Review: Maneater (PlayStation 4)

Maneater review

Experience the ultimate power fantasy as the apex predator of the seas – a giant Shark! Terrorize the coastal waterways. Tear swimmers and divers limb from limb, give the humans a reason to fear you!

Pros:

  • Decent graphics.
  • 6.3gb download size.
  • Platinum trophy.
  • A tutorial area with pop-ups.
  • 3 save slots.
  • 3 controller layout choices.
  • Shark game where you kill things gameplay.
  • Takes inspiration and ideas from Katamari and Feeding Frenzy.
  • Eat fish to get nutrients that are used as exp to grow your shark, get additional abilities, and upgrade attacks.
  • Play how you want.
  • Main missions with side missions that help bring up new main missions.
  • Can go on land, bounce around a bit but you do start suffocating.
  • Day/night cycles.
  • Caves/grottos- safe space that is the area you go to to do upgrades, use the shop, and acts as a fast travel point.
  • Can dive in and out of the water.
  • Combat uses a light lock-on feature and your bite with every button press, you can tail whip enemies to stun them, use your tail to launch enemies at other enemies and you can grab and shake enemies.
  • Opportunity attacks usually caused by stuns but can happen if you sneak upon them.
  • Excellent voice over guy with loads of humor and information.
  • Hunters-kill enough humans and you trigger these guys, they have ships and guns. You can dodge attacks and kill them but the meter will continue to fill and more hunters will turn up.
  • Look at fishes to get their name, level, and what nutrients they give.
  • Hidden collectibles-number plates, signposts, and landmarks.
  • Some really cool looking locations with the sea having interesting structures, rubbish and more.
  • Pipes can be opened to access hidden areas or short cuts.
  • Red outlined enemies are predators that will hunt you and are usually much stronger than you.
  • Boss and mini-boss fights.
  • The map can set markers.

Maneater review

Cons:

  • Slow reloading times.
  • Go too close to the surface and the controls change and mean if you’re fighting you need to press additional buttons just to continue fighting.
  • The camera can go nuts.
  • I got stuck in the scenery at times.
  • Hard to avoid hunter attacks.
  • The learning curve with controls.
  • Constant difficulty spikes.
  • Navigation or finding your bearings in the game world can be tough.
  • Had a boss get stuck but I could attack him, got him to the last hit then he shook violently then came back full health.
  • Combat is hit and miss literally as the lock on is very slight, you have an additional lock on for threats but it again is flaky.

Maneater review

  • 8/10
    Graphics - 8/10
  • 8/10
    Sound - 8/10
  • 7/10
    Accessibility - 7/10
  • 8/10
    Length - 8/10
  • 8/10
    Fun Factor - 8/10
7.8/10

Summary

Maneater is a game that takes an idea and just goes for it, it’s not ashamed to make fun it’s self and you can feel that they gave it their all and made it light and funny despite the dark nature of the gameplay. Initially, I found once the controls gelled with me, the game ran well and for all purposes, I saw the game as a 3D feeding Frenzy, those who aren’t familiar Feeding Frenzy was a 360 arcade game where you play as a fish and each time you eat a fish you grow but you can only eat fish smaller than you. That is the core gameplay of Maneater but it just adds 3D, blood, and many more species of predators! I love the look of it, swimming around exploring the many secrets and locations, I began to think like a shark, attacking humans is actually funny as they start shouting at you (it’s dark I get it but funny) but once the hunters turn up its game over, the flaws of combat and movements are laid bare as you try to escape their pinpoint aiming, their relentless pursuit and when you add in the many predators it’s very common to be outnumbered and stressed out. I play this game the wrong way than intended as I just cruise around and take on missions as I see fit and I take it all a lot slower and for that, it’s fine and like I say it plays well but can quickly go wrong so it really is an up and down experience.

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!