You duped me again, Cabela...
First of all, the title "Dangerous Hunts 09" can be misleading. There is no actual free-roaming "hunting" to be found, and no "Quick Hunt" mode either; everything that you do will have an objective to be met (a.k.a. - "clear the forest of starved wolves", "find the forest ranger", "track the brown bear", etc.). Obviously this gets tiresome, and kills the game's enjoyment from the start. Apparently the developers of this game decided that they wanted to make a story-based hunting game, and I shouldn't have to tell you what an awful idea that is. So take note: This game is Cabela's Dangerous HUNTS, not Cabela's Dangerous HUNTING...because there is no real hunting.
Nextly, the control configuration is fine, but the actual control and movement of the character is terrible. Jumpy, rapid walking can sometimes make it a chore to walk around, and slow camera movement makes it hard to quickly turn around to keep the constantly-attacking animals in your sights.
The weapons in Dangerous Hunts are really the game's only strong points. They're all realistic and fun to use, though there are no bows to be found in the game (why should there be, it's all dangerous game anyway!). For fans of previous Dangerous Hunts games (if there are any out there), I should note that the game is devoid of knives as well.
Dangerous Hunts 09 also features a new system called "Melee Fighting", which admittedly is a very cool and fun feature, though terribly unrealistic. How it works is as follows" If you fail to stop a charging animal. the game MAY trigger melee mode, in which you'll have to fight off the animal yourself. You do this by either pressing buttons or moving the game controller to match the movements on the screen. This can lead to your hunter making some cool moves and fending off the attacker, but sometimes the game won't acknowledge your controller movements, leading to the animal, well, mauling you. At this point the game gives a message saying "Your game is over. The hunter has become the hunted." Nooo, that's not cheesy at all Cabela's...*rolls eyes*
DH09 also suffers from one of the same flaws as its predecessors: The levels trap you. Despite the levels being seemingly very large, there's usually only one narrow little path that you can walk long to move throughout the level, and it makes you feel terribly claustrophobic.
The animals in DH09 are really what you'd expect: Bears, hyenas, wolves, elephants, lions, etc. There are a few birds flying around, and some snakes and wild bees, along with some non-dangerous animals (such as impalas). You'll most likely be too busy with either the objective of your mission or being attacked by animals to notice much, though...
Now, the voice acting...cheese, anyone? The acting is so corny you could fill a hybrid car with it. It's not to say that ALL of the voice acting itself is terrible, because it isn't, some of it is okay. Mostly it's the cheesy lines and poor animation that make it laughable. Still, no matter what the acting is, it doesn't matter much, because THERE SHOULDN'T BE ACTING ANYWAY. It's a hunting game for goodness' sake, we should be hunting, not listening to a story...
Overall, just please ignore Dangerous Hunts 09...and all the Dangerous Hunts games for that matter. Don't let the fact that it's the only hunting game for the PS3 lure you into buying it, because it really isn't hunting, it's just fending off constant animal attacks. Admittedly, if DH09 had a free-play, "Quick Hunt" mode I may have given it a much better score, but since it's all mission-based adventures, it gets a solid 3.5. Good job, Cabela's, you duped me again.
Sincerely, RedHawk4.