![]() As much as evolving your shark here is fun enough in and of itself (adding tiger skin, advanced sonar, electric teeth, shadow fins, armoured plating and so on to a body which continues to grow as you move from childhood into adult shark life), the actual threats you take on and missions you’re tasked with are just very disappointing overall. If only the gameplay wasn’t quite so lacking though, eh. With Chris Parnell (of Rick and Morty and SNL fame) on narration duties here, the game is instantly lifted out of the mire that is its actual gameplay, with plenty of laughs to be had, movie and TV references to knowingly jab your finger at and a playful B-movie feel to the whole thing that it’s really quite hard to dislike. This allows for a constant narration of not just every plot point and ludicrous cutscene, but pretty much every action you take as you swim around the lakes, beaches and bayous of Port Clovis. It’s the framing of the narrative here that’s really Maneater’s strongest element, with Scaly Pete the star of a wonderfully grotty reality TV show that follows him and his rebellious son, Kyle, as they search the waterways of Port Clovis for the bull shark that chomped his hand off. ![]() Here you’ll eat everything you see, be it man, woman or seal, in order to evolve into a flipping mega-shark - an apex killer with the skills and abilities to face off against your hook-handed nemesis and avenge your momma once and for all.Ĭaptured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) Kicking off with the murder of your mother at the hands of celebrity shark hunter Scaly Pete (who’s hand you bite off in the opening scenes) Maneater wastes no time in flinging you into the fins of a newly orphaned baby shark (please don’t sing it) who you must now commandeer through the eight regions that make up the game’s open world map. In the end, what should have been a riotous revenge fantasy ends up feeling rather toothless. It delivers in giving you the motivation, the tools and the playground with which to exact your bloody retribution, gets the tone and the setting of its shark vendetta just right, but then fumbles its execution, delivering a procession of dull missions, janky combat and an ever-increasing laundry list of the very worst kind of open world busywork. Letting players loose on its open world setting of Port Clovis as a deeply scarred bull shark in search of revenge, it’s an unashamedly silly, hyper violent and completely throwaway experience that should make for a pretty great videogame. But just like real fish, this doesn't stay fresh all that long.Tripwire Interactive’s Maneater really does have itself a pretty killer premise. None of which is to imply that Maneater isn't entertaining, because it is. And no, having a glowing light in the sky doesn't help when the waterways are maze-like. (The Pro controller is almost required for solid gameplay) It also gets a bit redundant after a while (you can quickly become sick of eating catfish), while the lack of a map when you're swimming makes it hard to navigate the twisty waters. Switch players may find this to be a larger issue when they're using the Joycons, which aren't as precise as you need them to be when it comes to controlling your shark and the camera in the best way. This is especially problematic when you're young and you get into fights with alligators, who are annoyingly stronger than you. For starters, the controls you use for the camera are wonky, even after you adjust them, which makes it hard sometimes to truly stalk your prey. All of which happens in the wide-open waters off New Orleans, while actor Chris Parnell (the guy who voices Jerry on Rick & Morty and Cyril on Archer), doles out interesting and often ridiculously untrue "facts" about sharks.īut while this is as much fun as it sounds, and Parnell's narration makes it just as funny, the good times don't last. So you do what you can to get big and strong, which includes eating a ton of fish and other aquatic life, looking for lost license plates and other collectibles, and eating humans who are just innocently swimming along and not-so-innocently trying to kill you. ![]() In Maneater, you're a baby bull shark who wants to get revenge on the human who killed your mommy. While this "shARkPG" - as the designers call it - is both fun and funny, both wear a bit thin after a while.
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