Blindside Interactive·Released May 22, 2020·Single player
You were cut from your mother's body and left to die in the unforgiving waters of the Gulf Coast. Your only tools are your wits, your jaws, and an uncanny ability to evolve as you feed. Anything and everything is on the menu... provided you kill it before it kills you.
Maneater is a great idea for a video game, a ridiculous shark revenge fantasy in an open world setting with plenty of humour injected through its unique narrative framing and the vocal talents of Chris Parnell. However, as much as terrorising beach goers and snatching hunters from the bows of their fishing boats is a pretty good time, and as much as we enjoyed watching our orphaned bull shark grow from helpless pup to apex predator, the whole thing is let down by poor combat and the very worst kind of busywork side quests. With a little more variety in missions and a few refinements made to combat, this could have been a killer action-RPG. As things stand, however, it's all a little toothless.
The new features are welcome, and the game definitely looks nicer, but apart from that, it’s the same experience. If you had your fill of the title on the PS4, there’s not a whole lot to come back for. However, if you’re just diving into the game now, this is the version you want.
Solve global warming by eating all the pesky humans
I enjoyed a lot of Maneater, even if the repetitive missions grated on me.
Repetitive tasks take a big bite out of the fun in Tripwire's grisly action-RPG.
Playing as a shark in an underwater story of revenge is hilarious and fun.
You're going to need a bigger shark
You may be tired of open world collectathons, but Maneater bites back with more than enough novelty to make the format feel as fresh as Port Clovis' well-populated oceans. A moreish gameplay loop with a well-designed sandbox mean there's some-fin special here, and while it makome as a surprise, not even control and performance issues will deter you from flashing your teeth.
This feeding frenzy is fun but simple, and that lack of depth causes it to become repetitive as time goes on.
The overwhelming impression is that the game doesn’t really know what it’s trying to say, and can’t convincingly pass the mess off as satire. So it would probably be best off saying nothing.
Maneater's ability to make you feel like a nonsensically powerful prehistoric monster is matched only by its comedic chops, but it's marred by loose, frantic combat.
