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Cabelas North American Adventures Review for Xbox 360

Cabelas North American Adventures Review for Xbox 360

Stick To Real Hunting

Allow me to share a little about myself before we get started, if you don’t mind. If you do mind, please skip ahead to the next paragraph. First things first, I am not a hunter or an outdoorsman. Not in the least. But that’s not to say that I am unfamiliar with the culture.

Cabela’s North American Adventures screenshot

I grew up in Po-Dung Western Wisconsin where half of my high school class would take a week off of school in November, excused by the teachers no less, to go hunting. Fun fact, I actually took a week off of school my senior year to “go hunting” as well, and by going hunting I, of course, mean stay home and play games while sleeping in until 10am. My dad is a big hunting guy who enjoys telling me of his latest exploits and the new areas he’s found. Every year at Thanksgiving my cousin and uncle would share with the family stories of the buck or doe they tagged that morning. All this to say, while I may not be a hunter myself, I am more than familiar with the hunting culture. Yes, I even know the lyrics to “Da Turdy Point Buck”. With that out of the way, on to the review!

Cabela’s North American Adventures is the latest in the series of Cabela games released by Activision. You may be asking yourself who is buying these games. Particularly, who is buying these games each year ? That is a fair question. Something to which I know the answer and will provide once I can find the most diplomatic way to say it. Regardless, there is enough of a market apparently for this to be a regular release. Instead of building up the anticipation I’ll let the cat out of the bag early: this game is pretty terrible. But I’m not telling you anything you didn’t already know.

The premise of North American Adventures places you in the midst of a hunting show on The Hunting Channel. You are tasked with goals to complete as you strive to give viewers what they want: bloody kills! (Just kidding… sort of.) You maneuver around the map, whether the setting is Pennsylvania or Alaska, to accomplish your mission as directed by the network. For example, the first outing has you hop in a deer stand to take aim at a buck before moving to a blind to shoot some ducks. Note: It would me more fun if Nintendo’s Duck Hunting dog were there to laugh at you when you missed. After shotgunning some birds, you are sent to trek into the woods to get a 9-point buck, either by rifle or by bow, and capture it on camera. Should you manage to take down your prey, you are then switched to the role of the camera man and tasked with capturing the kill for the viewers. You earn points throughout the entire process; points for making a clean kill, for successfully calling the animal you’re hunting, and for capturing it all on film. Doing well will unlock new parts for your customizable guns. Unfortunately, the customization didn’t seem to have any in-game effects. Maybe you’re mileage will vary. I wouldn’t doubt it, actually.

Cabela’s North American Adventures screenshot

So with that as our premise, it’s time to dive into the game’s play and presentation. The controls are fairly intuitive because they’ve kept the standard first-person shooter layout to the controller. That said the sensitivity for aiming is wonky and seems to jump around the screen. I understand incorporating the “human” factor and nerves as well as the swaying scope, but this is too herky-jerky for my taste.

Cabela’s North American Adventures screenshot

The graphics and presentation are pretty bad as well. It’s not like we’re talking PS1 level stuff here, but everything is extremely weak for a current generation console. The character models are passable but don’t synch up at all with their speech. The scenery is the most annoying thing, however. There are no clear boundaries of where the map ends, which had me on several occasions running into the invisible wall in a futile effort to explore more of the wilderness. Fallen trees and rocks are other obstacles that trip up your movement and vary between impassable and scalable. I was unable to figure out how to know which was which and instead opted for the “charge straight ahead” approach until forward progress was rendered moot. It felt like the clipping detection of objects didn’t allow a more natural feel of movement. The landscape looks decent from a distance, but when zoomed in the warts of the graphics rear their ugly head again.

Cabela’s North American Adventures screenshot

That said, the most frustrating thing I experienced was having the game glitch out and freeze during a mission. It was another case of running into an invisible wall and somehow trudging my way through it, unsure if I was not supposed to go here or if the aforementioned environmental obstacles were just being moody in not letting me pass. About the time I came to the realization that I should turn around, the game froze the PS3, requiring it to be reset by flipping the switch in back for a hard reboot… extremely annoying and unacceptable for a finished game.

There is a multiplayer component where you can connect for four player hunting mayhem… should you be able to find enough people that fit the mysterious crossover audience Activision is shooting for, no pun intended. Lag issues are a big hindrance, though after playing the single player game that should hardly be surprising.

So who is the intended audience for Cabela’s North American Adventures? Not gamers, whether hardcore or casual, that’s for sure. This would be a game for someone like my dad, an outdoorsman who doesn’t play games. Someone like that will have significantly lower expectations and could be simply looking for a game to scratch their hunting itch during the offseason. Unfortunately for them, there’s a fair number of hurdles and annoyances to overcome. Maybe if they are the patient type, it’ll be worth it. But the fact of the matter is, most of the people I know who fit the profile of non-gamer outdoorsman don’t have the slightest inclination to take up “fake hunting” on a game console. If you are the rare breed that fits that mold, or more likely have a relative that does, perhaps this game would be worth the purchase. But I doubt it.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.0 Graphics
Graphics are passable from a distance but far below the levels expected from the current generation consoles. 3.2 Control
Getting stuck on a fallen tree is frustrating, having the camera zoom too quickly while lining up a shot is even more so. 3.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Voice acting is bad and doesn’t synch with the graphics. Sound effects are decent, if only because they consist of gun shots and animal calls. 2.0 Play Value
The market for this game is so incredibly small that only the very few will be able to both enjoy its content, want to play a video game in the first place, and be able to overlook the glaring technical flaws. Maybe outdoorsy parents could get this for their young children to foster their love of hunting? 2.7 Overall Rating – Average
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Hunt for over thirty species of Trophy Game. Stalk and shoot North America’s most sought after big game trophy animals.
  • The game also capitalizes on the popularity of hunting shows and online videos by adding a cameraman into gameplay – to get compelling footage, hunters need to be at their best!
  • For the first time in franchise history, up to four friends can hunt together online at once (Xbox 360® and PlayStation® 3). Once the hunt is done, friends can share their scores through online leader boards for bragging rights.
  • Use a variety of duck calls and new stealth mechanics to bring in the birds and the biggest trophy animals. “Grief Online” your opponents to mess up their shots with Faux Deer Target, Buck Fever, and more!

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