Immersion Lost: How COTW Can Finally Get Real Hunting Right.

[ionic stream]

Personal Experience & Frustration
I haven’t played in a while, but I still follow the community and feedback whenever I can, even while dealing with personal issues. I do go hunting in real life and have held my breath in a scope — far longer than the game allows. Meanwhile, we can run across the entire map without stamina loss, which breaks realism.
Acknowledging Limitations
I get that not every feature can be added, bugs exist, and some things take forever to fix. Flesh wounds make hunting challenging, and realistically, one doesn’t always kill a deer unless the right blood vein is hit.
ATVs and Immersion
That said, seeing ATVs or Dirt Bikes in the DLC highlights the problem: it breaks immersion for anyone wanting an authentic experience. Hunter: Call of the Wild came out in 2017, and over six years later, horseback hunting is still missing despite repeated requests.
Real-World Hunting Practices
Hunters vary by culture and terrain. In western countries, vehicles are common, but many rely on horseback or walking. In Indian and other traditional hunting cultures, horseback hunting has been practiced historically, showing realism doesn’t always mean mechanized travel.
Developer Vision vs. Reality
The dev team says the game aims for realism, which I appreciate, but unlimited running stamina versus almost nonexistent breath control feels inconsistent. Stamina, breath control, and realistic travel need serious attention.
Constructive Feedback & Closing
This is constructive feedback: the game has amazing features, but without fixing these inconsistencies, the realism promised doesn’t land. Adding horseback travel and refining mechanics could make the game much more immersive and true to its vision.

[frail grotto]

I'd love to see at least a realism mode in CotW

[wispy frigate]

In reality we are not going to hunt as if we were going to war or extermination. Lot of rifles in one lodaut. Animals are everywhere. The game likes a rail shooter.

[cosmic jetty]

i think this is the more likely and frankly better option. i understand the want for realism but at the same time gaming is supposed to be challenging AND casual.

i think my biggest issue is that some changes would be quite minor. wanting to have a stamina cooldown would be great but would get tedious after a time considering most people are ONLY running when they dont care about spooking animals and so this would do very little really.

i do think adding horse riding would be cool but if they havent done it yet i assume there is a reason for it, whether its AI reasons, model reasons, ethical reason, im sure they wouldve by now considering the amount of people who would pay for it.

but the most important thing is i think it would have to be optional. a lot of this games player-base is not as hard on realism as some other people, and completely changing some core game mechanics could be quite damaging to the game as a whole.

i quite like realism in games but im not too desperate for it. when walking up a steep hill i get tired and feel myself PHSYICALLY struggling. in a game there is such a disconnect between the actions you do that realism often comes across as more of a chore, hence why a lot of realistic games have more niche communities. it isnt enjoyable for the average player to be inhibited by tiny things

anyways sorry for the essay lol

[ionic stream]

you're sorry not sorry is forgiven lol

[wispy frigate]

"Only running" was easily fixed in the hunter classic. All animals run out beyond of render distance. But let's not forget that cotw base is grind. Lots of hunters love grind and fast trophy. They are cotw fan base. Hunt like in reality are not interested them.

[cosmic jetty]

then go play classic? 🤷🏻‍♀️

[wispy frigate]

I played cotw almost 5000h. It's my own opinion. But it's crystal clear about cotw. It's a grind simulator. Good game, good graphics but it's not about a real hunt simulator. And yes. I play the classic now.

[wispy frigate]

Without emotions. The animals in Woth get old. The animals in the classic update every session. The animals in Cotw remain the same. We need to kill them if we want to spawn new. We need to kill them a lot if we want a trophy or rare. "Kill them all" is a base style of Cotw. That's why is a grind simulator.

[cosmic jetty]

okay, then keep playing classic 👍

[frail grotto]

Classic really needs some TLC tho

[reef glade]

i dont really want to read the whole chat but cotw is not a realism hunting game, its an arcade game

[frail grotto]

Also this is a doodoo cheeks response in general. It's basically this

“Hey, I want this hunting game that advertises itself as a next gen hunting sim to add hunting stuff”

“Sounds like you should play the other game with less than half the features.”

[edgy pelican]

People grind not because they love it, but because it’s the only viable way to play. Even so, many people play the game. I can magine how large the player base could be if grinding wasn’t the only option. I don’t expect major core changes, but some polish in that direction would be appreciated. After all, this is a hunting game, not GTA 5 with animals.

[cosmic jetty]

i see this guy in every feedback post saying ‘cotw sucks. classic does it right’.

[near sierra]

While cotw most certainly does not suck, Classic does a bunch of things better (like permitted species list for calibers/rifles) and even has some advanced features like the integrated bipod in the Scout rifle or hydration/freezing mechanics on some maps,trophy Shots, clothing system or character czstomization

I think atleast for a possible future title the Devs would be wise to take Inspiration in classic

[frail grotto]

Yeah classic in general has a ton of things you could use for a next gen hunting experience

[compact root]

Not everyone has a computer or laptop

[cosmic jetty]

said it before, this guy goes into every feedback post about the game, says ‘cotw sucks classic does it better. this is for kids. this is a point and shoot game. this game should be more like classic.’ he plays classic. the only reason he EVER posts is to complain that cotw isnt classic

[supple pawn]

I'm just gonna say there's a reason the two games are different, and they should stay that way.

Call of the wild is fine as is, but I do agree that the 'hold your breath' system needs a Slight rework.

Being able to sprint has its negatives which make it even, like animals immediately spooking when you get near them. Sprinting is a great way to explore and unlock maps faster without having to buy a quad dlc so I feel it doesn't need a rework or changes.
And this thing about grinding, you don't have to if you don't want to. If you get tired of your herds for whatever reason, go play on multiplayer maps.
It's fun, you can make new friends and maybe learn something new
But this is just my opinion

[compact root]

I find that the animals in COTW also don’t have enough self awareness

I’ve brought it up in general chat earlier but I’ve had multiple instances while playing that I’ve somehow managed to directly up to a herd of deer without them spooking way before I even got that close

And by close I mean I managed to get within 50 meters of the animal and it somehow didn’t notice me from 100 meters while I’m at a full sprint ingame making as much noise as possible

Only birds and the predator species are the ones in which this doesn’t happen

But species like roe deer and fallow deer I’ve managed to completely sneak up on while running towards them and they still somehow take ages to realize I’m right in front of them

Since I’m playing a new save I don’t have the skills that make it so you generate less noise or are harder to see and yet it still feels like the animals are a bit unaware of things around them

[frail grotto]

Yeah even the animals feeling more aware in their world would be amazing

[supple pawn]

There's different factors that play to that, the three I know about is wind direction, noise levels and running through vegetation and animal difficulty ratings

[compact root]

Them even reacting to alarm calls of another species would be great

[cosmic jetty]

i think animals making more ambient noises would be cool, like the noises pheasants make in game. no sound indicators for them just little noises here and there

[compact root]

It would be so nice if bull elk would bugle if they heard another bull bugle ingame as an example

[small comet]

Lol atvs are pretty common when I've hunted especially on public land. 😅🤣😂 I actually believe it adds realism. And besides if you dont want atvs on multi-player you can turn it off.

[compact root]

I feel like animal difficulty shouldn’t be a factor

Idk how animal difficulty works if it’s just the animal’s level or if it’s something else

But if it scales to animal level I feel like that’s a pretty bad thing imo especially for some species that are confirmed in the codex to be very vigilant and attentive animals

[sonic herald]

Species and level factor into how aware an animal is of your presence, it’s an attempt to make bigger trophies more difficult and more realistic in behavior, as a big buck is expected to be more skittish than a small one. So, a lvl 3 whitetail is easier to spook than a level 1, but a level 9 fox is easier to spook than a lvl 3 whitetail, and a lvl 9 snow leopard spooks easier than the lvl 9 fox etc. etc.

[cosmic jetty]

personally i think this is good for level scaling, even if it might not be seen as ‘realistic’ (idk much about real life animals behaviours) i think in a game it makes logical sense - better more sought after animal = harder to get!

and it for sure takes into account the codex notes about how skittish an animal is as u showed with the fox/snowy bit

[frail grotto]

Yeah like, wild cattle are pretty un-skittish