Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2 Review (no fat)

Game Description

Unlike its predecessor, Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2 is a game which bends towards the shoot em up genre rather than strategic hunting games. The main point of the game is to make it through the 12 unique missions that it provides. Through those missions you will have to accomplish tasks such as protecting your guides, locating people or eradicating specific animals.

While in Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2, you will travel to various areas of the world, including Australia, Africa, Siberia and Alaska, while shooting down wild animals left, right and center…this one certainly isn’t for animal rights activists.

Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2 Gameplay

Through the game, your main occupation is to eliminate wild animals, save people/cows, protect various objects and of course watch out for traps. You will have to encounter animal types ranging from lions and cougars up to bears and elephants.

Most animals are very aggressive and you are very likely to be attacked from behind. This can sometimes be very annoying because there are occasions where you will have to wait until your target appears from inside the environment where it takes refuge after every attack.

When the time to encounter your target has come, you can use various weapons that you are given right before the mission begins. Pistols, shotguns and tranquilizers are just a few weapons included in your arsenal. Although you can kill an animal simply by stuffing it with bullets, not surprisingly, the most effective way to kill is to shoot for the head.

You can gather bullets and health packs from the ground as you walk through wild nature (who told you Mother Nature isn’t into arsenal?) The game also features a slow-motion button. Although it’s a good feature, there is no limitation to it’s usage so the player can simply abuse it to dramatically reduce the challenge. Finally, for those who seek the most out of the game there are extra bonus missions as well as optional hunting areas.

Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2 Artificial Intelligence

The behavior of animals is generally satisfying. Considering that this game is mostly about simply killing them, there isn’t much left to be added regarding their intelligence. Sometimes animals perform hilarious movements but you are most likely to laugh than hate the game for that.

Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2 Graphics

The graphics of the game are pretty much satisfying. The developers have added some very beautiful lighting effects and sophisticated general ambience lighting. The sky looks very detailed and colorful. As for the animals, most of them are implemented very well. The majority of animal animations are realistic and smooth. The same applies for other game characters too.

A general exception to the great graphics are gun models; they could have been a lot more realistic and smooth. Regarding ambience, some scenes of wild nature could have been more populated but they end up being pretty bare. The game features many effects that will try to bring you as close to the actual experience as possible. For instance, if you get hit in the eye, the screen will start “bleeding”. Finally, there are many eye-candy CG sequences that as you complete the levels will catch your eye.

Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2 Sound

A hunting game should normally feature a very sophisticated sound system. This is one more reason to prove that CDH2 is not really what a hunting game is supposed to be. Sound is used almost in the same way that it is used in other games, to please the ears. Regarding other aspects, the ambient sound is pretty much populated with animal growls. It definitely lacks some bird calls and a few insect chirps but that’s another story. The gun effects are good and the characters’ voices are pretty realistic too.

Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2 Closing Thoughts

The game won’t take much more than 8 hours to finish. At the most, a few extra hours of play will cure you completely. There is nothing really bad about Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2, rather, it simply lacks a replay value you’d wish a hunting game to have.

Having said that, you can’t really categorize CDH 2 as a hunting game. There is no strategy involved and you don’t actually hunt down the ‘game’. Or rather, the hunting skills involved would be the same as the skills required tracing your long lost slippers...you just have to run across them.

If you are looking for an authentic hunting simulation, this one is definitely not geared to satisfy. But if you are out to get some plain ol’ FPS game, where you are not asked to battle aliens or enemy soldiers, then CDH 2 might just give you a few hours of shooting, and few laughs to go along.

Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2-Cost

Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2 currently retails for $29.99, at the time of writing.