Deer Hunter: A Revolution in Gaming
There's a great advantage to being a hunter these days, and that is that there are so many hunting games for computer to choose from. In the next four or five months, unless one has access to some type of year-round legal hunting, like hogs or exotics, all we have to occupy ourselves is apply for permits, practice our shooting... and play hunting games.
Deer Hunter started it all, and really set the stage for the many options available today. This game allows you to choose your hunting tools, such as tree stand, grunt calls, gun or bow, etc., and then hit the woods in one of 3 different areas, or shoot at a target range. The game's a little cheesy; 2d deer, and the landscape is merely tree sprites (2d pictures), but that didn't stop me from getting a jolt of adrenaline the first time I took a shot at a buck! Widely besmirched by mainstream (and non-hunting) gamers, who couldn't understand why a game with such comparatively crude construction should become a best-seller, its relatively low cost at release ($20, compared to $45 or $50 for a "mainstream" game) and unique hunting theme still caught on, and big.
To the non-hunter, especially the non-deer-hunter, the appeal of the game remains a mystery. Why, they ask, would someone spend hours pretending to sit sedately in a tree stand, so they can try to shoot a computer-generated (2d!) deer that never existed? Well, the answer is that when it's not legal or possible to actually get out in the weather and do it for real, we addicts enjoy playing pretend. The best thing about this game is that it's based on real life; when's the last time aliens took over the planet, and One Man had to fight them all to the death? With a hunting game, at least you know that what you're doing is fun and safe, and there are no humans or humanoids in your sights. And, it could happen... at least it's possible that you'll pop a 10-point buck next season.
Of course, being the first hit game of its kind, Deer Hunter had some kinks to work out. The rattling antlers, for instance, sound nothing at all like antlers; my Dad swears it's the sound of an old pump shotgun. The interface is what I like the least about it: on the map page, you move yourself (represented by a cross in a circle) around on a map of the hunting area, and a window on the right tells you what you see as you go. All antler rubs look the same, and you'll find some horse-sized piles of droppings, which seem to indicate that deer are nearby. Then, you check the wind, get on the lee side of the spot you like, and hunt there. Now you are stuck to the spot, and can't do anything but look around, basically. No walking while hunting, but rattling, grunting, and zooming in on likely critters with your binoculars are available. If you use a tree stand, the game will put you on the north side of the tree, even though the wind may be out of the south. Turn around to look south, and there's a tree in your face. It's the same tree every time, depending on what hunting area you're in. And there's more aggravating quirks of the game, but that's not the point.
The point is that Deer Hunter broke new ground, and soon after its unprecedented rise to number one, a bunch of folks in the computer game business sat up and took notice, and started working hard on their own hunting games. Nothing encourages improvement in a product better than competition, and in the last couple of years, it's been pretty strong. The number of hunting titles available is growing faster all the time.
- Russ Chastain
