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Carnivores Ice Age
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Graphics & Sound:
One of the things that really shines in Carnivores Ice Age is the vast environment that you will be hunting in. The first one up when you start the game is called McRath Island. With snow covered rolling hills and sparse vegetation, McRath Island is a relatively easy and open area for the new hunter. It is so big, it may take you weeks to thoroughly explore all of it.. The area is well detailed graphically, even on close inspection. However, one of the things that could have been improved were the bushes. Not only can you walk through them with ease, but they are very blocky on close inspection. Maybe with the next Carnivores game, they can make it more difficult to walk through a solid bush. The animals themselves are well detailed with different sizes and shapes in the same species. You might not notice the difference in the animals until you get to your trophy room where your kills are displayed next to each other. You certainly won't notice the difference when the wooly rhinoceros is impaling you. Sound wise, Carnivores Ice Age is very realistic, with accurate animal grunts, bird chirpings, wolf howls and such, but it is also very boring after awhile. I wished that while I was staring down the nose of the ancient Diatryma (a prehistoric chicken on steroids with a nasty attitude), there were a little music to set the mood, to add a little tension. Music to die with, so to speak. |
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Gameplay:
Carnivores Ice Age is the third installment of hunting games that take you on a different type of hunt. Just like Carnivores I and II, you will not be hunting ducks in the back woods, but you will be hunting prehistoric animals straight from the Ice Age. You will face up against a Bronterity that looks like a two horned rhino. You will meet the Smilodon, which is a saber-toothed lion. One of the more interesting animals is the Diatryma, you know, the chicken on steroids I mentioned earlier. During the hunt, it proved to be one of the hardest animals to catch because as soon as it sensed you were near, it would take off running. At first it would run away, and then it would change its mind and decide that you would make a pretty good lunch. You will be hunting is five different areas, each with its own difficulty level. Area One is McRath Island; Area Two is Raveren's Bridge, which is not as snow covered as Area One, making the animals somewhat harder to see. Area Three is the Ring of Infernus and is a combination of the first two areas. Because of the difficult terrain, it is a little more difficult than the first two. There are two more areas that I will leave for your enjoyment of the game. When you start the game, you will be given 100 credits. This will allow you to access the less advanced hunting areas like McRath Island. It will also allow you to start off with a standard pistol. During each hunt, you will earn points that will unlock more advanced areas and weapons. If you happen to be hunting one day and you have killed six animals so far in that expedition, and the next animal eats you for lunch, all the points you made up to that point are gone and you have to start over with a new expedition. This can get frustrating, especially if you spent an hour trying to bag one of the advanced animals and then your second target gets you. There are also various ways to increase and decrease your points during a hunt. If you choose to tranquilize an animal instead of killing them, you can increase your points each kill by 25 percent. You have to work for those extra points because tranquilizing is a lot harder than killing the animal. In your equipment list, there are other items that if used, will lower your points per animal. If you choose to use your radar, you will decrease your points by 30 percent per animal. Be warned. If you choose not to use your radar, Carnivores Ice Age is a lot like a real hunting expedition. There is a lot of waiting and being very still. You will have various weapons at your disposal from a 9MM pistol, which is not very effective except at close range, to two different types of shotguns, an x-bow which is a lot quieter than the rest and doesn't spook the animals as much, and two different types of rifle. To get to the advanced rifles, you must accumulate points, so good hunting! You must also accumulate points to get to the advanced animals such as the prehistoric bear. There is also a bonus animal, which I have not met yet, but it is not from a lack of trying.
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Difficulty:
In Carnivores Ice Age, the difficulty lies in four things. First, the various animals all have their own difficulty level. The big guys like the Brontoreity and the wooly Rhino are easy to see, being dark colored against the snow-covered landscape, but the wooly rhino is harder to kill. The smaller animals like the wild boar and the wolf have the advantage of speed, so you might want to try to get them on the first shot. During the last couple of weeks of hunting, I have only bagged one wolf. They are the smallest, they blend well in to the background, and as soon as they know you are there, they are coming after you. Second, the difficulty is in the terrain. Each area is a little more difficult than the last. The terrain gets a little more treacherous, which makes it harder to see the animals and harder to get away if they are coming to get you. Third, using your various equipment can change the difficulty. If you use your radar and your cover scent, it is easier to find the animals and not spook them away, but you will also not get as many point per kill. Fourth, some of the weapons are harder to use than other ones. Actually, the hardest one to use is the pistol since you have to get so close to the animal.
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Game Mechanics:
To hunt in Carnivores Ice Age, you will use a combination of the keyboard and mouse. You will use the mouse to point you in the right direction and to aim at your prey. You will use the keyboard to move, run, call for more supplies, and accessing the radar map, if you choose to use it. I think this combination works well for this type of game. Using a game pad or joystick might have been a little cumbersome.
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-Wickserv, GameVortex Communications AKA Eric Wickwire |
Minimum System Requirements:
IBM PC Compatible computer system, Pentium 233 (Pentium II Processor or faster recommended), Windows 95/98 operating system, 32 MB RAM minimum, 90 MB hard drive space, Mouse, 8X Speed CD-ROM, Direct X Compatible Sound Card (EAX, A3D, and DS2D cards recommended), DirectX Compatible Video Card (Direct 3D or 3Dfx; Graphics Card recommended). |
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Test System:
GX-450xl running Windows 98, 256 RAM, Creative Sound Blaster 64CPCI with Boston Acoustic Digital Media Theatre, STB Velocity 4400 with RIVA TNT chip, DirectX 7, 32 Mb RAM, 6X24 DVD-ROM. |
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