The Only Hunt You'll Catch Me In

I find myself in the minority of southern men who doesn't enjoy hunting. I remember in high school when the opening of deer season meant an excused absence. Frankly, I don't have anything moral against hunting, as long as the hunter is not killing for the mere sport of killing, but I just don't find waking up at four in the morning and sitting in a deer stand for hours on end particularly appealing.

So I decided to find a happy medium in Cabela's Dangerous Hunts. I had never played any of the games in the Cabela franchise, but it was cheap, so I figured what the hey. I brought it home and popped it in, and prepared for the hunt.

The game is a first person shooter, with a variety of locations, from America all the way to Africa, with plenty of exotic animals ripe for the killing. The catch to this game is that the animals can attack you, hence the name Dangerous Hunts. There's nothing quite like tracking a deer and having a mountain lion attack you out of nowhere.

The game has a few modes. There's Quick Hunt, where you're thrown right in, with all the ammo and weapons you want at your disposal, then there's Career Hunt, where you hunt through, well, a career, and earn money to actually buy the weapons. Finally, there's Action Zone, for those of us who get bored sitting in a deer stand waiting for the kill. I usually opt for Quick Hunt, so I can get the hunting experience with all the ammo I want. Also, for those of us who are impatient, if you play the game in easy mode, the animals you're hunting are marked by red dots, so you can essentially chase them down.

Graphically, the game is hit and miss. The sky and the actual ground look great. If you're playing in windy conditions, the taller grass actually blows in the breeze. The animals don't look particularly great, but they do have some great death animations. For instance, I shot a bear on a hill, and when he died, he rolled down the hill and came to his final resting place in a river. The biggest problem is the bland environments. There's not much to see, and even when you move from America to Africa, you'll still find yourself traveling down the same type of places, with the same obstacles blocking the path to your game.

The sound is probably the biggest highlight of the game. If you just sit still and listen, it truly sounds like you're out in the woods, adding a little realism. I must confess, I've actually jumped a few times when that silence has been broken by a lunging leopard.

Some levels even have ATV's that you can drive, but they're not a lot of fun. I tried driving a snowmobile through Colorado, but there were so many rocks in the way and the controls were so sluggish I eventually gave up and decided to take it on foot.

As far as replayability, that depends on your level of patience. Personally, I grow tired of hunting animals that fight back, such as wolves. If you move around enough, they'll eventually come to you. My favorite thing to do is sit up in a stand and shoot a deer from 200 yards away. In fact, I sometimes do it just to relax. I get the thrill of a first person shooter, without all the stress of trying to make it to the next level.

In one my other reviews, I mentioned a category of movies that I call Rainy Saturday Afternoon Movies, which are movies that are perfect to fill a two hour void before it's time to go out and party, or whatever. This game falls under a new category, Rainy Saturday Afternoon Video Games. That's not to say that this game is only good for rainy saturday afternoons, but you get the idea. Overall, there are things I would change about this game, and hopefully have been changed in the sequels, but it's not one I'd pass on.