirschfelden. I was a little dissapointed that I couldn't go back and look at how big it is. So my idea is to have a trophy room, and either have it display the top 10 scoring animals a person has killed, or have the hunter be able to select if they want a trophy in there, with a maximum of 20 trophies allowed. I don't make the game, so this is just my idea of a small thing that would make the game more enjoyable for me. Thanks for the fun this game has brought me!

69 % of your time you spend walking around the forest,
blowing in the animal whistle without actually seeing any animals

10 % of your time you spend carefully approaching the animals you have spotted in the far far away distance

1 % of your time you spend aiming, fireing your gun and missing all the significant organs of the animals

The last 20 % of your time you spend running after the animals you have wounded without ever seeing them again

Most realistic hunting experience ever

69 % of your time you spend walking around the forest,
blowing in the animal whistle without actually seeing any animals

10 % of your time you spend carefully approaching the animals you have spotted in the far far away distance

1 % of your time you spend aiming, fireing your gun and missing all the significant organs of the animals

The last 20 % of your time you spend running after the animals you have wounded without ever seeing them again

Most realistic hunting experience ever

Disclaimer: I don't recommend this game for people in hectic households (toddler etc.) due to the lack of a pause function, or for people who are too busy to play for more than brief periods at a time. The gameplay involves long periods of stalking and waiting and is more suitable for those who can spare 1-2+ hours of uninterrupted play time per session.

Furthermore, given the abundance of negative reviews reading some variation of, "I ran around for hours and didn't see any animals, 0/10," I want to point out that this is a hunting simulator and not an action FPS. The game models noise and scent as well as vision, and you are usually in pursuit of animals that have much better hearing and/or senses of smell than humans. Running in the game is only suitable to get from point A to point B and should be avoided while actively hunting. Walking through bushes and tall grass should also be avoided on hunts (although it's not too noisy on trails). The animals will otherwise hear you coming and flee before you know they were there, and even if you spot their tracks you'll never catch them just by running after them.

I have only played for 9 hours, but my player stats show that I have scared off via noise almost *600* animals. I have only seen 40-50 so far. The animals are there, you just aren't going to stumble across them while running around as if it were Skyrim. The game requires long periods of slowly creeping around and sitting still in blinds or foliage using calls and peering through scopes or binoculars.

Review:

As a person who has not only never gone hunting but never held an actual firearm in their 36 years of life, I bought this on sale just to see what it would be like. I was pleasantly surprised. The base game includes two large "reserves" (maps) to play on. They are beautiful and populated with sufficient species to keep the hunt interesting for tens of hours if not longer.

Visually, the game makes good use of modern hardware and looks very pleasing. It isn't next-gen level, but it looks great at 1080p with an RTX 2060s. The animal models are perhaps the weak point here, as they could stand to be a little more detailed. Their animation, however, is realistic and looks good.

The audio in the game is fantastic. Wear headphones and enjoy the realistic ambient sounds of nature. Listen for the calls of animals and identify where they are (just as they're doing when you make noise). The voice acting is limited but well done.

There is a rudimentary story implemented, but it functions as a series of challenges to complete in exchange for lump sums of experience and cash. You can ignore them and will probably complete them organically in time as you play, or you can use them to get a feel for the gameplay and map layout.

There are functional RPG elements via a skills menu and a perks menu. You acquire XP for killing animals, discovering landmarks and completing challenges. You get one skill point or one perk point per level, alternating. Skills vary from extremely useful (make less sound when you walk / steadier aim) to fun but unnecessary. Most players will therefore likely wind up building their hunter along similar lines. I feel that this is one area that could have been fleshed out a little more, but it's acceptable as-is.

The hunting gameplay seems realistic to me (as a non-hunter, so take that with a grain of salt). Unlike a game like Skyrim, you won't stumble across animals every 50' the moment you walk off a trail. You need to listen for their calls, use calls of your own to attract them, follow tracks and make use of "need zones" where animals congregate at certain times of the day to eat, drink or rest. By default the game uses visual helpers like glowing tracks and call indicators to help you, but you can turn those off if you want the realism and challenge. Note that this will invalidate some of the skill choices that adjust the indicators, so you'll want to build your hunter accordingly.

There is a lot of slowly creeping around and waiting. Expect waits of 5, 10, 15 minutes or longer at times depending on your prey and the conditions of the hunt. Going after elusive Diamond-rated animals can allegedly take over an hour real-time for some people. If you enjoy stealth games and delayed gratification you'll feel right at home. If you need constant action to stay immersed, perhaps give the game a pass.

Lastly, I want to address the DLC elephant in the room. Yes, there are a lot of DLC, and yes they add up if you buy them all at full price. Fortunately, the DLC are completely optional. I bought the game on sale and picked up the well-reviewed Yukon and Tundra maps, and then later the Safari map (mixed reviews, but I want to experience an African map) with one gun pack and one lodge for a total equal to a lunch. Not bad. After reading descriptions and reviews I decided I didn't need any of the other DLC. I say get the base game and maybe one map that really interests you and wait for a sale to grab anything else if you decide you like the game. Overall the maps cost as much as a coffee and donut on sale (excepting the newest one, which is a bit pricier).

I haven't played multiplayer and recommend checking out other reviews to see how that's like. I'm a singleplayer-only gamer.

Overall an experience that even a non-hunter like me finds enjoyable. Relaxing and tranquil at times, tense and dramatic at others. I wouldn't hurt a fly in real life, but after experiencing long hunts in this game and bagging a gold-rated deer or coyote, I think I understand better why real-life hunters enjoy hunting. If you're a real hunter I think you'll enjoy the game even more than someone like me. I've seen some positive reviews from actual hunters, but take a look for more if you're still on the fence.

9/10 game. Surprise hit for me, having never played a hunting sim before.

UPDATE: At almost 50 hours in I'm still finding this game to be engaging, which is more than can be said for a lot of games I've played. Considering what I paid for it on sale, an absolute bargain.

Started a massive argument with my girlfriend because I shushed her when I found a deer and thought she might scare it away.

Very immersive.

i'm 60 years old, Been playing video games since they started. This is on of the best i've ever played. Its my stress reducer when i get home from work.

At the age of 55, I am new to the age of gaming. I genuinely love the attention to detail in this game. I also appreciate the fact that you can set your own pace for each session. My most intense enjoyment of the game is with the multiplayer setting, in which, I play with my adult son, while using the headset to communicate. He laughs because I am a very emotional player. There is only one feature I might change about this game. While you are able to see the other player, via their name and location labeled, it is unfortunate that each player cannot see the others way points. Is there a way to incorporate this? If so I would give it a score of perfection!

+ Very nice maps*
+ Decent animals (look great, behave somewhat realistic most of the time)
+ Very convincing soundscape (mostly)
+ Luring animals with calls
+ Animals make some scary noises
+ Some animals can be aggressive (although some like bears could be a bit more)
+ New scoring system is more fair
+ Coop is usually working like it should
+ Quite some DLCs but no microshit (rare for this genre)
+ Tracking by inspecting literal sh!t
- Weapons are somewhat shallow, callibers don't really fit well with eachother performance wise**
- Very limited zeroing (3 step) only unlockable by 2(!) perks
- Only a couple of scopes with quite a grind to unlock them, and the same for each weapon class (although you only need to unlock them once)
- Some common hunting attachments missing like supressors
- Some basic features like freelook missing
- No immersion stuff like compass and watch or something like that
- No skinning, cooking, eating
- Some ambient bird sounds are really loud, keep playing and even seem to move with player
- Sleeping costs money (not a lot, but still)
- Water cant be traversed, can be really annoying (canoes would be great in some maps like Layton and Yukon)
- Weather sometimes changes like every minute
- Game could use some more birds on the various maps
- No dogs, would be interesting to track animals without the glowing but with dog. (23-11-20)
- UPDATE 23-10-2021: meanwhile dogs have been added, did not try them yet but they appear to be appreciated

My advise would be, walk around, map need zones by following tracks, dont expect to walk into animals when making a lot of noise. Then when you have some interesting zones, try to ambush them at the right time (especially drink zones).

*Map ranking;
Somewhat personal but I wouldnt recommend the last three unless you are looking for their specific species. I feel like Vurhonga, Cuatro and Parque are a bit bland terrain wise, just a heightmap with vegetation. However Vurhonga adds a lot of unique species, and the openess kinda fits the theme. Silver Peaks is nice but doesnt add a lot of new things, Medved has also some overlap but has a really unique atmosphere. Yukon also has some double species but the terrain is really epic and also features some dynamic weather.

YES
1. Yukon
2. Medved
3. Vurhonga

MAYBE
4. Silver Peaks

NOT REALLY
5. Cuatro
6. Parque

**Weapon packs
I would pick only one or two with weapons you are really interested in. When bought you can get the weapons for free from the store.