E
ven with the tutorial’s
laconic, Sam Elliott drawl
explaining the basics to me, I
still manage to mess up my first kill
in theHunter. I clip the deer’s neck
then have to spend ten minutes
following blood trails to find it. But
it doesn’t matter. As it turns out,
pursuing a terrified deer through
miles of dense undergrowth is
exactly the introduction you need
to this curiously zen-like animal
murder simulator.
So much of what I enjoy about this
game happens between kills: The
cautious tracking of animals, the
signs of other nearby life, and the
focussed dedication you feel
following a single target. It makes
theHunter one of the most unique
stealth games I’ve ever played, and
certainly the slowest. I’m constantly
at war with my own impatience.
Animals are quick to flee and the
element of surprise always feels hard
fought. And once it’s gone, regaining
it feels like putting shaving cream
back in the can. This means that
theHunter requires a degree of
patience unlike anything else I’ve
played. At the risk of sounding
sinister, I’m generally quite happy to
spend my time crouched behind a
thicket in a game, but there are times
when there’s too much nothing
happening in theHunter, even for me.
But this does make those precious
moments when you finally take a
shot hugely exhilarating
I’m not keen on the subject
matter—few things fill me with
hatred like seeing some slack-jawed
chad sitting atop the corpse of a lion
that’s been shot at 600 meters—but
theHunter feels like a different beast.
It’s not exactly Doctor
Doolittle, but I feel like I
know more about animal
behavior having played it.Killing nature in THEHUNTER: CALL OF THE WILD
EXPECT TO PAY
$20DEVELOPER
Expansive WorldsPUBLISHER
In-houseNEED TO KNOWMan against feral beast. A story
as old as humanity itself.This could be a Bob Ross painting
DEER, WHITE PEOPLE if not for the rifle in shot.69
T
he Haunted Island is one of those
games that sends me into a spin
regarding how much game is enough.
It’s funny, well-written, and lets you
judge a dance competition between
cartoon animals. Lovely. On the other
hand: It takes about the same amount
of time to complete as a buffet lunch.
It’s also a reminder of how long it
takes to make games. If this was an
episode of Brooklyn 99 I’d have
binged the next three seasons instead
of waiting months for episode two.
The puzzles are really simple but it’s
characterful enough that it rarely
drags. Like a Lindt bunny it’s
small and sweet, and you’ll
wish it was bigger.
THE HAUNTED ISLAND, A
FROG DETECTIVE GAME
68
C
ontinuing with the theme of
‘animals’, Aviary Attorney is a
game about bird lawyers navigating
the political turmoil of 1840s France.
It’s a dense, amusing visual novel in
which you have to win cases using
smart cross-examination and
evidence gathered from your
investigation on the streets of Paris. It
sounds pretty goofy, but the
characters are actually really well
realized, and it’s possible to get things
horribly wrong as you struggle to
piece together exactly what
happened in each case. This makes it
a rare bird indeed: a game where you
have to live with your decisions,
rather than simple starting
again until you achieve the
perfect outcome.AVIARY AT TORNE Y
75
I
f Goat Simulator was a restaurant,
it’d have a great name and inedible
food—the game equivalent of the
Abra-Kebabra on your corner that got
shut down for serving human hands.
It’s nothing more than an enticing
name and 30 minutes worth of tepid,
physics-based distraction, but
somehow less endearing. Coffee Stain
Studios even warn buyers that their
money would be better spent on a
pile of bricks. It’s not a hateful or
exploitative game—just not
nearly as good as the ‘very
positive’ reviews suggest.GOAT SIMULATOR
37
I could explain what’s happening.
But it’s better if you guess.Yes. Weee.
Weee indeed.REVIEW