Look, I don't know how I arrived at this point either. I can go over the details in my head again, how Hunting Simulator 2 [official site] is a much more natural evolution of the walking simulator, even bringing the bravery of the open world to the infinitely patient, slow-moving gameplay of a hunter hunting game. And you shush your shusher when I say all that: I say it lovingly.
I've been bandying around every single genre I've got in my Steam/Epic/GOG/Bethesda/EA/Rockstar/Ubisoft/itch.io/Xbox/PlayStation libraries, but have been mostly restless, clicking, clacking, installing, uninstalling, reinstalling, and generally finding nothing satisfying. Until this hunting sim lifted its head from the underbrush and looked in my direction one or two seconds two long—before I gently squeezed the trigger and hit a vital organ.
So here I am. With Hunting Simulator 2. In the plains of Colorado (Colorado has plains?) In the deserts of Texas (I knew Texas had deserts, I knew it). And the forests of Europe (I'm guessing German forests, but I live closer to Colorado and Texas than Germany). Either way, each location stands in stark contrast to the others, and their biomes are populated with creatures native to those real-world regions.
I'm having to learn the names of guns and calibers of bullets—something I should've learned from a Fallout or a Call of Duty, were I into guns—not to mention I have to finally feign some kind of interested in Realtree camouflage now. But the long walks alongside my track-sniffing beagle makes it a wonderful set of classrooms.
The staggered launch schedule for Hunting Simulator 2 is a bit complicated but here it is:
Our review is on the way. You may be surprised by what you read.
