Nintendo Okie

The Cabela franchise is one that actually gets talked about a lot here at Nintendo Okie, but surprisingly none of us have really played any of the games. I’ve messed around with a few in the arcades when I come across them, but never in my home. So I jumped at the opportunity to check out a new type of game in the franchise. Could this be the game that really gets me interested in the franchise, or will it die in the Alaska wilderness?

What You Need to Know

Cabela’s Survival: Shadows of Katmai is the first game in the Cabela franchise to bring a bit of a survival element to the traditional shooting/hunting platform. You play as Logan James, a bush pilot in the harsh environments of Alaska, who has been tasked with transporting a scientist who is carrying some precious cargo. During your flight your plan is struck by lightning and you crash. The two of you are separated and from there you’re involved in a fight for survival against both the elements and the wildlife. Your supplies will be scarce, and to make matters worse, there’s a “demon” roaming the mountains that kills everything it comes in contact with.

Good Story

The biggest shining star of the Shadows of Katmai experience was the story. From the very beginning I was actually very interested in seeing what happened to the two main characters you are immediately introduced to. The game opens up on you, having crashed in the wilds of Alaska with a doctor who is carrying medical supplies to a remote area. During the crash the two of you get separated and you have to try to find each other, while surviving in the harsh Alaska winter. Along the way you meet an old hermit who is tellings you stories about a demon called the Chachka.

The story of survival mixes really well with the survival elements you would expect in games like Resident Evil. You’re very limited on ammo, though exploring the wilderness will often lead to the supplies you need to survive. It’s a really good survival story, though some parts don’t make sense, such as hunting moose for no apparent reason other than to have something to shoot. The basic plot will take you to different areas and you’ll explore abandoned mines and old ranger stations in an attempt to make it back to civilization.

It was a really fun story to experience, however…..

The Platforming Just Doesn’t Work

The basic idea of Shadows of Katmai is great. You’re wandering around the Alaska wilderness looking for supplies and a way to get back to civilization. However, the way you traverse the environment just doesn’t work that great. The platforming elements are very reminiscent of franchises like Prince of Persia, or Assassin’s Creed. You’re crawling along thing mountain ledges, jumping from one sheer cliff face to another and clinging to life by your fingertips. While you do this you have to fight off packs of hungry wolves, angry bears and flocks of ravens that peck at your hands. It all sounds great, however the controls really mar what could have been a good experience.

Navigating along the tiny ledges is sometimes an exercise in frustration. Many times you’ll push the analog stick in one direction, only to have Logan hit an invisible wall and start crawling back the other direction. There were countless times when you would make a jump and he would disappear inside the face of the mountain for one or two seconds before reemerging on the cliff face. Super human leaps up to ledges were also very common. It really takes you out of the experience when you running to a ledge and hit the jump button to have him appear to be pulled by a bungee cord onto a ledge.

Add to that a camera that doesn’t do you any favors. It tries to show you the next place that you need to go, but because of it you’ll find yourself in situations where you can’t look where you need to and you’re attacked by animals in your blind spot.

Control Mapping is Awkward

When you start up a game you’re given three options for control; Wii Remote/Nunchuk, Zapper, or Top Shot Elite. However, no matter which option I chose it always felt like the controls for moving Logan around the environment are mapped to the Wii Remote/Nunchuk style. That means things like the jump button are mapped to the A button, which if you’re using the Top Shot Elite means it’s way out on the end of your gun barrel. That’s not exactly the easiest button to reach when you’re trying to escape a flock of angry ravens. The button to drop down a ledge is the + button, which is even harder to reach than the A button.

The controls work great if you’re not using one of the many gun peripherals that are available for the Wii, but the whole point of games like this is to use those devices to add some immersion to the game. That means you’re going to be frustrated and possibly cramped by playing the game for extended sessions.

Your Dog is Smarter Than You

While you’re wandering through the mountains doing your best impression of Jake Gyllenhaal your dog somehow finds a completely different route to travel through the mountains that obviously would have been much easier to take. You’ll see his little head pop up over the edge of the cliff faces that you’re hanging from and you just want to scream at him to show you the quicker, easier route that he took.

The Shooting Gallery is a Lot of Fun

Cabela games are mostly known as hunting simulators for people that don’t actually like to kill real animals. To that end they’ve developed some really good shooting mechanics. As you go along through the story you’ll unlock areas that you can then play through in a shooting gallery type mode. You’ll have some modes, called Survival, where you have a health meter and you do as many laps of an area as you can before you die. You have two types of weapons available to you, a rifle and a shotgun, that you have to quickly switch back and forth in order to have the right weapon to rack up points. Shotguns give you points against aerial targets, while the rifle is used to shoot ground based enemies. Use the wrong weapon and you lose points. There are powerups that will do things like put a thermal imagining sensor over the screen to show you where animals are through the thick woods and fog, while others will slow down time to let you hit more sensitive areas of the animals for more points.

These shooting gallery modes are a lot of fun to play with. The action is fast, the shooting is very solid. The Top Shot Elite feels really good to use.

Conclusion

Cabela’s Survival: Shadows of Katmai is a first attempt by the developers to bring more of a story to their franchise and it’s a decent first effort. It definitely falls short in some areas and if you’re coming to the game for the single player story mode you could be disappointed. However, if you’re looking for another great shooting game for a system that filled with them you’d be happy with the bonus shooting gallery modes as they are a lot of fun. I liked Shadows of Katmai. I think it’s a flawed experience. The platforming has some major issues, but it’s a good effort to build upon and I would be interested in seeing what they can do with a second game in the series. However, if you’re looking for a good arcade shooting experience, you can look past those flaws, and you don’t want to spend the extra money for the bundle this would be one to pick up.

Final Score: 

Review copy of the game provided by Activision
Played through the single player campaign and numerous times through Survival mode.
Total Play Time: 8 hours