Redneck Deer Huntin’

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Platforms:	PC
Publisher:	Interplay Entertainment
Developer:	Xatrix Entertainment
Genres:	Sport / Hunting
Release Date:	1997
Game Modes:	Singleplayer

A buzzcut Duke Nukem in full hunting garb quietly stalks the autumn forests. He’s packing all of the essentials – knife, tinderbox, binoculars, and of course his trusty rocket launcher. After hours of walking around, he finally spots some game – a pack of Octobrains grazing in the distance. Slowly raising his RPG, he aims, fires, and seconds later grins as the clueless herd of Octobrains transform into a shower of blood, tentacles and grey matter. He picks up the larger portion of an almost intact head, and walks back to his cabin. It will make a fine wall trophy.

Doesn’t that sound like something you’d want to do? Those dumb bastards at 3D Realms never once considered turning their legendary shooter into a hunting game, but thank goodness Xatris possessed some common sense. The result was Redneck Deer Huntin’, a game that looks and sounds like Redneck Rampage, with an identical engine and many of the old graphics intact, but with gameplay completely shifted towards trophy hunting.

The only catch is that it takes an ungodly amount of patience to play Redbeck Deer Huntin’. It’s extremely rare that you’ll spot any game, first because you’ll have a hard time spotting anything through the pixelated graphics, and second because animals rarely show up. And when you do move in for a kill, critters tend to scare and run off easily. You have a selection of four – count ’em – FOUR – weapons, of which the sniper rifle would have been the most useful if the scoped view wasn’t so uselessly constricted.

You’ll also have a few interesting doohickeys to lure prey – bird calls, duck calls, etc – and have to consider things like wind direction (animals can detect your scent if you approach them from the wrong angle). But in the end, who really cares? If you’re looking for a half-decent BUILD shooter, just play the original Redneck Rampage. And if you want a hunting game, look elsewhere, since this DOS-dated old timer just doesn’t make the cut.