Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2

Ernest Hemingway believed that a man was only truly alive when he is either fishing or in the middle of a big game hunt and for many hunters this is actually true. Activision has brought us a few Cabela-themed hunting games for the Xbox, many of which concentrate on the thrill of the hunt in the great outdoors but it’s the Dangerous Hunts series that has taught us that sometimes even the most experienced hunter can become the hunted. So we’re back in the wild with Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2 - a game that skips the hunting altogether and makes it all about the first-person shooting action.

You play a nameless, faceless big game hunter that finds himself resting in his secluded cabin in the great wilderness when a one-eyed hunter named Old Hugh comes knocking on your door with an intriguing proposal. He asks you to help him find his nephew and niece lost in the wild and, in return, offers you information on the whereabouts of your old hunting partner who went missing during a hunt. Your adventure takes you around the globe from the jungles of India to the vast tundra of Siberia. It’s a mission to find a friend while fending off a number of exotic animals that inhabit each locale. So this becomes less a quest for hunting fame and more of a first-person shooter where the enemy doesn’t fire back but rather jumps out at you.

If you’re expecting to use scents to lure any game or stalk the terrain carefully in order not to spook an animal you’re tracking then you will be very disappointed. From the first mission down to the very last one you will find that you will be the one that’s being stalked and hunted. Oftentimes wild animals will jump out at specific spots, usually taking a bite out of you or, if you’re not careful, on top of you. The environments in each locale are huge and you won’t know an animal is dead on your tracks until the music picks up. Really, sometimes it feels as if a wolf or cougar just materialized out of nowhere. Luckily, you’ll have firearms at your disposal, oftentimes receiving different ones from your guides.

Speaking of guides, this isn’t a lonely adventure. You’ll have a number of companions throughout the game, a few of them that are big game hunters themselves. There’s a problem with having guides by your side, though. Your guides are supposed to be men of big game wisdom but why do they always put themselves in a situation where you need to save them from their incompetence? I swear, Old Hugh has a hunting knife and a gun and he still manages to get himself mauled by animals. The good part is that guides will hand over their weapons (sniper rifles, shotguns and even revolvers) but the bad news is that you will have to start the mission over if they die.

With much of the hunting elements out of the way, the game feels more like your average first-person shooter complete with scattered health packs and extra ammo clips. The levels themselves have you performing main objectives as well as secondary ones. Some levels are geared to move the story along while others are all about shooting as many animals as possible until you get to the boss animal. Oh yeah, you read correctly. Like most first-person shooters, there’s a level boss, mainly a huge and dangerous animal that cannot be brought down with less than two bullets. You’ll fight off a huge grizzly in the first level as well as a lion in another. Are they challenging fights? Not really but they add some variety to the straightforward levels that start feeling the same. At least there’s a level where you get to ride on a helicopter while bringing game down with a long-range rifle.

Besides the fact that the game is linear and a bit on the short side, you’ll often encounter some baffling moments that make for a frustrating experience. In the second level in Zimbabwe, for example, you’ll encounter some killer bees that attack you even after you shot the beehive just as you were instructed to do. You’ll even fall into quicksand, something that means instant death the very second you happen to step into it so forget a vicious swipe from a tiger, quicksand is the true instant killer.

On the graphics front, Dangerous Hunts 2 is not a very pretty Xbox game nor is it a very realistic one either. The animals look vicious and you won’t help but yelp out the second a blood-thirst tiger jumps out at you or even a lion. The problem isn’t how they look but rather how they move. You can move out of the way of a charging wolf but when they turn it isn’t with a natural one but rather an awkward spin. Shoot certain animals and they’ll not only stiffen but they’ll perform a summersault. The environments range from ho-hum to not bad at all. The foliage, for example, looks decent from afar but when you move closer it becomes quite an eye sore.

As for the game’s sound, the game does a great job of bringing all the sounds of each specific locale to life. You’ll hear the wilderness come to life with the sounds of insects, distant wolves and the cracking of dry twigs at your feet. When you fire your long-ranged rifle you’ll hear the echo of the shot ring through the canyons and even shotguns have that loud retort. The animal sounds are dead-on and you’ll know when a cougar is around because you’ll hear its unmistakable cry. While the main character doesn’t say a word, you’ll hear plenty from your guides who are often trying to spook you with “What’s that?” or “You heard that?”

Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2 misses the mark when it comes to the hunting and as a first-person shooter it hardly comes close to bringing us an action game worthy of the series or the genre. The far off locales are a nice touch and the dangerous game you’ll encounter just sweeten the deal but when it comes to the gameplay there’s no real reason causal gamers will want to purchase this one. Even hunting fans will not enjoy this title so you’ll want to stay away.

Gameplay: 6.2
Forget the hunting because there’s no strategy or hunting involved in this game so expect this to be a straightforward first-person shooter with wild animals (including bees) as your enemies. There are some great locales, many with their own boss animals, but the lack of hunting in a hunting game just doesn’t make any sense. You don’t have to buy guns either so you’ll get a chance to fire a variety of handguns as well as shotguns and rifles. Helicopter hunts add some variety.

Graphics: 7.0
Visually, the game looks so-so, adding very little in terms of Xbox specific visual razzle-dazzle. The environments look somewhat decent in some places and look a lot better in others (such as the Zimbabwe level). The human character models look poor but thankfully many of the animals look good. Then again, have you ever seen an elephant do a summersault?

Sound: 7.5
The ambient sounds are nicely detailed and there are some great animal sounds that do a better job of giving you the impression you’re deep in the woods or in the jungle. The sounds of the wild will surround you and that’s a really great thing. The voice acting is actually decent and the game’s score works nicely.

Difficulty: Medium
With no real stalking or going through the trouble to set up traps, using animal calls or scents, the real challenge is trying to keep cougars or desert lions from landing on top of you. Really, you’re more the hunted than the hunter, often shooting not to collect a prize but rather to keep savage wolves or stampeding elephants from mauling you. The animal AI is pretty sharp at times but most of the time they just run in circles.

Concept: 6.5
Big game hunting in far off lands sounds interesting but when there’s no real hunting involved and your experienced big game hunting guides are better at getting themselves killed then lending a hand you’ll know the experience isn’t exactly how they advertised it in the brochures. There are some unlockable bonuses and secret levels to unlock (one taking place around an Aztec temple).

Overall: 6.2
The hunting and stalking elements are completely removed from the series and thus making Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2 a shooter with very little substance or redeemable qualities. Sure, you’ll get to see exotic locales and shoot dangerous exotic animals but it doesn’t feel like hunting at all. Really, if you enjoy hunting games then you should avoid this one.