Maneater

Maneater is a straight forward game with a novel hook (what if GTA was about a shark?) and a refusal to over complicate that idea turned it into one of the most entertaining games of the year.

Maneater’s bite comes from its stunning underwater animations, comedic notes spread throughout the game, and the fact that you get to play an entire game as a goddamn shark. There simply isn’t anything else like it, even if it does follow some of the more rote open-world playbook rules when it comes to progression and collectibles. A choppy framerate in intense sequences is really one of the only things holding the experience back, but like a fisherman without a hand—or a leg—it doesn’t stop me from heading back to the open water for more. Am I still scared of sharks? Hell yeah, more than ever, but at least now I can be scares and fascinates me.

A heck of a catch. There’s plenty below the surface: this shark RPG isn’t afraid to comment on cycles of violence and pollution, while also being a gleefully good time. [Issue#177, p.145]

Maneater is an original concept that is brave enough to weigh an entertaining premise and pro-environmental message in equal measure. An over-reliance on repetitive item collecting mires a surprisingly Hemingway-esque tale that left me more than satisfied once the credits rolled. Tripwire Interactive managed to capture the thrill of playing one of the Ocean's apex predators in a game that shouldn't be missed. We don't often see games that offer the kind of unbridled fun that Maneater does.

Maneater mixes ferocious combat, addictive exploration and great humour into a perfectly-sized open world where you play as a murderous shark. It's the game we never knew that we needed.

This is no worthy exploration of man's cruelty to the natural world, and I suspect marine biologists would have something to say about much of the science, but it's the perfect distraction from a world gone mad, and weirdly therapeutic. When you're not filling the water with blood or launching an innocent human into the air with a flick of your tail, the waters are a pretty playground, and there's always mischief to be made in the resorts, water parks, and marinas. Just don't dob me into the killer whale I sponsored when I was 12.

Although it's hindered by performance issues, Maneater allows you to gleefully live out your wildest (and perhaps bloodiest) killer shark revenge fantasies. What's more, the game's dark sense of humor means you don't have to feel guilty about the carnage that ensues.

An occasionally rough but always entertaining open world actioner that puts players in control of one of nature's greatest predators, Maneater is the over the top, human chomping odyssey that many of us never knew that we wanted. Until now.