Maneater is a small, short, single-player open-world RPG where you control a bull shark from cradle to grave. This isn't any old shark--its mama was caught and slain by a particularly brutish fisherman, whose antics are captured in cut-scenes that resemble a reality TV series. Left alone and disfigured, your shark has to eat everything it can until it grows and evolves into a vicious killer. Inevitably, you will have to face Scaly Pete again and take revenge.
The story is pretty sparse and does little to cover up the fact that you are indeed playing a shark that rampages all over beaches, boats, and docks to slaughter hundreds of innocent people. From a moral standpoint, the game is rather troubling (and can mere revenge really justify such an angsty, nihilistic power fantasy?).
But hey, if you overlook that aspect, the game is an absolute hoot. And it's easy to forgive the violence given how cartoony, colorful, and over-the-top this game becomes. Once you get past the opening phases and level up the shark, you'll reach a point where you can confront bigger predators of the sea. With enough chaos, you'll eventually attract hunters--if you overcome them, you unlock upgrades that can turn your shark into a more evolved monstrosity (including upgrades offering bone armor, electric teeth, or poisonous attacks--so much for biological realism). Boss fights become challenging, but the game rarely felt insurmountable. In a good ten, twelve, twenty hours, you can potentially max out your shark, beat every enemy, and finish every quest.
The things you do as a shark are rather limited--in each area, you're given tasks that must be fulfilled to satisfy certain requirements to unlock more of the story. Most of this amounts to simply eating a bunch of fish (or humans, *gasp!*). Exploration takes the edge off of the combat as you scour a lot of odd places, tunnels, and sewers for collectables. The open-world aspect of the game is what attracted me the most, and I found it modestly satisfying--but I can't deny that it has the potential to become repetitive and droll (but thankfully it's short and small compared to many other games).
Fighting as a shark is a hit-and-a-miss. It can be immensely fun (albeit frantic) to leap over boats, crush their hulls, and eat their gun-toting occupants. It's a lot less satisfying to fight other fish, gaters, and whales though. One particular Orca was an absolute pain even with full upgrades. The biggest issue is that your attacks are always one-dimensional--with your teeth. Maybe your bone fins and crushing weight can help, but it's easy to lose your prey if they swim out of the path of your jaws. You will need to keep swinging the camera around to track your surroundings and keep yourself from becoming hunted.
Few minor glitches introduced a few small headaches to the experience. Game crashes and frame rate drops can happen. If you're hunting for collectables, there is a chance the game won't count something (although trophy hunters should be aware that opening the gates between areas counts towards the trophy--it's not explicitly stated anywhere, I just found out first-hand when I opened a gate and the thing just popped). The biggest shortcoming to this game is, simply, it's shortness. Once it's done, there's little incentive to go back and revisit it (although this can be said about many open-world titles).
What I like the most is, simply, the flow of the game and how satisfying it was to skim the waters, eat some prey, and explore a cute little bayou. I overcame a few challenges, but they weren't all that terrible and the game takes very little time to master and complete. It all looks slick and the sound quality is decent. It's good fun for a few good days. If you like the open-world RPG type games, and have no qualms about playing a predatory animal, then this would be a fair recommendation. When it's on sale, that is.
7/10
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