IS IT WORTH IT?! | A Review of Maneater in About 3 Minutes!
39A detailed review of 'Maneater' in about 3 minutes. We make game reviews without the fluff!
Maneater is a light-hearted action RPG where you play as a bull shark with a vendetta against the hunter known as Scaly Pete who killed your mother, who himself is trying to avenge the death of his father who was eaten by a shark.
The whole game is made in the style of a reality TV show with a narrator that occasionally comments on your actions whenever you attack another fish, complete a quest or discover a new area, similar to how David Attenborough narrates his documentaries except in Maneater you’re treated to the voice of Chris Parnell who’s better known as Jerry Smith from Rick & Morty.
It came out in May 2020 and the goal of this review is to help you decide if it’s still worth buying and playing in 2021. Thanks to 90 SECOND REVIEWS for getting in touch to request this review!
So after the very brief but effective tutorial that runs you through the basic controls and introduces you to the fully voiced storyline, you start out in the first of 7 regions on the fairly large open world map. As a baby shark at level 1 you’re vulnerable to almost everything and have to start by eating low level prey like catfish and turtles to start gaining XP and eventually increase in size, strength. Eating is also how you replenish your health during and after a fight.
As you continue to evolve and progress through the world you’ll come across bigger and stronger sea creatures like hammerhead sharks, great whites and seals and barracuda.
The world is divided into 7 regions with each region containing a set of storyline missions that progress the story further, some side objectives like having to kill ex amount of humans near a beach, as well as a bunch of stuff to discover and collect like old license plates, landmarks and chests that contain nutrients which is used as a currency to upgrade your sharks abilities.
Some of the upgrades you can equip give you increase survivability on land which is useful for eating people on the streets of residential areas, more XP and nutrient gain from everything you eat, increased damage to boats and so on. There’s 2 full upgrade sets to collect which dramatically changes the visual appearance and attack style of your shark.
Every area also has an end boss known as an apex predator which is basically a stronger version of an animal found in that region. You have to defeat each region’s apex predator before advancing to the next one. There’s also 10 hunter bosses in the game which spawn as your infamy level increases as a result of attacking humans.
The controls are simple and steering the shark feels easy and natural, though after starting out using a mouse and keyboard and finding it a little bit clunky I eventually switched to a PS4 controller which felt a lot better. It’s definitely playable with a mouse and keyboard but I’d definitely recommend using a gamepad for the best experience.
Graphically it’s quite good looking both above and below the water but it’s definitely at its best in deep waters. The performance was good on my 3070 with an average fps of about 80. They’ve also done a good job at implementing audio cues that help you stay orientated while under water. You hear a unique sound whenever an enemy is charging up for an attack as well as whenever there’s a treasure chest somewhere nearby.
The gameplay loop’s quite simple, usually involving completing the main story missions, defeat the boss and do a couple of side missions before being able to move on to the next area. The story itself is OK though don’t expect to be blown away by any breathtaking plot twists or exciting moments as for the most part it’s a pretty cookie cutter story without going into much detail to avoid spoilers.
All in all though it gets the job done in a game where the main focus is really just on mindless violence as you swim around as a massive shark eating people, sinking ships, fighting other big fish and enjoying the funny tongue in cheek narration and over-reactions of the spectators as they watch you eat the guy next to them in the middle of the street before diving back into their back yard swimming pool to avoid the hunters which behave similarly to the police in GTA.
It took me about 12 hours to complete the game and I think you could get even more out of it if you take your time. There’s not much in the way of replayability as once you complete the game your next play through would be pretty much exactly the same, but overall if you’re looking for something simple and fun with plenty of action where you can just shut off your brain and derp around as a shark for a bit then Maneater is a great option and we definately recommend it.
Pendulum Waltz by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Artist: http://audionautix.com/
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