Ok, quick history, I was raised in Montana, one of the last really great states in the Union where you can hunt and fish and live an outdoorsman's life. And while I have always preferred fishing to hunting; I do enjoy hunting, but since moving to the Seattle area, there have been less hunting and fishing trips for me. I just don't see the point that having once drank from the golden chalice to now sip from a rusty bucket that is. So I saw this was available, I said "what the heck" and here we are.

My first thought was that I had made a pretty big mistake. Looking at the specs required to play the game on the box, and knowing my PC was well above those recommended, yet I was plagued by some processing issues and graphical shortcomings. It seems the game's package was a bit misleading as my Duo Core 6600 with 2 gigs of RAM and 256mb graphics card were left feeling woefully inadequate as I stalked big game through the virtual forest. In reality, the game really just drops the ball on the secondary graphics, but we'll get to that below.

"Mmmmmmmmm, deer burgers."

The game is like many other in the series, you get to attempt to hunt and kill some large game, bear, moose, elk, cougars (the animals, not the .. never mind), buffalo, boar and deer among other creatures. The point of the game is to bag the biggest trophies and test your mettle against nature. This isn't a simple run out in the forest and shoot an eight-point buck kind of a game. Animals react authentically; they will smell you if they are downwind from you. They will run if you are sloppy and make too much noise; you can bait them, try and lure them, set up in a tree and wait for the perfect shot or stealthily move through the forest but be carefull, in this game, there are animals that may be hunting you as well. And trust me, nothing ruins a nice hunting trip like a bear mauling.

Like many of the other games in the series, you can create your hunter and outfit them the way you see fit. There are not as many weapons as in past editions, but there are still plenty in which to ply your trade. Bow's, rifles, pistols and a whole host of accoutrements to go with them. Spotting scopes, thermal scopes, long range scopes, bait, horses, ATVs and all sorts of things required to go hunting out in the likes of Canada, Finland and the U.S. It is a thoroughly ramped-up game when it comes to preparation, but the gameplay and visuals make all this seem unfullfilling.

 
"Shouldn't you be wearing some hunters' orange?"

As you make your way around the world hunting these creatures, I paid special note at how well the design and bit mapping the developers used in them. When shot, they rag-doll rather accurately and act quite the part. Spotting them moving along from 200 yards away is also a treat, they seemingly put all their eggs in one basket as I was a bit lost on the secondary graphics. The environments were too drab, they lacked the same life that was put into the animals. Additionally I was not happy with how the hunter models looked and moved as well. And this is where I think a lot of players are going to be complaining. The game is hot and cold in the looks dept. And from what I can tell, does not feature the same amount of hunting weapons available in Deer Hunter 2005. To me, this is a step backwards in the evolution of the series.

I know this is a bargain-priced title, but still, they could have spread the wealth around a bit more and put some of those smoother graphics into the environments and hunter models. Think about how awesome games like HALO looked back in 2001; it's seven years later, shouldn't our value-priced games at least have the same static look of games seven years old? Regardless, there needed to be a healthy injection of fine detail added to the game, if our football games can have individual blades of grass then so should our hunting games.

 
"In all actuality, bow hunting a bear is not the recommended way of taking one down."

I guess the developers were thinking that with the addition of online tournaments/hunts it would be enough of a draw for fans to forgive the shorter list of hunting options and average graphics. And I suppose, in some ways, it is. This is a niche title and for all those unofficial tournaments that loyal players worked out on their own, this is for them. The online portion of the game barely makes this game pass muster. Going online, players can enter tournaments that can be several days long. And depending on the hunt, the hunter with the best kill can win. Eight-point bulls can be a winner, but the biggest mountain lion can be brutal.

Finally, the game's audio follows suit with the rest of the game and gets a sort of ho-hum response. You will find the environmental noises are on a loop and sometimes make things a little trite. Some sound effects are better then others and the "blam" of a large-powered hunting rifle gives off a decent snap but does not come close to the jarring real-life sound that follows a pull of the trigger. I felt as if the developers could have simply recorded three hours of nothing but nature and that would have been better, the less-is-more analogy seemed to fit here.

Gameplay: 6.8
The game can be sometimes frustrating and not as smooth as others in the series; driving an ATV was not much fun and even setting up on an animal lacked the tension that normally occurs. Shooting was done pretty well though, the game is the most fun looking through the scope.

Graphics: 6.4
While the animals look good, as well as the weapons, the environments and character models need some help. 

Sounds: 6.0
The dev team should have recorded a tree or the wind or anything that has to do with nature, when you are out in the wilderness, you don't hear too much.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 6.0
These are a series of games that only appeal to a small percentage of gamers. When done right, you are treated to a fun experience, this one wasn't done right.

Multiplayer: 7.0
The mere fact that the game finally listened to the fans and set up an actual tournament for online play makes this something to take a look at.

Overall: 6.4
I was hoping that the game would be a bit more of an experience, but as it is, it is barely passable as a hunting sim and only because there is a multiplayer mode would I say this ... die-hard fans of the series may want to pick it up because it's only $19.99 and it's online.