REVIEW : Maneater (PC)
As you might have guessed, Maneater is an open-world role-playing game in which you take the role of a shark whose main objective is to devour the majority of people. A cowboy, a Greek goddess named Kassandra, and an Inquisition with a beautiful, schmancy hand have all been playable characters in open-world games previously, but an actual man-eating shark has never been one of them. Although you can’t actually create baby sharks in Maneater, you do start out the game as one when Scaly Pete, a cajun shark hunter, cuts you out of the belly of your dead mother. You bite off Pete’s hand, he marks you with a scar, and you both fall back into the ocean.
As a newly born bull shark pup, it’s your job to survive. Your delivery wasn’t as anticipated, even though most births are joyful celebrations of nature. When a shark hunter hacked open your mother, you were born. The hunter then dropped you back into the sea where you had to fend for yourself. By dissecting and devouring the fisherman’s arm, you got a little retaliation, but now you’re out for genuine vengeance. You’ll need to develop into the most ferocious predator in order to accomplish it. Growing from a newborn shark to an adult shark to a megashark and upgrading your powers and attacks using nutrients from the never-ending supply will help you become quite the opponent before your last clash with Pete.
You are the offspring of a shark that “Scaly Pete,” a renowned shark hunter, murdered. Long-term, your goal is to defeat Pete, but in the meanwhile, you’ll be eating pretty much anything that fits in your mouth to level up and gather resources for upgrades. The main antagonist, a shark hunter by the name of Scaly Pete, and his brutalistic method of gutting every shark he encounters are introduced to you right away in Maneater. Even worse, he rips you out of your mother’s stomach and leaves you with scars that would make Heath Ledger’s Joker squirm in pity. Nutrient caches are also abundantly scattered over the seafloor in the game, providing additional benefits that can be used to improve oneself. As you advance through the game, you can unlock other ocean regions. These are typically sealed off with gates that require a certain amount of skill to open with your tail. There are different animals to eat in each place, along with a variety of quests that mostly involve eating either people or fish. Larger predators like Mako or alligators are frequently the targets of “boss”-style tasks. Each area also has 10 landmarks to explore, including monuments and shipwrecks. There is undoubtedly a tonne of content to view, and finishing it brings the confrontation with Pete closer.
Babs is very easy to control, but that doesn’t mean you won’t need to plan ahead. A shark is expected to devour catfish and turtles, but Maneater’s redneck, shark-hunting society doesn’t think it’s “very good” to bite humans or their boats, which will increase your notoriety. This is especially annoying because several side missions need you to consume humans, but doing so frequently results in hunters and their bosses pursuing you. Additionally, there are challenges against top predators like an orca in a Sea World-style arena and an antiquated sperm whale modelled after Moby Dick, as well as missions to kill single huge predators like gators, barracudas, or other sharks. But Maneater’s fighting and enemy AI are rather shoddy, so I ultimately gave up on cautious dodging and targeted strikes when I realised that spamming my assaults was a far superior strategy.
Maneater has a cartoonishly horrifying vibe to it, but there are also some horrifyingly realistic parts. When you yank a person from a boat and pull them underwater, they frequently continue to scream and make upsetting gurgling noises as they go. There’s a good probability that you will find this humorous as well, which makes me feel horrible. Just keep telling yourself that they aren’t actual people, and I don’t think there is any guilt in it. Additionally, the majority of the time, the diners are shark hunters.
The remaining activities on Maneater are all of a collectable nature: Find every secret location, every drug box submerged in the ocean (useful for mutations), and every enormous rotating licence plate (because in Jaws, a shark ate a licence plate, see). In Maneater, you primarily engage in the following activities, which are repeated in every new place you visit: While being instructed to consume 10/10 different species, you swim around hunting for trinkets to cross off your list. While the geographical features of Maneater are incredibly varied, from the shallow, muddy bayou to the trash-filled city rivers to the vast, dazzling ocean teeming with marlin and enormous sperm whales, the things you do there are not.
The game’s visuals are decent but not outstanding. Although not revolutionary, graphics are good. Although some of the undersea views are beautiful, I wish my shark’s small pieces wouldn’t occasionally cut into them. Don’t expect to be amazed by the graphics, but it’s not a deal-breaker either. Although there is some exaggeration, the style is realistic. For example, everything you attack bleeds absurdly much. When you have a few quiet moments in between finishing the repetitive objectives on your to-do list, it’s a pleasure to explore the beautifully detailed settings.
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