Recent reviews by Protocol

Note: theHunter is a NICHE game. It's a wonderful niche game, don't get me wrong. But other than the gameplay itself, I have nothing but issues with it. Compare this game to the big name games out there... CoD, Bioshock, Farcry, Skyrim and so forth... ignore the genre. Production value and sales are what I'm comparing here. In all of these big name games have one thing in common. You buy the game, you can play it. All of it. You unlock gear and items as you play through. You don't have to buy additional junk just to complete missions/progress through the game. Occasionally you will have expansions or add-ons, more DLC that you can buy that will in most cases extend the gameplay, but in all cases will at least net you more content of some kind. So, I'll take CoD, one of the best known, most loved, and highest selling franchises in the gaming industry. I think I paid $60 when it first came out. That was it, for the whole game, all equipment, all levels and weapons attainable for that $60. Oh, I forgot to mention that you OWN the game at that point, you don't have to buy a membership to enjoy all of the games content.

Now, theHunter. Free to Play? No, it's not mistitled. It's deceptively titled. The F2P portion conains one rifle, one scope, a bleat call, a camera, a GPS and binoculars. Oh, That's fine and all, but you only get to hunt ONE animal (Mule deer) on ONE reserve. If anything, it's a free demo. If you expect to see the rich content in this game, forget it. This "demo" is nothing more than a snapshot. Ok,... so that's what you've gotten for free. Let's spend $60 on this game, like we would any other, and see where it gets us. $45 for one year basic, and another $15 for three more months. That's it. That's what you get. I would love to say that you get more, but you don't. You get 15 months, with no additional gear, no additional weapons. Oh, you DO get the option to hunt on all the reserves. You also gt the licences to hunt all of these animals. But you still CAN'T because you haven't bought the proper weapons, proper ammo, proper equipment.... So you have to shell out more money just to take advantage of the fact you just shelled out $60 for 15 months of play time. What's that? Did I just hear someone squeak the words World of Warcraft? Denied. WoW at least gave you access to all of it's content after you've paid your subscription. And no, I'm not going to complain about the subscription, as WoW is/was an MMO. Gotta maintain those servers. Yeah, I know theHunter has multiplayer. Big deal. Out of the 20 people who enjoy multiplayer, theHunter could loose all 20 of them and still be a perfectly great game as single player only.

You guys want to make more money? Add the cottontails and a crappy shot gun to the "Free to Play" version, and call it a free demo. Sell the game for $30, and monthly membership of $5. Make gear and weapons unlockable. Get rid of the microtransaction garbage. I would buy this game for $30. I would pay a $5 subscription, IF I had access to all of the games content after I made those purchases. That's at LEAST $35 you guys would have made from my first month. $5 and maybe even more a month after for my continues subscription. However, due to the way you guys have decided to sell this game, I've spent $15 for the subscription, had my fill becasue I refuse to spend more money on trivial, and temporary purchases, and that's it. You've made $15 from me, and you won't make any more.

I don't recommend this game. Sure, download it, shoot a few mule deer, and call it quits. For the price you'll be paying to make anything in this game available for use and the fact that these are only temporary purchases, (subscription/consumables) this game isn't worth the disk space it occupies. Even with WoW, purchased when it was released, and played for the first year at about $180 is still cheaper than this. You want a good hunting game? Play CoD, or FarCry, or Bioshock. You get to hunt people and monsters, you get tons of weapons to choose from, you don't have to pay a monthly subscription, and your purchases are yours to keep!! DON'T SPEND A DIME ON THIS GAME.