The Hunter Call of the Wild is a stellar hunting game. Despite coming out many years ago in 2017, the game holds up well even today. The game is beautiful, with good graphics, very detailed maps & hunting options, plus interesting missions. So overall, the game is very well done.

Also, I love that the game does not force you to hunt. I mostly just play the game as a hiking simulator, to be out in nature, rather than to hunt. The game is so beautiful, relaxing, immersive & enjoyable that it’s perfect for that. Sometimes, I’ll play the game to go animal sight seeing. Once, I saw a wolf hunt & that was interesting. But observing predators & other dangerous animals can be risky. Tigers are fast, very aggressive & a tiger attack is scary & lethal. Continuing, just exploring & doing the missions gives you lots to do besides hunting.

The game has good, smooth gameplay. For example, the game is mostly well optimized. I usually get a good frame rate & rarely is my game noticeably slowed down by a low frame rate. As well, the animal AI is good with varied actions & responses to your actions. The animals simply act like real animals, which is impressive.

Continuing, the game has auto-walk, auto-run, & fast travel. Moreover, you can rebind the controls but I never felt the need because the controls are already intuitive. Furthermore, the controls are responsive, a necessity in a hunting game. Finally, the game has multiplayer, but I have not tried it, so I’ll say no more.

There is no manual save in the game but it’s not a problem. The game has frequent, automatic saves so you never have to worry about losing your progress. Also, the game has an extensive & excellent UI. The UI is vast yet simple & intuitive & has useful information on almost any topic of interest in a hunting game.

In short, the game is fun & interesting with a satisfying gameplay loop of hunting, exploring, & completing missions. Moreover, there's great variety in this gameplay loop. The game has a lot of maps from all over the world. Plus, the game boasts many species of animals, including species unique to specific maps. Finally, the game’s missions are interesting, varied & different for each map. Indeed, it's impressive that the game’s maps are so detailed that you learn facts & information about each location, which I enjoy. And, the developers are among the best I've ever interacted with.

But no game is perfect. The Hunter Call of the Wild does have some flaws. I have noticed a minor bug or two here & there. And one time, years ago in 2022, I experienced a big bug. I came across a very messed up moose animal animation that ruined my hunt. But thankfully I have not seen this bug since.

The good news is that the developers are very involved with the community. They regularly seek feedback & are working to correct the flaws & bugs & better serve the players. For example, for many years, IMO the game had a big problem: the developers refused to add endangered species.

I strongly disagreed with this & expressed my opinion several times. Many other players did the same. To their credit, the developers were always respectful & told us why they excluded endangered animals. And to be honest, they had valid reasons. I respected their decision, despite disagreeing with it.

However, eventually the developers changed their minds. In June 2024, they released a new map (Sundarpatan Nepal Hunting Reserve) that has an iconic endangered animal: the Bengal tiger! Thank you developers for ultimately giving us players, your customers, what we wanted. My favorite animal is the tiger & it’ll be a dream come true for me to see a tiger in the wild. I’m physically disabled, so I’ll never get to see a wild tiger in real life. But thanks to this game, I now can, virtually. It means a lot to me that this game will allow me to complete this bucket list item!

Another flaw was that for years the game generally suffered from a lack of new species. For example, the New England Mountains DLC released in December 2022 & was widely criticized for only adding 1 new species, if memory serves.

But the developers have shown vast improvement here too. The 2 newest maps are Emerald Coast Australia & Sundarpatan Nepal Hunting Reserve. Emerald Coast added 8 new species (including kangaroos). Even better, Sundarpatan Nepal added 10 new species (including the Bengal tiger, an endangered animal). In both of these maps, the majority of the total species in each map were new species!

So while there are flaws, the developers are slowly but surely addressing most of them, especially the biggest flaws identified by the players.

In conclusion, I strongly recommend the game. I’m not even a hunter in real life & I love the game. Whether you want to hunt or just enjoy nature, you'll find it in The Hunter Call of the Wild. Just watch out for those tigers!