Hunting Simulator

Hunting Simulator is a pretty good game. The problem is its complete lack of a tutorial or proper explanation of its mechanics. If you are coming from Call of the Wild or The Hunter, you may have a bit of a confusion. This game is a bit more arcadey, as the tracking system is trash and the call system is a bit iffy.
The seller here is the large variety of maps, animals, and weapons. Frankly, this game is more similar to the Hunting Unlimited series than CotW. Its actually quite good, I'd turn off bullet time, and focus on the hunt.
Many of the reviews are from the early days where it was bug-ridden. I havn't noticed a single bug, and animals seem to react realistically for me. Newbies who have zero knowledge of hunting, don't understand how TOUGH an animals head is. YES, YES IT CAN TAKE A .243 TO THE SKULL AND SHRUG IT OFF. WHAT DO YOU THINK ANTLERS ARE FOR!? FIGHTING. HEADBUTTING. Aim for the spot behind the front leg, where the lungs are. Watch how quickly things drop. (if you are using the proper calibre anyway. Round is too small it wont get between those ribs.
Anyway, I really like this game, and reccommend it on sale. Large variety of maps and animals. Its not perfect, but other than Call of the Wild, and Cabelas Pro Hunts, you don't have alot of options for hunting games. This game reminds me of Hunting Unlimited 2010. Its good stuff, grab it on sale, or at full price if you are a hunting enthusiast.
I've had zero performance issues on my GTX 970/ i5 6400
...it also has a recurve bow. ARE YOU LISTENING CALL OF THE WILD!? :|

It's not worth the full price but I bought the game during sales (-80%) for the bow hunting and graphics. I didn't regret it. Here's why:
I didn't find it was as arcadish as some here claimed it to be, at first at least, cause I started playing the Hunting Simulator on a hard level of difficulty until I had to roam a map for almost 2 hours (or at least it felt like I was roaming it for 2 hours) in search of 3 wolves, and I didn't have enough time to claim the third predator, the game was over, then only I decided to see what the game is like on low difficulty.
"Easy" means richer wildlife, and more hints to hunt, the game felt rather dynamic now, so I found it to be even more entertaining, and after all, it still was NOT AN ARCADE, cause I had to follow the tracks in the right direction, crouch to targets in order to keep their attention low, find the right distance, the only time I felt it was an ARCADE was when it came to waterfowl hunting, the birds just keep flying and you have to find the right moment to fire the gun, I would say that it was relaxing, once you understand the way it works.
I could assume that it was poorly named, as it may not be what one may expect from a game that has "Simulator" in its title, but it is still a fine game and the word "simulator" I believe has a broader meaning, aren't most of the games simulators of real life after all? It may seem like the game is an arcade depending on what one is comparing it with, so should we put it as "the hunting simulator for non (pro-)hunters that come from its famous competitors"?
You unlock new items in your inventory as you progress through campaign, to unlock everything you need to pass every mission but I didn't want to go free hunting after 111 missions of the campaign, it was enough for me. The drone was a fun feature, although I didn't much use it, I wish it could recognize the animals and also zoom in and out, yet I wouldn't say it is useless.
I can't really think of its advantages. What I can say is despite that developers don't work on the game anymore, they optimized most (if not all) of the things mentioned in negative reviews:
+ AI works well, hares even run away if they see a predator (which is not the player), each species has its own limits as to how close it will let you come before running away.
+ There are graphics settings and one can optimize these settings for a better gameplay.
+ There is a tutorial (as for the hotkeys not mentioned in there, press Q to switch weapons, hold B to get binocles, press M to open the map)
Cons:
- Dead multiplayer, you CAN play it with your friend(s) though and I believe it would be fun.
- If you buy it for the bow, the game will give it to you when you pass around 75% of the campaign, but you may think it useless after all unless you appreciate the realism and you are willingly playing longer with it.
I wonder if every weapon is available in multiplayer cause I would say that it should be fun to compete with a friend to find out who is a better archer.
A few tips regarding the gameplay.
Graphics (for optimized visibility):
- Lower post processing to the minimum during the night when you don't yet have the night vision goggles.
- Lower foliage to the minimum when you have to hunt for the smaller animals.
Gameplay:
- If you get your shot right, X will appear on the map, leave a mark on the point to find and claim the animal quickly.
- Disable bullet time in case the goal requires claiming several targets. Yes, you may miss an opportunity for a nice screenshot if it's off, but you also may not be able to shoot right away when possible as you will lose the few seconds while watching the bullet.
- Don't forget about the secondary weapon slot, especially during waterfowl hunting, you may need additional ammo.
- In waterfowl hunting switch to the third person view.

Hunting Simulator had a rocky start, but as of now, the game is really fun and unique. However, the game is absolutely not worth 40 dollars, so I would wait until a sale to buy it.
If you came from Call of the Wild, this game is a very different experience. It is not as slow-paced, and is kind of like the COD version of Call of the Wild. Running and gunning is possible in this game, but somehow, it makes it fun.
Hunting Simulator is not a "simulator" by any means, but it is a unique hunting game, and deserves a higher spot in the market for hunting games. Try it out if you get the chance.

Rating 6.8/10
My score for this game is based on my first impression and will be adjusted as I put more time into the game.
There are some bugs I noticed right off the bat, and the game didn’t want to play full speed with decent FPS on my i7-4790k with my gtx 1070, so I bumped textures and shadows down to “high” (From Epic) and that made it smooth. Maybe the developers will work on that in future updates.
Pros
Lots of campaign missions
Good variety of animals
Bullet cam
Wind and ambient sounds, sounded good
Lots of unlockables (guns etc)
Co-op Play
Cons
A touch buggy on release
Guns sound weak
Graphics are just “okay” but draw distance for grass is not great
Arcade feel (Animals all over the place)
DLC already…$3 for a gun pack???
For now I am recommending this game. Let’s see how the developers handle feedback, and what their financial model is going to be. Hopefully their aim is not to nickel and dime us with dozens of petty DLC.

Update about 8 hours in game.
This game is growing on me. To start with I fixed the poor dynamic light issue by setting shadows to low. This will be a temp fix until a new nvidia driver comes out which should solve the lighting issues.
I have now tried multiplayer and really enjoyed it. The game syncs fine with other players no glitches there and WE HAD FUN. You can do the missions CO OP. This is a huge facter in terms of fun for me. You also have more weapons and gear unlocked when in multiplayer. The amount of stuff to unlock is huge the amount of missions is also fantastic. Are there glitches. Yes a few small annoyances such as trying to strafe when running. The controls on keyboard and with controller fight each other and you spin when running. Needs a fix. Upping my rating to a 6.8
Original review
I am a die hard hunting sim fan so lets get that out of the way. I also hunt in real life, so that is out of the way. I have also played the hunter Call of the Wild for 170 hours and that is now disclosed as well. Lets talk Hunting simulator.
I waited for this game to come out as I am super upset with the hunter call of the wild and it being a beta released as a full game. Months later it is still a glitchy as hell game.
So jumping into this game my frustration is already high to see we have the same scenario here. But...it doesn't seem quite as bad. Some of the glitches I found were graphical. Screen tearing. A lot of screen flickering and a very dark lighting system that keeps going to almost black depending on how your character turns. I am running a gtx 1080 and a brand new Ryzen 1700. With all settings on Elite I only get 62 fps in this game.
The graphics are ok. Not as good as the hunter. Even on elite the flower draw distance is only about 30m out in front of your character so you see them popping in all the time. The dark gamma with no adjusment really annoys me on this game.
Sound. is ok. You hear the same 6 bird calls over and over and the fox calls sound like the just recorded a clip from the hunter. Guns sounds are weak...and over all sound is nothing special.
Game play is based on a mission system you unlock gear for beating new missions. There is a leader board, but the missions don't tell you how to maximize points first go through. You can beat the main and secondary objectives which are stated, but then the game will tell you to shoot a red fox. Well if you don't you won't break the top 100 on the leader board. Frustrating...it might be...or you can just enjoy playing missions over an over to better your score. Depends on your play style.
I found it annoying a la hunter that even when crouched animals take off running from hundreds of meters away. Here we are on a huge map again but you have to crawl like a snail or spook everything a mile out.
This is an arcade game. In 10 minutes you will see 8 fox 4 sheep and 3 mule deer...on the first mission. So it is not a hunting simulator. it is a bag em and tag em shoot em up. But don't make a bad shot or you will be penalized. That I can agree with. What I don't agree with is shooting a fox 3 times with your main rifle before it dies. Not very realistic.
In the end I am dissapointed. I will say yes if you are die hard grab the game but the price for me was a turn off...WAY TO HIGH. should have been a $20 game. Its not as good as the hunter...and guess what the game released and on the same day they have a DLC gun pack. WTF That I don't agree with. Will I eventually get my $36 bucks worth....probably I think I can put in 36 hours....but who knows. My patience with these beta games released as full games asking for DLC purchases for things that should be in the friggin game is wearing super thin.
I'd give it a 6/10 with the just barely reccomended rating.

A fun and immersive hunting simulator game. The AI is quite "smart", and it was fun chasing them down. The tracking system is simplistic, and the campaign is really a large series of missions (>100 of them). The hunting grounds are lush and vast areas of wilderness, quite well designed and rendered by the Unreal Engine. There's bullet time, so you get to see a slow-mo flight of your bullet as it flies towards your prey. Enjoy browsing your trophy collection and even honing your shooting skills when you need a break from a campaign, free, or expert hunt. This is a great alternative to the other hunting game I got - HU2010.

Fun, chill game. Nice landscapes, good weapon mechanics.
Can't comment on multiplayer but the singleplayer was a great experience.
Would grab it again on sale, because this is NOT a $45 game in my personal opinion. $20 would be reasonable but the sale price of $10 is just fine.