Review: Carnivores HD Dinosaur Hunter PS3

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In the near future advances in engineering made interstellar travel possible, bringing forth the era of space exploration. Along many planets the mankind has discovered was a world very similar to Earth circa Jurassic period.  Soon enough exploration of the planet began. “DinoHunt, Inc” was established, and the company started to provide hunting trips for everyone wealthy and bold enough to take on mighty creatures inhabiting the planet. You are one of those hunters. The game brings you to an ancient environment and lets you hunt for the most dangerous and the strongest creatures in the universe. Get a hunting license, pack up your gear, choose an island to hunt and embark on the adventure of a lifetime!

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Pros:

  • Graphics are well done, The environments look excellent with some stunning vistas, The draw distance is very impressive. Dinosaurs move like what I believe to be life like. Guns look detailed as does the GPS gadget.
  • Player feedback additions are really good. Get close to a Dinosaur and the pad will begin to shake, Get closer and the screen starts giving it the shaking Stevens with the tv screen.
  • The GPS gadget also stacks up as a tracker to find your targets and can be brought up on its side to be used as a pair of binoculars, Also displaying distance and info on the target like weight. More importantly it is used to recover trophys, Simply bring up your gadget next to a fallen dinosaur and click square. A drone will come over and collect your kill so you may display it in your trophy room. One last feature it has which is critical to success is a duel meter showing a visual bar for the dinosaur and how much he can hear or see you. Stand in front of him and it will fill up fast and beep where as hiding behind a rock or hes turned around will yield no bars.
  • Trophy room where you can select any of your kills and position them in the room anyway you want.
  • Buy licenses to hunt Dinosaurs, Hunt without a license and you get severally punished, Like medieval levels of punishment. You have been warned.
  • Earn gems to unlock new upgrades and weapons. Gems are earnt from killing dinosaurs. You get more gems depending on what type of dinosaur killed and how quickly and quietly you did it.
  • Scoring unlocks new levels on which to hunt. A score bar starts at 100% and decreases as you add perks like tracking and camouflage etc. In short, Use them and your score gets lessened. Go in bare bones for maximum score
  • Shooting range to practice shooting and get to grips with the controls.
  • You can hunt as many dinosaurs as you want, Ammo permitting as you cannot pick up any ammo in game.
  • Levels are not only beatiful to look at and wander about in, They all offer unique experiences varying in difficulty. Start off on a nice wide open beach where you can see for miles hunting big dinosaurs, To fog laden woodlands with minimal vision and hunt smaller deadly dinosaurs.
  • Upgrades/gadgets/perks what ever you want to call them. They change the way in which the game is played immensly. You can grab tranq bullets as to put the dinosaur to sleep instead of killing it. You can unlock ones like a tracker so you know where the dinos are, X-Ray vision showing their weak points. Camo will shield you from their view and allow you to sneak up on them better. Footprint tracker will do exactly as you think, Show you footprints to enable you to track their route.
  • Buying upgrades and new guns is easy and has the cool addition where you can sell them back for the same money you bought it for. This allows you to customize even further as you juggle the perfect loadout.
  • Later levels will not only house new dinosaurs to hunt but will also add in a dangerous dino that does nothing but scour the land. Making any noise, especially gunfire will see him re act and come looking for the source. This adds a lot of tension to a somewhat chilled out hunting game.
  • Leaderboard support that can be filtered to friends only or the whole world. They can be further broken down by dinosaur type so you can see who  has hunted the biggest dinosaur.
  • Huge array of dinosaurs to hunt from non violent plant eaters to the terrifying “cant scratch his own stomach but could eat you whole” T-Rex.
  • Rewarding gameplay where a planned strategic approach is more satisfying than a Rambo kill everything approach.
  • The atmosphere is really top stuff. Hear every sound, feel every foot step and brick it every time you hear a distant roar! Play with a headset or with surround sound and bring a spare pair of underwear!

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Cons:

  • Early on the game is really quite hard, No decent tracking abilities.
  • Tutorial is present in the form of pop ups, But they appear at quite random times. Most of the time, At the wrong time.
  • Annoying sound of bugs flying around in a screeched pitch. Happens a lot and really destroys the atmosphere.
  • Game over/death screen is poor. The screen merely goes black then your greeted with the end menu screen with a small game over logo.
  • No Platinum trophy in case your a trophy hunter first, Dinosaur hunter second.
  • Music in the menu is quite bad, really repetitive.

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In Summary, The game is really good fun. Yes its a bit slow and almost a bit of a grind to unlock better gear but in truth, Its a hunting game! You wont get any hand holding here, You are all alone with the bare minimums and you must hunt huge dinosaurs. The atmosphere is really quite unique and will have you paying attention to every step you take. Running or even walking will generate more noise so its best to crouch, Use vantage points to scan the area with binoculars. Its a shame there isnt more natural fighting going on. It would of been epic to see a group of dinosaurs go at it and you just pick off the winner or snag the loser as a quick trophy. That aside, You will get a great experience, perfect Sunday afternoon gaming. This is a game about time and not a quick fix shooter. Buy it and get as much as you put into it. Brilliant game in my eyes.

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!