Today, we’re taking a look at Maneater on the Nintendo Switch. This one been out for a while now on other platforms with it’s more than out there idea.
But how does it stand up on the Switch and is it worth your cash? Let’s get started! So story, yes, there’s a story and it’s one of revenge.
Starting the game you are an adult shark as the game teaches you the controls. Quickly, you happen across a beach. It’s a human buffet of sorts and you get to work, chowing down. Things escalate, blood is everywhere in a gratuitously over the top fashion and hunters show up to take you down.
A quick fight later though and Scaly Pete shows up, a legendary shark hunter that just happens to be filming his own documentary. He kills you. But not before cutting you open to discover a baby shark there, a struggle ensues. The baby rips off his arm and now you take control of pup shark and must evolve and grow and get revenge on the man who killed your mother.
It’s nuts, but it’s fun stuff in a b movie sort of way that I enjoyed thanks to some solid humor and a narrator that manages to inject some much needed personality to our adventure.
So gameplay and the best way to describe this one, an action adventure open world with some minor RPG systems to round things out.
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For the most part the idea though is simple, work towards that end goal of Scaly Pete by completing story based missions whether that’s taking down Pete supporters or taking on the local sea-life to grow and become the ultimate swimming weapon. It’s not deep in anyway.
But you can expect a swim faster button, I guess it wouldn’t be called sprint here, the ability to jump, the ability to dodge and of course the ability to chomp, you can do a spin tale attack as well and get sonar early in the game.
If your wondering about all those humans on land as well not just the ones who are stupid enough to go in what appears to be the deadliest water in the world. You can even survive on land for a brief moment thanks to an O2 meter that’s one of the weirdest things. I’ve seen in a game in a while. If you can top shark barreling across a golf course in a game recently, just let me know.
Because I want to play it. The story is relatively simple stuff though and it’s general theme is death and destruction for progression. The games menus make it simple though, pick a level, see a way point appear on screen.
It’s not particularly deep in. It’s combat mechanics though. It is a lot of fun in an arcade like style and the world is great fun to explore as you watch your shark grow. The world then, yes it is open. It’s split almost into bio mes as well. You can expect some different themes from swamps to major city waters which all leads to a little variety.
Around these missions then, you can also expect side missions, a fair few collectibles such as abandoned license plates. All of these actions though not only push the story forward though. This is where the RPG side of things comes into play because of what is, essentially, 4 currencies.
That’s Protein, Oils, Minerals and mutagen. This bit heres, essential, leveling up leads to the shark growing up and getting bigger. We use this to add on what the games calls evolutions and these can even be upgraded for example improved sonar, different body types to impact your stats, even things like Bio-Electrical teeth.
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My personal favorite and for sure a nasty way for those inhabiting this world to go out! Rounding out the game play then, we have what’s known as the infamy system and this is essentially the general public fear of you, increase it and 1 of 10 hunters show up who progressively increase in difficulty almost like mini boss moments.
I enjoyed this system as its by far. The most challenging element of the game and it pusher my inner shark to the max. So problems and I’ve played this game before and it’s far from perfect though.
I still really do like it, it’s repetitive though first off, what you see in those opening moments is what you get the whole way through and this one relies on it’s sense of humor and originality to carry it, it succeeds for the most part.
But it wears thin by the end of it’s 8 or so hour run time. This it’s mainly. Because it’s not deep, its more button mashing than anything. On top of this then, sharks move fast and in this case, the camera has a tough time keeping up, the usual 3rd person issue. But here it’s pushed further.
Because there’s more verticality as you go up and down and can be surrounded than in most other games out there. Sadly then, finally, the main issue here, the Switch version it has some performance issues. First up a weird one, the opening intro after the prologue, wouldn’t play twice for me, hopefully an easy fix.
It did let me skip it and I didn’t miss any story as such, rather. It’s just music and character intros, then though the frame rate, it starts off decent enough. I was actually impressed but the further you get, the more grandiose the world gets around you. It begins to struggle with minor almost freezes and a lot of, I would say around 20fps.
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This one it is targeting 30 and for a decent chunk of the game it succeeds but the further you get and the harder the game gets due to sheer enemy count the more the frame rate is impacted making the scenario even harder.
But these drops are frustrating because it came with difficulty, the games approach to difficulty really is, throw more hunters at you which at the same time made that frame rate drop.
I still think it’s playable however though and by the end. I had that very same sense the first time I played it. I’m glad it’s over, I’m feeling the burnout. But it was still very cool and no doubt it will be a game, I’ll reference up there on the weird scale for a long time to come. So graphically, it’s for sure seen some cutbacks to get things running.
I actually think they’ve done a good job here and made some smart calls, humans on beaches for example have less frames in there animation. But that I will take and Monster Hunter Rise used a similar strategy and it didn’t really bother me. For me it was this or a smaller lunch and I like the big lunch it presents.
The ocean looks good though and the games particularly impressive underwater, okay. When your swimming looking out into the world. But there’s a nice variety of locations from swamps to wealthy cities to biological areas and it manages to keep things fresh in a game that could have been very easily, visually repetitive.
Issues on the visual front outside of the downgrade, there’s for sure some pixilation thanks to the resolution, the character models on any platform can be repetitive and then, noticeable texture and object pop-in in the distance. That doesn’t impact the gameplay though and that’s the best possible outcome.
So yeah, visually, overall, it’s got some rough edges but the good here at moments, can be really good. So audio finally, and the music is forgettable stuff while in keeping with the theme and the sound effects, I liked them, simple over the top stuff, screams, other sea life, all that good stuff.
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Occasionally a sound misses like some of the sharks sound like whimpering dogs at times and the screams can get a little grating. Overall, I think they did what they needed to. I think the highlight though, the voice acting as they fully embrace the b-movie nature of this one with every line they deliver.
So the final verdict and if you’ve ever wanted to play an upgrade able shark, this is your game, not that you have any other choice that I can think of. Because I’m pretty sure this is a first of it’s kind. It embraces the b movie nature of it all though from the opening moments and delivers what is a consistent.
If repetitive gameplay loop that no doubt will put a smile on your face, just maybe take it in small sessions and not a couple of larger sittings. Sadly though, the switch build is the weakest and while visually they’ve done a great job. They still can’t quite keep performance where it needs to be for the entire run.
That’s ashame as well because the first couple of hours feel great and then it slowly but surely starts to buckle under the weight of everything. It’s trying to do. That said, I don’t wanna call this one average, I like the game and I still had no issue getting through this version of it.
But I will say, own another platform, start there first cause it’s gonna be a whole lot cheaper and honestly, that’s the better experience. A slightly above average 6 out of 10 from me for a game, that on other platforms would probably be more like a 7.
If this is your only option, I’d still recommend it just purely based on it’s out there concept. Will you be adding this one to your library or will you be holding onto that cash. I’ll see you all on the next article. Thanks everyone!
Maneater - Nintendo Switch: https://amzn.to/3fm9e7J
