Death!

Check out this baby!
I don’t hunt, for real or in video games. I’ve never played Deer Hunter, Varmint Hunter, Road Kill Hunter, or any other Hunter for that matter. Carnivores 2 is, at its core, a simple hunting game. But in Carnivores 2 you get to hunt dinosaurs, and the dinosaurs get to hunt you, so I decided to give it a try. Besides, at the bargain bin price of just $14.95 over at the local Best Buy, it wasn’t like I was taking a terrible risk.

Carnivores 2 takes place on a primitive alien world populated by dinosaurs. This world acts as a vacation resort of sorts for earthly hunters like yourself who pay big bucks for the chance to take down a Velociraptor or a big T-Rex. With this simple back story in place, the rest of the game is stripped down to the very basics of a hunting simulation: you start on some strange island equipped with a weapon (or weapons) and other equipment, and you hunt dinos. When you run out of ammo, or just get bored with hunting the critters, you can exit back to the main menu with whatever credits you earned for your kills. Or, the hunt can end with you getting eaten by a hungry Thunder Lizard. It’s all very droll, but the excellent graphics, realistic behavior modeling of the dinosaurs themselves - not to mention the fact that you can be eaten - make Carnivores 2 a pleasant and occasionally exciting diversion after countless stressful hours of Rogue Spear, Unreal Tournament, or whatever 3D action game you prefer. Carnivores 2 also features some nice touches, like the spaceship that arrives to collect you kill while you watch, and the 3D trophy room where your kills are displayed, along with a set of statistics for each dinosaur. It’s all very simple but well thought out, and makes this bargain bin special actually quite a gem.