Ever since watching Jaws as a kid, I’ve been intrigued by sharks. These megalodon descendants still feel pretty prehistoric to me. With endless rows of teeth, they still terrorize shores and will probably do so for millennia to come. In Maneater you take on the role of a shark out for vengeance.
Stupid Pete
Maneater starts you out as a giant shark out to terrorize the waters it lives in. Once you start attacking the unbeknownst humans on the nearby shore, Scaly Pete comes into play as a brutal shark hunter. He succeeds in catching you and soon you find yourself hanging from a hook. After your death, Scaly Pete finds out the shark was actually a female species. As he slips a knife in the belly of the shark, he finds out there was an offspring ready to be born. Scaly Pete decides to mark the infant with his knife and throw it back in the waters. In an epic turn of events the baby shark bites of the hand of Scaly Pete before setting off in the deep blue waters.
Darwin
You take on the role of the baby shark who’s out to take vengeance on Scaly Pete. When you start you’re obviously not reaching the level of terror your mother had in her heyday. Therefore you first need to grow and evolve to become strong enough to take out Scaly Pete. As a small shark, you are not yet on top of the aquatic food chain. Feasting on the smaller aquatic life and avoiding bigger predators gains you points which eventually leads you to grow bigger. Seeing your shark grow bigger as you spend more time in the game is a nice way to visually show your growth in level.
Maneater is actually an action-RPG albeit in a light version. Once you grow bigger, certain evolutions start to happen. These evolutions are directly influenced by the junk that’s being dumped in the waters you live in. Especially the hazardous nuclear material found in the water makes for some unexpected evolutions. Early on you develop a sonar ability which makes finding your prey a lot easier. Later on crazier abilities will become available, such as the ability to have a boney exoskeleton to make headbutting boats easier. The electrically charged teeth, on the other hand, will help you keep your prey stunned for longer to be able to devour it easier.
Megalodon
The waters presented in Maneater look awesome. At the start not all areas are open but once you start evolving the waters open up for you to roam freely. Each new area feels distinctive enough to have something to look forward too once you evolve further. In each area, you need to do some quests to advance the story. These are all reduces to repetitive fetch quests. Eating 10 humans or devour 10 fish is fun at first but gets old real fast. Killing enough humans draws attention to your presence. With hunters on the prowl coming after you when you’ve been painting the shores red. After getting rid of these hunters a boss hunter will appear. Besting them through killing them grants you new upgrades and more notoriety. The higher your notoriety, the closer you’re getting at taking revenge on Scaly Pete.
A bit of a learning curve
Controlling the shark in Maneater is not easy at the beginning. The range of motion in the waters is best compared to a flight sim game but instead of in the air, you are in the water. After switching the Y-axis movements to inverted I felt like I had more control. After an hour I tweaked it a bit further by adjusting the sensitivity settings which made everything feel much smoother. The fact I’ve been sight-seeing the deep water for a while might also contribute to me getting the hang of the movement. I do feel like Maneater has quite the learning curve to get used to. Maneater is also available on PC which might prove to be easier when you can use a mouse instead of the joysticks of a console controller.
Conclusion
The main quest involves way too many repetitive fetch quests but the world is so full of things to discover I didn’t mind. I spent more time just swimming around, leaping in the air, and finding the landmarks than anything else. All while being in awe by the sights to behold. The occasional shark facts by Chris Parnell (Jerry from Rick and Morty) made me crack up more than I care to admit.