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Way of the Hunter
Way of the Hunter builds its appeal around reading wildlife and choosing your own pace, whether you roam freely or pursue the family-business story. At ≈ $3.29 from 
Kinguin, weigh that deliberate solo or co-op hunting against how often you want to return to a sprawling wilderness; Steam players currently rate it 81% positive across 8,615 reviews. The Steam PC version is listed at $29.99; the comparable offer saves ≈ $26.70.
KinguinWay of the Hunter PC Steam CD Key (valid until May 2027)All-time low ~ $2.59across Steam & third-party stores
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $2.592026-02Current Low Across Stores~ $26.99GamesPlanet USvs. Historical Low+942%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
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01About Way of the Hunter
Take on a hunting lodge in Way of the Hunter, exploring open wilderness on foot or by car as you track wildlife and choose when to take a shot. Hunt freely or follow a story about a family hunting business, with solo play or co-op alongside friends. Steam player reviews: 81% positive from 8,615 reviews. Release date: August 16, 2022.
Credits
Developer
Nine Rocks Games
Publisher
THQ Nordic
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$2.592026-02-02 · GamesPlanet USBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | Yes | Yes | — |
| Traditional Chinese | Yes | Yes | — |
| English | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Show 10 more languages
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| French | Yes | Yes | — |
| Italian | Yes | Yes | — |
| German | Yes | Yes | — |
| Spanish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Arabic | Yes | Yes | — |
| Polish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Russian | Yes | Yes | — |
| Czech | Yes | Yes | — |
| Turkish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Japanese | Yes | Yes | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-19
02Before you buy
Play solo or together
The Steam PC version supports single-player and co-op with friends.
Controller and language support
Steam lists full controller support. Interface text and subtitles are available in English, while full audio is listed for English only.
03Frequently asked questions
What kind of hunting can I do?
Track animals in open-world environments in the USA and Europe, hunting freely or through a story about a family hunting business.
How do I travel around the hunting grounds?
You can explore the two locations by car or on foot.
Can I customize the hunting interface?
Hunter Sense can highlight useful details, and you can turn it off and customize the HUD.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
If you are serious about the game this will be a long read BUT well worth the time AND I hope the Devs see this as well. Almost 400 hours into the game I feel it is time for blunt honesty. ( Special Message for any Devs Below ) GOOD : The graphics, sound, animal models, rifle selection, and shooting mechanics are all spot on and done very well. ( Latest weapons patch does have issues though ) The Story is NOT award winning but interesting enough to be fun. The Mission system is well thought out, not super easy, and yet not overly difficult. Each map has a Lodge for mounting trophies, not one Lodge for everything. Real World Hunting Experience can and will serve you well in game to reduce the learning curve. Trophies are NOT spawned and thrown at you...they are grown and You MUST EARN THEM. Hunting Pressure acts and reacts VERY Realistically. Maps are huge and well thought out with plenty of room to add more species. You can tell the Devs really put their best foot forward in the planning and implementation stages to create a REAL WORLD Hunting Sim. Their efforts have produced a game with GOBS OF POTENTIAL. BAD : Since day ONE : there is ONE BIRD FILE that was recorded at 100% volume and does not react well to the ambient noise volume slider. If at ANY time you remain still for any length of time this bird slowly gets louder, and Louder, AND LOUDER until you will lose your hearing using a headset. The ONLY way to silence him is to move, and then the volume creep begins all over again, until you move again. SPOOKING : Is super realistic and done very well BUT...BIG BUT HERE...the sensitivity is UNGODLY HIGH. I have and continue to spook animals at over 400 yards away WITH SLOW TO NO MOVEMENT AND THE WIND BLOWING AT ME. Very seldom do animals give an ALERT call to hint to me I need to stop or slow down. They go from CALM to WARP SPEED with no alerts at all. I have also spooked animals at long range THROUGH HILLS where there is ZERO sight distance and no wind effects at all WHILE SLOW CREEPING. Animal Movement : Major issue here is the fact that almost everyone has experienced animals WALKING ACROSS THE BOTTOM OF A LAKE / POND. Also shooting an animal and it runs to the center of a pond and dies where you can't harvest it. WALL OFF THE WATER...Let the animals wade knee deep sure BUT WALL OFF THE WATER. Character Movement : He can safely stroll THROUGH DOWNED TREES but THE SMALLEST PEBBLE GRABS HIS FOOT AND STOPS HIM COLD?? There are also places in the map with a grade he can climb without issue, yet other lesser grades he just slides down repeatedly?? From Day ONE : Optimization has been spotty at best especially for AMD GPU users. The game has run well but with issues. FPS drops and sound stutters being the main 2 culprits. The Devs HAVE stated it is better suited for NVidia users and they would try and remedy the issue. I have seen modest improvements but it is NO WHERE NEAR where the optimization should be for an AMD GPU. ( 6700XT & R9-3900X ) Something I have seen with my own eyes but thankfully not in my game YET : Random herd resets on platforms...PC, PS5, and XBox. Groom a herd to produce wonderful trophies...they drop a patch...now that herd has disappeared and all your work is for nothing. This happens with no mention of it in the Patch Notes. SOMETHING I HAVE SEEN IN MY GAME : You spend days culling and grooming a herd...NEVER shooting more than One and at times not shooting at all...you watch as the males grow to enormous trophy size and are almost ready to produce....AND THE GAME RANDOMLY SWAPS THAT HERD TO ANOTHER AREA ON THE MAP. Now all of your work is for naught because you have to hunt EVERY area that animal is known to be to find THAT HERD. In this process you waste so much time those trophies die and it is pointless. Animals are creatures of habit. Where there is food, water, and bedding WITHOUT ANY ENCROACHMENT they will STAY. Human contact, scent, and shooting will push them out...or for some the Rut will make them move slightly....BUT as long as they are unmolested and comfortable they will STAY THERE. I have proven this IN GAME with careful culling and A LOT OF time spent just OBSERVING. For the game to just decide to move my herds on a whim after all the work I put in is a SLAP IN THE FACE to say the LEAST. I realize Pressure can make animals change zones BUT when you DELIBERATELY MINIMIZE PRESSURE as much as possible and the herd still disappears? Hunter Sense : Works well but it has issues..the Main issue being THE HIGHLIGHT COLOR...it is the same color as the highlight for need zones. A bleeding animal can run through a need zone and it takes DAYS to find the blood trail because your blood highlight is the same color as the zone!!! Either make highlight colors different OR give US AN OPTION to set the colors how we want them PLEASE!! Spotting : Very Realistic but Very Cumbersome for a Game...if the ONLY way to spot is with Binocs then fine I can accept that BUT ANIMALS MOVE. The animation time between Binocs and Rifle up at the ready KILLS THE SPOT because animals are always moving. At least allow us SOME KIND OF MARKER through the binocs in order to maintain track on the animal we want. This way there are a lot less wrong animals shot. MULTIPLAYER : Was at first unplayable...and is now PLAYABLE but still a total steaming pile. WORK IN PROGRESS and nowhere near release ready. for any Devs : First off : This game is astounding and everyone should be praised for their efforts. This game truly has an insurmountable amount of Potential to be Famous and Top of The Heap. Having said that it is time for blunt honesty. Firstly : This game was RELEASE WORTHY NOT RELEASE READY. Whoever had the total Brain Fart to release a REALISTIC HUNTING SIM without BOWS, PORTABLE STANDS, AND COVER SCENT needs a serious reprimand and some lessons on Hunting in general. I don't care what their position is they need a serious talking to even if it is the CEO. I am NOT a Bow Hunter. I have over 40 years Hunting with rifles of various types and Hunting various game. TOO MANY PEOPLE BOW HUNT TO ALIENATE HALF YOUR PLAYER BASE ON RELEASE!!!!! These things SHOULD have been IN GAME DAY ONE and were not. SECOND : There are a lot of issues present from Day One...and after numerous patches THEY ARE STILL THERE. For Gods Sake people!!! STOP trying to make good on promises and create more content!! We appreciate your efforts we really do!! Fix the CORE GAME FIRST and make it what it truly CAN BE!! THEN worry about new guns, maps, and animals. If the core code is bugged it does no good to throw patch over patch on top of it. FIND the issues and FIX them THEN WORRY ABOUT CONTENT AND PATCHES. FINALLY : This is in reference to point two above. IF you want to BETA test your game there are better ways to do it than SELL IT TO US and wait for us to complain. If I am going to BETA test for you AFTER spending my money on the game YOU WILL SEND ME A CHECK EVERY WEEK AS AN EMPLOYEE. This practice by game developers is reprehensible to say the least. There are 2 ways to remedy this reputation which game developers have brought upon themselves : ONE : Make the game a BETA and hold a contest...choose a certain number of winners to play the game for FREE and send in feedback. NO ONE spends anything and you get the information you need to make the game RELEASE READY. TWO : GO BACK TO THE BEST WAY TO TEST : Hire your own BETA testing team and set them up in HOUSE. Test your game 14 ways from Sunday BEFORE you even consider releasing it. ONLY THEN do you release the free BETA contest and let others test it as well. FINALLY you have all the information needed for a TRUE STABLE RELEASE. PLEASE for Gods Sake STOP expecting your customers to do the work for you. It makes customers LESS LIKELY to purchase your content in the future, and really effects your reputation as a Developer when you expect us TO PAY TO TEST YOUR GAMEShow moreShow less
363.4 hours at review602 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Looked interesting and like a fun game to chill through, but so many features just missing. I can look past it looking like an XBox 360 titles at times*, but there's no FOV slider or even the ability to rebind keys. I cannot play at the provided FOV without becoming nauseous. I don't care if they're in the roadmap or planned releases. Having a skin pack and season pass available on release but lacking key and COMMON accessibility options is just scummy. * This is not quite true. I experienced bad frames and heavy ghosting during the opening cutscene that made it similar to better done cutscenes on the 360. The little gameplay I experienced had decent enough graphics with an occasional dip in quality. It is passable for a non-AAA game in this regard. edit: Fixed some spelling mistakes and added the * appendixShow moreShow less
0.2 hours at review570 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
As stated in another review, it would be difficult to review Way of the Hunter without comparing it to COTW, since that's what most folks who enjoy this genre are familiar with. Let's get into how Way of the Hunter does things. - Animal behavior seems more realistic. One spooked animal will, in turn, spook the whole herd. Hunting pressure can cause animals to completely avoid an area for a while. Deer, elk, etc. all seem to graze or "feed through" a zone rather than standing stationary for the entire feeding session. Deer will turn their ears and flick their tails while they feed, periodically raising their heads and looking around. Also, whitetails will show their trademark white tail when fleeing, and mule deer have that graceful mulie hop. I've yet to see a herd return to a need zone in the same day after being shot at. - Animal aggression is a recently added feature. I've only experienced it once in-game so far, in which I was charged by a single mountain goat after spooking the entire herd. Seemed a little...arcadey. You can look back through the patch notes to get an idea of their initial implementation of aggression. Not a huge fan of how they've set it up, but I'm sure it will be refined as the developers continue making improvements. - Weapon ballistics are much better than COTW, factoring in bullet velocity, gravity, wind, elevation, and coriolis (so I'm told). Terminal ballistics is measured in joules, and each animal has a range of joules (low to high) which is most effective for an efficient kill. You aren't punished for overkill in the trophy lodge (doesn't lower trophy rating), but the idea of overkill and reduction of harvestable meat does result in lower monetary payouts for using "too much gun". - Blood trails are one of my favorite features of the game. If you turn off the glowy bits in the UI settings, you must actively search for blood, which may be on the ground, on the grass, or on the stem of a bush the deer ran through. Blood has different colors based on what organs were (or weren't) hit, and different impurities (such a bubbles or bits of grass) to help you determine if you made a good shot or not. - The maps are big...more that you'll want to try to walk acoss, and very detailed. The terrain geometry is well done, and I've yet to see tears in textures or seams where two sections of the map meet. Overall, the scenery is gorgeous. - Graphically, it looks good. The anti-aliasing could be toned down a bit, but I run a sharpening filter through the nVidia overlay to reduce fuzziness and film grain. - Performance is good. I'm running a GTX 1080 8GB, Ryzen 7 3600, 32GB of DDR4, with WotH installed on an SSD, and a 1080 60Hz LCD monitor. I get around 50 fps on average with all settings at max. - WotH solves my single biggest issue with COTW - its locked 480m render distance. Way of the Hunter will render as far out as your system will handle, which makes proper spot-and-stalk hunting much more realistic and fun. - All hunting stands are prebuilt and spread around the map. Most that I've found so far have been in decent locations. - Herd quality (overall trophy ratings) can be improved by removing low-fitness males from the herd (culling). This will, over time, give you more opportunity to take a nice trophy animal. Killing females will lower the overall population of a herd. Now, for some of the things Way of the Hunter doesn't do so well. - Vehicle physics in WotH are pretty bad. The atv seems to be a bit better than the jeep, but it's still not great. This is ultimately a minor issue, since that really isn't the focus of the game. - There are no mobile spawn points. Not gonna lie, I got really spoiled by the tents in COTW. WotH has lodges/cabins and campsites spread throughout the map, but it can sometimes still be a bit of a walk to get to your intended hunting spot. The cabins have a spawn/retrieval point for vehicles, but the campsites are on walking trails and do not. - There are no mobile stands like tripods or treestands. Thus, you must depend on wind direction, terrain, and foliage if you choose to ambush hunt a location without an established stand. - Running and trekking rough terrain. Okay, developers...on the off chance that you read this, can we please get a slightly more athletic character? I mean, you play a character who is supposed to be a Hollywood stunt double that also does parkour, but he can't step over a fallen spruce tree or climb a three-foot ledge? - Crawling/prone in general is frustrating. The animations look fine, but for some reason the camera gets all wonky and has a tendency to snap down on its own. I believe this is an unintended bug. - The storyline is a little cheesy and the whole hunting ethics thing is way overdone. I get wanting to promote ethical hunting. It needs to be done. But I feel like I've gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson with the number of references to ethical hunting in WotH. And if I get one more email from some gourmet chef wanting some obscure duck or goose for his dish I can't pronounce, I'm going to hunt him down and cook his goose. Really, I just want to hunt. - The weapons selection leaves a lot to be desired. There are a number of rifles covering every class of huntable creature in the game, and I do appreciate the time and effort and cost that likely went into getting officially licensed gear, but your only two options are Steyr and Remington. The rest of the weapons selection looks generic. Shotguns are strictly limited to birds and small game, which I hope to see expanded upon the future so we can use buckshot and slugs for large game. Edit: Compound bows have been added. - Character customization is non-existent, as you play one of three preset characters. I don't know if this is in the roadmap or not. Ultimately it doesn't make that big of a difference as camo clothing doesn't exist in the game and has zero effect (remember, terrain and foliage are your camo), and you only see your hands unless in third-person camera while driving or during one of the few cutscenes in the game. So, while WotH may not offer the customization features or some of the quality-of-life features of CotW, it represents hunting better in the things that matter - animal behavior, natural beaty, and ballistics. And, I'm perfectly okay with that. I'd rather the developers put the time and effort into making a proper hunting game than a hunting arcade with too much feature creep. Overall, I'd say if you're one of those who wish CotW had more realism, then add Way of the Hunter to your library. You won't be disappointed.Show moreShow less
34.5 hours at review463 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
The game is fun to a certain degree, its pretty, the maps are huge and has other good aspects I like. What is getting annoying though is the ballistic performance of certain calibers in the game. Being a irl hunter and having witnessed and killed Mule deer with calibers such as the 243 and the 7mm 08 i can testify that the right bullet and good shot placements can cleanly and QUICKLY kill a mule deer at minimum 250 yards. It is easy to tell the devs missed the mark when it comes to this important realistic detail. After shooting a handful of bucks at 150-200 yards with the 7mm-08 and having them run 500 meters after a double lung shot really ? Then looking at the shot chart and saying that the bullet lost ALL energy after the bullet hit the first lung is ridiculous. I don't mind long track jobs if i know i made a bad shot but when your shooting a caliber that is easily required to quickly kill a deer at 200 yards and the games says otherwise is unrealistic. They should have talked to a ballistician at one of the bullet manufactures before making this game. Once again another Hunter sim game that spent to much time on the looks and the story of the game instead of the real life performances on the calibers. The tracking feature is challenging and I like that, but when you have to track virtually every deer if you shot it over literally 100 yards really takes the fun out of it. I guess to some who do not hunt in real life this may not seem like a big deal and may enjoy the game. But to us real life hunters that play a game that says "Hunting Simulator" we have high standard and know what the game needs to be like. I guess nothing will ever be like Cabelas big game hunts 2005 and their Dangerous Hunt series.Show moreShow less
7.7 hours at review278 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
This review is primarily to be a counterpoint to the people review-bombing it. Pros: + Animal models are very good, with good animations and transitions between animations. + Foliage looks very good at a distance and not that bad up close. + Tracking animals by the blood trail is pretty interesting, the blood splatters are detailed and show the direction the animal was moving without being an arrow pointing right to them. Tree limbs will be spattered with blood if the animal brushes up against them, and tall grass will also be spattered. + "Hunting Sense" gives you the toggle-able ability to see animal tracks, spoor, need zones, blood trails, etc with a light outline. The fact that it is not on or off all the time and in an easy at-will keybind makes the game much more immersive and visually stimulating. + The Perks system gives you a type of progression without being tied to "levels". + Small touches. There are lots of these, far too many to go into in a quick review like this. From the blood spatters, the focus on ethical hunting, the calls and sounds of animals moving, to an extra-long-range rendering distance for animals (about twice as far as Call of the Wild). + Animals age! That young deer already has an impressive rack (don't giggle), but it has room to grow. So let it grow. It will become a trophy buck after a few more play sessions. Though if you don't find it again, it may die of old age. Seriously. + This goes hand-in-hand with the previous pro, and that is that you can essentially make trophy herds by careful selection and culling. That's an incredible level of detail in a game like this. + Varied calls allow you to call in the specific type of animal in a herd you're looking to hunt. Does, low-quality males, and higher-quality trophy males. Cons: - No FOV slider on launch - Devs have already said this is coming in the near future. - Some people have had the game crash on them. Is this unheard-of on launch day for games? - No way to change or alter keybinds at launch - Devs are already fixing this in the near future. - Some controls are a bit sluggish, specifically weapon swaps. - The visual transition to and from Hunter Sense is disorienting to some people. - Multiplayer is unstable at launch - again, not unheard-of at launch (the game's been out for like 3 hours now) and I'd give it a week or so for them to get things much more stable. - Weapon descriptions are pretty poor, as is information on which firearms are better for which animals at-a-glance on the shop page. - Shotguns only have bird shot. Seriously?Show moreShow less
1.7 hours at review269 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Updated review 11/02/22. They still have not fixed one of the major mistake in the game, Spook Distance. Not just how the animals react, lack of calls and body behavior, but the distance at which they spook and how easily they do. In real life, you couldn't get the reaction this game has at 100 yards. Heck I remember as a young man, getting to my hunting area late, on more than one occasion, so I ran there. Only to drop my head, cause without realizing it, I ran right into the middle of the group. All the deer looking at me like, who crashed the party. Even then, if I remained still they did nothing. Yet while prone, in the brush, down wind animals will spook at over 200 yards. That is not even close to realistic, or even super realistic as some would have you believe. This is an animal preserve, so they don't even know how to react to a hunter. It's just so laughable. How would our ancestor ever eaten anything? Wife, need more arrows/stones, darn animals have super power, sight, smell and hearing. We may need a new tribe, we can call it Vegan. Lets hope Devs, no touch berries, fruits and vegetables or we starve. Update 10/5/22 Only two updates even with all the players who've paid to beta test this game. Now a Bear release, wait for it, with a tag of dev. version. Look I'm not trying to save people who already paid for this game money. I'm just telling the truth of the game as it is. If you know nothing of hunting and your expectations of a simulation game isn't high, buy this game. I seriously doubt you will be disappointed, well unless you want to do multi-player. Be somewhat warned though, if you watch the latest, dev. #7 game review, pay attention they state they have an intended play style approach for players. So you will feel a sense of not fully in control when playing. Possibly the reason why so many players have a problem with the game, classified as a simulation. Update 09/18/22 Well it seems, so far, blood trails are working as they should. Wind and sound noise has also been adjusted to prevent the feeling you are, in Hurricane Jane or Big Foot walking around. I still have hope that support for this game will continue. I'll wait to see what is fixed next before changing to a thumbs up. Patches should be popping fairly quick with all the people they now have, actually beta testing. WoW!!! There are some really crazy people. Buy, Buy Buy it's awesome. ROFL My original review still stands. But I'm updating it with this. 08/23/2022 People are comparing this game to Call of the Wild, hunting game. A game that is 5 years old. Which I also own. They are saying CotW is arcade style and WotH is a real life hunting simulation. Really?!!!! Since when do hunters use Red Bull bullets? You remember the Red Bull commercials. It gives you wings. Cause when you shoot a large animal, you give them wings. They bleed, but no longer leave tracks. One week since release. No Dev. message admitting their mess nor their plan to fix it. Stay Away until you know for sure the up coming state of the game. It's your money and you deserve it. Below is my original review........... Boy I really want to give this game a thumbs up. But currently I cannot. While you have those that want to bash others for a negative review, they sadly aren't interested in an opinion of a different gamer. Why do I give this a negative review, this game is not ready for release. At best this is a beta release and players are paying to beta test it. It's very clear this was not done prior to release. You can tell by how many objects are elevated off the ground. Walking a trail and there is more poo piles, that are fresh btw, than all the animals in a normal zoo. But when you track down that beast of a herd, there are only six animals. Scripted events occur as you draw near and not by line of sight. So you character may comment about an animal, without having seen it, cause it's on the other side of a hill. Raise your rifle and zoom in with your scope, what happens. The scope doesn't zoom in, your entire FOV zooms in. Just to name a few things. There are more...... So when you read the review of a thumbs up bashing a negative review, realize they paid for this game already. Just like I have and have played it well past the refund option. So they want other people to buy this game. Cause if other people don't put money into, the less likely the producers and devs will. I've read many of the negative reviews and I have yet seen one of them say anything about the game that is not true. Don't listen to the lemon sellers. You know those reviews that say it's OK to buy a game that's not ready, it's normal so we should accept it. Those individuals have no concept of what normal is. Normal is, getting what you paid for and not a reflection of what you were buying. With that being said, I hope the game does get the patches it needs. It is a beautiful game and some clever thought went into it. THQ has normally been a gaming company with a good reputation. I've got future release games of theirs on my wishlist. I hope I don't have to remove them. Wait to see if the developers are committed to game via patches. If they are and you like hunting games, buy it. If not walk away and don't worry about the tears falling from the thumbs uppers. Cause this is normal.. and they'll accept it as such. LOLShow moreShow less
18.9 hours at review244 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
NVIDIA 1080ti average FPS: 70-110 MAX Settings. TLDR: Read my review. I have about 150 hours in The Hunter: Call of the Wild (TH:COTW). I am also a real life hunter and outdoorsman, though most of my time "hunting" is more accurately described as "hiking a trail while holding a weapon; no animals nearby." This game takes place in a place called the Nez Perce Valley. This is the name of an actual Native American Tribe that originally inhabited much of the pacific northwest regions of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Today, they have a reservation in northern Idaho. This game does a good job of capturing the general feel and aesthetic of those regions with sharp sheer mountain peeks and open terrain that you will find at around 8,000 feet of elevation. I think this game has a solid foundation and good bones to build on. It has the clean User Interface of Sniper Ghost Warrior, driving and navigation like Far Cry 5, and scenic vistas and a map size like TH:COTW. If you can imagine what the base game of TH:COTW in 2017 released as, you'll have a good idea of how this game will feel. First impressions are positive, and the $40 price is justifiable. You can't compare TH:COTW in 2022 after 5 years of patches and DLC addons to this because then you're comparing a $20 game + $135 DLC ($165) to a $40 base game + $20 season pass ($60). They can both coexist and learn new mechanics to add from each other. I'm playing it right now and enjoying it. If you like this niche genre of hunting games, you'll like it or pass on it within 30 minutes. I think TH:COTW still stands as the top hunting game on Steam. Way of the Hunter comes in right beside TH:COTW and I look forward to how the development team expand and add new content. There's some obvious work that needs to be done, and this game is not polished at all. I think this is healthy market competition; but at this point does not offer enough over TH:COTW to be considered a replacement. I would consider this game a supplement if you're getting burned out. For now, I will enjoy taking in new scenery, unlocking new rifles, and trying to not to spook all the game with my footsteps. Well done; 8/10.Show moreShow less
0.4 hours at review253 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Okay. This game is NOT finished. - Looks decent but way too performance hungry - No stable fps . also not lockable. - Keybord-controls NOT changeable and the default ones are quite bad - Bugs and ALOT of unpolished things CO-OP is a mess. No chance to enjoy. We found like 20 different problems in 90 min. - Plenty of desync problems - Caracters getting stuck or animation locked - Animals freezing / slideing / teleporting - Actions just "stay activated" (like scoping in or crouching) Refund :(Show moreShow less
1.4 hours at review223 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Hello & thanks for being here. After 1050+ hours of playing this game in about 9 months, I am dissapointed in it in the end. Was expecting the ultimate hunting game. Yes, that is a lot of hours in this short amount of time, so you might say '' he likes it a lot then ''. Let's talk about the positive: - Great graphics. ( But hey! If a company in 2023-2024 can't reach that goal of having great graphics for a hunting game, they might be in the wrong category no? ) Everything looks good. Animals, weapons, landscapes, etc. - Animals behaviours: At first, looks cool. When a herd of animals stops what they are doing & look at you, it's cool. I'll talk about the negative side of that later. - There are some missions: They are mixed in terms of difficulty. The story missions are a bit ridiculous in terms of the story. Lots of talking, that I did skip most of the time. - The inventory/menu: It could be better made imo. Lots of settings though to suit anyone. - There are enough weapons for my liking. Rifles, bows, xbows. That's all I need really. Besides all that, I don't see any other things that could be considered positive. The negative now: - Animal behaviours are all the same. No matter if you are a predator or a prey, they all act in the same way. They all react to a call the same way. Incoming like a zombie. - Herd management: Yes, the major idea behind this game is herd management. Meaning that you kill the weakest ones in a herd to make the big boys grow more to eventually have a 5* animal to harvest. But the main problem for me is that I could work on a 4* animal for weeks, yes weeks ( 1 to 3 ) and one day, that 4* died on me. So all this time playing, all these hours on this animal for no results in the end, for nothing. So not a big fan of that. - After all the map is open & all missions done, not much to do. Because in the end, harvesting, hunting 5* is the main goal in this game no matter what anyone says. - The speeds of our avatar are all wrong. Either too fast or too slow. And that since launch. When walking upright, it looks like you are jogging! - No real tracks left by animals. There are tracks on the ground but they are static. If you shoot an animal & he flees, runs away, you can't follow his tracks because he doesn't leave any. - Animal injured with bad shot will heal themselves. No matter how many bad shots you make, they will always heal themselves. Unlike in other games where after let's say 2 - 3 shots on an animal, these shots will accumulate pain-wise & eventually the animal will die. Not in WotH. They survive all the time. Ridiculous. - Need Zones: They have a system of NZ where animals go to to eat, sleep, drink. This becomes very mechanical & too predictable in the end. Go to a spot you know one species will arrive at ''x'' hour & wait for them. Rince & repeat until you get what you want. - MP: Multi player games are bugged for some & have issues. This also since launch. The main complaint is that guests can't claim their kills. Animal invisible to some players, etc. So you play at your own risk. - Trophy animals: All the big animals you get, for example the Moose, all the big 5* Moose you'll get are all the same. They have pretty much all the same looking antlers. So in your lodge, you'll have duplicated animals to show. - Going unconscious: When you get attacked or you fall, you are returned to the main lodge. This is annoying big time to me. Even more now that the Afican animals, some of them, can attack you. Not sure if I am forgetting some stuff but you should have an opinion of what this game is really all about now. I was expecting way more. Would I recommend it? Sure if you have lots of time to play because that game is very demanding time-wise & if you don't mind having few results for all this time invested. Thanks for reading & be well.Show moreShow less
1,037.9 hours at review191 people found this helpful
Received for free
Not recommendedSteam player
Pretty game, interesting hunting system, so on and so forth. But there is one fundamental reason I cannot recommend this game. After playing it a bunch I have come to the conclusion of how the "spook" system works with animal if fundamentally flawed. No its not a bug, its a design limitation to how the devs coded this game to work. So the player has a "detection" status. This is modified by many things. You the player object, has a scent vector that sparks a spook for one. Then you have your visibility, which is ONLY modified by stance, vegetation, and I think weather. This is checked also by your "sound" status which is based on your movement. The animals then operate on scrips with radius triggers. At something like 250 yards they start doing "detection" checks against you as you try to stalk them. And its an insane distance that is SO far outside reality of actual animals. Do you really think animals bug out if they are within 3 stadiums or something uncomfortable? They then are constantly doing "checks" against the player's stat and if you are too high in sound, viability, or the scent vector is on them, they run away about 500 to 1000 yards. Know what is NOT part of this calculation? THE GROUND. Yes, its not your imagination, the animals really CAN see you through the hillsides. The game makes no attempt to check for terrain when doing a detection check on the animals. Thus you constantly, consistently, always end up spooking animals you cannot possibly see at ranges of up-to 300 yards. Its completely unfair that your prey can see you when you cannot POSSIBLY see it no mater how good you are. The end user experience? You are walking an empty map with little "sound detected" bubbles popping up at extreme distances and keep turning into fleeing critters. You can play for an hour and never get anything in a close range. So really all you do is wander around, bouncing between need zones hoping to get lucky at extreme ranges. I've been having MUCH more fun with that "other" hunting game because they are much more generous with the detection radius and animal tolerance. You still have to stalk, take your time, and so forth, and you can still be detected through the ground, but its much less severe. I also struggle a lot with the "Grainy" look to this game as the shadows use dithering instead of blurring and its AA support is suspect at best. But these gripes are far less than the big problem of animals having ground earth-penetrating super vision making this game completely unfair.Show moreShow less
75.5 hours at review207 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.