Maneater

Imagine an action RPG where you play as the apex predator of the seas, wreaking havoc wherever you go. If that sounds appealing to you, then you’ll love Maneater, the latest game from Tripwire Interactive. Assume control of a mighty bull shark and evolve to perfection in this insanely addictive gorefest of an RPG.

While the concept of a shark RPG is unique enough to stand out from other games in the genre, Maneater still falls victim to one of the deadly sins of RPG games: excessive grinding. However, considering its fun gameplay and neat visuals, does this shark really bite more than it can chew?

Open Seas Mayhem

In Maneater, you play as a female bull shark looking for revenge on the bounty hunter who killed her mother. Players start the game as a baby shark and must eat nutrients to grow bigger and stronger. As you consume other creatures, your shark will grow stronger and deadlier, ready to face the dangers that lurk in the open seas.

Clearly inspired by Jaws Unleashed, the action and gore abound in Maneater. Thanks to its open-world structure, players can go virtually anywhere they want, creating chaos wherever they go. Your shark can even survive on land for a short time, which is great to attack unexpecting humans.

Unfortunately, being a shark isn’t as exciting as it might initially look. There’s a certain lack of variety in many of the game’s objectives, with most being a variation of “go here, eat this.” This gameplay loop can get boring quickly, no matter how fun chomping other creatures might be.

A Reactive World

As you eat and grow, the world around you changes accordingly. Bigger enemies and more armed bounty hunters will appear to try to take you down, so you must always keep the upper hand by evolving your shark.

There’s a lot of fun exploration to do in the world of Maneater. Much like the Far Cry series, the game’s underwater world is chock full of mysteries and secrets for the player to find and solve. Furthermore, tons of fun easter eggs await the more curious players, with most of them being homages to popular films.

It also helps that the game’s visuals look pretty amazing. Thanks to Unreal Engine 4, the world is vibrant and full of detail, and the character model for the shark can look positively terrifying.

Combat and AI

One of the weakest points of Maneater is its sloppy AI. Enemies can get stuck in all sorts of places, making some encounters trivial. Even the boss battles can’t escape this, as the bigger models have some difficulty navigating the game’s terrain.

While the developers have mentioned Dark Souls as the inspiration for the game’s combat, there’s not much in Maneater that reminds us of From Software’s franchise. That’s not bad, however, as the combat in this game is just fine as it is.

Other than the combat and the exploration, most of the time players will spend collecting every single secret item the game has to offer. Much like the classic collectathons, players will have to scourge every inch of the seafloor looking for secrets and tidbits that have little effect on the overall game.

Pros:

• Fun gameplay
• Rich world to explore
• Great visuals

Cons:

• Repetitive objectives
• Short campaign
• Dull enemy AI