A long time ago in a time known to historians as the ’80s, a younger me was on holiday off the coast of Tenerife. Nearby was a disused harbour which meant the water was extremely deep right from the second you jumped in. After swimming out a fair distance I started looking down and because the water was so clear I could see a large shape moving right under my kicking feet. It was at this moment that I developed a deep fear of the ocean (Thalassophobia) which also manifested itself by a fear of large marine predators, specifically sharks. I thankfully never found out what the creature was because, after a moment of being paralysed by fear, I swam back to shore faster than I’d ever swam before.

That was over two decades ago but to this day I follow a very simple logic. Sharks live in the ocean and so if I stay on dry land my favourite set of trotters stay attached because sharks can’t get you on dry land. Then I went and played Maneater.

We’re gonna need a bigger Shark

The story behind Maneater is a play on the story of Moby Dick. A sailor who is maimed by a creature then becomes obsessed with seeking revenge. At the opening of the game, we see Scaly Pete, our modern-day Ahab, killing a large bull shark only to discover she was carrying a baby. After marking the baby shark with the same blade that minutes earlier gutted your mother, you promptly bite Pete’s hand off and escape. As you start playing as your mum in the introduction, this acts as a tutorial to the games main mechanics. Once you (and Pete’s hand) go over the side of the boat you then start the game proper as a baby bull shark. It is interesting that the story segments of the game are mostly told through the lens of a reality TV show and in fact you could see the entire game as a wild documentary of the shark’s path to revenge.

Each of the eight zones to the game has a distinct theme and look, whether it be the Crystal blue waters of the tourist beaches or the polluted murk of the industrial zone. There is so much to see and discover, such as car license plates or secret locations (some of these are hilarious). As you might imagine, the thing our hungry new friend will be doing most of all is consuming more matter than your average black hole. As you eat and complete activities your level will increase and so to will your size. There are five distinct phases for your shark, baby, teen, adult and so on. Each time you hit the level threshold you must return to your den where you will grow and also manage your shark’s evolution.

Three fin Soup

Yes for reasons beyond reason, our Carcharhinus Leucas (or Bull Shark for short) not only grows but also can evolve new attributes on the fly (take that Darwin). We do get pretty near to a leaking nuclear reactor and then there is also references to the water being laced with mutagens; so why not have the X-Men version of Jaws cruising around.

Each time you gain a level you get visibly bigger and will be able to tackle enemies who are also higher level. So for example when you first start out there are level eight crocodiles roaming the swamp which presents a real threat to your level two mini shark. However, when I returned a few hours later as an adult, I was snacking on them like a fat kid in sweet shop. As mentioned, your shark also has various body parts than can have mutations added, which are unlocked by key quests or killing bounty hunters. 

The plethora of biological treats on offer all give you a certain type of resource and these can then be spent on upgrading your chosen mutations. Interestingly, the colour of the mutation changes like it would in a loot-based game; so green, blue, purple and so on. As there really isn't any loot as such this is yet another design choice which does gamify the shark and her progress.

Smile you Son of a Bitch!

Chowing down on mackerel is all very well and good, but my first thought as a brand new shark was ‘where is the nearest beach?’ The games whole arcade-like tempo dictates we would be in a place heavily occupied but humans. As you swim around you can often see Las Vegas-like cityscapes towering above you and it can feel a little surreal. From beaches, golf courses and just about everywhere, Homo sapiens are coming out of the woodwork. While some will dip their chubby toes in the ocean, many will stay on dry land and this leads to my favourite and most ridiculous part of the game.

Like real sharks, you can pick up speed and breach the surface of the water. However, that is where Maneater and reality part ways because in this game you can fling yourself out of the drink and start eating folk alfresco. Of course, even super sharks can’t stay out of the water too long and you will see your limited time ticking down. Even at that point, your health starts going down but if you're eating this is also going up. So a trip to the beach can very quickly end up looking like an outtake from a John Wick film. Once beached you can leap, roll, dive and flop your way around the various environments which leads to some hilarious situations. Chasing tourists across a bridge for example or ending up some someone’s swimming pool. Let’s just come out and say it, I’ve had more fun out of the water in Maneater than in. 

As soon as you start masticating on man-flesh, the local threat level will start to rise and when it fills up you can expect a visit from local shark hunters. These would be shark killers cruise above you on various craft and shoot you with magic bullets than are not affected by water. As we’ve already established, this game isn’t going for realism in any way so it doesn’t seem out of place that by the end of the game your shark behaves more like a jet fighter than a creature of the deep. At least harpoons are a little more realistic and are left sticking in your side. If you do decide to engage the hunters you will eventually summon a named bounty hunter to the fight. Unfortunately, these characters are the most disappointing aspect of the game as they don’t seem to offer any additional challenge apart from blinding you with their abysmal dress sense. There were even occasions when I’d gobbled the bounty hunter and not realised until the success screen appeared. 

All you can Eat

When the game starts you can bite and do a swipe with your tail. Some bigger meals will require a few presses of the bite button and in some cases, a very quick eating animation plays out. On top of this, you have a evade manoeuvre which is necessary when some of the more aggressive animals attack you. If you successfully dodge an attack, you can then attack them while they are vulnerable and cause massive damage. There is also a mechanic where once you’ve got something large in your jaws you can thrash your head from side to side as real sharks do.

The problem I have is that even after seven hours of gameplay, this loop doesn’t change all that much. Yes, you can attack bigger more fearsome creatures but this doesn’t equate to a new mechanic to deal with, it is just the same attack pattern over and over again. Don’t get me wrong, breaching the waves, snatching a tourist off the bow of a pleasure cruiser and dragging him down to the depths will never get old. This menacing playfulness is at the beating heart of Maneater and for some, this will be enough to sustain them through the twelve or so hours. I do think that the chaotic fights do start to make you feel like anything but a shark which might be a downer for some players. Maybe a little methodology behind the madness would go a long way. So, for example, you could work in a time dilation skill in as well as a part-specific bite system. If you attack a large shark hunters boat, you can try and smash through the hull or try and leap over the boat and snip the captains head off.

Another area of the game that isn’t as good as I’d hoped is the mission structure, which is essentially ‘go here and eat ten of X’. In one of the final areas of the game I literally had two missions one after the other of killing ten hammerhead sharks before the games final fight. The developers have clearly spent so much time on creating the open world there are so many other possibilities to add interesting and fun mission objectives. So maybe you should have to leap into a local sushi restaurant and kill the chef or perhaps sneak into a local sea life centre take part in the show. 

Is it PC?

Overall Maneater is a good looking game with some really atmospheric scenes, with a full day and night cycle you can see some spectacular lighting. Most of the areas are set inland and so lack the wide-open feel of the ocean. With these spaces, the developers have done a fanatic job and made each area feel fairly unique. There are plenty of hidden caves and tunnels systems that hold rewards. However, once you have been in a few tunnel systems they all start to feel the same. Overall the game ran really well for me in terms of performance which is impressive as the shark is beautifully animated. I did have a few crashes but this was a review code and so I hope this has been addressed for the final release version.

I like the way kelp and seaweed moves in your wake but I would have liked some better physics in other areas like rubbish being bumped away as you collide with it. The furniture on the beach, for example, is too static and I’m sure a 25ft shark would flatten a deck chair if it rolled across it. The humans themselves are also very basic in design and don’t seem to be governed by anything except the most basic AI. Often they will not even react and just stand there accepting their fate (which to be fair would probably be my reaction). You can play with either mouse & keyboard or a controller, both are well supported. I did try the controller and it feels good to cruise around with the analogue sticks. However, in combat, it helps tremendously to be able to mouselook and instantly see where the enemy is. Obviously I am an M&K fan and so that is the way I went for this game. As far as sound design Maneater does a fine job across the board from the screams of people fleeing for their lives to how the sound of an outboard motor changes when you surface.

Summary 

If someone was to make an authentic shark simulation gamers would probably die of boredom. That’s because the majority of a sharks day is swimming and the eating is usually over in a few minutes. Sharks are also demonised by us humans because more often than not sharks won’t attack humans on sight. What Tripwire have done here is take the Hollywood image of the shark, kept a few biological anchors and then hit the gas for maximum carnage.

This isn’t a bad thing (apart from maybe sharks getting massively misrepresented) because the end result is a very entertaining game. In a lot of ways playing Maneater reminded me of an old game called Carmageddon where carnage was the name of the game. If I put my backseat developer hat on, I would have loved a slight shift towards the realism camp, with more stalking and less mashing the bite button. I would also love to be able to choose which parts of an enemy I can bite off. This could give combat a more tactical feel and you could even do some location-specific damage for larger boats. The bottom line is that Maneater is a proof of concept with more than enough game to justify a day one purchase. The developers have clearly spent a lot of time crafting the gameworld through which you glide looking for prey. I just hope that if we do see a sequel, the minute to minute gameplay has more meat and less filler.

Thank you for reading me review of Maneater on PC. I would like to thank the folks over at Koch Media for providing a review copy of the game which allows me to give you my opinion when it matters. If you like the site and wish to see more content please follow us on Twitter @riggedforepic