Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 for PlayStation 3 Review

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On my quest to find and play more light-gun style games, I discovered the hunting genre is worth checking out even if you’re not into hunting. Many hunting games offer fun light-gun style rail shooting action and that’s really what I’m looking for. It’s not so much shooting animals that makes it enjoyable. You could replace them with anything else and the gameplay would still be a good time. The fun comes from pointing a plastic gun at your TV and shooting things and if that means shooting innocent defenseless creatures, so be it. Some hunting games offer more than just rail shooing action, though, and come with stories/plots/narratives as seen in games like Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2011 and 2013. 2011’s story isn’t very good nor is controlling your character in the Story mode with the Top Shot Elite. Plus, the Story mode isn’t even that fun or exciting but the Galleries mode makes the game a wonderful rail shooter and because of that, I was looking forward to jumping into the sequel, Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013.

Developed by Cauldron and published by Activision, Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 was released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii, and Wii U in 2012. For this review, I played the PS3 version. Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 supports the Top Shot Fearmaster peripheral but you can also play the game with the Top Shot Elite. While I think “Fearmaster” is a cooler sounding name than “Top Shot Elite”, the actual gun, itself, isn’t quite as cool. It looks cool, it looks like a shotgun, but there’s no slide or pump to reload it which I found very disappointing. However, it does come with heart rate sensors. It should be noted the Fearmaster for Wii does not come with the sensors.

Once again, I’m going to start with the controls because how you play this game is a big part of the experience. Right off the bat, I can tell you the Fearmaster is fun to use in the Shooting Galleries mode. Using it in the other modes just feels awkward but how awkward might depend on how you hold it. For me personally, I hold the grip with my left hand and the forestock or fore-end with my right hand. But I wonder if the Fearmaster was designed to be held the other way, with your right hand on the grip. I say that because the reload button is left on the dpad which is located at the top of the Fearmaster. With my right hand holding the forestock, I have to kind of reach over with my thumb to reload and it’s not very comfortable. Then again, the square and triangle buttons are on the left side of the barrel and with my right hand on the forestock, I can easily access them with my fingers. Ultimately, they should have designed this as a pump-action shotgun and if that meant getting rid of the heart rate sensors, so be it.

The Top Shot Fearmaster is battery powered and comes with a dongle and sensor bar but you can also use a Wii sensor bar. All the game modes in Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 support the Fearmaster and the Shooting Galleries mode is the only one entirely on rails which is why it’s a lot of fun to play with the Fearmaster. All you need to do is aim, shoot, and reload. The other modes have you controlling your character manually and if playing with the Fearmaster, it’s very awkward. You move your character with the stick on the back of the grip which also contains the X and circle buttons, and you turn by aiming. The rest of the buttons are all located on the left side of the gun and the dpad is on the top. In the Story and Maneater modes, reloading and jumping are performed by pressing the appropriate dpad buttons and you can roll or dodge left and right by holding a button and flicking the stick in either direction. In the Shooting Galleries mode, there is no rolling and reloading is performed by pressing the square button on the left side of the Fearmaster which is much more comfortable.

Now let’s talk about the heart rate sensors. The Fearmaster supposedly detects your heart rate through the sensors on the grip and forestock and in all honesty, I found it works better than I initially thought it would. Yes, it was finicky but it actually worked more often than not. For me, anyway. It’s used primarily for sniping or when you have to aim through the scope. You need to be calm and hold your breath to steady your aim and when it detects that you’re calm enough, it will zoom in and focus on the target animal, and even highlight their vital organs. You can adjust the Fearmaster difficulty which affects the heart rate detection and I admit, I lowered it to Easy after getting annoyed with the tutorial sequence in the beginning. But after that, I can’t say I encountered too many problems with it. In the end, I guess it’s a neat feature but I wouldn’t miss it if it was gone. Give me pump-action reloading instead.

While playing through the Story and Maneater modes with the Fearmaster feels awkward, playing with the standard controller is much better. In fact, it actually plays and feels like a standard first-person shooter. Not only that, (and this may be a negative depending on how you look at it) I actually found playing with a controller makes things easier, mainly due to the default aim assist.

This time around, I did not make the mistake of jumping into the Shooting Galleries mode until after I beat the Story. I knew if I did, I would never want to go back. Shooting Galleries is the real reason I wanted to play this game and, unfortunately, once again, you do need to play through the Story to unlock all the galleries and even Maneater levels. Actually, to be more specific, you need to find and collect Antlers in the story to unlock them. So I got through the story with the Fearmaster and then played through a portion of it with a controller and that’s when I discovered how much more enjoyable and comfortable it is with the controller. Nevertheless, I played only until I collected the amount of Antlers needed to unlock all the galleries and Maneater levels and then never looked back. Furthermore, when I discovered that the Maneater mode also has you controlling your character manually, I didn’t even bother playing with the Fearmaster. I stuck with the controller. So in conclusion, the Story and Maneater modes feel better to play with a controller and the Shooting Galleries mode is more enjoyable with the Fearmaster.

The story puts you in the shoes of a character named Jacob and the setup is similar to that of the last game. While hunting with his brother and father in Alaska, something terrible happens and then the story fast forwards several years and Jacob travels to Africa to go on a hunting safari with his brother. But before they can begin, they get word of a supposedly mythical animal attacking people and go after it. In the end, the story isn’t very good nor is it as interesting as that of Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2011. Granted, the story in that game isn’t great either but it leans into the supernatural which makes it stand out to me and I found it tonally interesting. But make no mistake, it’s absolutely ridiculous. The story here is also ridiculous but seems to focus more on family and drama which are not all that interesting. I guess the plot leans into the supernatural but certain questions are never really answered and it doesn’t convey the same kind of creepy tone as Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2011.

The story plays out like a typical first-person shooter, cut scenes and all, and this time with visible gun models. You can activate Hunter’s Eye to see where to go and you will level up multiple Skill Ranks by performing different actions throughout your playthrough. As these Skill Ranks level up, you unlock permanent bonuses. One thing I will say about the story here compared to that of the last game, is this one is a bit more action-packed or dare I say exciting. And I use that word loosely. That’s not to say it’s great or even good, mind you, but there is more animals to shoot. The story has Jacob moving through the Alaskan and African landscapes hunting trophy animals and killing any others that get in his way and every so often he’ll come up against a boss animal. I would say Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013’s story mode could be considered a horde shooter because almost every area seems to throw waves and waves of dangerous animals at you. Wolves, lions, hyenas, leopards, baboons, and more are all out for blood.

So that’s pretty much the Story mode. Go from A to B and try to survive the waves of predators out to kill you. It’s quite repetitive, actually. I feel I should mention that if you walk backwards or turn your back to the animals in the Story and Maneater modes, this will make the gameplay easier. Seriously, if you’re facing the animals, you’re in more danger than if they’re behind you. Allow me to elaborate. Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 includes a mechanic called Killer Instinct which you can activate when a predator attacks you from behind. It’s basically a reworked Skill Shot mechanic from the last game. If you turn your back to the animals, you can simply wait for them to attack you, press the button when prompted to immediately turn around, time will slow down and the camera will focus on the attacking animal, and its vital organs will be highlighted to shoot. This mechanic can easily be exploited and once you catch onto it, you can survive most encounters in the game without issue.

You’re given a pistol with infinite ammo, shotgun, rifle, and crossbow to blow away the wildlife and the environments are linear. You want to keep your eye out for pickups like ammo, health, and Antlers. You want to collect as many Antlers as you can to unlock levels in the other game modes which are arguably more enjoyable. There is a set piece that has Jacob riding in a vehicle and shooting at animals. It’s basically a rail shooter sequence and is quite fun if playing with the Fearmaster. Otherwise, a standard controller is the way to go. Also, to me, the story felt longer to get through than that of the last game but it’s still short. You can beat it in a single sitting and I was really blazing through it with a controller.

Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 comes with three game modes; Story, Maneater, and Shooting Galleries. Unfortunately, the multiple gallery types from Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2011 are not present here. Instead, Shooting Galleries comes with Arcade and Reflex galleries and I feel like some of the types from 2011 are simply reworked into the Arcade galleries and Maneater mode. In the Shooting Galleries mode, your goal is to score as many points as possible by killing animals. Arcade galleries are split into multiple areas or stages and you must reach a certain score in each stage to unlock the next one. And sometimes you can choose your path through a stage by shooting signs. One will take you on a dangerous path with animals that will try to kill you, the other is safer and will take you on a path with big game animals. To score big points, you want to kill animals in succession and instead of animals carrying powerups, you earn bonuses for every five consecutive kills. The first five grants you double ammo and the next five grants increased damage. In the Reflex galleries, you proceed through multiple rounds and are given a list of animals to kill at the beginning of each one. You need to kill them to pass the round and killing them in order grants you bonus points.

I guess you can say the Arcade galleries combine elements of Survival and Trek from the last game. But in all honesty, I was very disappointed with the galleries here. They’re not as intense or exciting as those in Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2011. They feel very tame and I’m not the biggest fan of the Reflex galleries. I mean they’re okay but I prefer the freedom to shoot whatever whenever in the Arcade galleries. Shooting Galleries does support up to four players so maybe it’s more enjoyable with friends but I’m sad to say the galleries here are kind of boring overall.

The Maneater mode is like a survival mode of sorts. It plays out in rounds and the goal is to survive waves of dangerous animals in each round and complete secondary objectives like defending injured civilians, planting explosive crates, finding keys and using them to unlock things, and repairing radios. I think the concept is cool but I found it becomes repetitive quickly and if playing with a standard controller like I did, it’s not very challenging. It does support split-screen so maybe playing with a friend makes it more enjoyable. I think they should have just kept the Survival style rail shooting galleries from the previous game. Those are fun.

The visual presentation is okay at best. It’s a bit more colorful than its predecessor and I like the visible gun models. However, pop-in is very noticeable and the animals are kind of janky and I’ve seen them get stuck in the environments. On the plus side, the gunplay feels great thanks in part to the excellent sounds of weapons fire. Matching the more toned down Shooting Galleries is a more toned down soundtrack with tunes that sound more like generic rock than the awesome rocking tunes that accompanied the galleries in the previous game. On the technical side, the frame rate does dip occasionally but I can’t say I encountered any major issues.

I’m actually very disappointed with Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013. Not that I expected all that much but I was expecting more enjoyable Shooting Galleries than what we got. The Story mode isn’t that great but I was somewhat impressed at how well it played with a standard controller, even if it does make the gameplay a lot easier. Plus, the Killer Instinct mechanic is easily exploitable so getting through the story is not all that challenging no matter what control scheme you decide to use. Now I’m probably not the target audience for Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013. Maybe serious hunters or people who don’t play a lot of video games or shooters may get a kick out of it but I would imagine trying to play through the story with the Fearmaster would be awkward for anyone. As a first-person shooter, Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 is just not that good. The narrative is uninteresting and the story mode just throws waves of dangerous animals at you from beginning to end resulting in a very repetitive experience. Sadly, the other game modes aren’t all that great, either. Maneater is more of the same but without any narrative. It’s just a mode that requires you to survive waves of dangerous animals. And the Shooting Galleries are not up to par with those in the previous game. So, ultimately, Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 is a lackluster first-person shooter and rail shooter.

I do not recommend Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013. The Fearmaster is cool but not as cool as the Top Shot Elite, the story sucks, the gameplay can be easily exploited, and worst of all, the Shooting Galleries are not as fun as they could be. The Shooting Galleries is the reason I was looking forward to playing this and I feel let down. The only good thing I can say about this game is that the Story mode is more action-packed than that of its predecessor. You can find copies online for pretty cheap but copies bundled with the Fearmaster will cost you a few bucks. While I don’t recommend this game, the Shooting Galleries are the only reason I would even suggest checking it out, and with the Fearmaster and possibly the Top Shot Elite but I didn’t try playing with that so I can’t confirm. In the end, there are better games and gallery shooters dressed up as hunting games out there including its predecessor, Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2011.