Way Of The Hunter Review (Xbox Series S)

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For this Way Of The Hunter Review, we explore and hunt in large open-world environments in the USA and Europe. We become the new owner of a hunting lodge nestled among gorgeous habitats and rich animal populations. Hunt with a premium selection of firearms and equipment and generally live out the hunters dream.

Way Of The Hunter Review Pros:

  • Nice graphics.
  • 11GB Download size.
  • 1000 Gamerscore.
  • Graphic settings – performance and visual quality choices.
  • Hunting gameplay.
  • First person view.
  • 3 difficulties that effect animal senses and spook rate, can be changed from the main menu.
  • Vehicles have behind car and dashboard views.
  • Tutorial as you play, you start off at the range then hunting small animals etc.
  • Guns using the zeroing, zoom and hold breath mechanics.
  • Claim your kill and either sell it for cash or taxidermy it to show off in your lodge.
  • Your lodge can be customised with taxidermy and their placement.
  • Shop sells new equipment and guns.
  • Day/night cycle but you can change the time in your lodge.
  • Fast travel points between lodges, camps and points of interest.
  • In game cutscenes.
  • There is an overarching story.
  • Question marks generally show a place you need to visit whether it be a point of interest, hunting stand or camp. You can get more question marks to appear by interacting with new camp maps.
  • Mission markers show on the screen and populate the map as you find them.
  • Ethical shooting is encouraged so going for organs and using the right gun go a long way.
  • On the animal kill screen you see stats on the animal, your hunt and an animation of where the bullet went.
  • Track animals by blood, footprints and even poop and urine.
  • Perks are earned by doing something, for example walk 30km and get better stamina or track 20 animals get better senses etc.
  • Hunter senses can be activated and they show the things needed like nesting spots or places animals feed.
  • You can actually sit there and watch animals go about their business.
  • The population will change due to how many male or female animals you harvest.
  • Freely jump between the two reserves.
  • Boundary passes are needed to hunt in other areas of the reserve. You can explore and analyse but not hunt.
  • Tagging – at the press of a button you can drop a custom marker, sounds redundant but it’s a game changer as you can pinpoint where you shot an animal or where to go and it just makes life a hell of a lot easier.
  • The perk system works better because you actually feel like you are getting better plus you are being rewarded for how you play.
  • They cut out ammo type so it’s a more streamlined experience.
  • Callers/lures are used to attract animals, it has a bar underneath when using it to show when is a safe time to use it again in order to mimic real life.
  • Play how you want.
  • The story is well integrated.
  • Binoculars will tell you the distance of an animal, what they are, sex, breed and trophy star rating.
  • Hunter senses can tell you brief info on animals such as what they are, sex, rough distance and current state so calm or spooked.
  • Wide range of animals to hunt.
  • Time just evaporates.
  • Weather effects animal instincts, your ability to track and you get winds and rain.
  • Multiplayer allows you to setup a open or closed room, set the difficulty and which reserve.
  • Performance is a lot better than the PC version.
  • Better loading times over the PC version.

Way Of The Hunter Review Cons:

  • Performance issues aren’t as prevalent as the PC version and in fact it’s mostly broken animal animations.
  • Cannot rebind controls.
  • I get why boundary passes exist but man it takes ages to get them.
  • The controller misses out with no auto run/walk buttons and slow animations.
  • The spawn rates seem worse on the Xbox with me not seeing animals for ages even if I’m in a stand staying still against the wind.
  • The World doesn’t feel as populated as you would like, you can go ages without seeing anything.
  • Had the Hollywood mission bug out and no matter how many times I shoot him he never seems to die and instead just runs off!
  • The lures are not working as intended. (I believe a patch is due shortly)
  • Takes a while to get used to everything.
  • To change reservations you have to quit back to the menu.
  • No hard save function.
  • Had my car and animals just dissappear magically and in relation to the car, I was in it at the time!
  • No customisation options.
  • Doesn’t have clothing to help with disguised approaches.
  • Hardly ever rains!
  • Basic multiplayer room options.

Related Post: Way Of The Hunter Review Steam

Way Of The Hunter:

Official website.

Developer: Nine Rocks Games

Publisher: THQ Nordic

Store Links –

Xbox

  • 8/10
    Graphics - 8/10
  • 8/10
    Sound - 8/10
  • 7/10
    Accessibility - 7/10
  • 8/10
    Length - 8/10
  • 10/10
    Fun Factor - 10/10
8.2/10

Summary

The Xbox version pretty much on par with the PC version except I found the spawn rates for animals to be lower, I had a few bugged out missions and progress is generally slower but everything else stands. Now back to the review and I play me a lot of hunting games, I have built up what I want from a hunting game and I go all in if it’s ticking my boxes. I am here to say that Way Of The Hunter is the real deal. Initial thoughts of story integration put me off somewhat as I thought it might be a bit on rails, a bit setup but no it’s a hunting game that I would identify as a sim game with minor arcade additions. What I mean is a story mission could be a simple go hunt this animal type deal but if you don’t do the hunting properly like plan your route, stay quiet and all of that then this simple task could and will take hours to complete! The game does not believe in hand-holding in the slightest, you start with a basic rifle and binoculars and that’s it. You need to go out armed with hunter senses and find nesting spots, feeding areas, and tracks such as poop and prints. It’s not a game that will give you an endless amount of animals to hunt, in fact, they tell you that if you don’t balance out your kills with the male-to-female ratio then you will seriously impact the population of that animal. As you play through you will find hunting stands to help you hunt, new camps so you can fast travel, and various points of interest. Just in case you are lazy, you do have a jeep that helps cover ground faster but it does mean you will spook animals and make hunting harder. Three difficulties allow you to tweak the spook rate of animals with ease allowing you to basically be inside them before they notice you whilst hard is a case of you fart and spook animals 100 reservations over! Talking of reservations these places are huge, covering around 55 miles they are split into smaller areas with each one requiring a special pass to allow you to hunt. Both reserves are open at the start so you can freely jump between them, tweak difficulties, and all of that. Transylvania the second reserve is beautiful and wide open with a jeep being the necessary way to travel, the first reserve is denser with a lot of forests, lakes, and mountains to explore. The story is told via in-game cutscenes, comic book style strips, and general voice and text. At no point does the game force you to play a certain way or do a certain thing, it’s very open and if you want to just hunt animals and buy new equipment then fine, just wanna walk around then fine or go ahead and do the story, what I’m saying is no equipment or areas are story locked. The guns handle really well and all feel different l, the zeroing of guns is never a thing I understood but in Way Of The Hunter, it made it so easy to understand and use that it’s now second nature to me. I love this game and it has catapulted all the way to the top of must-play hunting games, the tracking of animals actually requires work, and the hunting is difficult yet so rewarding. Being able to call up any kill you have made and read about it or watch the bullet going in animation never gets old. There is still so much left to learn and find in the game and I’m only 20 odd hours in. I will briefly say that the in-the-box content is excellent but also lacking in areas for you cannot get any clothing to help with camouflage, no equipment to help with masking your scent, or even just changing your avatar, it’s minor really as they do strip other more complicated parts out so you don’t have to pick certain ammo for a certain gun for a certain animal, the hunter sense does make fi ding things easier so it really is a bit of this and less of that. The gamey parts of the game are definitely perks, perks are earned by finishing a task so for example, one is walking 30km standing up to make yourself less visible to animals or playing for 12 hours and getting a five-day weather forecast instead of three, drive the car for X amount of miles and get a speed boost and the list goes on. I like the perks approach as it means I can benefit from them as they reward how I play, sure I have to mix it up later to get the buffs but as you start out being able to improve the way you play is always welcome. The Way Of The Hunter is the real Hunter’s dream!

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!