More recently, we remembered games in which you can be a villain – to kill not out of noble motives, but for fun. If this list was compiled today, Maneater would definitely have got into it. A game in which you need to control a huge shark and tons of people to eat will certainly interest the misanthropes, but is it able to stand out with something else?
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Fathers and Sons, Sharks and Sharks
Let’s immediately decide what could generally push you to play with a cannibal shark in the title role. The tragic story of an orphaned fish growing up? Story drama in the style of “Fathers and Sons”, seasoned with notes of “Moby Dick”? Or the desire to learn more about how a person pollutes the environment?
If the answer to all these questions is “yes”, then you are surprisingly lucky, because all these topics are really raised in Maneater. The questions may not have been worked out as carefully as in The Godfather (probably somewhere at the Shark Tornado level), but formally they really are.
Hey. My name is Inigo Shark. You killed my mother. Get ready for death
The main character of the game is a nameless shark, which even before birth was cut out from his mother by a fisherman named Pete. Once thrown into the open sea, she vowed at all costs to take revenge on her mother’s killer and rid the oceans of the corrupting influence of mankind. Well, or she would have vowed if she had any feelings or thoughts.
The developers did not give the shark human properties. She does not think, does not speak, and does not have expressed motives or goals. All its functions are sailing and eating. There are fish, turtles, other sharks, whales, people, traffic signs, car numbers – in general, everything that turns up under the fin. And this is wonderful – there is no ludonarrative dissonance in Maneater, but there is a bunch of simple (if not stupid) fun from devouring everything in a row.
Instead of the intricacies of the fish soul, the Maneater authors put the relationship between the antagonists, the shark hunter Pete and his son, at the center of the plot. Everything is pretty standard here: the elder does not understand the younger, and the younger does not live up to the expectations of the elder. After several meetings with the main character, Pete also becomes obsessed with her. Let’s be honest – there is nothing interesting in this, just a mediocre story for show.
Imagine now the soundtrack of “Jaws” sounds
Trash, easter eggs and the dullest quests in the world
Due to the lack of a clear storyline, the actions of the shark and current events are commented on by a voiceover. This is stylized for a near-documentary TV show from Discovery, National Geographic, etc.
The great thing about this commentator is the endless depths of his irony. He doesn’t evaluate anyone and doesn’t divide him into good or bad, but from his mockery you absolutely understand that he has a very low opinion of people and shark hunters in particular, as well as their impact on the environment. The problems of the latter, one might say, have become the central idea of the game – apart from eating people, of course.
The open world of Maneater is relatively small, but very diligently filled with all kinds of garbage. I mean literally garbage – barrels of toxic substances, drowned cars, rubbish and smaller waste. This adds variety to the locations, and at the same time makes you wonder – is the situation in the real ocean really so deplorable.
Seeing piles of garbage at the bottom, you stop wondering why the shark mutated
However, water pollution in the game does not always look depressing. Many locations contain references to the popular culture. In the sewers you can find a clown statue with a red balloon. At the bottom of the shore are fragments of a broken trimaran, the owner of which was trying to find “mythical land”. And when a shark visits a small island, the narrator categorically states that volleyballs are much better friends than football.
Visiting interesting places is one of the few side activities at Maneater and the only one that can be called interesting. The rest comes down to eating fish, people, or license plates. But this is not so bad, because the story missions are absolutely no different.
We are used to the fact that in games with an open world there is a main plot in which developers put the most effort. In addition to them, on the map there are additional quests, which are smaller, but still spelled out manually. And only at the lowest level are the generated tasks in the style of “kill ten rats” or “collect a hundred flags”. Unfortunately for Maneater, she only got the last ones.
You didn’t think that you would be safe on land?
Eat, shark, people – you will be healthy!
In stores Maneater called action-RPG, and if the part about the action is quite understandable, then call the role-playing game will turn out only with a very big stretch. Most likely, she was attributed to this genre due to the presence of a development system with levels and perks.
Devouring various animals, the shark receives nutrients – mutagens, fats and minerals, which simultaneously serve as experience points and currency. With a set of levels, the heroine does not just get an increase in characteristics – she literally grows and grows in size, which seriously affects the gameplay.
At the beginning of the game, every pike is a danger to us, and a meeting with an alligator is a certain death. Having grown up a little, we can already dare to attack him. It will take a lot of skill, but it will still be possible to overcome it by gnawing piece by piece from the opponent. In the middle of the passage, it will be possible to fight with the reptile on an equal footing, and in the end it will be no more dangerous than a perch – a nine-meter megalodon will kill him in a couple of bites.
Shark
Such a progression from a shy fry to a higher predator is not only interesting gameplay, but also reflects the real life path of the shark. Unfortunately, she also has negative consequences. When reaching the maximum size, only sperm whales and killer whales, which are found in only a few places, will threaten you. On the rest of the map there will be absolutely no rivals among the fauna. To adjust opponents to your level, as in other RPGs, will not work.
In addition to increasing size, players will be available and several mutations – improvements to individual organs that give passive bonuses or perks. They cannot be opened with obtaining levels – they are given out for completing tasks. Using one of these kits, you can grow bone armor, and the other will turn into a living lightning.
Pumping the same mutations, increasing their level and the provided bonuses, you can use those very nutrients. Each representative of the aquatic fauna is rich in one thing: there are a lot of mutagens in sharks, minerals in turtles, and fat in seals. Therefore, during the hunt it makes sense to track a certain prey, well, or switch to a diet of people – they are equally rich in all elements.
Humans are the most balanced food for growing shark organisms.
From the Blood Bath to the Bloody Wings – Maneater Fights
Mutations are reflected in the appearance of a shark, turning it into a fantastic monster. Therefore, if you want to control a more realistic predator, then you are out of luck. On the other hand, you can try to do without them. They certainly simplify life, but do not have a critical impact on the style of passing. There isn’t as much difference between the shark and the bone shark as between the bard and the barbarian.
Maneater gameplay can be divided into three categories: lunch, battles with predators and battles with shark hunters. The first is an elementary devour of a herbivorous fauna and ordinary people. For the latter, by the way, they will mainly have to be thrown onto land. The heroine of the game is able to hold her breath for a long time and get up somersaults outside her usual habitat, that even a little rejoice at the closure of all resorts due to a pandemic.
Battles with predators are somewhat reminiscent of dueling from action games with close combat. The key to winning them is to dodge the opponent’s attack in time and counterattack. The task is complicated by the fact that the game does not have a camera mounted on the enemy, and the battles take place in three-dimensional space, and not on the plane.
“When valorous shark hunters go hunting, their relatives morally prepare for the possibility that they may return home,” the narrator
In total, the player has three types of attacks: a bite, a tail and a bashing. With the first two, everything is clear from the name, and the third is such a grip with teeth, from which the victim cannot escape. Technically, instead of “scuffing” prey, you can continue to bite – there will be no difference.
Much more interesting and dynamic is the confrontation with shark hunters – they need to constantly move, dodge and eat. Alone, a person poses no danger to a shark. Even if he is on a boat, a predator can jump out of the water, grab it with his teeth or simply smash the boat with its tail. However, an armed group of people on well-armored ships is a completely different story.
Hunters appear after you kill several people. First, they will be lovers on jet skis. But as soon as you deal with several bosses, the level of notoriety will rise, and the coast guard boats will chase you.
About “living lightning” it was not just a turn of speech
Battles with people at high levels turn into a real leapfrog. Enemies constantly shoot a shark, and at once it cannot physically evade all attacks, and therefore it stably loses health. To make up for it, it is necessary to absorb living first-aid kits – people. However, during feeding, the fish becomes an easy target, even for a couple of seconds, and because of this involuntarily loses health again. But she also needs to sink the ships!
They say that sharks never sleep and do not stop – because of the respiratory system, they are forced to constantly move, otherwise suffocate. In battles with hunters, everything is arranged in the same way – any stop or even delay can end in death. It only saves that it is quite easy to get away from the persecution.
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