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- Tripwire Interactive
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- Tripwire Interactive
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- Tripwire Interactive
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- Tripwire Interactive
Maneater
Released On: May 22, 2020
70
6.4
Where to Buy
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All Platforms
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Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 47 Critic Reviews
70
43% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
49% Mixed
23 Reviews
23 Reviews
2% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 47 Critic Reviews
70
43% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
49% Mixed
23 Reviews
23 Reviews
2% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Much like no one ever sees a shark attack coming, Maneater is a gem hidden in an ocean of offerings and those who find it will be in for a precious and fun experience.
Maneater Art
It's a tough life being a shark. Time and time again, the media portrayal of sharks shows them as relentless monsters, whether through the tension of Jaws or the more absurd The Meg. Maneater looks to add some balance by casting the player as the aquatic predator, acting as the protagonist of the story rather than as the perennial heel.
Developed by studio Tripwire Interactive, Maneater leans heavily into cheesy shark movies. Unthinking and aggressive, the player consistently terrorizes animal and human alike in its quest to become an ultimate predator. Moving from bayou to coast, before moving into the deep of the sea, Maneater is a vicious and hilariously over-the-top experience.
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Maneater Art
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How To Level Up Fast & Effectively in Maneater
Maneater's core premise of destruction comes in the form of an open world sandbox. The player's bull shark doesn't quite have the same depth of the characters of GTA 5, but the end result can be just as explosive. Once Maneater gets going, the promise of being an unstoppable aquatic killer is an intoxicating concept that works incredibly well.
Maneater Jumping Shark
To begin with it's quite sluggish, however. An introductory tutorial level, where the player has full control of an adult shark as it sates its appetite with unsuspecting swimmers, abruptly ends when the shark is caught and butchered by our main antagonist, Scaly Pete. This shark hunter cuts a young bull shark out of its caught mother and throws it into the bayou - but not before the pup takes Pete's hand off as swift retribution.
After that, the player takes on the role of the orphaned shark, chomping down on an assortment of unsuspecting wildlife as it grows big enough to take on larger prey. It's surprisingly slow going at this stage, strangely similar to the bizarre SNES game E.V.O.: Search For Eden, as the shark gets power-up boosts, gains levels, and stealthily hunts its prey while avoiding larger predators like alligators.
Before too long, Maneater gets into its groove. The game plays heavily on its outlandish premise, amping up what was seen in 2006's Jaws Unleashed to its logical conclusion. Along the way Maneater throws in a fair bit of comedy, framing itself as a reality TV show following shark hunters and spitballing jabs at everything from Fyre Festival through to Waterworld and Pennywise the Clown.
Maneater Bayou
The core gameplay then falls into a loop that's been seen many times before in open world games. The quest for vengeance leads the shark into various parts of the city, thinning out the population of prey or predators, killing some unsuspecting civilians to gain infamy, before taking down the boss and moving onto the next area. Strangely enough, Maneater's closest structural peer is Mafia 3, albeit replacing its complex human main character for a slightly less nuanced portrayal of a furious fish.
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Rather than the mob bosses or fearsome foes of other open world games, Maneater instead has two unique kinds of challenge. Each part of the city's waterways is the home of a specific apex predator that is significantly tougher than the usual enemies, such as a mako shark or an alligator, which is lured out after the player has completed enough quests within the area. Meanwhile, growing your infamy with human kills will attract the attention of named shark hunters that prove to be more difficult than the usual hunters that the player faces, with this mechanic feeling almost akin to the Cult of Cosmos assassinations in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
Maneater does fall into the trap of becoming a collect-a-thon at times, which certainly isn't for everyone, and this adds to the sense of repetition that sometimes feels like unnecessary padding. Thankfully Maneater does a better job than most games that fall into this trap, thanks to the snippets of humor received via Chris Parnell’s great voiceover work as the host of the titular shark hunting show.
Maneater Hunter
This sense of repetition is the only major negative of Maneater, as apart from that the game lives up to the promise of an unrestrained creature feature experience. Growing from a youthful shark through to a terrifying elder is satisfying, and the game's on-the-nose environmental message is portrayed with a tone that feels like a bastardized version of Captain Planet.
The best way that this is showcased is with Maneater's outrageous upgrade system, with the shark given genetic mutations that are narratively tied to the pollution that seeps through the waterworks of the game. The player can become a bone-coated horror shark that would give the characters of Deep Blue Sea nightmares, and choose upgrades that allow the shark to slow down time and release poison, or even give off lethal electric shocks.
Maneater is at its best when the player is fully upgraded, and able to wreak havoc on the general population. One of the best bonuses in the game makes the bull shark amphibious, allowing them to jump onto land for longer periods of time and partake in such wonderful moments as gatecrashing an ocean-side rave and ruining the party. Alternatively, the player could choose to take their neon death shark into the middle of an orca show, jumping into the seats and mercilessly eating the audience.
Maneater Electric Shark
Quite simply, it's a joy to play when unleashing the true power of this ultimate predator. A lot of the time, the player will be best served by ignoring what Maneater is telling them to do and instead just deciding to ruin someone's day. When the option to jump onto land and join a beach gathering is available, or to hop into a golf course and literally eat the rich, then it's easy to lose track of the main quest.
It's these kind of moments, much like Grand Theft Auto, where Maneater shines. Hunting other aquatic creatures is all well and good - particularly with the challenge of such dangerous predators as great whites and orcas - but taking on humans is the best part of the game. In particular, fighting back against bounty hunters works extremely well, whether ramming boats until they sink, eating harpoon-wielding diving hunters whole, or jumping straight onto a boat and chowing down on the surprised hunters.
Maneater Bone Shark
That's without saying how well-crafted other aspects of Maneater are. When it comes to its control scheme Maneater is fantastic, with an intuitive lateral feel that gets players into the groove instantly. From a sound design perspective it also shines, with muffled underwater sounds and genuinely unsettling noises for incoming attacking predators that add tension to the early game.
The world of Maneater is also great to look at. Its underwater set pieces, whether via claustrophobic, anemone-laden tunnels or vast open water areas, all look wonderful, while even the flowing of the water on the surface is very realistic. Maneater's shark protagonist's movements are also well-realized, with animations that never get tiresome over the course of the game's runtime.
Maneater is big, dumb, and wonderful. Although the game could have done with trimming some of the fat rather than squeezing out as many hours of gameplay as possible, once the player gets through its early stages it's a ridiculous and lovable open world experience that provides exactly the level of chaos that its players will crave. It might not be safe to go back in the water, but undoubtedly it's a risk that is worth taking.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 226 User Ratings
6.4
43% Positive
98 Ratings
98 Ratings
31% Mixed
70 Ratings
70 Ratings
26% Negative
58 Ratings
58 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 226 User Ratings
6.4
43% Positive
98 Ratings
98 Ratings
31% Mixed
70 Ratings
70 Ratings
26% Negative
58 Ratings
58 Ratings
Maneater sets out to deliver a specific experience and ends up nailing that, but not much else.
Considering the largely uncharted waters (sorry) of the shark simulator genre, it is hard to fault Maneater for its flaws. On the other hand, open world design has been a staple of gaming for over a decade and it is a shame to see such repetitive quest design. Along with a few too many claustrophobic environments, I have a hard time giving Maneater a blanket recommendation. That being said, I had a lot of fun playing it, and I think there is a lot to like if you can deal with a few annoyances.
Maneater squanders some of its potential, but it's perfect for a rainy weekend when you're craving something original.
The repetitive game design was partly on my laces, but I could have closed my eyes and pulled out a 7. However, the technical quirks are too pronounced for this and annoy a few short gaming sessions. If you like the Sharknado parts or other shark Schlockbuster, you do not have to delete Maneater from your wish list, but you should be able to overlook some shortcomings and definitely wait for a few patches.
The Tripwire shark has slightly sharp teeth, moves with unmanageable spasms and cannot vary either its diet or the bleak routine of a boring and mechanical hunting. Stranded on the sand, it waits for the sad fate that falls to all the fish left in the sun.
I thought of this exact game as a little kid when I had a Nintendo and played Jaws all the time. It was exactly this idea and they stole it from me. They also did it perfectly. I feel robbed. Its like they ripped this game out of my dreams and made it real. Obviously it is perfect, it wasn't even developed, I willed it into reality. Its the perfect shark game where you get to be a shark. Shark Party!
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PC
Maneater offers an innovative RPG genre, allowing players to control and customize a shark. The evolution mechanic, where the shark gains skills, attributes and evolves at different stages of life, adds depth to the game. Players can improve the shark to adapt to different environments and **** narrative adopts an interesting concept, presenting the game as a fictional reality show about shark hunting, this adds an element of satire and humor to the game, while criticizing the media exploitation and sensationalism present in some real-life programs. This unique approach contributes to the game's unique **** of the critics to Maneater is the short length of the story and the feeling that the shark's progression and evolution could have been more substantial for an RPG game, leaving players with the feeling that the experience could have been more enriching and expansive.
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PC
+10 because every game could be a 10
Personally I enjoyed Maneater for what it was, especially it's lack of cutscenes, meaning that you, the player, actually got to do all the cool stuff that sharks do...
+1 which would be swimming around and eating things. Sometimes fish. Sometimes sharks. Sometimes humans. Sometimes boats. Swimming. Biting. Swimming. Biting. Nicely animated, pretty bloody, and you grow quite a bit, while...
-1 Swimming. Biting. Still swimming. Still biting.
+1 nice presentation, decent audio, and the controls are ok, while you are
-1 swimming. And biting. And swimming. And biting.
+/-0 sometimes you get to bite one of several collectables, and sometimes you get a little tourist-guide-style explanation, and sometimes those are funny
-1 then you swim some more, and you bite some more
+1 love the Attenborough-style commentator in the background, who, even though you really don't get to do a lot except for swimming and biting, finds something new to say even many hours into the game
+/- 0 swimming of course also means exploring, and while most areas have their own theme and style, the caves that you will have to crawl through to get a lot of stuff don't. They look nice, but are copy-pasted just like your fast-travel homes
-0.5 too often the camera will be your secondary enemy to fight, which at the start, when you are not yet quite invincible can be a problem with pretty much every primary enemy...
-0.5 which later on really does not matter any more because with certain upgrades it gets nearly impossible to die even with the camera spaszing out
+0.5 I still like the upgrade system and the different visual styles coming with it, but it's not a whole lot, and while you might choose another setup to challenge yourself, there is no real choice once you get the good ones
-2 in the later game I found myself crashing to the desktop more and more. Since the game autosaves very regularly that's not the worst thing ever, but since all you do is swimming and biting... and occasionally slapping things with your tail just to remember that biting does five times the damage... there came a point when I decided that after yet another crash I had enough swimming and biting for a lifetime.
It was worth it, and it was enjoyable, and it probably was all it could have been - sharks are pretty straightforward, even the mutated giant ones - it's not the best thing ever, but the best shark sim I've ever played.
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PC
Loved the concept and I completed the game but there are way to many issues with the game, thelanguage of the voice was not possible to change and it was insufferable, the game looks so bad but is not the polygon count there’s something like a grain filter or something that makes everything look grainy or pixelated and the Water looks so bad, the physics fail almost all the time like and the lack of customization for the controls make it really hard to adapt to some of the skills or features the game has, and the dlc is the worst should be free
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PC
Basically "action shark game for rednecks". Low-brow humor, annoying voice-over narration, highly repetitive and shallow gameplay, basically non-existent plot/campaign. Was bored with it after just an hour, even playing in 4K to try and make it look as good as possible. The gameplay really is just that lackluster and repetitive. "Clickfest" is more of an accurate description, with strategy of any kind missing from the game. If you are 12 and enjoy simple humor with a shark that does nothing but eat things (via left-click), you might enjoy. There's no real game to be found here.
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PC
Summary You were cut from your mother's body and left to die in the unforgiving waters of the Gulf Coast. Your only tools are your wits, your jaws, and an uncanny ability to evolve as you feed. Anything and everything is on the menu... provided you kill it before it kills you.
Rated M
for Mature
Platforms:
- PC
- Nintendo Switch
- Xbox One
- PlayStation 4
- Xbox Series X
- PlayStation 5
Initial Release Date: May 22, 2020
Developer:
- Tripwire Interactive
Publisher: Tripwire Interactive
Genres:
