- Publisher: Activision
- Developer: Activision
- ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
- Genre: Hunting/Fishing
- Pros: Hunting is pretty dang fun; decent graphics
- Cons: Fishing is pretty dang terrible; invisible walls
Cabela’s Outdoor Adventures lets you fish and hunt in scenic locations in Alaska, Kansas, New Mexico, British Colombia, and my very own state of Idaho. There is a story mode where you led on hunts and fishing trips by guides as well as a trophy creator mode. The story mode basically walks you through all of the different types of animals, weapons, lures, calls, and other things you need to track them down. There is a lot of hand holding as the CPU tells you where to go and what to do, but it is still up to you to make the shot so it didn’t bother me too much. You get to see and do a lot of crazy awesome stuff, such as tracking a pair of hulking brown bears and stalking a huge caribou, and it is all pretty fun.
The story mode only takes a few hours to play through, and then you can jump into the Trophy Creator where you can basically build an animal and then go out and hunt it. There is no hand holding here, and you are free to explore and track down animals however you want. It is a neat mode, but I have to admit that it feels pretty weird to build a beautiful and unique animal and then go out and kill it.
Gameplay
The second gameplay type is big game hunting. In this mode, you walk around in a first-person-view and are free to explore and look around. Different surfaces make different sounds, so you are better to sneak through the grass than walking on gravel and sticks, for example. Tracking down an animal by looking for footprints and other signs or using decoys or scents to draw it into range is a unique thrill that is surprisingly satisfying. When you target the animal you want to take, the game goes into a slow-mo mode and the vital organs on the animal are highlighted. Then you just need to hold your breath and squeeze the trigger. There are elk, several species of deer, caribou, big horn sheep, and more and all of them offer unique challenges in tracking them down. It is a pretty authentic experience all in all, and mimics real hunting rather well. My only complaint is that there are invisible walls all over the place that prevent you from really having full control over your hunts. A bush or stick or little boulder will stop you dead in your tracks. Instead you have to almost always stay on the beaten path, which is just ridiculous.
Graphics
Graphically, Cabela’s Outdoor Adventures is a decent enough looking game. Not spectacular by any means, but the environments look quite good and the animals are nice looking and even have fuzzy looking fur. The animation is kind of stiff, but it is still a thrill to see a deer bounce through the brush so I can’t really complain.
Sound
The sound is merely competent. The guns sound right and tromping through the forest sounds about right. Not much to say, really.
Bottom Line
