It's Cabela's best effort so far. And this time it's much more accessible and satisfying than before.

User Rating: 7.5 | Cabela's Big Game Hunter X360
By Draylorn | Review Date:
The hunting genre is a tough one to make a lasting, deep, satisfying game experience out of, and Cabela's has been trying their damndest to appeal to a bigger market than the usual hunting enthusiasts. Each time they try, it gets a little better. So, where are they at now?

Here's what you get with BGH 2008;
In the career mode, you hunt through a series of locations, which are pretty small, and plagued with invisible walls. This is especially evident when you see an animal run away from you, and then come running back after hitting one of the invisible walls. It makes the hunting unrealistic and easy in the wrong way. There are also some minor glitches, and a cheesy plot complete with mediocre voice actors.

You can only hunt animals you have tags for, but this is also somewhat remedied by the characters you meet (there are just a couple in each location). These characters mostly either give you new tags and an objective to go hunt something, or launch you into a minigame (so far, it's been bird hunting, although I believe there is fishing, too).

Each location contains a "trophy" animal, which you must hunt to clear the level. Some levels also have a "boss" that you must battle to continue ( I fought a bear!). These are somewhat fun, if short. One predator can only take so many bullets.

The bottom line is this: If you like hunting, this is a good game to pick up in short bursts, and it definitely feels good to play - like a real shooter game, not a 'shooting gallery'. It's presented about as well as a game in this genre could be, although it is a little cheesy. But Cabela's games are not for everyone, so think long and hard about whether you really enjoy hunting at all, because in the end, no matter how much better the next Cabela game is than the last, you are ultimately just hunting.

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I think these games could benefit from a deeper plot, even more varied and deep gameplay (as much as possible without making things too complicated), and perhaps a more open-world design - at least one without invisible walls all over the place. Cabela's isn't that far away from making a truly competent title. It's too bad they really don't have any serious competition in this market. I'll probably try out Dangerous Hunts 2009 for more action, but, well, let's just say that series has some issues of it's own.
Keep trying, Cabela's!

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