Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD (PS3) by Jason Bonnar

Game Review: Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD (PS3)

Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD is a dinosaur hunting game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS3. Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD is a remake of the PlayStation Minis release of Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter by Beatshapers, which was a port of the PC release of Carnivores 2, while each release has seen various enhancements and refinements to the gameplay, so there is something unique even for anyone who has already played a different version of the game prior to Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD.

The story of Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD is set in the near future were advancements in engineering have made interstellar travel a reality, thus bringing forth an era of space exploration. Space exploration leads to the discovery of many new planets, which includes one that is very similar to Earth, however not that of present day Earth, but in fact what Earth would have been like in the Jurassic period when Earth’s now long extinct dinosaurs roamed freely and were the dominant species of the planet. You are a dinosaur hunter from a company called DinoHunt, Inc that is running dinosaur hunting expeditions on this Jurassic planet for anyone who is brave or wealthy enough to participate.

The observer mode provides you with an opportunity to observe the dinosaurs’ behaviour, which

enables you to learn as much as you can about their patterns of movement, while no weapons can be used and you become undetectable to dinosaurs. The observer mode is certainly the best place to start the game as the knowledge you will gain of the patterns of movement will be the difference between being easily killed in the hunt and surviving to live another day and tell the story of your hunt, while the observer mode can also be used to just explore the surrounding environments without any distractions from what dinosaur could be onto your tracks.

Before you go into the hunt; you can test your aim by heading to the shooting range with the unlocked weapon of your choice were you can shoot at moving cardboard cut outs of dinosaurs that wonder from left to right and back again on an otherwise deserted island of rocks and palm trees. The shooting range is certainly the best place to head to after the observer mode; as you cannot shoot a weapon in the observer mode, which really makes the shooting range an essential visit before you head into the hunt.

The hunt sees you hunting six types of dinosaurs including: Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Ceratosaurus, Triceratops and T-Rex, while there are other smaller dinosaurs, such as Gallimimus that will spring up here and there which certainly adds variety to the amount of dinosaurs you will encounter, although you have to earn dinosaur licenses to unlock each dinosaur after the first dinosaur from the six major dinosaur species, while the smaller dinosaurs can be hunted at anytime, but not collected as trophies. When you are properly hunting dinosaurs outside of the observation mode; the pressure is on as the dinosaurs can see and hear you if you run or make too much noise too close to a dinosaur. When you have killed a dinosaur and claimed that particular dinosaur as your trophy; you are presented with statistics regarding the amount of gems and the score you have achieved, while also informing you of the dinosaur’s weight in tons, the distance in metres between you and the dinosaur when you killed it and how many hits it took you to kill the dinosaur with more hits providing a lower star rating out of three stars. As soon as you claim the dinosaur as your trophy; a drone ship will collect the dinosaur and take it back to your trophy room were you can later view it.

There are nine levels with their own unique environments and their own sets of dinosaurs from the six dinosaur species available as dinosaurs will appear in particular levels and not others. You will begin with only a single level to hunt on called Delapheus Hills and you will have to gradually unlock the other eight levels by scoring points from the trophies you collect during your dinosaur hunting. However, it will not be a case of hunting the same single specie of dinosaur over and over again on the same level; as you will unlock more of the dinosaurs available to hunt in each level by purchasing dinosaur licenses as you earn enough currency to do so.

There are three weapons to choose from including: a rifle, x-bow and sniper rifle with all three weapons having their own unique attributes of varying amounts of damage that can be inflicted, the range of the weapon and the noise the weapon will make when firing with each attribute having a five star rating, which informs you of how good or poor an attribute is for each weapon.

However, the x-bow and sniper rifle are locked at the start of the game and are only unlocked by earning enough gems to purchase them. The gems are the in-game currency and are earned by claiming your trophy from successfully hunting any specie of dinosaur regardless of whether they are among the six major species or one of the smaller dinosaurs that will pop up now and again. The gems can then be used to purchase weapons, equipment and dinosaur licenses with the weapons and equipment improving the chances of you successfully hunting a dinosaur, while the dinosaur licenses increase the amount of dinosaur species you can hunt.

There are various gadgets and alternative weapons that you can purchase as you earn more gems, but you will initially start with gadget indicators that warns you when a dinosaur is aware of your presence with a sight indicator that displays in orange and a hearing indicator that displays in yellow with a lower amount of bars on the meter informing you that you are not in danger and a higher amount of bars on

the meter informing you that you are in imminent danger, while tranquiliser darts provide a suitable alternative to killing a dinosaur by simply sending it to sleep. The gadgets are particularly interesting as they include a beeper to provide sound feedback when you have been noticed by a dinosaur, which is effectively an addition to the gadget indicators; a radar that displays all of the nearby dinosaurs with the licensed dinosaurs being highlighted on your map; a pathfinder that highlights dinosaurs’ footprints; an x-ray visor that reveals vulnerable areas of the dinosaur; a scent that completely removes the player’s smell; a camouflage suit that makes it harder for dinosaurs to see you; and a decoy device that simulates a licensed dinosaur’s sound with the call being answered by the dinosaur and therefore revealing the dinosaur’s location on your minimap. The weapons are nowhere near as prominent in selection and availability as the gadgets, although the additional weapons available for purchase via the equipment loadout are still interesting as they include: double ammo to double the amount of ammo you can carry for every weapon, alongside a revolver that acts as a secondary weapon, which is quite effective at close range, although it is ineffective from longer distances.

The system of purchasing weapons, gadgets, alternative weapons and trophy licenses is a very positive design choice as it rewards you for progressing through the game and becoming a more effective and calculated dinosaur hunter by providing you with the in-game currency of gems to be able to purchase what you require to improve the technique of your hunting abilities even further. The system of purchasing is improved even further by the ability to sell the weapons, gadgets, alternative weapons and trophy licenses you have already purchased for the same amount of gems that you initially purchased them for, therefore enabling you to change your loadout or opt for a different trophy license to hunt another dinosaur; effectively providing gems to help you make purchases that were more expensive than what you had already purchased.

The trophy room allows you to view the various species of dinosaurs you have hunted, while you are onboard your ship. You can revisit and analyse all of the statistics that you were provided with when you claimed the dinosaur as your trophy, while also comparing the trophies to each other in regards to their weight in tons and the score you achieved for claiming that particular trophy. There are seventeen slots in your trophy room for dinosaurs to fit, so you can remove a dinosaur when you have claimed too many of the same specie of dinosaur and none of any given specie of dinosaur to be able to make way for a different species of dinosaur when required.

The controls are simplistic in the sense that they are easy to learn with support for the DualShock 3 controller and PlayStation Move motion controller. The DualShock 3 default control scheme consists of pressing R2 to fire; pressing L2 to aim while using a gun or to zoom while using binoculars; pressing L1 to hold your breath while aiming your gun; pressing X to jump; pressing square to reload your gun or to use a gadget; pressing O to crouch in order to produce less noise by sneaking closer to a dinosaur

with a stealthier approach; pressing triangle to switch between the use of your weapon and gadget; changing the direction of the left analogue stick to move and holding the left analogue stick down as L3 to run; changing the direction of the right analogue stick to look around your surroundings environments; pressing up on the d-pad to zoom in on your minimap; pressing the left or right d-pad buttons to change your weapon or switch between dinosaur licenses; pressing down on the d-pad to hide or show your weapon or gadget; pressing select to evacuate the dinosaur hunt; and pressing start to display the pause menu. You will feel an ever increasing vibration from the DualShock 3 controller as a dinosaur draws nearer to your location as they stomp along, which is a great design choice as it uses the vibration to not only co-ordinate a sense of how close the dinosaur is to you, but to provide a real depth to the realism of how much the dinosaur must way. The DualShock 3 control scheme is customisable as there are two controller layout preferences and the purposes of the analogue sticks can be swapped around, which changes the analogue stick that you use to move and run for the analogue stick that you would have previously used to look around with.

The PlayStation Move control scheme consists of almost the identical controls as the DualShock 3 controller as you have to use the navigation controller too, while the only major differences see you pressing the move button to calibrate the PlayStation Move with the PlayStation Eye camera; pressing the trigger button to fire; and changing the direction you are pointing the PlayStation Move controller by tilting it upwards, downwards or to the left or right to look around your environments. It is disappointing that you cannot use the PlayStation Move controller without the need for a navigation controller or DualShock 3 controller as it reduces the potential for a fun light gun game, although it must be said that Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD does not profess to be a light gun game, but I just cannot help but think that the PlayStation Move implementation would have been more fun without the requirement of the navigation controller.

The graphics are mostly impressive with unique environments that are reminiscent of what you would imagine Earth to look like during the Jurassic period with plenty of trees and lush vegetation amongst rock formations as various species of dinosaur roam freely, alongside butterflies and wild insects. The dinosaurs are detailed with varying colour tones and scales, while your weapons and gadgets are

graphically as good as they should look and feel and the surrounding environments also look pretty good with excellent backdrops, sky and water effects, although the only criticisms being that some trees and rocks will re-shape or re-texture themselves on occasion as you walk closer to them and the collision detection between a dinosaur and an object, such as a rock can sometimes be a little off.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the hunt menu, leaderboards, options menu and various gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons on the DualShock 3 controller. Navigation with the PlayStation Move is performed by the analogue stick; up, down, left and right on the d-pad and the face buttons of the accompanying navigation controller, rather than the PlayStation Move controller, although the PlayStation Move controller can enter and exit menus via the X and O face buttons after pointing the Move controller at the PlayStation Eye and holding the Move button to calibrate the Move controller. The background of the menu screens includes multiple dinosaur species inhabiting an island that is surrounded by mountainous rocks and vegetation.

The audio consists of sound effects and music with the sound effects including: calls from dinosaurs, stomping from dinosaurs that are nearby, wild insects as they fly past you, your footsteps as you run or tread carefully through the vegetation, firing weapons, using gadgets and the drone ship as it arrives to collect your claimed dinosaur trophies, while the music is rather authentic and atmospheric.

The trophy list includes twelve trophies with eight bronze trophies, three silver trophies and one gold trophy. All of the trophies will be naturally earned as you progress throughout the game with the easiest trophy being the First Encounter bronze trophy for confirming your first kill, although there are some trophies that are of a much higher difficulty based upon what is required or how long it will take to achieve them. The harder trophies include: the Tyrannacide silver trophy for filling your trophy room with seventeen Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaurs, which requires you to have the Tyrannosaurus Rex

dinosaur license for 400 gems and to go on seventeen separate hunts to find them and claim them as your trophies; the Full House silver trophy for confirming six licensed dinosaurs of different species, which will require you to have purchased all six dinosaur licenses costing 815 gems; and the Geared Up gold trophy for starting a hunt with all of the equipment, all of the dinosaur licenses and a sniper rifle, which will take you a fair amount of time to achieve as it would require a total of 2,070 gems to be earned and spent on the appropriate weapons, equipment and dinosaur licenses. I would estimate depending upon skill, a good aim, conservation of ammo and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take anywhere from eight to ten hours to 100% the trophy list.

There are no difficulty levels, although each of the dinosaur species has their own attributes including: sight, scent and hearing that informs you of how easily a dinosaur will be able to detect your presence with each attribute having a five star rating, which informs you of how good or poor an attribute is for each of the dinosaur species. This is a great design choice as it affords you the opportunity to learn how to hunt an easier dinosaur that is not worth as many gems or points, but to be invaluable in regards to building up to hunting a much more dangerous dinosaur that is worth far more gems and points.

Despite having the potential for a strong multiplayer; there is no multiplayer component. The multiplayer component could have featured split-screen local co-operative multiplayer in which two hunters are more likely to successfully hunt, rather than just one man, while the co-operative multiplayer could have branched out into a competitive experience by incorporating the points scoring, gem collecting and trophy scoring systems to decide upon the player with the most successful dinosaur hunt. However, there is unfortunately no split-screen or online multiplayer component, although there are rather close and competitive online leaderboards.

The online leaderboards focuses on top global scores, your own score and your friends’ scores with the overall leaderboard containing each player’s rank; name (PSN ID); the overall amount of points earned from all of your hunts; the overall amount of gems you have earned from all of your hunts; and the overall amount of trophies you have earned from all of your hunts. There are a further six leaderboards covering the Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Ceratosaurus, Triceratops and T-Rex

dinosaurs that you are hunting throughout the game with each of the six leaderboards containing each player’s rank; name (PSN ID); the amount of points earned from hunting that particular dinosaur; the amount of gems you have earned from hunting that particular dinosaur; and the amount of trophies you have earned from hunting that particular dinosaur with the positioning of each player across all seven leaderboards based upon the overall amount of points scored.

The replayability of Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD is produced by the unique nature of the subject matter as you are actually able to hunt a variety of smaller and larger dinosaurs in a Jurassic environment with each dinosaur having their own attributes that will make it easier or harder for you to track them down to hunt. The trophy room is a great idea as you can visit it at any given time even during a hunt by evacuating the hunt and visiting the trophy room to see the dinosaur trophies you have just caught and the trophy room can be customised, so you could collect seventeen T-Rex dinosaur trophies, which in itself would add plenty of replay value to the game. The in-game currency system works perfectly in harmony with the unlockable content to deliver a real sense of progression and achievement when you have earned enough gems to be able to purchase your next weapon, piece of equipment, alternative weapon or dinosaur license.

Overall, Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD is not Call of Duty or Battlefield and must be played and explored at a much slower pace than that of a Hollywood blockbuster franchise, which is certainly not a bad thing as if you treat the game as it should be, then you will find an entertaining dinosaur hunting adventure that makes you feel as though you are really in the Jurassic period hunting dinosaurs. For the amount of content and replay value the game possesses; Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD is certainly worth a purchase and is exceptional value at only £7.99.

Jason Bonnar

9 out of 10