Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2011

"quickly, while the blood is still warm"

Dangerous Hunts 2011 isn't a hunting game, in the same sense that Animal Crossing is not the Sims. There are animals in it, and you shoot at them, but you are not hunting them. It's more like Serious Sam with wolves and hyenas. That's not to say the game isn't fun, because it certainly is, but it's obviously amateur in its design. I'm completely behind Cabela's decision to make an insane, story driven action horror game, but they don't really seem to understand how horror works, or how to write a story.

Starting off, the story DH2011 has to tell is one of the strong points, still, simply for how nuts it gets. Genetic experimentation, evil madmen, and a burning hunting lodge aren't things I expected to see heading into this game, but I'm glad they're there. The story misses almost every note it tries to hit, but it's still just that right kind of crazy to be worth a play. Though while it IS crazy, it's also surprisingly dry.

The plot is pretty slow, and only begins to unfold itself toward the very end of the game. Not that you'll have to wait long, but some more motivation to complement the "just okay" action in the first few stages would've certainly helped. It does manage to successfully create a sense of progress in the middle and very near the end, but otherwise it's just a few voice clips between large stages. If you can hold on till the endgame, there's some reward in it all, but that may be a little too late if you don't enjoy the gameplay itself.

Speaking of, the gameplay is split almost cleanly into two parts. First,there are high action sections where animals come at you from all directions, forcing you to react as quickly as possible. This is easily the most fun part of the game, as it's the most challenging element, and the most tense. The controls work fine, and the few extremely difficult sections of the game only take a few tries. Overall, the action sections are pretty satisfying and fun, depending on whether you like some mindless shooting.

The second, less frequent, and infinitely more tedious piece of the gameplay are "trap" sections. These sections lay out more laid back enemies in the environment, and they function as traps for you to move around. Unfortunately, any challenge in this is lost with the "hunter sense", which allows you to see an animal through any kind of camouflage they may have, and snipe at them from however far you choose. This basically devolves the trap sections into slowly sniping threats for about 10 or so minutes at a time. It's just not fun.

These sections are easily washed away by the absurd boss fights, an on-rails shooting section through a buffalo stampede, and facing off against packs of hyenas in a vast cavern. It may not be the most polished or balanced game, but c'mon guys, BUFFALO STAMPEDE.