When I think of a game involving dinosaurs, it usually makes me think of fast paced encounters with the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor. Something along the lines of Turok. Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter is anything but fast paced. A game made by Beatshapers, it takes a hunter’s approach to dinosaur encounters.
Although this is a rather slow paced game, it is a far-cry from the slow stalking terror of the Dino Crisis series. Carnivores is a dinosaur hunting game, pure and simple. It can be likened to actual animal hunting games as far as the feel of the game. The story is pretty simple; your character is pretty well to do, and is pretty much paying to hunt dinosaurs on a planet which is inhabited by them. Kind of messed up right? Putting the ethics of it aside, I could see the potential of this game to be interesting to fans of dinosaurs. Unfortunately, Carnivores is just plain not very fun.
For a game that was originally for PC, and then ported to both the iPhone and the PSP, not much has changed graphically. There are too many flaws to ignore in every aspect of the game. The dinosaurs, as well as the environment they live in, are way below the potential of the PSP’s graphical capabilities. Your character as well as the enemies themselves easily get stuck on the terrain. The sound is better at least, and you will often find yourself relying on it to succeed at being the predator instead of the prey. I did not really like the controls, and they felt a little reversed to me. The directional buttons are used to make use of hunter essentials, such as your map and the dinosaur calls. The face buttons (circle, square, etc.) are used to move your character. The shoulder buttons toggle different weapons, and fire that weapon.
Through all the flaws, the game does have a lot of attention to detail. Dinosaurs clearly do not want you there, and will try to attack you at random. Not only just by approaching them, but also your scent. You can remedy both of these by scent masking, and camouflage. Unfortunately, once a dinosaur makes up his mind to attack, it is pretty much game over. Being giant prehistoric creatures, they move a lot faster than you do. Also, you pretty much are dead as soon as you are bitten. This gives the game it’s large element of challenge, or in my case annoyance. I realize that in the real world I would probably die if bitten by a dinosaur, but in one shot? Also, the accessories you use lower your score. This makes it more challenging, but can really take the remaining enjoyment out of the game.
This game is for the hunter at heart, hunters who like Jurassic Park. Unfortunately that is pretty much the only target audience for this game. Carnivores is definitely an acquired taste, and the only thing it really has in common with games like Dino Crisis are the graphics.
