When I played Super Mario 64 for the first time, I avoided Jolly Roger Bay as much as I could. Why? Unagi the Eel freaked me out! I didn't want to frantically swim away… I’d rather have played as the undersea predator!

Maneater delivers on that concept, and it does so pretty well. Many aspects of the game work great: The individual moves are satisfying, the open world and its collectables are fun to explore, the different types of quests make sense, the rewards for your shark are super cool, and now I want Chris Parnell to sarcastically narrate my day-to-day life.

But throughout my playthrough, I couldn't shake the feeling that this could have been a lot better. First and foremost, there is something off about the controls. The way the focus works for your lunges and bites, this game should really feel like Tony Hawk: I should be able to go from a lunge to a breach to a bite to a tailwhip to a lunge and feel the rush of cutting through the water and my prey with balletic mastery. But that only happens occasionally, and sometimes on accident. I eventually found that the most effective form of attack was basically mashing "lunge" and "bite" over and over, which I'm pretty sure isn't intentional.

Making progress in the game also feels awkward. You’re dropped into an area with predators much higher level than you, which I thought was to encourage me to do more side missions. But when I continued the completion balance that earned me victory in that first section in subsequent areas, I ended up maxing out my level pretty early in the game. This makes the repetitive story quests that feel just like side quests extra questionable: I didn’t need them for experience, and they didn’t connect to the main story, so why were they mandatory?

Lastly, and this is more nitpicky: The game’s reality show presentation doesn’t quite work. It feels a little like the developers wrote the game and its cut scenes, then the narration (which, again, I love) was added later on.

None of those flaws prevented me from enjoying Maneater enough to 100% the game. I’d love to see this concept refined even more.

I played this game on a whim and not only did it consume (pun!) me, but I ended up getting the platinum trophy. This is the kind of game that is perfect for PS+ or Game Pass because I likely never would have put down any money for it, but after playing it I'm so glad that it exists.

The game looks great in concept - you're a shark and your goal is to grow larger, eat as much living tissue as you can, and eventually get revenge on the a-hole who gutted your mom. It's open-world and so divided up into separate regions, much like any modern Assassin's Creed game though not on quite as large of a scale. Your shark is terrorizing a bay community, but the areas feel robust and large enough particularly when you consider the verticality involved. You're often swimming into deep waters that broaden the gamespace considerably.

And yes, before we go any further, if you have thalassophobia this game will trigger you silly. It doesn't happen until the final couple zones, but the last zone is a real doozy. I do have thalassophobia, and games like Abzu have given me genuine terror (though somehow I manage to work through it thanks to it being a video game).

The mechanics are simple. You basically have a lunge/bite button, a speed boost button, and your movement stuff. The simplicity works in its favor as it never feels cumbersome or difficult to move around in the water. You feel like deadly, mobile predator who fears absolutely nothing.

Maneater is also very funny. There is an overarching story about a bounty hunter type who is constantly hunting you, and it's very over the top and stupid in a good way. The moment to moment stuff is also amusing, particularly when you're dealing with the humans of the world.

I'd recommend picking this game up, even if you just want to stick to the river and the lakes that you're used to. You can avoid the deep water by sticking to certain areas, and even those areas are a lot of fun.

I haven't finished the game yet, but I already believe I can write a review, especially because I played it through Game Pass, and today my subscription ends. I'll take a break, and I'll only be able to finish everything in the game next time I subscribe or when I buy it on Steam and try to transfer the save file (I hope it works).

Overall

Honestly, I think the overall rating of 7 for the game is low (based on Metacritic), because it deserves an 8, 8.5, or even a 9. Why? Simply because the game is short, fun, it's not boring to collect items, the underwater scenarios are beautiful, etc.

This game reminded me a lot of when I was a kid and played EVO - Search for Eden, which followed a similar principle, that is, an RPG where you are a creature and need to devour others to evolve gradually. It's interesting that EVO was also poorly rated. I believe it would be very interesting to see the same developer of Maneater creating a spiritual successor to EVO with new graphics, improved gameplay, etc.

Graphics

I found the graphics very beautiful, running on the UE4 engine. I don't have much to say, I found the lighting good, the moss in the sewer well done, the textures of the pipes very good, the effects of the biomes were great, etc. The scenarios are very beautiful, and I love aquatic environments, I think that's why I was so surprised when I enjoyed Subnautica so much when I decided to buy it following a friend's recommendation. I believe I should give underwater games a chance, haha.

Plot

The story is very simple, a baby female shark seeking revenge against her mother's harpooner. Because of this revenge, the shark devours people and animals to become the queen of the seas, haha. Needless to say, the game is very comical, it's not meant to be taken seriously or to feel any sadism in devouring the bathers (unless you feel some pleasure in it without considering that they are mere digital characters, then I'll be worried).

Gameplay

Overall, I liked the gameplay. It just requires vigorous movement, which can tire your fingers because you use the triggers a lot to make movements like dodge, tail swipe, boost, and bite. Still, I imagine it was more comfortable than trying to use the mouse and keyboard.

Sound

The underwater sound is well done, and I have nothing to complain about. You can hear whales, seals, sharks, swordfish, people, etc. The radio sound of the shark hunters is well done and really sounds like a radio communicator. In short, it's not a game to demand a soundtrack, just that the underwater part behaves like something really underwater.

Final thoughts

I liked the game because it's objective, short, fun, has the right level of difficulty, collectibles that give rewards and help explore the map, and the animal has a "sonar" (it is not the proper term, I know, the game explains what is it) that helps you find the collectibles. Collectibles that don't give rewards (e.g., those little flags from old Assassin's Creed games, which served no purpose, maybe just map exploration, who knows or just to create profile achievements) or that require a tedious waste of time are very bad and undermine the fun.

The only criticism I have up to this point is regarding the infamy level because it takes too long after a certain level to attract the attention of special hunters to kill them and get new evolution rewards.

Aside from this point that makes the game more sluggish and boring, the rest was very dynamic and straight to the point. I say this because I'm no longer a child or teenager (not that the game rating is for that audience), so I have a job, family, etc., I don't want to spend endless hours completing a game decently and getting its achievements (now that they've invented this new way of demanding more from ourselves, haha).

I hope to get it on sale on Steam and then buy the DLC to finish the whole story and available achievements. =D

To put it simply, Maneater is an RPG in which you play as a shark seeking revenge on the shark hunters that killed her mother, whilst trying to survive in the fish-eat-fish world of Port Clovis. The story is very tongue-in-cheek, as it pokes fun at the reality TV shows. However, the story isn’t the most engaging part of the game, it is really only there to establish why you, as a shark, are going around terrorising the people of Port Clovis.

Before you can become the apex predator of the ocean, you first have to survive in these hostile waters. To do so, you must eat the other fish and try to take on the other predators in the various water systems. Combat is very simplistic- you can bite, tail whip, ram and evade. As you eat your way through the food chain, you can level up and evolve into the ultimate shark. These evolutions can give you additional buffs or abilities but for the most part the gameplay loop remains the same from beginning to end. For some people, that will be too repetitive but fortunately, the game is not overly long, it took me just under twenty hours to complete Maneater 100%.

One of Maneater’s biggest selling points is its environment. The game is an open world RPG and its world is amazing. It doesn’t fall into the usual open world trap of making a large empty world; instead Port Clovis is quite small but its environment is varied, making it feel larger. There are also plenty of activities, including getting your revenge on humanity, visiting landmarks, finding collectibles and facing the apex predators. The apex predator fights were my favourite part of the game, as each fight was different and felt like a boss fight. The only thing that holds the apex predator fights back, is your limited actions, otherwise they are definitely a highlight.

One thing I noticed was that Maneater has some technical issues. It suffered from lag multiple times, especially when there were multiple enemies in the same location or when you were swimming fast. This can actually cause you some trouble, as the lag, or temporary freezing, can cause you not to evade an attack. This did cause me to die in a couple of the apex predator fights. I also had a couple of complete crashes, which did lead to some frustrating moments of backtracking and redoing some things.

Overall, Maneater is a solid game. It is unique and quirky, allowing you to be a shark and explore locations that aren’t normally the focus in an open world RPG> Its gameplay is repetitive which could be a turn off for some players but I feel the game is the right length and doesn’t outstay its welcome.