Hunting Unlimited 2010

I love hunting games.  A good portion of my childhood was spent in front of a computer hunting various furry critters.  It's been a really long time since I played any hunting games though, so I thought I'd give them another try.  I happened upon Hunting Unlimited 2010.

I was excited to have a new hunting game to explore and even more excited about it being an open world.  An open world can really enhance the gameplay of a game, if it's done correctly.  When gamers are offered an open world we expect more out of our game.  An open world should mean more interaction, more exploration and above all more entertainment.  I found that with Hunting Unlimited 2010 I was sadly disappointed.

An open world in a hunting game can either make or break it.  Open worlds can make the game more realistic and exciting by adding elements of tracking animals, factoring in wind direction, blinds and vehicles.  While all of these elements were present in Hunting Unlimited 2010, I found the open world to be frustrating for 3 reasons.

1. They made the areas too frickin' big
2. They made the character and other modes of transportation too frickin' slow
3. There were hardly any animals making them too frickin' hard to find

Now, in all fairness, I didn't make it completely past all of the tutorial hunts, mostly because I became too bored to keep going.  I spent much of my time driving all over the map on my 4-wheeler looking for animals I wasn't finding.  I was finally able to find a bighorn and take it down, but by that time I had already decided that I was finished playing.

I really wanted to get past the tutorial and play at least a few hunts before writing up this review, but then I decided that if it was that much torture just making it through the tutorial, then I didn't need to play any more of the game to get what I needed to know.

The graphics in this game were not terrible.  They were by no means spectacular, but they deserve a solid okay.  The graphics were okay, although the moment did make me a little motion sick at times.  The controls are fairly straight forward, using the arrow or wasd keys to move while other keys controlled standing, crouching, laying prone and your equipment.

Overall, I think this is a game that I would have enjoyed were it not for the frustrating amount of time spent wandering the map.  The map may not have even been that big, but the character is extremely slow, even in running mode, and the 4-wheeler goes about 5 mph.  That is until you go down hill.  You can get a pretty good speed flying down hills, but on the other side is an uphill that will not only take you back down to speed but almost stop the 4-wheeler completely.

If you like hunting games and want to check it out, there are a few things to really like about this game, so long as you don't mind spending a lot of time wandering around the map.  As for me, if I never see this game again it will be too soon.

Jess the Geek Girl's Rating: 2.5/10