The greatest hunting game ever made!
This game does not have any particular storyline (what would you expect from a simulation) and plunges you into the world of trophy hunting. You start out making you profile and customizing your hunter, you name him and distribute some attribute points into 5 separate categories which are: Tracking, hardiness, stealth, presence & responsibility. These skills will have to be improved if you want to progress as a hunter and bag bigger and more experienced game. For example when you start out your rank will be low, and you will be categorized as a "tenderfoot" until you successfully bag some good game animals and earn extra points to upgrade your skill will you progress and earn more reorganization. You even have the option of choosing different arms to stalk your prey with, if you prefer the rifles more than bows or if shotguns are more exciting you will earn skill points in the arms category you use most and will become better at aiming and reloading faster so that your efficiency dramatically increases. You will also become better at stalking you prey and as a skill enhances let's say for example the tracking skill, you will be better at seeing bloodstains, droppings or other prints left by the game animals that you weren't able to see when you started playing. This truly ads up to the realism by letting the player become more adapt and skillful by each hunt as you would do in the real world.
There are 3 playing modes, campaign, quick hunt & multiplayer. Campaign is the heart of the game where you create your own hunter and earn skill points to become a better hunter. Quick hunt is where you choose a random character with an already specific set of skill points and go for a hunt. Multiplayer is a great addition that lets you play with other players on the same maps, hunting together or separately.
When embarking on your hunt you have plenty of gear to chose from everything from navigation to transportation is at your disposal that is if you have enough money which you only will earn when you go and bag some big game animals. When you go on a hunt you will immediately be immerged in the realistic setting and beautiful atmosphere, the graphic is excellent, and portrays the nature and outdoor environments with great detail. Grass and other vegetation waves in the wind, superb weather effects and sky animations, add up to the great natural ambient. The sound is superb and engulfs the player in believing in the environments, and with the visual settings turned all the way up the game delivers stunning draw distance and detail. The maps are huge and offer everything from steep hills to streams and dense vegetation, here you will get lost if you don't have a map to rely on. The first person view is also a welcome addition, with the option to toggle the view from first person to third person. You will find 9 different game animals to hunt: Bighorn sheep, black bear, brown bear, caribou, elk, moose, mountain goat, mountain lion & wolf. But you will certainly encounter lots of other animals such as: squirrels, hawks, hares, beavers, otters and so on, even salmon! This is a joy, because with so much wildlife you feel that the picture is complete, not like the half assed Cabela's titles where you are put in a mini map to hunt for two or three animals per map! And not only that but carnivores will hunt herbivores who will feed off the vegetation, hawks and eagles will catch fish in front of your own eyes, animals have their daily routines and the list goes on! These wonderful details contribute to the overall realism of the game. As you become better so does the animals and therefore there is endless game play to be found, multiple individuals of animal species are found so that you have a good choice of finding the bigger bucks and bag them, you can even turn an option on which adds even more realism to the game and lets dangerous animals such as the moose and bears to attack you and even knock you out if you stress them or wound them. You even get to drive an ATV and Pickup Truck, but for most the opportunity to ride a horse will be the most compelling option. You must hunt with responsibility and only kill as much as your bag limit lets you, if you cross this fine line you will be punished and all of your efforts in a given hunt will go lost that means no cash and no new skill points.
You can download an official patch that fixes every small bug, and a map editor which lets you create your own hunting grounds, this surely makes the possibilities endless and there is a community of map editors that have made hundreds of custom maps for you to download, just search through Google and you will find plenty of quality material.
All in all Trophy Hunter 2003 is superb hunting game that offers nearly everything you will ever need. Every hunt feels rewarding and the game even comes with small surprises which I won't mention here. We can safely conclude if you are looking to buy a hunting simulation, then this is by far the best choice.