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On a routine exploration mission in 2190 A.D., science
vessel FMM UV discovered a planet with suitable climate for
humankind. During the initial scouting expedition, this young
planet, code-named FMM UV-32, was declared inhospitable for
colony life, due to its unstable terrain and immense population
of prehistoric reptiles. News of this amazing planet spread, and
articles on the "Dinosaur Planet" lead an earth corporation to
purchase the rights to the planet and create DinoHunt Corp.
DinoHunt creates the rtunity for paying customers to become
dinosaur hunters for the first time in 50 million years. You are
the newest client of DinoHunt Corp. Each location is unique, with
varying difficulties and terrain. The new hunter will be given
three choices, with two more added for the advanced hunter, and a
final area for the expert hunter, for a total of six locations.
Keep in mind that regardless of which dinosaur you choose to
hunt, there are others living on the islands that do not appear
on your radar. You may be hunting a Stegosaurus and be surprised
by a Velociraptor!
Review
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Any way you look at it, a dinosaur hunting game is a
brilliant idea: It's all the action, tactics, and strategy of a
true hunting simulation, with none of the guilt. Turns out,
Carnivores is even more than that, more than enough to be
tantalizing yet not quite complete to be entirely satisfying.
Still, not only is it a solid hunting simulation, but it features
first-rate graphics and sound and a fully customizable challenge
that'll test the mettle of both would-be hunters and action
gamers alike, even as it leaves both categories wishing there
were more to the game.
There's a loose plot to justify why it is that you're hunting
dinosaurs with high-powered weapons, but when you get right down
to it, Carnivores is a simulation not unlike Deer Hunter or
anything in its class. You grab yourself a , designate a
species of dinosaur as your target, pick a place to hunt, and get
to work. The dinosaurs can see, smell, and hear to varying
extent, so you'll need to take heed of wind direction, keep
quiet, sit still, and shoot straight if you hope to bring one
home. Options like cover scent and camoue can make life
easier, but using these deducts points from your total. In a
humane touch, however, using tranquilizer ammunition actually
increases your score, although tranquilized dinos won't be on
display in the keen 3D trophy room. You need those points to
advance in rank, so that you can hunt bigger and badder dinosaurs
in more challenging areas.
Chances are, these are going to be some of the best-looking 3D
dinosaurs you've ever seen, and the best that you'll see for a
while. They're big, and they look real. They go plodding about,
over hills and around obstacles, stopping to graze if they like
to eat s or charging and leaping straight for your throat if
they prefer meat. Shooting down the dinosaurs isn't easy and may
be especially difficult against certain types that are either
vulnerable only in specific regions or highly aggressive. For
instance, you'll need to do better than a head to bring down
a triceratops; you'll need to shoot him in the eye, the throat,
or the back of the neck if you intend for him to fall. Meanwhile,
the velociraptor demands lightning-fast reflexes and offers no
second chances. If you manage to kill a target, it'll topple over
dramatically, although perhaps not quite as dramatically as you
might like. Shoot a dino with a tranquilizer round instead, and
you can see and hear it breathing heavily as it lies paralyzed.
There's quite a bit to shoot at: There are seven varieties of
dinosaurs to hunt, from the meek parasaurolophus with its
telltale head crest, to the small but ferocious velociraptor, to
the enormous, nigh invincible tyrannosaurus rex.
You'll get to track these through half a dozen different
environments, which look surprisingly authentic. They're mostly
plains, hills, and jungles, although you also get coastal, swamp,
and volcanic regions that look especially good. Everything warps
underwater, and a mist hangs in the air as you trudge through the
swamp, and special effects like these help make Carnivores look
not just good, but great. It doesn't look perfect, though. Your
field of vision isn't very far, and fleeing dinosaurs will vanish
into the horizon long before they should. There's a clever use of
atmospheric fog to help hide the pop-up, but it won't fool you
for long. Meanwhile, you'll spot the occasional graphical glitch
when a dinosaur's shadow clips through a hill, but it's nothing
serious. The dinosaurs themselves will get stuck on objects once
in a while, but most of the time they're every bit as smart or as
stupid as you'd like to believe they were back then. There's no
music in Carnivores, a decision presumably made in the interest
of realism, but you get plenty of well-suited ambient sound
effects to keep your ears busy. Beyond that, the dinosaurs all
sound different, and although no one can be sure just what they
sounded like, you'll find that their calls are both plausible and
appropriate. At the same time, the three s with which you'll
shoot them sound as good as the best that first-person shooters
have to offer.
Those s, including a high-powered , a hi-tech crossbow,
and a sniper , carry varying as of ammunition and are
ideal for specific situations. The 's your best bet
against small, aggressive dinosaurs, the sniper 's perfect
for precision shooting from long range, and the X-bow is
virtually silent but slow to reload, making it your best bet for
stealthy kills. The weapons all look great, and they're different
and effective. You'll wish, however, that there were more, and
just as well wish you had even more to shoot at and more regions
to explore. That's really the only shortcoming of Carnivores.
Although it forces you to earn a certain number of points before
you can use the sniper or hunt the more advanced dinosaur
species, that just seems like an artificial constraint to
camoue the game's slim content. And that'll invariably
disappoint you a little, since you'll more than likely enjoy what
Carnivores has to offer. --Greg Kasavin
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review
