Developed by Digital Dreams Entertainment, Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunt is a hunting simulator where you track down and hunt dinosaurs. While that may sound fairly simple, the gameplay is actually rather complex and interesting, as there are a number of factors that need to be kept in mind when hunting these creatures. For example, after either following footprints or using your tracking device in order to find them, you must be smart about approaching the dinosaurs, as they can be alerted to your presence by either seeing you, smelling you, or hearing you. The fun of Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunt comes from trying to strategically take down these monsters, as different dinosaurs will have different ways of noticing you. When noticed, they will either run you down and kill you or flee, so it was enjoyable to experiment and find different ways to take them down.
While the central gameplay loop of hunting down dinosaurs was rather enjoyable, the beginning of Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunt was not as much so. At the start of the game, you are mostly hunting herbivore dinosaurs, meaning they are docile and passive creatures, and are, therefore, incredibly easy and not as fun to hunt. Many times, they will simply be asleep in a field and can easily be walked up to and taken down, removing all the fun and strategy from hunting them. However, as the game progresses, more interesting and aggressive dinosaurs are introduced and can be found freely roaming the map. Due to this introduction of new and more complex dinosaurs, I found myself enjoying the game more and more, as I had to put more thought into different encounters. Instead of simply walking up to a sleeping dinosaur, I now had to track factors such as line of sight, where the wind was blowing, and my distance from the creature, greatly increasing my overall engagement with the game. However, another issue I encountered was an overall lack of variety when it came to the dinosaurs. While first encounters with new dinosaur types were incredibly fun, as I was able to strategize how to take them down for the first time, this enjoyment was lost when I had to repeatedly hunt the same species. Sadly, this largely impacted my enjoyment of the game, as even in the later sections, it felt as if there simply wasn’t a large enough variety of dinosaur types.
While Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunt ran fairly well, I found that the visual quality negatively affected my enjoyment of the game. Many textures are blurry and grainy, especially from afar. While this would normally not affect how much I enjoyed the game, this lack of detail made it difficult to locate dinosaurs in the distance, while also making it harder to gain an understanding of your surroundings, something that can be very helpful when entering a new encounter.
While Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunt struggles in many areas, as there is a significant lack of dinosaur variety, and the early game felt like a grind against docile, motionless creatures, there is some enjoyment to be found later on, as it can be fun to strategize and optimize fights against more aggressive dinosaurs. While this is a game I personally cannot recommend to everyone, it is a game that you will thoroughly enjoy if you are interested in the simulated hunting genre, and would like to see an interesting twist added to it. 5.5/10
Check Out the Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunt Launch Trailer:
Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunt is now available for download on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One for $14.99.
For more information, please visit: https://www.dino-hunt.com/
PlayStation 4 Review
Video games have been a part of my life since my early childhood, and have always been a major aspect of it. I love video games not only as an outlet for enjoyment, but also as an artistic medium that often gets overlooked.
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