Carnivores 2

Carnivores 2 is a first person shooting video game produced by Action Forms and released by WizardWorks in 1999. It is a sequel of Carnivores and the second of the series.

Gameplay

The DinoHunt Corporation continues to allow people to hunt dinosaurs on the planet FMM UV-32. After further exploration of the dinosaur planet, more islands have been opened to a growing number of customers.^[1][2]

Gameplay is similar to the original Carnivores, with some changes. At the start of the game, the player must register a hunter or continue with a saved hunter. The point of the game is similar to the previous Carnivores game: the player must hunt dinosaurs to get trophies and accumulate credits. A new hunter is given 100 credits. The player uses credits to select a hunting area, a dinosaur to hunt and a weapon to use. Levels include a forest, a jungle and a swamp; weapons include a pistol, a shotgun, a crossbow, and a sniper rifle. Each dinosaur, area, and weapon has its own cost; the player's remaining credits determine what the player can and cannot bring on the hunt. The dinosaurs that are available to hunt, from the lowest to the highest price, are the Parasaurolophus, Ankylosaurus, Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, Chasmosaurus, Velociraptor, Spinosaurus, Ceratosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex. When the player chooses an item from the menu, other selections may become unavailable depending on the amount of remaining credits. Available selections are highlighted in blue, selected items are yellow and unavailable items are gray.

The player can easily have several dinosaurs to hunt, with several weapons selected at the same time as he advances in his hunting skills. As the player hunts the selected dinosaurs, each successful kill will result in a number of credits added to the player's account. The player can kill more than one dinosaur per hunting expedition, allowing him to earn enough credits to move into more advanced areas with more expensive weapons and more dangerous dinosaurs. However, if the player is killed by a dinosaur, all credits accumulated on the specific hunt are forfeited. The player must be evacuated by DinoHunt and survive the hunt to keep the credits he earned. There are various methods of increasing or decreasing the credits per dinosaur.

When the player kills or tranquilizes a dinosaur, he receives credits that are dependent on the type of dinosaur and on his selected equipment usage. For example, killing a dinosaur that was not selected in the menu will give only half of that dinosaur's total available credits. Tranquilizing rather than killing a dinosaur will increase the player's credits per hunt by 25 percent. Hunting accessories such as camouflage and a dinosaur-detecting radar can be used during hunting, but will deduct points if utilized. First time hunters can use the Observation Mode to familiarize themselves with dinosaur behavior and different terrain.

Each dinosaur will react to a hunter differently depending on its nature. Some are more adept at detecting the player's scent, while others may see him in the distance, or hear his footsteps. Once a dinosaur takes note of the player, a number of reactions can happen. Herbivores may run away or attack the player if they feel cornered. Carnivores may attack the player head on, or gather in an organized pack to flank the player and take him out. Regardless of which dinosaur the player is hunting, there are others that do not appear on the radar that can launch a surprise attack. Harmless, ambient animals such as appear on every hunt but cannot be selected from the main hunting menu. These are the Moschops, Gallimimus, Dimetrodon, Dimorphodon, Pteranodon, and Brachiosaurus. They are worth zero points and can be killed with a single shot, excluding the Brachiosaurus, which cannot be killed.

Reception

Greg Kasavin of GameSpot gave the game a 7.3 out of 10 and praised its "carefully detailed and almost disturbingly lifelike" dinosaurs, as well as the creatures' convincing, hypothetical noises.^[3] Bernard Dy of Daily Radar praised the game's artificial intelligence (AI), but criticized the "abundance of mundane walking and waiting while looking for dinosaurs. Some might consider this a realistic part of hunting, but it's also a realistic part of boredom. A player who doesn't use the radar to help find prey is in for some very long afternoons." However, Dy noted that the game's walking was not "terrible" thanks to its "beautiful" scenery. Dy concluded, "The majority of gamers will still prefer a traditional title with gobs of combat, and for most of us, it's because those games will be more fun. Carnivores 2 has some quirks and boring segments, but we have to give it credit for doing well what it intended to do."^[4]

Mark Saltzman of IGN also gave the game a 7.3 and praised its dinosaur animation and realistic environments, but criticized the AI as one of the game's major weaknesses: "Very rarely did I feel like I was being hunted by the beasts themselves – one of the main reasons why you'd play this game instead of another. Even while constantly running and not using any camouflage, carnivore attacks were extremely rare. I would've liked the option to hunt smarter, tougher beasts."^[1]

Christopher Michael Baker of AllGame rated Carnivores 2 three and a half stars out of five and wrote, "If you've played the first Carnivores, then don't expect much to be different with its first sequel, Carnivores 2. In fact, it's almost exactly the same. The only new features are a few new weapons, landscapes and dinosaurs. If you were to look at screenshots of the two side by side, actually, you might not even be able to tell the difference. And WizardWorks didn't even bother to change the opening menu screen! [...] In essence, Carnivores 2 is more of an expansion disc than a sequel. Are two new dinosaurs, five new environments and four new weapons enough to get you excited about purchasing it?" Baker also wrote, "Like the first outing, the graphics are quite nice. Unfortunately, they are relatively identical and show no attempt at improvement." Baker called the game's sound, "Definitely the most impressive part of the game."^[5]

Ports

Carnivores 2 now has an updated port known as Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter, first appearing for iOS and later Android. The same version was carried out to the PS3 and PSP under Beatshapers' development. These ports include all of the old content, as well as new dinosaurs, maps, and weapons. Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter was posted to Steam Greenlight on January 23, 2017.

References

External links

• Carnivores 2 on Jurassica