Hunting Simulator 3 Review - A walk on the wild side

While I don’t agree with hunting in real life, the entire approach to it and the patience and attention to detail it entails did intrigue me. That is one of the reasons why I wanted to try Hunting Simulator 3. Well, that and the revelation that simulation games can actually be really fun. This one in particular looked full of details and interesting, and it also felt a bit nostalgic to me.

I say nostalgic as it reminded me of an older hunting game, god knows what it’s called, that I played on a tablet way back when I was in college. It probably wasn’t even a good game, and you probably had to wait before you could hunt again - thanks to predatory money-grab mechanics - but I remember having fun with it, which is why I wanted to see what an actual, modern, and immersive take on this genre would look like.

Hunting Simulator 3 really takes its subject seriously. It’s a slow game, and it asks for a lot of patience, but in return you get an insanely detailed world and mechanics you might not find elsewhere. 

Welcome to the wilderness

As it usually goes with simulation games, there isn’t much story to talk about. You want to get into hunting, so you obviously get to a hunting lodge, pick your character, and the game throws you into an onboarding section, where a ranger explains everything to you. It’s an introduction to the game, which is especially helpful for beginners such as myself.

You’ll see what is available to you in the lodge. That is where you get your hunting licenses, choose your hunting doggo, buy equipment, and so on. The game does a great job of explaining everything, so you won’t ever really feel lost in the wilderness.

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Hunting Simulator 3 delivers the beautiful landscapes of Colorado and Texas.

After the short introduction, you get to choose your next destination, Colorado or Texas, and you can be on your merry way. Both of these offer their own challenges, and their own animals to hunt. 

One thing I appreciated is that the game highlights the hunting lodge’s ethos, reminding you to kill mercifully and always respect the animals you’re tracking. That attitude is carried throughout the entire game, which promotes ethical hunting but also teaches you little things about the ecosystem of the grounds you’re exploring, as well as the animals and their behaviour. 

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You're not just hunting, you're also learning.

The game doesn’t just revolve around pulling the trigger, but also around understanding and respecting the animals and the world they live in, which is something we humans sometimes forget to do.

The waiting game

Hunting Simulator 3 is an open-world hunting simulation, where you get to explore and hunt in the vast wilderness of Colorado and Texas. The game gives you three difficulties to choose from: Scout, Ranger, and Forest Warden, so everyone can play on the level that suits them best.

You can explore on foot or using a 4x4, and alone or with a cute hunting dog, a Labrador or an American Foxhound. As you hunt, your faithful companion also gets some experience, but it is up to you whether you’ll take him or prefer hunting solo. I'm sure some players will utilise him to the max, while others might rely more on their own tracking abilities.

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Hunt enthusiast will have a blast with the amount of licensed gear.

There are 35 species of animals in total, and they cover small game, waterfowl, large predators, and big game. Thanks to the SimFauna engine, the world you’re walking through feels alive. You can hear the sounds of animals all around you; predators such as wolves are actively hunting other animals, and they will also come for you if you provoke them. The same goes for others; I was hunting some deer when I heard sounds of black bears around me. Animals age and reproduce, and you can also see where they are in their life cycle, whether they’re juveniles, adults, or older specimens.

To be able to hunt certain species, you’ll need to buy the right licence at the lodge. If you’re missing one, you'll be flagged as a poacher, so that needs to be kept in mind before every hunt. While there are a lot of them, they aren't expensive to purchase, so it's not really a hassle.

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The hunt is not just shooting, but also learning more about the animals behaviour.

When it comes to the gear, there are close to 75 weapons, from licensed brands such as Remington, Browning, Winchester and Beretta, and you can always add different parts to your weapons, such as scopes and such. This means little to me, as to me a gun is a gun, but I am sure some hunting enthusiast will start salivating at the mention of these names. If you’re looking for a weapon for a specific animal, you can filter the search by it, which is really helpful. Your inventory is limited early on, so if you want to carry a rifle and a small calibre, it’s worth investing in a backpack.

Now for the hunt itself. It’s the main star of the game, and pretty rightfully so. The gist is basically this: you get a contract to hunt some animal, and you set out. In order to find it, you track it through a detailed track-inspecting system, looking for things such as droppings, pawprints, and sounds they make. You’re carrying a GPS, which makes tracking a bit easier, too. 

Another thing to think about is the animals’ need zones, which tell you about its behaviour, where it feeds, drinks, and sleeps. Obviously, after finding these, you'll have an idea where the animals will gather at some point. While need zones are certainly helpful, I didn’t like this bit at all. Looking for the need zones felt like a hassle, and I always found them by accident, after mindlessly walking about and looking for tracks. Now this could’ve just been a skill issue and just something that I experienced, but I just wish there was a hint system for this bit.

When you actually manage to make a kill, you can sell it or have it taxidermized. Since I'm a poor hunter, I needed money for upgrades and gear, so I usually sold what I managed to bag. One of the best sources of income is butcher contracts; the butcher evaluates your quota based on the quality of the meat, so if you use a large calibre on small game and blow it to pieces, you won’t get much for it. Getting a kill does feel thrilling, like an accomplishment. 

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Hunting Simulator 3 gives you a bunch of info on your kill.

While need zones are certainly helpful, I didn’t like this bit at all. Looking for the need zones felt like a hassle, and I always found them by accident, after mindlessly walking about and looking for tracks. Now this could’ve just been a skill issue and just something that I experienced, but I just wish there was a hint system for this bit.

There’s a lot of walking, and you'll need a lot of patience. To fast travel out in the open, you need to set up portable tents, although you can always travel back to the cabin or other hunting structures without any issues. 

Back at the cabin, you can customise the space, change the theme, and add your taxidermy trophies. There’s also a shooting range where you can practise.

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There is no room for poachers here.

Not everything worked for me, though. Pressing pause doesn’t actually pause the game, which sucks. The breath mechanic is also a bit weird. I don’t know whether I was doing something wrong, but I remember that in the Sniper Elite games, holding your breath makes you extremely calm and focused. Here, when I held my breath, the reticle started shaking like crazy, and you can imagine how unhelpful that was.

Sometimes it’s also hard to tell whether you’re doing something wrong or whether the game just isn’t really digging you. For example, I was hunting prairie dogs. I got two and needed one more, so I waited and ran around, but I couldn’t hear them anywhere and couldn't find any of them. Only after I went back to the HQ and returned did I hear them again and manage to get the last one. Moments like that left me confused. Is it me, or is it the game? 

Nature, in HD

The world in Hunting Simulator 3 is beautiful and detailed, and it makes all that walking a lot easier to enjoy. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing; there is always something nice to look at.

The audio, though, is the real star here. It’s amazing, and you can hear everything while you’re out hunting. The ambient sounds are extremely well done, and they do a lot to make the world feel alive. The world never feels like a quiet, empty space. You might be tracking and hunting one animal, but you’ll be hearing all sorts of sounds and noises around you.

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You need to prepare that you'll do a lot of walking.

It isn’t just there for atmosphere either. In a game where so much depends on patience and paying attention, sound becomes one of your most useful tools. Listening closely helps you figure out what’s around you, and often, the noises animals make are what tell you whether you’re in the right place or wasting your time. That’s exactly how I knew there were no prairie dogs nearby during that hunt I mentioned earlier. I simply couldn’t hear them.

Put on a good pair of headphones, and it’s easy to lose yourself in it. Between the detailed world and how good everything sounds, Hunting Simulator 3 does a great job of making you feel like you’re actually out there. 

As for performance, I didn’t encounter any major issues, but for whatever reason I did feel like the game takes a bit longer to boot up. This isn’t something game-breaking, and I'm unsure whether this is a big issue or "a feature". 

Bagged and tagged

Hunting Simulator 3 isn’t for everyone, and a game with a specific theme like this probably shouldn't be for anyone either. It’ll appeal most to people who are into patient simulators and hunting, while casual players who aren't willing to sink in the time might find it overwhelming or even boring. However, there is a lot here to enjoy.

It has its rough edges. The pause button that doesn’t pause, the shaky breath-holding, and those moments where you can’t tell if it’s you or the game all stood out. Still, none of them took away from how rewarding it feels when a long hunt finally comes together.

I went in as someone who doesn’t agree with hunting in real life, and I still don’t. But I came out appreciating how much care the game puts into teaching you about the animals and the world around them, and how strongly it pushes the idea of hunting ethically.