10 Reasons Maneater Is A Modern RPG That Everyone Should Play

What do gamers think of when an RPG comes to mind? Cyborgs and flying cars? Wizards and mystical lands? Even vampires are more famous as RPGs. However, nobody expected an RPG about one of Earth’s most majestic creatures: the shark.

Tripwire Interactive surprised the world with Maneater, a game in which the player controls a bull shark in the open world of Port Clovis. Mixing Steven Spielberg’s Jaws with an RPG sounds like a recipe for disaster, but ended up being one of the most surprising indie titles that demonstrates the talent and effort of the developers.

10 Surprisingly Funny

One of the best qualities of Maneater is its humor. While there are dark and serious moments throughout, the game keeps a very hyper and over-the-top black comedy tone, from the cartoonish designs of the characters to the narrator voiced by Chris Parnell.

The narrator is always talking over the shark’s actions, parodying Shark Week documentaries while giving clever remarks about the quests. Even the villain has some bits of humor whenever he is heard or seen in the story.

9 References Galore

To keep things from being bland, there are a lot of details added to the ocean floor or even on land. Following the game’s humor, there are many movie and TV references, similar to Borderlands. There are references to Demolition Man, SpongeBob SquarePants, and, no surprise here, Jaws.

Even the names of certain side quests and main missions end up being puns related to some sort of movie or famous phrase. For those that like to explore and find Easter Eggs, there are plenty to find in Port Clovis.

8 The Campaign Is Longer Than Expected

Since Maneater is a bit of an indie game title, players would expect it to be quite short. Actually, Maneater manages to have enough content in the main story to keep it going for at least six hours. Taking on hunters and the many other monsters in each region of Fort Clovis will keep the player busy.

Combined with all the side quests, the playthrough time could easily be doubled, especially if someone is going for completion of all regions and upgrades.

7 Beautifully Designed

While the humans are cartoonish, the underwater creatures are all exquisitely designed. From the groupers to the mako sharks, the dozens of aquatic animals all feature so much detail that gamers could just watch them swim and be astounded.

The same can be said about the environments; each region is unique and perfectly immerses the player in feeling like they are underwater. The gross bayou, the beautiful gulf, or even a polluted lake all provide realistic looks under the sea and are all fun to explore.

6 The Map Is Massive

The aforementioned regions are surprisingly big, each containing tons of collectibles, enemies, quests, and areas to explore. There are currently eight regions to explore and they all provide different challenges as well as visuals.

Is it one of the largest maps ever made? Far from it, but again for an indie title, it is way bigger than anyone could have expected and has way more content than some video game worlds with a lot of things to render. So the fact that Maneater runs at such a smooth framerate is impressive.

5 Perfect For Completionists

There are a lot of things to do outside of the main story: collecting multitudes of license plates in each region, finding landmarks, and completing all the side quests. Also, gaining infamy by killing hunters will result in eventually becoming the target of boss bounty hunters.

These hunters provide upgrades when defeated thus making the shark even stronger. So there is proper motivation to take on the task of completing the game, even if it’s a rather simplistic one.

4 Unique And Satisfying Gameplay

Though Maneater is not the first game to feature a playable shark, none have come as close to being as perfect as Maneater. The gameplay for the bull shark is deceptively simple but as the shark grows along with the combat, there are many layers to discover that help in fighting other predators and hunters.

The one flaw is that there is no difficulty setting nor a new game plus mode; so as a result, grinders and side quest lovers can become overpowered for a region. It’s still fun, but some of the difficulty diminishes quickly if the player levels up too quickly.

3 The Shark Has Superpowers

As a bonus, having all sorts of powers still keeps things fun and interesting. Yes, Maneater embraces the cheesy SyFy channel side of shark stories by introducing evolutions that give the shark powers. These come in the form of heads, fins, tails, the body, and teeth.

All have variants that grant different abilities and perks: bio-electricity, poison, heavy damage, and more. There are also passive perks in the form of organs to equip which can turn the shark into a god-like creature of the ocean.

2 A Revenge Story

Seemingly taking inspiration from the movie Orca (a famous Jaws knockoff), a hunter kills a pregnant shark and cuts the baby shark out of the belly. The player controls that baby who is left scarred by the hunter named Scaly Pete. After taking Pete’s hand, it becomes a story about the shark growing up to get its revenge.

It’s a perfect setup for the game, and unlike most stories where sharks are antagonists, Maneater makes the player sympathetic for the shark. A classic revenge story that will make anyone want to eat Scaly Pete.

1 DLC On The Way

As is, Maneater is already astonishing, but more content is on the way. The Truth Quest DLC will increase the level cap, add new upgrades, expand upon Fort Clovis, add helicopters as enemies, and likely more aquatic monsters to fight.

Hopefully, this expansion will be one of several additions to Maneater because the game has the potential for so much more. There are so many different creatures in the ocean to use along with human threats to use. Even a megalodon boss fight would likely get every gamer to scream in fear and excitement.

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