Console: Xbox 360
Date Released: April 26th 2011
Date Reviewed: January 4 2012
Reviewer: Thomas
Pros:
*Be Bear Grylls and jump into five different wild enviroments
*Use Bear’s Knowledge of survival to find Protection, Rescue, Water and Food
*Easy to pick up and play for all ages
*Great use of enviromental effects and sounds
Cons:
*Fairly linear in game design and function
*A little too many QuickTime Events
*Bear sometimes repeats many of the same lines after awhile when narrating
*Box states multiple extraction and entry points which is misleading
Man vs Wild is game brought to us by Floor 84 Studios and Scientifically Proven, on a quick side note the head of scientifically proven was one of the original people to work on four key Call of Duty games. World at War and the three prior to that.
I am a huge fan of Man vs. Wild and Bear is one of my personal heroes, I was excited and fearful when this game was announced. Excited because I would be able to play as Bear Grylls Survival Expert but fearful considering it was a budget title and was unsure on how it would translate into a game.
You play as Bear Grylls and navigate through several enviroments while he narrates and tries to use all of his survival skills. Generally it does feel like the television counterpart, so lets get on with the review shall we….
Presentation: B
Graphics / Animation / Sound
The game runs on the Vicious Engine 2 and uses Speedtree for the foliage in the enviroments. The V2 engine was also used to create Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon and of course Speedtree has been used in games such as Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion and more recently Dynasty Warriors 7.
The engine does a wonderful job of creating excellent enviroments from the Colorado Rockies, to the mountains of Patagonia. The overall environments do have a colorful and lush appearance to them but you can tell that some areas need to be polished. Bump mapping and other old school techniques abound and the model of Bear looks just like him.
There are day and night cycles and rain which will get Bear soaked as his clothes appear darker from the saturation and in sunlight the moisture slowly drys which has a nice effect. Bear also can have snow on his person and so on and so forth. The game also has you creating shelter, building fires in different ways, capturing and killing small animals sometimes with traps and of course eating nasty creatures and insects to keep his stanima up, and yes you can fill a snakeskin up with pee and drink it.
The music is suitable but repetitive and sometimes you can hear where it stops and loops. The menu music however is the Man vs Wild theme song which is great of course.
Single Player : B
Game mechanics / Length / difficulty
The game is pick and play, and many of the activities are really simple almost impossible to fail QTE’s. I guess to make the game kid friendly and or adult friendly is the reasoning behind this. Timing is still key and yes you can make mistakes and get bear hurt or worse but the game simply resets instantly back at the last checkpoint. The checkpoint system itself is generous.
You can also explore and find animals which wil appear in the Bear guide in game and he will talk about those animals with a touch of a button. You have your rucksack and can collect items and combine items to create a spear, a slingshot and store water and food, etc…
Bear can also become too cold and suffer from hypothermia, become dehydrated and starvation is a factor as the game has a meter that tells you if he is in danger of these issues. There is a mode called Bear mode that lets you play through the game without the meter so you have to guess the right time it would be to drink and or eat so that Bear can survive.
There is also a rudimentary leveling system that earns you survival experience and once you gain a level you have the option to increase one of two skills which actually vary when you level up. These include Hydration which allows Bear to stay clear of dehydration longer and so on and so forth. It is a welcome addition to see light Role Playing elements in this game.
The game has about 10 hours of overall gameplay but more if you want to find all the animals, types of flowers, and other junk. Yes, there is junk lying around which goes towards achievements in game. The game itself is not too difficult but a couple of parts are very tricky and require some measure of skill to complete.
Multiplayer : F
Game mechanics / features / Online features
There is no online Multiplayer for this game.
Replay Value : C
Lasting appeal / Bonus Content / DLC
Man vs. Wild has unlockable videos of the actual show which is a nice feature of the game. Also there are still photographs of Bear in the wild and some artwork to unlock as the game progresses. There is no DLC and there has been no support from the developer which is a shame. The potential for DLC is great since they could simply add more enviroments to try and survive in like a map pack or something to that effect.
Although it is fun to play the game there isn’t much replay value. The box art is misleading. It states multiple extraction points and entry points into five dangerous and wild environments. The five environments are true but there is actually only one extraction point and only two entry points per location.
In it’s limited defense, like the show Bear enters the enviroment one way and extracts one way as well and generally the show is linear in that effect. Bear travels from point A to B in the direction he needs to find civilization and the game is basically no different. Man vs. Wild is fun in small doses and while I am a fan of the show and I can say that the game does capture the essence of the show and you feel like you are playing Bear Grylls. I would suggest that if you purchase it remember that one its a budget title and two play it casually.
Overall : B –
