As a fan of The Hunter: COTW Franchise, I was excited to see a new installment being brought to the franchise. I've absolutely loved exploring the vast open world of The Hunter and taking down the animals on several maps. It was enjoyable as a group activity with friends, everyone sitting shoulder to shoulder ready to pelt a lion with 7mm and .338, or maybe see how many .22s it took to kill a water buffalo.

So, hearing that a fishing rendition was going to enter the scene made me and my entire group of friends ecstatic. Many of us enjoy fishing in real life and in games. It had even become a running joke in other games that we would spend more time fishing than doing anything else. We've been awaiting the release of this game since it was teased. In our eyes, it was going to be a must-buy to dedicate a whole day to play with the boys.

There was nothing that could drastically affect fishing season.

Coming into this game, I was expecting the following: A non-filled-out game, some bugs, some glitches, and various random issues. This was common for new releases, it's not a harbinger of death to a franchise for it to be like that. The Hunter: COTW had started with less and grew into a phenomenal game over time.

I did not expect the game to be closer to an open beta or early access than a full release.

Upon opening the game, I was greeted with a wonderful opening experience. It was a stitched-together form of parts of the teasers that we'd been given. The narrating brought a sense of nostalgia. Positive.

When the game actually started, I was given the choice of customizing my own character. There were several ethnicities, two hairstyles (bald or blond), no accessories, no hats, two glove choices (glove or no glove), and extremely negligible clothing options that only had two choices. Indifferent.

Now it's time for the actual game, my character spawned without a physical fishing rod, just the line. Like, a literal floating line in the air that would actually do a reeling motion when I went fishing. This issue persisted after restarting the game. Negative.

The fishing experience isn't anything crazy, it's a fishing game. You have a Pokemon-style alert come on your screen telling you to start pulling in. There's a small mini-game-like reeling function that allows you to balance your line tension with various mechanics. I actually appreciate this part of the game, it's psychologically similar to Stardew Valley, in that, you must focus on what you're doing and can't let your attention deviate from your goal. They give you a tutorial on a helpful function called "bobbing" that gives the game some life. It's a fishing game, like come on. Positive.

The actual reeling then fish characteristics screen is pretty bad. It's a snap to black then a classic photograph pose with you holding up the fish. There are no special animations, no cutscenes, nothing. The character model was broken. It was still broken after I restarted the game too. It just left me there with a floating fish. Negative.

THE WATER. Just wow. The water is just so phenomenally awful that it's impressive. Obviously, going into a fishing game placed in a large lake-based environment, you're not going to expect crystal clear white waters. I was expecting clarity issues as you looked deeper into the water and farther from the shoreline. The water in this game looks like the Exxon-Valdez is sunk somewhere on the map. It has a constant sheen that makes it look incredibly dark, murky, and reflective. Maybe it's a shader or engine issue that wasn't completely fixed prior to the rollout of the game. It just makes the game extremely unsatisfying to look at, and that includes maximum settings. It looks like a darker brown version of The Hunter: COTW water which is meant to be reflective. Massive Negative.

The movement is pretty bad. It's clunky, unrefined, and has drag to it whenever you move. The jumping mechanics are pretty bad, it feels like a 3D first-person version of Mario jumping. Just very stiff. Negative.

Overall, the game is an unfinished product. If it was rough or unpolished, it would be different. The game is just straight-up unfinished. It should've been released as early access or beta instead of what it is now. I know this game would become better in a year but for now, it's just not worth the money.

This will drastically affect fishing season.