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Game Review of:
Trophy Buck 
by Greg Miller 
Trophy BuckIt’s hard to know where to begin with a piece of software like this. Is it a game? Is it a “hunting simulation?” Only you may be able to adequately answer that. In the briefest of nutshells, this game (I’ll say game, ok?) puts you out in the field as a hunter. You then do your best to track and shoot the simulated deer. If you get one, you have the satisfaction of “filling your tag” and the thrill of the simulated great outdoors. I can just about taste the virtual deer sausage now! If not, well, you still get the simulated great outdoor thrill thing. 

The flavor

Trophy Buck is definitely the most unusual game I have played in ages. It sort of marries a first person shooter with a high quality golf game. If you have ever played Links 98 or any similar golf program you will recognize the way the terrain is rendered immediately. The trees and backgrounds are similarly done, except that they are modeling the wild out doors, not a golf course. Taking a shot in this game is not as hard as taking a swing like in the complex golf games, but it is harder than the point and shoot of something like Duke Nukem or Half Life. Trophy Buck attempts to model ballistic factors such as the type of firearm you are using, the caliber (and even the grain) of the bullet. It also takes into consideration environmental factors such as the wind speed and direction, or brush in your line of site. Trophy Buck is (now don’t laugh) a very serious game. Field and Stream has their name prominently on the cover of the box, so there’s no room for outdoor shenanigans or humor. You can’t shoot the birds out of the sky or anything like that. Only serious deer hunting here. Never the less, I found myself hoping for a bit of Redneck Rampage flavor to creep in there (trust me, there isn’t any). Guess it’s just my warped sense of humor. 

A walk through

I feel that the best way to describe the game is to 'walk’ you through it, so to speak. Installation is easy, but a bit long. If you go for the full install, the game takes up around 280 MB of space and that takes a while to copy. Still, you get through it rather painlessly. Once installed, any time you want to play, just put in your CD and off you go. The first thing you see is the intro (which can be skipped). After a Sierra ad, you watch sleepy hunters just waking in their tent, light a lantern and campfire (smell the smoke yet?), and pull out the maps. Then they get in their BRAND NEW pick up and head for the woods where, immediately upon arrival, they sneak out of the truck, take aim, and fire at a huge deer. Then you are transported to the first game screen. 

At this point you can set your options like length of hunt, time of day, music on or off, that sort of thing. Then you can choose to get right into it with the Quick Hunt option or choose single or multi-player. We choose Single player and see four more options, Shooting range, Single hunt, Career and Tournament. Shooting Range is just target practice so you can get a feel for the firearm you wish to use. The game allows you to choose from between four types of weapons, rifles, shotguns, bows, or muzzleloaders. Those are categories, with several individual types of each weapon being available. For instance, you could use a .30-06 rifle or a .308. 

In the short time I have had the game to review it, I have stuck to rifles and bows. Career and Tournament settings are just a string of hunts put together as a sort of campaign, so we will only examine the Single Hunt option as we dig deeper. The next screen asks you the area you want to go hunting in. You can pick from eight different states, including our great state of Texas. Also at this point you can set your difficulty level by changing the (snicker) deer AI (artificial intelligence), the deer population, and the population of other hunters in the area. You never ever see other hunters by the way. You might in multi-player mode, I don’t know, as I haven’t tried it yet. Then you go to the next menu screen to select the location you are going to start your hunt, using a topographical map of your hunting area. After this, you’re asked to choose the season and weather conditions. Then, you chose your weapon (and scope type, if applicable) from one of the categories mentioned before. Finally, you are ready to hunt! 

The action

At last, here we are where you actually play this thing. The screen you’re looking at now is what you see for the duration of the hunt for the most part. The largest screen at the upper right is your field of view. In the upper left is your area map. Your position is marked with a red dot. Just below that, wind info, time, and direction of travel info and the truck and tips buttons are displayed. Under your field of vision screen are buttons to push in order to use one of the four things you are allowed to carry. There are several things you can take, like antler rattles, doe scent, people scent cover, and more. You only have to return to your truck to change items (by pressing the truck button of course). You move around by either using the mouse or various keys on the keyboard. As you look and move around you can use any of the items you are carrying by clicking on them. Finding a good spot to sit and then calling the deer seems to work well. Once you spot a deer you click on your rifle and your screen changes to look like a scope. Now you aim and shoot. You may knock the deer down right away or it may travel a while (if you hit it of course). After scoring a kill, you walk up to the deer and tag it. Then you can continue to hunt until your time runs out. If your settings are easy you can literally start the hunt, walk a few steps, and shoot a deer. At the more difficult levels, you will work a lot harder at it. 

Tech stuff, Bottom line, and Opinions

In order to have the Trophy Buck experience on your PC it needs to meet the following minimum requirements. It must be an IBM compatible PC with a P166 MHZ processor (200 MHZ is recommended) with 32 MB of RAM and 200 MB of Hard drive space available. SVGA Video capable of 16 bit color at 640 X 480 resolution with 2 MB of video memory, a 6X (or faster) CD ROM drive, a mouse, a Windows compatible sound card, Windows 95 or 98, and a 28.8k Modem (or faster) for Internet play. A 3D fx card is recommended but not required, as the game will support 3D. You can get a demo from the Sierra web site at www.sierra.com/sierrasports/outdoor/tbuck/. It is just over 33 MB so it’ll take a while to download. I heartily recommend it though, as you really ought to find out if your interested in this before you buy. You can purchase Trophy Buck for $29.95 + tax at CompUSA here in town. Or you can order it at the Sierra web site previously mentioned for the same price plus $5.00 shipping and handling. 

My thoughts on the game? I actually found myself getting into it some. Finding and shooting the deer is a challenge at the more difficult levels. I really think you’d need to be into a game like this to want to play it very much though. In spite of all the options they put into the game, it is awfully repetitive, then again, so is computer golf, and that’s pretty popular, isn’t it? I also found the program was buggy with my 3D card (a Diamond Monster II). It would slow down and get jittery intermittently enough to be quite annoying. It worked better in glide than in direct 3D mode. It is a fairly well made game and worth the purchase price if you like it. Happy hunting, now if you’ll excuse me, I have to drag this virtual carcass back to my NEW virtual truck. . . 

Greg Miller is an electronics technician who keeps simulators running for the U.S. Air Force. He is also an amateur PC enthusiast and a part time software critic for Alamo PC.