Review: Hunting Simulator 3

I more or less dropped out of video gaming a couple of years ago, as I’ve found that board games scratch my gaming itch more these days. However, when we were offered the chance to review Hunting Simulator 3, I jumped at the chance.

This was not just because I reviewed its predecessor on both PS4 and Switch, but also because it was one of the few video games released lately that genuinely peaked my interest…I’m not even bothered about GTA6, give me the upcoming Fable game over that every time.

As stated in my previous reviews of the earlier games, I abhor hunting, unless it is for food or genuine population control that the areas need to sustain ecological balance. If you’re out there with a gun shooting animals for sport…well, I’ll leave it there before I go off on a rant.

Anyway, on to Hunting Simulator 3, where once again you can do things in a video game that you wouldn’t (shouldn’t) in real life.

I should begin by saying that if you’re a gamer whose gaming wheelhouse is “shooty shooty bang bang” games like Fortnite etc, then this might not be the experience you’re looking for, but give it a go anyway, you could well find that you like it.

As expected, the beginning of the game gives you the option to go through some tutorials to teach you the basics of hunting and all of the equipment at your disposal. This can of course be skipped if you want to, but despite being familiar with the previous games, I completed each tutorial anyway, giving me the chance to appreciate the upgraded graphics and general relaxing ambience of the world it creates.

This is a game where you need patience, taking into consideration wind speed and direction, weapons and the ammunition to go with them, terrain and time of the day, to have bought the correct licences for animals you can hunt…and then not killing too many of them. Though killing too many isn’t always the biggest problem, as you really have to take your time tracking down whatever you are hunting, and even then you could easily spook them and they run away before you can ever get them in your sights.

Nacon have put 3 difficulties into the game though to help both newcomers and those more experienced players. If this is your first experience with Hunting Simulator, then definitely begin on the easiest setting, and for everyone else who really wants a challenge, ramp it up to the most difficult and savour every successful hunt that you can complete.

Once you’re comfortable with the basics of hunting, you can go off and explore the hunting grounds, making sure you have purchased the aforementioned correct licences with the in game currency…and possibly even have got your canine hunting companion beside you too.

Something I wasn’t expecting to be quite so impressed with was SimFauna. It’s a new system that makes the wildlife feel much more natural, with animals going about their lives rather than just staying in one place until you to find them. They’ll move around, breed, get older and react to things like noise or danger. You can’t just keep returning to the same spot expecting to find the same animals there. It makes for a much more immersive (and rewarding) experience. 

There are 2 locations in the game: Texas and Colorado, and both are large enough to keep you occupied for a very long time. Luckily, you can choose between a few different off-road vehicles to keep travel time shorter, though make sure that you don’t drive right up to the animals as the noise will scare them off long before you even get out of the drivers seat.

HS3 runs on Unreal Engine 5, and it’s one of those games where you often find yourself just walking around the environment and taking in the scenery…then a rabbit or something will run past your line of sight and you’ll remember that you’re here to hunt!

You can return to the hunting lodge at any point and this is your “home base” where you can buy licences, buy and change gear, practice with different weapons, display your trophies and much more.

There are a few little rough edges to the game, but nothing that spoils the experience and nothing that I’m sure will be patched out in the future. Little things like not being 100% sure if I was following the correct trail, or the way the vehicles drive being clunky.

One thing I really liked was the game steering you towards doing ethical hunting and not making the animals suffer by blind shooting at them. Even though they were just a bunch of pixels, I felt bad each time I messed up a shot instead of getting a clean kill.

HS3 is a must buy for anyone who has played and enjoyed the previous iterations, and also a “must try” for anyone else who has even the slightest interest in trying a more slow paced and thoughtful game where you’re walking around with a variety of guns.

There are hundreds of hours of gameplay waiting and I highly recommend it.

Hunting Simulator 3 is available now for PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Join the Hunting Simulator Community: https://linktr.ee/huntingsim

Review by Dave from an Xbox code kindly supplied by Nacon.