theHunter, the online PC hunting game by Avalanche studios who developed last year’s sleeper hit Just Cause 2 have added new areas to explore in the game.

The expansion which is free to members adds Redfeather Falls, an area modelled after British Colombia. They have also added new species of animals like the Black Bear. In addition several enhancements have been made including an overhauled mission system and a new trophy shot mode.

theHunter was a pretty impressive game featuring some pretty visuals and an addictive gameplay.

But many of you might ask this question- why would theHunter appeal to you so much? Well, it would appeal to you simply because it is a very enjoyable, addictive games that you can play for hours at length, not to mention the fact that the graphics are simply gorgeous. And when I say gorgeous, I mean almost Crysis level gorgeous. The vast landscapes and the environment look beautiful. The animations are smooth and fluid, and you notice every tiny little thing- the swaying of the leaves, the rippling of the water, or even the flexing of a deer’s muscles as it prepares to run.

And yes, the landscapes are vast. They are so vast, sometimes they remind me of games like Crysis and Far Cry 2. Various landforms such as forests, desert areas, mountainous regions, lakes and the like will be found in the maps.  Traversing from one end of a map to the other can take you long minutes.

And you will be doing a lot of traversing. Oftentimes, when you miss a shot on your prey- which will happen a lot, since the accuracy of the weapons in this game is much too realistic, with elements like rebound involved- it will, quite understandably, run for its life. Using your GPS tracker, you will have to search for your prey throughout the map, sometimes taking you as long as fifteen-twenty minutes. And seeing as there are no enemies or anything to keep us involved while we’re on our way (obviously, it’s a hunting game, not a shooter), journey, which is already a very slow and boring process, feels even less eventful and more time consuming.

It does, however, add a lot to the realistic feel of the game. theHunter is one of the most realistic games I have ever played in any genre. The animals’ behaviour is, most of the times, believable. Weapons are well designed and accuracy is realistic. Bow and arrow usage feels very authentic. Hunting animals takes a lot of skill and precision. You have to be quiet when approaching your prey, and skillfully find out where it has run off to in case you make a sound and it flees. It all feels really authentic, and justifies the claims that are being make about the game being so realistic.

The GPS, though, takes away a bit from this feeling, since it helps us track our prey’s movements if we have gathered enough information on it. But I guess that much is okay, since this is, after all is said and done, a game. Also, you cannot swim and you cannot jump, which, although not required in a game like this, seems really jarring. You cannot even die, not even if you jump of a 20 feet high cliff.

Overall, theHunter is a very good game, a very enjoyable experience, with brilliant realism and breathtaking graphics. It doesn’t matter if you’re not even much into hunting- theHunter is just a beautiful experience that must be experienced by every PC gamer.

This game was reviewed on the PC.