Way of the Hunter Review

Welcome to my review of Way of the Hunter. This game is brought to us by publishers THQ Nordic (Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed, Second Sight) and developers Nine Rocks Games (their debut game). Way of the Hunter is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S for £34.99.

Use Your Sense, Hunter

Will Way of the Hunter leave me lost out in the wild or bring trophies home? Continue reading to find out. You can also check out our previous reviews here.

The Game

So, yeah, the game. You are a new owner of a hunting lodge that once belonged to your grandfather, and now it’s yours. There are two main maps in the game, one is set in the vast wilderness of the Pacific Northwest, and the other is set in the beautiful late summer of Transylvania.

Two pretty awesome locations to be hunting the local wildlife. Naturally, the game starts off with a tutorial on some of the basic controls, how to navigate, and how to hunt. I am pretty thankful for this tutorial as I’ve never really spent a great deal of time playing a hunting simulation game.

The game has a number of difficulties for players to choose from, which can certainly help if you’re new to the genre, like me. Of course, if you find the game becomes too easy for you, you can make it more difficult. This will more than likely be the case because you’ll soon find it a breeze hunting deer with a higher-powered rifle and scope.

Due to how large the maps are, you do have a car to get around in. This makes traversing the terrain so much easier. Just remember not to get too close to the hunting spots in the car else you’ll spook the animals. This is also the case if you’re not careful when moving on foot, you will need to move slower, and get lower to the ground. Otherwise, you will most definitely spook the animals in the area.

The key is to stay still, keep an eye out, use your binoculars and listen to your surroundings. You will hear animals calling one another in the distance, you can use your hunter sense to spot exactly where the noise came from. You can also try to find them yourself if you wish. Each type of animal will also have eating, drinking, and sleeping spots. You can reveal these on the map if you wish.

When you find and claim your kills, it will also show you where the bullet went through on the animal and what you hit/damaged. It’s kind of cool how it shows you, reminds me a little of Sniper Elite when the bullets rip through the opposing forces. Only this is through cute and innocent animals and not enemy soldiers, obviously.

Way of the Hunter will also give you missions to complete. For example, a local restaurant will request a certain type of meat, and you’ll need to use the correct weapon to ensure you get a clean kill with the right kind of caliber rifle otherwise you can spoil the game you’re hunting.

The game does tell you all of this so make sure you just read what you’re being asked to do and you’ll be absolutely fine.

Look & Sound

So this is totally where Way of the Hunter shines. The graphics, at first, look absolutely incredible. Obviously, when you get closer up to some things such as grass and the occasional rock, they could look a bit better texture-wise.

However, the below screenshot was taken in-game. Looks absolutely gorgeous, doesn’t it?

The audio in Way of the Hunter is also pretty good. There are times when it sounds a little off, but, I’ve never been hunting nor near many of the animals in the game, so who am I to comment?

For the most part, it sounds very good. Especially with the ambient sounds such as the wind going through the grass and bushes. Another good example is when you get bugs flying around i.e a fly. The sound is pretty realistic and freaks me out, I hate flies!

Length & Replayability

Due to the nature of the game, there can’t really be a time frame put on it. I’ve literally sat and played the game during a lunch break and not seen or caught a thing. That was probably my own doing, but still, the game will see you through hundreds of hours if you want.

Way of the Hunter also has 13 achievements for you to unlock if you want to do so.

Conclusions

Way of the Hunter is quite a fun game that is relaxing as well as edge-of-your-seat stuff at the same time. The graphics are fantastic, and the audio is excellent. Should you wish to purchase the game, you can do so on the Way of the Hunter Steam Store page.

At the time of writing this game has unknown compatibility on the Steam Deck. I am yet to try it on my Steam Deck. When I do, I shall update this section.