Maneater (2020) - a shark-souls like / sharkRPG.

The people in the comments for the Polygon article going “that’s great, but what about an actual review?” make me sad.

I hope a shark eats those people.

I was 6 years old when my nanny took me to see this because I thought the poster looked like a cartoon. Still have ptsd from it lol.

I played a good chunk of this last night, enjoying it so far. There’s exploration, moves to learn, goofy humor and things to eat. And naturally enough, things to be eaten by. The only real complication I’m running into is knowing what I’m supposed to be able to fight at this point and what I should avoid until later. You do get to advance through stages of your sharks’ life - I started as a pup and am now a teen, and I’ve taken on mass and power as a result of this. So I can put the hurt on muskies, for instance, that might have torn me up previously.

And there are also levels, like any rpg. Plus you can accessorize, for instance I found a set of bone teeth which gives me a bit more chomping power. But still, there are alligators out there that are on my quest list to take out. Yet they’re level 15 and I just hit level 8. Am I supposed to wait until I’m level 15, ignore the sidequest? I’ve tried taking them on and it’s doable if a bit tedious. And if there are other hostile fish or gators in the area of course they gang up on me and that’s pretty much it.

Anyway I do think it’s fun and Chris Parnell’s voiceover is a nice touch. We’ll see where things go.

How did you evolve to a teen, is it automatic or did you have to do something. Did you need to be level 4?

I have completed the catfish and muskie missions now and am level 3 only 2 things to do get to level 4 and evolve to a teen.

No. worries I have it, hit level 4 and go back to your cave and you evolve to a teen and it opens up more quests.

I have to admit to really enjoying this

Yeah, and I hit Adult stage at level 10, FYI. Had to go back to the grotto first.

Are there NPCs who hand out quests?

Not that I’ve seen so far. They just magically spawn into your quest list, or when you discover a particular target or area.

Can you build a castle or home base of some sort?

9/10 with a Jawsome rating.

You could even call it Grand Theft Shark, because honestly, that’s what it feels like.

There are no NPC characters, everything you encounter is either food or trying to make you food. There are quests, of the variety of killing all the apex predators in an area, eating all the fish in an area, eating all the humans in an area, you get the idea. There are collectibles too, but basic stuff that gives you experience, nothing terribly new there.

I’m finding a lot of satisfaction in growing my shark. There’s an interesting mechanic involved there that I haven’t seen before - leveling up will help make your stats increase, but as best I can tell the mass stat only increases when you hit a new life stage. And there is a dramatic increase from going from pup to teen to adult. Not to mention the funny commentary around doing so - when you become a teen, Parnell mentions that you’ll probably see an increase in angst and poor decision making. On becoming an adult, he mentions you should start spending less and saving more. OK, maybe that’s only funny to me.

But the mass increase makes for a satisfying difference in handling the other fish in the sea. As a teen, barracudas will challenge you and alligators will terrorize you. When you reach adulthood, you can snap up a barracuda in one bite and go toe-to-toe with most gators. It’s a gratifying mechanic.

Waiting for the deep discount during Shark Week.

Oh man, i couldn’t resist! Got it, first time i’ve enjoyed playing a ‘bad’ guy honestly. I keep in mind, its just a shark thing, no morality to it lol got to teen, and loving it so far.

@Jason_McMaster streamed this yesterday on his twitch channel for about 3 hours, I caught it today and really enjoyed what I saw. Also there were quite a few cackles of glee as he went on murder sprees.

Well, I beat the game. It’s pretty late and I’ve had a few beers so I won’t drag things out with a ton of impressions. But I’m glad I played the game, climbing your way up the food chain and getting more powerful (and more powerful enemies) was fun. All the mayhem you become capable of was pretty great. The mutations can make your shark look pretty goofy but it’s worth it for the powers they confer. There are a bunch of easter eggs that cracked me up (a pretty great Arrested Development reference, and some Lovecraft jokes) and the game was just the right length, didn’t overstay its welcome. I had a really good time.

Just finished this game! Love love LOVE it! In some ways it reminds me of the original crackdown, where you had witty clever voiceover (surprisingly non repetitive as well), compelling character progression, and LOTS of Mayhem! Added to my classic, play again folder!

I ran into a bug that stalled my campaign progression, and it says a lot about the game, that i kept playing anyway, then figured out how to resume it, so all good! 9/10

I would have said, the original Crackdown, because that is what it mostly closely resembles in presentation, playstyle, and feel. FYI i dont get the Souls comparison, I hated that, this is SOO much better…

Your character would need to be able to somersault right and left for the “Souls-like” moniker to fit. Does Maneater allow you to roll right or left?

!..um…yes.

When i think of Souls, i think of death over and over as a play style…guess thats just me…

So ummmm what happened to this game, did everyone just give up at some point, or did people finish and shelve it?

I see @David2 finished it. :)

Its currently on sale at the EGS, and I still have a $10 coupon to use.

I had lots of fun playing it, but it was pretty short and the post-game challenges were not enough of a draw to keep going.
Oh, and I was playing it around the time I got my diving cert, so it was not conclusive to calm dives.