If you’ve ever dreamt of living out your days as the ocean’s apex predator, now’s your chance, as a grisly new RPG called Maneater will be available to play in May.
The game starts players in the body of a baby great white shark that must fight to survive and eat its way into adulthood. As rows of razor-sharp teeth appear and you grow to full size, you’ll have the ability to prey on bigger and bigger prey until there is no living creature in (or out) of the ocean that you can’t eat.
It isn’t just about surviving, however. Tripwire Interactive, which is producing and publishing the game, wants players to understand the pure bliss that comes with reigning terror on anything within sight. As a result, a full range of controls are available. From thrashing your tail and jumping out of the water at blistering speeds to biting and throwing your prey around until they bleed out, there are countless options and things to do.
To complete the experience, the entire game is also presented as a nature documentary — narration and all, with Chris Parnell of Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock offering commentary. Make no mistake, rather than the tranquil message of cohabitation that you might find on Planet Earth, this game is about the violence — which is made clear by the screams featured in the trailer.
The game isn’t an aimless sandbox, either. Although minimal, there are objectives that must be completed. If you attack humans, for instance, bounty hunters and fleets of divers will come after you. One of the game’s main goals is to defeat all of the bounty hunters and teams that support them.
While the idea is certainly a fun one in concept, it’s difficult to say how Maneater will do once its released.Other games that let you play as animals, like Jaws Unleashed or Dogs Life, haven’t really served to solidify themselves as a viable RPG subgenre. Perhaps the mechanics and graphics of Maneater will write a different story, but we’ll have to wait until May to know for sure.
Maneater will be available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC on May 22, 2020, while a Nintendo Switch release will be available later in the year.