Cabela's African Safari ^{(Xbox 360)}

Genre: Shooter Publisher: Activision Developer: Activision Players: ?

By Keith B (23rd Jul 2007)

Tour Africa to claim the heads of the big seven.

Sometimes I sit at home and think to myself, what a wonderful world, and what a wonderful home I have. But do you know what would make it even nicer? I mean, other than a pole dancers stage and possibly a bumper car track? Yep, you guessed it, a bunch of dead animal heads mounted on my wall and maybe even a skinned lion underneath my coffee table. That’s right sports fans, nothing tells your guests that you are a big man, or a really butch lady, like having the deathly eyes of a ferocious gazelle stare you down from above while you sip on an earl grey. Having said that, not all of us can afford lavish trips to Africa, and the large importation fees, to knock off Bambi or Simba. Also some of you probably have mothers who would ‘tan your hide’ if you took a magnified glass to an ant hill! So what is there to do? I guess there is just a plethora of budding hunters to be that may never snipe a Springbok from 100 yards. But wait, there is hope! Cabela’s African Safari (CAS) can take you there…..virtually! No mosquitoes, powder blue safari suits or possibility of contracting an STD any more!

Well, unless you are a redneck or dropped on your head when you were a child (or both in many cases) you probably sensed a slight amount of sarcasm in the first paragraph (which was gold as per usual)! I must admit, I am not the most ardent supporter of the hunting fraternity nor the owning of guns in general. Having said that I don’t have any problem with blowing the snot out of anything virtually, so I can review and pass judgment on this game with absolutely no bias. So, what is the G.O.? Well, you are a big game hunter, on tour in Africa to eventually claim the prize heads of the ‘Big Seven’. The Big Seven are the animals which are most sought after in the hunting world on the African continent. Among others, included in the seven are the lion, tiger and elephant. You earn a crack at each of these seven trophies in the last outing at each country you visit.

Set in stages (in the tour option) you hunt a large variety of animals all incredibly excited at the possibility of dying at your hand. Other that the traditional FPS style hunt (which is the most common game style) you also have the opportunity to shoot ‘winged prey’, or birds, either on foot or from a boat, and hunting trophy bucks from a jeep with a cool booster seat on the back!

As you progress through the game you unlock new locations/missions and also new and more powerful weaponry. One must be careful, however, if you choose a caliber of weapon that is too large for the animal you are hunting you may only have a chunky red slushy left behind instead of a prize carcass!

I must say I found the game quite entertaining for a while. It is very different to most games on the market and utilizes some interesting techniques at times to hunt your prey. However the variety of activities is pretty limited and get old quickly. In between the hunts you go back to base camp where there are absolutely no activities etc. In short, there is absolutely no point in having a base camp! You may as well just go from hunt-to-hunt leaving a path of death and destruction as you go.

Visually the game offers a mixed bag with no stars. The scenery, levels and backgrounds are all pretty and accurate enough to the look they are trying to depict, but they are not of a very high standard which is a real let down. The character rendering is cod ordinary and the animation is choppy which detracts a lot from the game play, which, as I have said, was limited but ok. The cut scenes between countries and some missions are even less impressive than Pimp My Ride (a game to avoid if you haven’t read my review)

In terms of sound quality, I wasn’t moved one way or the other, which generally is a good thing. Most of the time when the sound is a stand out in a game it indicates that the rest of the game reeks like cow dung. The ambient sound is quite appropriate and the voices are very stereotypical, but that is definitely a plus!

Is the game hard? No, it is not hard. The only time I found myself in any difficulty was on one stage when I was hunting a squatty little deer like creature and I lost track of an elephant that was in the area and he/she trampled me to death. On some levels you definitely need to have your reflexes aware and have at least a moderate strafe/pan shooting skill. Personally I perfected mine years ago on Doom and Doom 2. Gotta love the original death match in the computer pools back at school.

The Scott’s Final Word:
Usually I am all for shooting innocent people/animals and painting the landscape red with the lifeblood of victory. But this game does not inspire such feelings. To be brutally honest (the only way I know how to be) I really can’t think of any person on the planet, from a hunting background or not, who would sit back after a session of this game and think ‘well, that was time well spent’! I had hoped that Cabela’s African Safari would have the same entertainment value as Big Buck Hunter. My hopes were dashed, and I strongly recommend that none of you damage you brain cells by looking at the cover of this game in the stores! If I didn’t know any better I would say that CAS had been created by animal rights activists…..hmmmm, there may be something to that!