This landmark is captioned “There Be Kaiju”. Landmarks are interesting moments frozen in time that range from tongue-in-cheek commentary around human behaviour through to pop-culture references ranging from finding a Banana Stand at the bottom of Sapphire Bay with the caption “There’s Always Money Here”, to a massive steel grate at the bottom of The Gulf, chained up yet bubbling below with magma. On top of the grottos, each biome also comes with a checklist of items to find and collect. 'Landmarks are interesting moments frozen in time that range from tongue-in-cheek commentary around human behaviour through to pop-culture references ranging from finding a Banana Stand at the bottom of Sapphire Bay with the caption “There’s Always Money Here”.' Each one of these biomes comes with a grotto for your Bull Shark a safe space where you can escape the other hungry animals outside and also upgrade. There are eight biomes in the game - the aforementioned Fawtick Bayou, Dead Horse Lake, Golden Shores, Prosperity Sands, Caviar Key, Sapphire Bay, Crawfish Bay and The Gulf - the largest space of all eight. And once you break the level 10 barrier, confidence grows in your ability to handle encounters, which then promotes the aforementioned exploration. Naturally, as with any progression system with XP and skills and abilities, you get stronger and gain new ways to combat the aggressive world around you. You begin the game as mentioned earlier as a pup, but through leveling you advance to teen, adult, elder and finally into something new altogether. With this in mind, Maneater is pitched as an action-RPG, and while to an extent that stands, it’s relatively lite-on. Non-aggressive animals such as grouper, catfish, turtles, seals, mackerel and more flesh out the underwater world, and each one you consume helps refill any lost health due to combat or hunters, while also giving your specific chemicals utilised in upgrading and mutating our Bull Shark.

After a prologue, our Bull Shark setup sees us, a young pup, without a mother needing to survive the dangers of Fawtick Bayou which is filled with alligators, barracuda and the most little dog-syndromed fish in the game, the muskellunge. This feeds into the loop, and helps balance the ecosystem for safety of travel and the aforementioned exploration. I say “light” because in the early stages of Maneater you are essentially grinding. It keeps it light and entertaining against the game’s collectathon loop built around exploration, leveling up, combat and mutation. 'After a prologue, our Bull Shark setup sees us, a young pup, without a mother needing to survive the dangers of Fawtick Bayou which is filled with alligators, barracuda and the most little dog-syndromed fish in the game, the muskellunge.'įor the most part this setup serves the game well.

Maneater review