Cabela's Deer Hunt 2004 Season

Deer have never had it worse. There was a time when all they had to deal with were pioneer folk looking for some grub—now they're running away from grizzled middle-aged men with camouflage outfits, tree stands, flasks of deer piss, and more weaponry than a Marine in boot camp. It's hopeless.

If Cabela's Deer Hunt 2004 Season proves anything, it's that the days of ugly Wal-Mart deer-abuse sims are well and truly over. There are nine deer species to annoy here, each nestled in its own freely explorable 3D locale (from Lake Okeechobee to the islands of Alaska). After choosing weapons and equipment, you're free to explore your chosen hunting ground on foot or by all-terrain vehicle, boat, snow mobile, or—in what may be the first appropriate use for them ever—sport-utility vehicle.

It's obvious developer Fun Labs took pains to appeal to a broad audience, and your experience with Deer Hunt will depend entirely on how serious you are about playing the game the way it was intended. On the easiest mode, it's like a leisurely first-person shooter: Deer are marked by radarlike red dots and can just barely outrun you in a forest. Jack up the difficulty, and it's a whole different story—deer have impeccable senses of sight and smell, and you must skillfully hide your presence while searching for a vantage point from which to take them down. The result, unfortunately, is like playing the slowest, most dropping-laden tactical FPS of your life.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Xbox Nation.