Carnivores (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.1 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Greg Kasavin
• Reviewed on: 01/25/1999
• Updated on: 05/01/2000
• Released on: 11/30/1998
• Originally published on GameSpot: Carnivores (PC) Review

Any way you look at it, a dinosaur hunting game is a brilliant idea: It's all the action, tactics, and strategy of a true hunting simulation, with none of the guilt. Turns out, Carnivores is even more than that, more than enough to be tantalizing yet not quite complete to be entirely satisfying. Still, not only is it a solid hunting simulation, but it features first-rate graphics and sound and a fully customizable challenge that'll test the mettle of both would-be hunters and action gamers alike, even as it leaves both categories wishing there were more to the game.

There's a loose plot to justify why it is that you're hunting dinosaurs with high-powered weapons, but when you get right down to it, Carnivores is a simulation not unlike Deer Hunter or anything in its class. You grab yourself a gun, designate a species of dinosaur as your target, pick a place to hunt, and get to work. The dinosaurs can see, smell, and hear to varying extent, so you'll need to take heed of wind direction, keep quiet, sit still, and shoot straight if you hope to bring one home. Options like cover scent and camouflage can make life easier, but using these deducts points from your total. In a humane touch, however, using tranquilizer ammunition actually increases your score, although tranquilized dinos won't be on display in the keen 3D trophy room. You need those points to advance in rank, so that you can hunt bigger and badder dinosaurs in more challenging areas.

Chances are, these are going to be some of the best-looking 3D dinosaurs you've ever seen, and the best that you'll see for a while. They're big, and they look real. They go plodding about, over hills and around obstacles, stopping to graze if they like to eat plants or charging and leaping straight for your throat if they prefer meat. Shooting down the dinosaurs isn't easy and may be especially difficult against certain types that are either vulnerable only in specific regions or highly aggressive. For instance, you'll need to do better than a head shot to bring down a triceratops; you'll need to shoot him in the eye, the throat, or the back of the neck if you intend for him to fall. Meanwhile, the velociraptor demands lightning-fast reflexes and offers no second chances. If you manage to kill a target, it'll topple over dramatically, although perhaps not quite as dramatically as you might like. Shoot a dino with a tranquilizer round instead, and you can see and hear it breathing heavily as it lies paralyzed. There's quite a bit to shoot at: There are seven varieties of dinosaurs to hunt, from the meek parasaurolophus with its telltale head crest, to the small but ferocious velociraptor, to the enormous, nigh invincible tyrannosaurus rex.

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