I am on a journey to beat 360 random Xbox 360 games. Here's my next adventure

Game number 57 was Bass Pro Shop’s The Hunt. This is a game that seeks to recreate the experience of hunting at different places throughout North America. You go through multiple levels hunting various game animals in order to get a high score and win a grand hunting competition.

First of all, why was this game so difficult to find a physical copy of? I live in an area with 5-6 game stores and none of them had a copy of this random Xbox 360 game. I can usually find a copy of anything unless I know it's difficult to find (like Armored Core or El Chavo Kart). This may be a slightly rare title and just flying under the radar for any collectors out there.

There is actually a story here where you are in this large-scale hunting competition and need to bag specific game at 10 hunting grounds across North America. Interestingly, these hunting grounds are significantly different in terms of both terrain and animals (like real life). I thought that was cool. You go from standard forests, to wetlands, to desert, to mountains, and to tundra. There is a wide variety of locales to explore.

Speaking of the hunting grounds, they are all very large and free to explore. There are animals populated throughout and you can spend hours looking for the best prize animal or the legendary animals… not that you would really want to.

Each location has the exact same gameplay loop. You need to score a certain amount of points in each hunting ground in order to move to the next one. You can score points by hunting animals or completing quests given by quest givers. These quests range from killing specific targets to racing 4 wheelers around the zone.

In addition to achieving the amount of points needed to get to the next zone you also need to kill a prize animal. Each zone has a specific species that it designates as the prize animal and your goal is to find the largest one you can and kill it for the most points. I just killed the first one I came across because your ranking in the tournament does not matter at all for beating the game nor getting to the next zone.

I have so many criticisms of The Hunt, but my biggest one is that nothing is done very well. It has horrible shooting mechanics, poor driving, and lame radiant quests. The only reason I can imagine someone would want to play this game is that it is pretty unique. All the other mechanics are pretty trash.

Additionally, the graphics in this game are horrible. I have played a large amount of 360 games and this is in the bottom tier graphics wise. Areas are barren of grass or trees, textures look awful, and character models are low budget.

Overall, Bass Pro Shop’s The Hunt is a true example of shovelware. I would not recommend anyone to play this game. The shooting is bad, the driving is bad, the quests/goals have little meaning, and it isn’t something that really deserves a playthrough. The one saving grace is that hunting isn’t something that is often realized in game form. Buck Hunter is probably the most popular hunting game, but it is more of an arcade game than a hunting simulator. I’m sure there is something out there that is more worth your time than this, please play that instead! (2/10)

I spent 4 hours, 10 minutes, and 50 seconds playing Bass Pro Shops The Hunt

I have spent a total of 651 hours and 55 minutes on the Road to 360 challenge so far!

Next Game: Dark Souls!!!!!