The Hunter: Call Of The Wild took Avalanche’s technical expertise in creating open worlds, gained by making the Just Cause series, and employed it instead to create an open world hunting sim. Well, now Call Of The Wild: The Angler is intending to do it again, with an open world fishing game in which you walk or drive in search of the perfect spot to cast your line.
Here’s the announcement trailer:
Call Of The Wild: The Angler’s world can be explored by foot, off-road vehicle or – of course – boat. Your goal is to find the best fishing spots among lakes, rivers, hidden ponds and springs, and then to catch different types and sizes of fish. Different species of fish will require a different techqnique to successfully reel them in.
I’m using “goal” in the loosest sense, there. The Hunter was appealing to me because it was a beautiful landscape and relaxing to explore, and compelling even if I chose to ignore the grisly ability to puncture the lungs of baby deer. It sounds as if The Angler is aiming for a similar experience, including supporting co-op so you can pootle around on boats with friends.
Having said that, part of why The Hunter remained compelling was that, even if you didn’t want to kill anything, you could still engage with its wild landscape by searching for tracks and sneaking up on animals by remaining downwind. You could think of it as a stealth wildlife photography sim. I wonder if that open world will feel less interesting when it’s just terrain you traverse to reach the next body of water.
The return of the “Call Of The Wild” name also places this in ongoing series territory, and suggests it might become the Total War of dad sports. I propose that the next game should be Call Of The Wild: The Bird Watcher. I wanna climb trees and peep some hawks.
Call Of The Wild: The Angler has no release window yet, but is marked as “coming soon” on Steam.
