OPINION

GAME ON: ‘Maneater' lets you be the (gory, gruesome) shark

(Democrat-Gazette illustration/Celia Storey)
(Democrat-Gazette illustration/Celia Storey)

Filed under "Why hadn't anyone made this already?" is "Maneater," a shark role-playing game by Tripwire Interactive.

Beginning as a baby bull shark, players will use rows of razor-sharp teeth to chow down on all aquatic and aquatic-adjacent life, from fish and turtles to gators and partying college students.

More Sharknado than Shark Week, "Maneater" includes Chris Parnell of SNL, 30 Rock fame announcing the action as if it's a cheesy TV show.

The game starts with players in control of an adult female bull shark and going on a rampage in the fictional Gulf Coast town of Port Clovis before being taken down by shark hunter Scaley Pete.

The perspective then switches to that of a baby shark, born amid that carnage and setting up a nature versus man revenge story.

And before you feel too bad about chomping down on literally hundreds of Port Clovis residents who can't seem to learn to stay out of the water, you should see what they've done to the ecosystem. The waters are full of garbage, pollution and even nuclear radiation.

Starting in a swampy biome, the player's baby shark hunts down catfish, turtles and other weak aquatic creatures to level up. Each feast adds nutrients that help your shark evolve, growing stronger, bigger and more lethal. Eat enough and hit various milestones, and your shark can unlock some less than realistic adaptations, like bio-electric teeth that inflict shock damage to enemies, stunning them and other nearby foes, or unbreakable bone armor that turns your shark into a battering ram, capable of easily destroying boats.

These upgrades are less evolutions than equipable gear, as returning to the shark's home base — The Grotto — allows players to swap various abilities in and out.

The abilities themselves are unlocked by killing certain apex predators, such as named shark hunters and other sharks and deadly sea creatures, or by discovering landmarks.

Part of the fun of being a shark, aside from all the killing, is exploring your underwater kingdom. Each biome has its own color palette and aesthetic details, with lots of landmarks, collectibles and chests to discover.

Helping players navigate is a dolphin-like sonar ability that can be upgraded throughout the game, revealing details about the area and creatures in it.

Combat is, unfortunately, a little lackluster. You'll spam the "bite" button a lot. There also are some tail swipe options and the ability to ram boats and leap from the water, but, well, being as you are fundamentally still a shark, there aren't that many options for weapons. Some abilities do give an area-of-effect attack, but still, mostly it's just biting.

The more humans your shark kills, the more a meter grows, much like a "wanted" level in "Grand Theft Auto," that will bring bounty hunters looking for you. They are armed with shotguns, laser sights and even dynamite.

And don't restrict yourself to your watery domain; while your shark can only survive out of the water for a few seconds before running out of breath and starting to take damage, eating humans too surprised to run away from a fish flopping about on land refills your health and lets you rampage across beaches, docks and even golf courses.

Eventually, you'll mature into a full-size killing machine, battling it out in underwater dogfights against orcas, sperm whales and giant crocs. Each watery biome has different enemies to snack on, and completing missions unlocks the next one while getting bigger and stronger lets players backtrack to explore areas they couldn't reach before.

"Maneater" is not a long game — about 10 to 12 hours is enough time to finish the game, depending on how much of a completist you are, but the relative brevity also feels about right because it does get a bit grindy.

Graphically, the game is pretty good, and you do need to be prepared for a lot of blood and viscera. It's shark mayhem, with a satisfyingly weird revenge story. I think the tone of the game, pairing big laughs with dark violence, works well. I thought Parnell's announcer work was great fun.

"Maneater" is equal parts silly and gory, and while at times the game tries to bite off more than it can chew, it's worth checking out, especially if it's on sale, or as a rental.

Title: “Maneater”

Platform: Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 (Nintendo Switch later this year)

Cost: $39.99

Rating: Mature for blood, gore, intense violence and mild language

Score: 7 out of 10

Style on 06/01/2020

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