![]() The combat has a satisfying, appropriately messy, chaos, with more than one species muddling in often I would be doggedly pursuing an alligator, for example, only to fall victim to a barra-coup d’état from the sides. The majority of the violence is aimed at other ocean-dwellers-a surfeit of critters, such as barracudas, makos, hammerheads, alligators, and whales. I recommend pelting these with soothing pings of sonar-essentially your shark-vision, which washes the world in grey and highlights your surroundings. There are some areas, such as Sapphire Bay and the dreaded Gulf, which provoke prickling discomfort. This hub-capped approach will come as a merciful relief to any fellow-thalassophobes who, like me, can’t bear the endless, awful blue of the sea. The map is cut up into closed areas-travel between them triggers a loading screen-each with their own flavour, providing the modest motivation of seeing something new: hopping from the dinge of the bayou to Golden Shores, say, a Florida-style spread of fairways and hotels, where the canals are the cool blue of a cologne advert. On top of that, you play as a shark, not the shark the decision to go for the bull shark, rather than the great white, injects our hero with the plucky sense of having something to prove, while also crucially allowing for freshwater exploration-a vital skill for the budding killer. Before long, it becomes a languid form of flight, and after a steady diet of upgrades it turns practically jet-propelled. First of all, the swimming-the word falls pathetically short-is satisfying and simply laid out. The developer, Tripwire Interactive, has clearly proceeded with a simple brief: to evoke the feeling of driving Mother Nature’s Ferrari. Though the methods differ, the cause remains the same whether your gripe is with the peaceful, those packed to the gills with money, or-aggravated by our present moment-the crowds lounging on the beach, you now have a vicious new way to vent your resentment. The irritant joys of the flap, the honk, and the waddle are replaced here by the markedly nastier kicks of the knifing fin, the breach, and the bite. The mascot of this movement is the titular goose from last year’s Untitled Goose Game, whose role was simply to ruin the afternoons of a restful village. The chief pleasures on offer are those of the power fantasy and of the newly burgeoning subgenre that we might call the zoological misadventure. Maneater is borne along by the same eco-conscious currents as Abzû but whereas that game, directed by Matt Nava (who worked as an artist on Journey), opted for abstruse imagery and orchestral strings, Maneaterpursues its themes through the brackish territory of the B movie-no less effective a tactic. ![]() This strikes me as an advisable move one way to prevent sinking into the preachy is to keep things buoyant with satire. Sharkhunters, and narrated by comedian Chris Parnell, who supplies a sports commentator’s smoothness. Your findings are framed by a documentary, called Maneaters vs. As you explore the open world-sizeable, but hardly oceanic-you find sunken mountains of golf balls, leaky barrels, and other bits of rubbish. No sooner are you sliced from your mother’s stomach and scarred by Scaly Pete than you are lobbed into a bayou whose streams have been polluted to a urine-yellow brew. The second, larger force of malevolence is man-an age-old twist that nonetheless bears the uncomfortable twinge of truth. Within five minutes, not only had my position as villain been usurped but most of the scenery had already been chewed. He speaks in a Cajun growl, describing his vocation as a “sacred honor” that is “in the blood.” Great, I thought. To those relishing the thought of being the ultimate baddy, however, the game delivers a salty slap, in the form of Scaly Pete: a shark hunter with a rusted beard, a belly like a hull, and an obsession worthy of Ahab. ![]() Lovers of the water and haters of human beings have reason to rejoice this week, with the release of Maneater, a game in which you play as a shark, swelling from pup to fully primed force of nature and preying on the flabby residents of a coastal resort city. ![]()
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