Deer Hunter Final Hands-On Impressions

The original Deer Hunter, released for the PC in 1997, was a breakthrough title in budget PC gaming. If nothing else, it ended up being much more popular than anyone might have expected. Aimed at a formerly untapped demographic, Deer Hunter was the first PC gaming experience for many new users. Next month, Sorrent will be releasing a mobile version of the long-running franchise. We saw a final version of the game, and, quite frankly, it looked excellent. Sorrent has done a great job with this port, essentially providing mobile gamers with the same experience they enjoyed on the PC all those years ago.

Players may choose between three locales, the most challenging (and also most rewarding) of which is upstate New York, which features dense forestation and enormous trophy deer. To hunt these beasts, you'll have a variety of tools at your disposal, such as a scoped rifle, a crossbow, deer attractant, and a human odor minimizing agent. All of these items must be used strategically to bag deer that grow more intelligent--and are therefore less easily fooled--as the game progresses. Fortunately, your hunter can "level up" as well, because bagging deer earns you points that can be distributed among several statistics, respectively regulating your stealth, your ability to track deer, your game-calling prowess, and your weapon proficiency. You can also choose what gear your hunter will take along on his forays into deer country. At heart, the Deer Hunter series has always stressed planning over action, so it's nice to see these strategic elements surfacing in the mobile version of the game.

In terms of its presentation, Deer Hunter seems very impressive. The game ran smoothly on our test LG VX 7000, and it was visually almost on par with the original PC version of the game. Its sound included a mixture of MIDI-based background music, with a distinct bluegrass flair, and MP3 sound clips of roaming deer and rifle reports.

In short, we have high hopes for Sorrent's upcoming backwoods romp. As the game has now gone gold, we'll have a full review in the coming weeks.