Rocky Mountain Trophy Hunter 2
Manufacturer: Sunstorm / Wizard Works (1999)
Price: $19.99
Genre: Multi-species Hunting
System Requirements: Pentium 200 or faster, Windows 95 or above, 16 MB RAM (32 recommended), 100
MB HDD space (for minimum install), CD-ROM, PCI or AGP 3D accelerated video card highly recommended, DirectX compatible soundcard.
... DESCRIPTION: Rocky Mountiain Trophy Hunter 2 is the second in the series, this time featuring true 3-D graphics using the Sunstorm Terrain Engine v 2.0. The game features eight species to hunt, both with male and female varieties. Hunting locations from Colorado, Wyoming, British Columbia and Alaska represent some of the best hunting lands in the Rocky Mountains. RMTH2 had high standards to live up to with the reputation for excellent hunting sims that Sunstorm has built in the past. The game has many great technological advances, but falls well short of its lofty subtitle (Above the Treeline).
THE GOOD: RMTH2 has many great features and advances in it. The graphics are stunning at times. The engine is almost completely 3D now, feature true 3D rendered animals as well as firearms and archery equipment. The animal animations are quite impressive, in most cases. There is also a noticeable size difference between a large boar brown bear and a small sow. The selection of equipment is expansive, though not all - inclusive; they will cover the majority of the animals. The hunting locations themselves, while they seem to be smaller than the those in Deer Hunter 2, they are beautifully rendered. As well, vast forests of dense trees add some beautiful scenery to the hunting areas and require a great deal of positioning for the shot. Another big addition featured in RMTH2 is that of variable power scopes. Zooming in your favorite scope slightly adds a great touch of realism. Tracking of wounded game has also been vastly improved, with a poor shot requiring a great deal of tracking, and the wound will sometimes dry up.
... .THE BAD: Unfortunately for Sunstorm and WizardWorks, they really dropped the ball on RMTH2. The game seems very rushed, with bugs in the code and inapplicable information in the help file (and even in game text). The most obvious and frustrating problem with RMTH2 is the lack of consistancy in aiming. A quick trip to the target range will reveal several targets to aim at, the longest shot being 30 meters. Once in the field that rifle that was perfectly sighted in at 30 meters, suddenly cannot hit a huge moose standing 20 meters away. The aiming in RMTH2 is nothing more than a matter of good luck. The one saving grace to this problem, however, is the complete lack of intelligence by the animals. Calling in the animals is absurdly easy. On one hunting trip, I walk to the top of a hill, blew once on my moose call and waited. 5 moose came running to my side. I had one moose run "over" me, continue past me for about 50 yards, stop and turn back toward me. On another trip, one call of an elk call brought in 2 bears, 1 moose and a mountain goat. Maybe it was coincidence, but its hard to believe. The animals are more like robots than animals, showing no interaction with each other and very little toward the hunter (who can walk or run near them without the animals fleeing). There are also problems with the tracks disappearing when they are across a sloped surface. There is also no distinction between the tracks of a running animal and those of one walking.
THE VERDICT:
I had very high expectations for RMTH2. Sunstorm and WizardWorks have always set the standard in the field of hunting simulations, but seem to taken a vacation on this title. If future patches fix the aiming problem (and hopefully add some AI to the animals) this game could instantly become one of the best. The technology advances from RMTH2 will add greatly to future Deer Hunter titles, but this game can't stand alone with the seemingly careless bugs that it contains.
PATCH UPDATE
There has a been a patch released for RMTH2 that fixes many of the problems encountered in the release version. The patch addresses the issue with inconsistent ballistics / aiming, as well as AI tweaks. The AI still leaves a little to be desired, but the game is playable and enjoyable in this state.
Reviewed by Tom Shiflet
9-3-99
