LAST UPDATED: May 1st, 2015
With winter firmly settled in most of us will probably begin to exhibit signs of “cabin fever” soon and post-season scouting can only go so far to quench our thirst for hunting action. Well, fret no more. There are plenty of games out there that can put you right back in the action no matter what time of year it is. One such game is Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013.
The Gun
It all starts with the gun. It is the first thing you see that will determine whether or not you want to try and possibly buy the game; or not. The gun had a good structure and design and was fairly simple to setup. The only negative I found was that it did not come with batteries. Personally, I think if you are purchasing something that requires batteries the first set should be supplied, even if they are really cheap ones, instead of purchasing them separately. Still, I’m not sure this would be a deciding factor to buy the game or not; I doubt it would be.
Because so much time is spent with the gun “in-hand” players will typically make up their minds about purchasing this game based largely on how it feels.
Playing the Game
I think the main menu was set up well. It was simple and easy to see the three different modes. Also, I like that the game isn’t limited to one style of gameplay, the different modes adds diversity to the game so if you get bored you can switch things up.
The graphics on Dangerous Hunts 2013 is pretty cool and very realistic.
Story Mode
The beginning of this mode was a little slow but necessary because even though the breathing aspect was really awesome and brought a very realistic feel to the game it was a little difficult to use without some degree of practice. However, after the beginning the games pace picked up nicely. The whole story mode was a really creative new take on hunting games. Normally, when playing you are standing still and you aim and shoot. In this game though you move around and need very quick reactions to succeed….or die. It was also interesting to have a “health meter” because you aren’t just hunting animals they are also hunting you. The different settings of the game were also very cool.
Man-Eater
This mode was interesting but got boring very quickly. I think it would have been more fun if I played it in split screen but I only had one gun so that wasn’t an option. The idea is cool but it doesn’t seem like the difficulty increases or anything changes, thus, it just gets boring after a while.
Learning to control your breathing during the game is a very cool feature and adds to the realism.
Shooting Galleries
Arcade – this was fun because it kind of went back to the classic arcade hunting game which was a nice break during the gameplay. I liked that it had multiple maps and the score system was well structured. Personally this was my favorite part of the game.
Reflex – this was very similar to arcade mode but it was a little more strategic which I found to be fun. It stayed exciting because “reflex” made it a little more difficult after every round was completed.
Overall- I think the game was put together well and had many different modes and good graphics. It was challenging, exciting, and entertaining which made it a fun game.
Cabela’s Hunting Expeditions
The game start is very straight forward and simple to follow but there is nothing special about the beginning menu.
Career– this mode was not that fun for me. I found it just a little boring. However, I did think it was cool that you needed to work your way up to harder and more dangerous animals. Also, it was interesting that you got “experience points” and the “gunsmith points”; both of which gave you something to work toward. I really wished this mode was more exciting and changed things up from time to time but it just got boring too quickly for my taste.
Quick Hunt– this was a nice relaxing format but it isn’t much different than “career mode” so I also got bored pretty quick with it as well. But, if I just wanted to do some relaxed virtual hunting this is a really good setting to try.
Overall– I think the game is kind of bland and is lacking an “excitement” factor but it is structured pretty well.
