Andreas Ernst is a full-time insurance consultant. Hunting is a passion of his.

Product test

"The Hunter: Call of the Wild": a hunting simulation game tested with a real hunter

17.4.2017

Translation: machine translated

"The Hunter: Call of the Wild is a hunting simulation game. To avoid shooting myself in the foot or scaring off all the forest dwellers, I've called in a real hunter, who will also explain what the game and reality have in common.

The saying goes that "the tree hides the forest". Well, in my house, it hides the deer. Or was it a deer? I don't even know our local animals, so how would I find my way around a hunting reserve? Andreas Ernst, nicknamed Dres, is helping me. He's a real hunter. Not a professional, but a passionate one. In the Bernese Oberland, his favourite hunting ground, he mainly hunts chamois and red deer.

Today, Dres Ernst is a professional hunter.

Today, he leaves his rifle at home and helps me shoot a deer. The game's tooltips have already given me a few pointers. We're not in a real forest, and I haven't smuggled any shotguns into Switzerland. No, we're in 'The Hunter: Call of the Wild', a simulation game that claims to provide the best hunting experience around. If that's the case, then the animals in our forests have nothing to worry about. I can barely hit a stationary target at 300 yards, let's see if I do better in the virtual world.

I take command. Dres looks over my shoulder, curious. Not owning a gamer's computer, my image resolution is average, but that doesn't stop Dres from marvelling: "I love this place. A thick forest, fields of flowers dancing in the wind, pretty birds chirping and leaves rustling." I nod. The developer, Avalanche Studios, has captured the atmosphere of a game reserve perfectly. Maximum image resolution should really show off nature to its best advantage. Still, you need a suitable computer.

This isn't a game for casual gamers

Not having played the game for the first time, I quickly explain the game to Dres. It's mainly about shooting as many animals as possible. Each successful shot is rewarded with experience points. How and where you hit the animal also counts. According to our hunter, "a heart shot is the perfect shot". Why not a bullet through the head? It's just as deadly. "I decide not to tell him how my first virtual hunting trip ended. As a veteran of video games, I always aim for the head... I can no longer erase "Boom! Headshot!" from my memory.

The game strives to be as realistic as possible. After the shot, it shows exactly where the animal has been hit. As our expert explains to me, a heart shot gives the most points. But you still have to get it right. We make our way slowly through the dense forest. In any other game, I'd have pressed the Shift key to start running, but as I don't want to make a fool of myself straight away, I keep walking so as not to scare off the game, wherever it's hiding. We haven't seen anything yet, apart from a few rabbits and birds. To make conversation, I ask Dres if I'm making too much noise. "Yes, you're far too noisy. If you were really hunting deer, they would have heard you a long time ago." What do you want, I'm too impatient. Even walking can scare off your prey, depending on the ground you're moving on. The creaking of bushes is enough to make game cry out in alarm, which at least helps me spot it.

As well as the tracks giving you a vague indication of the direction in which the game is moving, you'll also hear its calls, whether bellowing or distress calls. When we heard a red fox barking again, Dres told me that you would never hear it so often in a real situation. Games have to make a few compromises between reality and fun. Nobody would like to spend hours in front of their screen waiting for something to happen.

Patience is the greatest of virtues... they say.

I despair as I follow the endless tracks of our deer. I ask Dres if reality meets fiction. "Not at all. You can find a few tracks, but you never recognise them as well as you do in the game." You can spot them in the snow and mud, but not in the forests or meadows that the game shows us. You have to rely mainly on your vision. There's also a difference between stalking and hunting, which involves waiting for your prey from an elevated spot or from the ground, with a good view of your surroundings. A small flask of alcohol wouldn't go amiss, in my opinion.

In contrast, "The Hunter: Call of the Wild" focuses on stalking, i.e. moving stealthily and actively searching for your target, which isn't very realistic. In a real hunting party, the hunter would have long since found a spot from which to watch for his prey. "Not to mention the fact that I've got the wrong gun. I cast a questioning glance at my rifle and its scope. "If you're moving around like in this game, you need to have a pellet gun or a combination gun so you can react quickly if a deer comes out of the bushes." In fact, a shotgun always means a pellet gun. On the screen, however, I'm carrying a rifle, as Dres points out to me. Since I've got used to using that term and can't access any other weapon yet, I'll continue like this.

Something is moving in the bushes

After 45 minutes of playing, I spot a stag 50 metres away from me. It didn't smell me, as the wind was blowing in my direction. Stags have a highly developed sense of smell and sight, Dres informs me. I approach very slowly. The animal hasn't noticed us yet, even though I'm standing like an idiot in the middle of the forest. But if I lie down, I can't see anything but scrub.

The deer has its back to me. I want to take action before I lose him so I haven't stalked him for so long in vain. As a precaution, I ask Dres if I should shoot. "Under no circumstances. You'll make a mess of things," he replies. I ask him if he's thinking about the noise, while admiring the beast's hindquarters. "It's full of grass, which would spread everywhere. I don't think I'll have to gut my prey, but I'll wait to make sure.

The deer slowly turns on its side. I pull the trigger. Blood doesn't spurt out like in other games, but the animal has flinched. I've obviously hit it. It disappears in one swift movement. I run over to where it was standing and see blood trails, which we start to follow. "Sometimes a stricken animal will run for another 10, 20 or even 100 metres," Dres informs me.
.
We quickly find the animal. It's running around in circles, furious. According to Dres, this is highly unusual behaviour. I attribute it to a coding error. I finish the deer off. Even at this distance, Dres thinks that shooting with this weapon is unrealistic. "Shooting standing up, especially with this bullet rifle, is like playing lotto. The gun should at least be put down. Maybe I'm a better shot than I thought, after all.

My performance is assessed. A 3D X-ray shows me where my two bullets hit the animal. The first lodged in the shoulder, the second the dorsal vertebrae, straight into the back. Not bad for a first time.

We continue

We continue our hunt. Arriving in a large field, Dres thinks I should lie down and observe, motionless, the edge of the forest. An animal might appear. I do so, but remain sceptical. The gamer in me is convinced that we should resume active hunting and that we should follow the tracks. I hear a bellow and get up quickly. Suddenly the weather changes and downpours pour down on me. It's impressive, but it apparently makes hunting easier because it conceals my movements. "In this rain, I would have long since sought shelter and nibbled something," Dres tells me. But our virtual hunter is not afraid of rain and chill, so we cheerfully continue on our way.

The weather calms down. I notice something moving at the edge of the forest. Following Dres' advice, I lie down and crawl until the grass no longer blocks my vision. I've obviously gone in circles, because I'm back in the field where Dres had recommended I lie down. Hunter 1, gamer 0.

Dres finds our position optimal, given our distance. He estimates that I'm 150 metres from my target. But the animal is far too small in my scope for me to be confident. "Normally, you can zoom in," Dres explains. Oh yes, I move my mouse wheel and the deer doubles in size. Why didn't I think of that before? I aim for the chest, hold my breath and fire. Like the first time, the animal flinches and disappears. We find him a few metres further on. The report shows that I hit the neck. Dres tells me that my aim is good. That's how we finish the game. Let's take stock.

Summary

How realistic is "The Hunter: Call of the Wild"?

"You do notice it's a game," Dres tells me. You'd never get around the forest like that, and even if you did, you'd have to be equipped with a different weapon. "The rifle is the best weapon," he adds in his Bernese Oberland dialect. He's talking about the shotgun. A real hunter usually lies in wait and waits for an animal to approach.

Under real conditions, I would never have touched an animal. Branches or leaves can always influence the shot. And it's impossible not to press the rifle. A real hunter notices the difference. Dres also feels that the game lacks action: "We walked a lot without finding anything. There should be a lot more game". On the other hand, he really liked the detailed environment. He could imagine playing a game like this, if his cottage had an internet connection, and if he had a computer.

While "The Hunter: Call of the Wild" makes a few compromises to increase player enjoyment, it's a successful hunting simulation game. Nobody wants to spend their day in front of the computer without having had a single beast in their field of vision, which often happens in real life. Hunting requires experience and patience. You have to move very slowly to hope to bring down your prey. "The Hunter: Call of the Wild is above all a game of patience. A very beautiful game of patience.

Video games

astragon The Hunter: Call of the Wild

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Header image: Andreas Ernst is a full-time insurance consultant. Hunting is a passion of his.

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Philipp Rüegg

Senior Editor

Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.ch

As a child, I wasn't allowed to have any consoles. It was only with the arrival of the family's 486 PC that the magical world of gaming opened up to me. Today, I'm overcompensating accordingly. Only a lack of time and money prevents me from trying out every game there is and decorating my shelf with rare retro consoles.

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