NO! not the “Bow Chicka Bow Wow” kind
Released back in 2020, and just over two years old now, this game is, in my opinion, a mix between Jurassic Park, and submarine warfare with a splash of George of the Jungle narration. The events of this revenge story unfold in a place called Port Clovis, with a film crew recording for what is basically Shark Week. Here we meet Scaly Pete a shark hunter and his son who just caught a shark, when a call is put out about a shark on the rampage and so the game begins…. Or so you think!!!
“Jawsome”
Maneater is a reality show being shot in Port Clovis and while filming Scaly Pete cuts you from your mother’s womb, but you get retribution by taking his forearm before escaping and this is where your journey begins. You play as a bull shark out for revenge on Scaly Pete (your mortal enemy).
The game has a 10-hour play time, I personally took 20 hours to complete the game… got sidetracked with the swimming, eating and terrorising part of the gameplay, not my fault. Maneater is not the type of game to be winning any GOY awards for story or gameplay, although the water and swimming physics should at least get a mention (amazing), but I digress. So as mentioned you play as a shark terrorising the coast with Scaly Pete, his family issues and his all-out hatred of sharks…. especially you! Which you seem to spy on as the story progresses (in cut scenes).
“There’s always money in the banana stand”
If you are anything like me, you’re not going to be playing Maneater for the story, you’re playing it “to do what Limp Bizkit did to music in the late ’90s” … this brings me to my favourite part of the game, the narration and easter eggs.
Let’s start with the hilarity the game brings in the form of a “George of the Jungle” style narration, which is done by Chris Parnell, who you may know from Archer and Rick & Morty. He tends to drop one-liners and commentary like “shark hunting is illegal here in the gulf. Shark hunters get around this by just not caring” or “The muskellunge, or “muskie”, is a fresh-water fish commonly found throughout the Great Lakes region… so I have no idea what it’s doing here” while you are doing what you do best swimming, eating and terrorising poor swimmers.
“Oooooo, you don’t want to race a rabbit mate!”
Maneater does a very good job of making you look for Landmarks and complete Quests of which many double up as easter eggs that contain shout-outs to other video games, TV shows, movies, etc. This game is meant to be completed to 100% and it’s not difficult to do as most places of interest are easy to find with the aid of the sonar function which I suggest is the first thing you upgrade.
The mutation made the turtles “heroes in a half shell”, but for you, it makes you bigger, cooler and meaner as you mutate different organs and abilities to help you reach the top of the food chain, A MEGA!! As the story continues you will also meet APEX predators, which once defeated and eaten will give you extra mutations. On top of the APEX predators, you also meet bounty hunters who come after you the more chaos you cause, each one you kill will also give you extra mutations to pick from, there are 10 bounty hunters, ranging from Swamp People to Naval Officers.
“Hold my Beer”
At the end of the day, I really enjoyed this game or should I say I enjoyed it way too much with all the open waters to swim around, locations to find and swimmers to terrify. With that said there were moments where I did find some parts frustrating, especially with the APEX predators who all seem to be way more powerful than you, regardless of your level, especially the later ones.
This is a game that is at its core “stupid fun” which makes it worth playing in my opinion, and it is available on all major platforms, including PC (via Steam and Epic Games Store), Nintendo Switch, the PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®5 computer entertainment systems, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles and Xbox Game Pass, I recommend it for anyone with time to kill and who enjoy senseless facts about sharks delivered funnily, on top of that there is Maneater’s DLC Truth Quest out already which give us more “chomping time”.
See you in the waters.
Entertainment – 4/5
Action – 4/5
Extra – 4.5/5
EAX score 4.5/5
