Since Claw Hunter is still in its pre-alpha stage, a lot of details behind the gameplay are still scarce. However, Bubak has stated that the game will feel like an action adventure game with various RPG elements tied into it, with a plethora of other options to choose from once the game officially releases. Bubak states that they plan to place a lot more emphasis on the story which will be illustrated using strong cutscenes along with strong character development. Much of Claw Hunter’s inspiration derived from titles such as Uncharted, Tomb Raider and The Dig. Personally, we felt that it also shared some resemblance to Ark: Survival Evolved, since you’re able to interact with dinosaurs throughout your journey. Claw Hunter is currently still taking donations through Kickstarter, so if any of you are interested then please feel free to support their title.

While the pre-alpha version was very bare bones, we honestly feel that the game has the potential to turn into something big. It uses the powerful Unreal Engine to dish out breathtaking visuals which are something we noticed while playing. If you’ve ever dreamed of running wild with dinosaurs, riding alongside them as you race to find traces of clues to uncover the truth, Claw Hunter sounds like a title that fits the bill. Going forward in this impressions section, we’ll quickly go over what we experienced while offering our own suggestions when needed. As a heads up, some photos were taken in-game while a couple are from Claw Hunter’s official page.

According to the official website, Claw Hunter’s story takes place in the 17th century and is situated on a tropical island somewhere in Polynesia. By a sudden twist of fate, prehistoric life was resurrected with everything being well preserved. You’ll take control of several characters such as a young Shaman and Dutch Scientist, who will trek out into the vast world to discover more truth behind the island and its inhabitants.

There wasn’t really much to do in the pre-alpha aside from throwing spears, shooting arrows at smaller dinosaurs, climbing trees and swimming among other things. Claw Hunter visually looked great at max settings, which really brings a lot of promise to the game. Of course, character movement felt very stiff and camera controls require some tweaking, along with texture clipping that happens a lot when swimming in the water. Controlling the character also felt a bit weird especially when trying to shoot the bow and arrow at a dinosaur. We’d aim our sights at a creature only for the camera to suddenly zoom out and miss the target entirely while throwing our spear at dinosaurs resulted in no response from the dinosaurs. The animation when our axe was equipped felt very muddled and robotic while throwing our spear also felt rigid.

There was no sound during gameplay which is a given, but we could hear our character breathing as he runs around the island. Speaking of the character, the young Shaman we played with looked very real and portrayed a hunter very well but more work can be done to his facial features since they looked a bit distorted up close. There was nowhere else to explore aside from running around in circles on the island, so once all of that was finished that was pretty much the end of the ride. Overall Claw Hunter certainly has something going for it, but at the moment it’s way too early to say how the story or even the true gameplay aspects will turn out. With a ton of bugs to iron out and cleaning up animations with the dinosaurs, there’s still a long road ahead for this action adventure title. According to the website, Claw Hunter isn’t slated to release until 2019 so the team at Bubak have plenty of time to smoothen things out.

Since Claw Hunter is still far away from its release, it’s unclear as to how the game will perform when more work is implemented. From what we experienced Claw Hunter certainly seems like a game that has promise, but we mustn't count the chickens before they hatch. We recommend anyone interested in the game to check out the official website we’ve posted above so you can get a better idea of the direction Claw Hunter is headed in. Have you heard of Claw Hunter? Do you want to know more about it? Then definitely watch the trailer above to learn more, as well as checking out Claw Hunter’s Youtube for more visual content and an overview.

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