E3 2019 Impressions — Maneater

Maneater

While at E3, I was able to see Maneater in a more intimate setting than just a trailer. Here is my take on Maneater.

A title that made a huge splash, pun intended, back at E3 2018 had to be Maneater. That would be the ShaRkPG title that we were introduced to from Blindside Interactive and Tripwire Interactive during the main PC Gaming show at the start of the event. Originally, it looked to be like a joke title that was going to build into something different to me, but here we are back again and we can see that it has become much more. Well, at least some of us who were lucky enough to see solid gameplay for Maneater during this year’s E3 and not just the fun little trailer we were all given when it was highlighted again. Now it all looks like something that is much deeper than just a shark on a rampage as we saw the first time around.

A few new details for Maneater also came here outside of the actual gameplay I had a chance to take in. One of them being that the backdrop story for the game will revolve around a “reality TV show” called Shark Hunters Vs Maneaters. This is how we will get some narrative to make this an actual RPG. Also, this show and narrator for Maneater will be none other than Chris Parnell so we can expect an extra amount of humor mixed in while we are out there rampaging and eating all the things that we can. All of which will drive the game forward in not only story, but also in evolution of the bull shark we will be playing with through the five various stages of its life.

The demo I had a chance to enjoy for Maneater gave us a feel for the seven large areas in the game that will be our hunting ground in the game. Each with their own look and feel with the various vegetation and creatures mixed right in. In the demo, we had a chance to see the waters on the shore of a large and populated city as well as the murky waters of swamplands. All filled with things to eat or destroy based on the time of day. Sometimes this meant more humans and animals out and about and other times it just meant other types of animals were out trying to fight for our place as an apex predator. Either way, our goal is to eat the various things to build up our nutrients in Maneater so we can evolve. Currently, there are four different types (Protein, Fats, Minerals, and Mutagen-X) and these will allow us to evolve between the different stages.

This will be needed in Maneater as there are various obstacles and predators in the waters, on top of the Shark Hunters above, that we will need to take on. To make sure we are well-suited for this, we will need to become large through the nutrients and also evolve other elements with the Mutagen-X. Things like the ability to breathe on land for a longer time or boney spikes all over our body. All so we can take on the various enemies in the game or come back and traverse areas that we previously could not in Maneater. Not too much detail has been given on how this progression will work besides collecting the items and then going through some other process. All I was able to see was the collecting side and what to keep an eye out for.

One thing I did get to see was the ability of the shark to breach the water and jump a few small barricades. This also was used to show off the open-world of Maneater and just where else we may be able to go and what we may be able to encounter besides the Shark Hunters that are out there. One area we were shown on the city shores at night was a location where a crime family was dumping bodies and luring in all kinds of other creatures in the water. It was a slight tease to show that we will not only be swimming and eating in Maneater, but there will be other events that take place throughout and we can choose to take them on. Sometimes, like in this case, they can lead to a lot of nutrients coming our way. Those bodies need to go somewhere after all.

The last part that was shown to wrap up the Maneater demo was, of course, the fights with the Shark Hunters in the game. The one in the above video, Scaly Pete, was not shown as he is supposed to be the best of the best in the game, but we did get to see few of the various others that will be called out when we make enough chaos in the world. Think of it like the Star-Ratings from GTA and the Shark Hunters are the FBI. Each has their own over-the-top persona for the show, as well as weapons and abilities to try to take us down. One of them had a sniper rifer that could fire through water and another dropped depth charges that we needed to avoid while trying to kill them and their crews. All of them interesting to say the least here.

I will have to say that Maneater looked to be a way cooler and fun game than I originally thought it was going to be based on the bit we had from last year. It looks like the team over at Blindside Interactive has made sure to have the fun of terrorizing humans as a shark with a cool little progression and boss fight system. The small clips of gameplay that are out there do not do the game justice at all based on what I was able to see as Maneater looks like it will capture us all when it does come out. It has humor, horror, and all the eating of humans one could want in a video game and I am overly excited to see it come to us in the near future. At least, I am hoping the near future.