Cabelas Trophy Bucks review

Oct 19, 2007

If the thought of getting up early, intentionally smelling like buck urine and sitting in one spot for hours waiting for something to shoot isn't entirely foreign, then Cabela's Trophy Bucks might seem interesting to you. Seem interesting.

In this single-player, single mode, first-person shooting game, you are plopped in the middle of a prime hunting spot right as the best game (in this case, animals) are passing through or where the best fowl have decided to nest. In each of the game's 96, 2- to 3-minute levels, you try to make the best kills using your inventory of Cabela's brand weapons and gear.

Ah, marketing at its most obvious. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work in anyone's favor since you really only see the brand name on the game box and the game really isn't very good.

First, the 3D environments offer inappropriately limited mobility. When you try to move to a better position and quickly pick off a few more fowl for extra points, random rocks in your path may force you into a standstill - yet you can pass (soundlessly, mind you) through most trees and bushes. Even the dog you are supposed to be able to send out to scare up hiding birds will run the wrong direction or, even worse, get glitched into running in an endless circle through environmental objects.

Selecting guns, gears and bows is an unwieldy process of pausing the game and scrolling through the same menu at the beginning of each level and every time you want to switch between animal calls and weapons.