Posted By: DBond
Way of the Wild - 01/26/23 03:12 PM
There's no game by this name, it's an attempt to combine the two hunting games I'm playing, Way of the Hunter and Call of the Wild. Having a great time with these games, and wanted to write a thread talking about both, comparing them and giving anyone who might be interested a view in to how they play.
I have experience with hunting. My father was a hunter, and as a kid I would see him head out with the men, and return in that old CJ5, dressed in his cammies and Bean boots, with a Browning over his shoulder, game in the ruck, or a deer to hoist in to the tree in the back yard. So I grew up around it, and around firearms. We had a trap range, archery range and a rifle range in the back yard. I've been shooting since I was old enough to be trusted with a weapon. The age of ten could not come fast enough, as in Joyzee that's the age you can take the hunter safety course, and as long as you don't frighten the instructor, get your first hunting license. I can still recall this day, 45 years later. I took my 20-gauge, single shot break-action shotgun. A Winchester I believe. It was a gift from dad, a simple weapon, and hard to get in to trouble with. I recall the fence test. Each hunter needs to demonstrate his ability to safely cross a fence. In another one, the instructors wanted to impress upon our young minds the power and lethality we held in our hands, and I recall they set up a one-gallon milk jug filled with water and shot it with a slug in front of the gathered youngsters. Boom! The water went everywhere and the sheer size of that 'explosion' certainly drove home how powerful these weapons are.
I passed. I was so proud of my accomplishment. Even though it was only a few years, at that age it feels a lifetime I had been preparing. Countless hours shooting clay pigeons, or zeroing scopes. My dad even taught me to handload ammunition. We had a shop, with ammo presses. They were rotating contraptions that had a handle like a slot machine. Insert the primer, measure out the powder, put in the wad, the shot and crimp. Rifle cartridges too. I must have reloaded hundreds or thousands of rounds before I was a teenager. I thought it was so cool, firing and even taking game with rounds I loaded by hand. Police up that brass!
Above it all though, sport shooting and hunting was something I shared with my dad. My brother wanted nothing to do with it, he said he didn't like blood. So it was just me and dad. We would hunt locally for small game and waterfowl. The southern Jersey coast is good for this. And we would travel for hunts for bigger game. Mostly whitetails in northeastern Pennsylvania, but occasionally other spots for different game. My dad gave me my first rifle, a Marlin lever-action .30-.30 with a 3x9 Swift scope. Then a Browning .243 BLR, and finally a Browning bolt-action .270. What a magnificent rifle! Shotguns too, pumps, over/unders and side-by-sides. .22s for plinking. Our gun cabinet was full.
When I was 16 my father passed. I didn't handle it well. My best friend, and he was gone. I continued to hunt for a few years. Dad's hunting club brothers were very kind to me, inviting me to go with them. But it could never be the same.. The best thing about hunting was no more. By the time I was twenty I was done. The magic for me was gone, and after college I no longer wanted to actually shoot animals. The killing was never the thing for me. It was about the camaraderie, the woodsmanship. Being in the forest, nature. I did take game, but it was everything else about the sport that appealed to me. Tracking, wind and scent, stalking, reading sign, camouflage, mastering weapons. I mean, I loved just cleaning my guns. That smell! But I would never hunt again.
I still shoot, because I enjoy it. But the hunting is done. Or is it?
I was aware of course of the game The Hunter: Call of the Wild (2017), the sequel to The Hunter Classic. But I never pulled the trigger. My remote impressions were it was a bit arcade, and that I wouldn't like it a much as I should. So I skipped it. This past summer another hunting game released, called Way of the Hunter. The word was it was more of a hunting simulation than Call of the Wild. So I sat up and took notice. I wondered if perhaps this game could fill that void I've felt for thirty years. If it could perhaps take me back to that time in my life I enjoyed so much. A way to experience the things I liked about the sport, but without actually harvesting animals.
And you know what? It sure does. I've really taken to it. And so much so that I picked up Call of the Wild too. These are games, sure, but they have that certain something that hits the right notes for me. Being in the woods, stalking, taking good, ethical shots, always using the proper weapon to match the game. The reserves in both titles are breathtakingly beautiful. They succeed in allowing me to suspend my reality and become a hunter once again. In a sense it's a perfect thing for me, all the best things about hunting, while removing the worst. No killing, no dragging from remote areas, no field dressing, ya know? Just you, a rifle and nature. At its essence, this is just stealth gaming, and that's right up my alley.
So I want to use this thread to talk about how the games play, comparing the two titles, discussing my experiences as I take this ride. More to come.
I have experience with hunting. My father was a hunter, and as a kid I would see him head out with the men, and return in that old CJ5, dressed in his cammies and Bean boots, with a Browning over his shoulder, game in the ruck, or a deer to hoist in to the tree in the back yard. So I grew up around it, and around firearms. We had a trap range, archery range and a rifle range in the back yard. I've been shooting since I was old enough to be trusted with a weapon. The age of ten could not come fast enough, as in Joyzee that's the age you can take the hunter safety course, and as long as you don't frighten the instructor, get your first hunting license. I can still recall this day, 45 years later. I took my 20-gauge, single shot break-action shotgun. A Winchester I believe. It was a gift from dad, a simple weapon, and hard to get in to trouble with. I recall the fence test. Each hunter needs to demonstrate his ability to safely cross a fence. In another one, the instructors wanted to impress upon our young minds the power and lethality we held in our hands, and I recall they set up a one-gallon milk jug filled with water and shot it with a slug in front of the gathered youngsters. Boom! The water went everywhere and the sheer size of that 'explosion' certainly drove home how powerful these weapons are.
I passed. I was so proud of my accomplishment. Even though it was only a few years, at that age it feels a lifetime I had been preparing. Countless hours shooting clay pigeons, or zeroing scopes. My dad even taught me to handload ammunition. We had a shop, with ammo presses. They were rotating contraptions that had a handle like a slot machine. Insert the primer, measure out the powder, put in the wad, the shot and crimp. Rifle cartridges too. I must have reloaded hundreds or thousands of rounds before I was a teenager. I thought it was so cool, firing and even taking game with rounds I loaded by hand. Police up that brass!
Above it all though, sport shooting and hunting was something I shared with my dad. My brother wanted nothing to do with it, he said he didn't like blood. So it was just me and dad. We would hunt locally for small game and waterfowl. The southern Jersey coast is good for this. And we would travel for hunts for bigger game. Mostly whitetails in northeastern Pennsylvania, but occasionally other spots for different game. My dad gave me my first rifle, a Marlin lever-action .30-.30 with a 3x9 Swift scope. Then a Browning .243 BLR, and finally a Browning bolt-action .270. What a magnificent rifle! Shotguns too, pumps, over/unders and side-by-sides. .22s for plinking. Our gun cabinet was full.
When I was 16 my father passed. I didn't handle it well. My best friend, and he was gone. I continued to hunt for a few years. Dad's hunting club brothers were very kind to me, inviting me to go with them. But it could never be the same.. The best thing about hunting was no more. By the time I was twenty I was done. The magic for me was gone, and after college I no longer wanted to actually shoot animals. The killing was never the thing for me. It was about the camaraderie, the woodsmanship. Being in the forest, nature. I did take game, but it was everything else about the sport that appealed to me. Tracking, wind and scent, stalking, reading sign, camouflage, mastering weapons. I mean, I loved just cleaning my guns. That smell! But I would never hunt again.
I still shoot, because I enjoy it. But the hunting is done. Or is it?
I was aware of course of the game The Hunter: Call of the Wild (2017), the sequel to The Hunter Classic. But I never pulled the trigger. My remote impressions were it was a bit arcade, and that I wouldn't like it a much as I should. So I skipped it. This past summer another hunting game released, called Way of the Hunter. The word was it was more of a hunting simulation than Call of the Wild. So I sat up and took notice. I wondered if perhaps this game could fill that void I've felt for thirty years. If it could perhaps take me back to that time in my life I enjoyed so much. A way to experience the things I liked about the sport, but without actually harvesting animals.
And you know what? It sure does. I've really taken to it. And so much so that I picked up Call of the Wild too. These are games, sure, but they have that certain something that hits the right notes for me. Being in the woods, stalking, taking good, ethical shots, always using the proper weapon to match the game. The reserves in both titles are breathtakingly beautiful. They succeed in allowing me to suspend my reality and become a hunter once again. In a sense it's a perfect thing for me, all the best things about hunting, while removing the worst. No killing, no dragging from remote areas, no field dressing, ya know? Just you, a rifle and nature. At its essence, this is just stealth gaming, and that's right up my alley.
So I want to use this thread to talk about how the games play, comparing the two titles, discussing my experiences as I take this ride. More to come.