DHChris

An exciting, thoughtful, and deeply emotional tale that has to be seen to be believed. One of the greatest triumphs of modern videogames to date.

Far and away the best of the modern Carnivores ports. While the PSN version lacked updates and some of the old gameplay features, Tatem's iOS version cuts little and adds lots. The most notable inclusions are a camera for taking HD screenshots, a new "horde mode" style mini-game that's surprisingly fun, and a dinosaur roster that's been nearly doubled since Carnivores 2, but fans of the series will pick up on many small, positive tweaks made to the game's flow and UI. The game even continues to receive updates now, years after its initial release, giving it the most consumer value of all the current games. It's only real downfall is that its controls are not as intuitive and precise as its PC ancestors, but they're certainly better than their PSP/PS3 contemporary and new players will likely adapt to them just fine. It's no wonder there are so many dinosaur hunting games popping up on mobile devices now... imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and CDH Pro is well worth the praise.

After two lack-luster ports and a long wait for updates that never came, Carnivores HD is a wonderful breath of fresh air for Carnivores fans on the PS3. HD is a new entry in the series, the first in over a decade, and thankfully it does not disappoint. For starters the game is downright gorgeous: for a download title the graphics are very nice, with smooth animations, relatively few bugs, and some really great lighting and level design. The behaviors of the dinosaurs are much more varied and interesting than in previous titles and each requires a different strategy to take down effectively. Many of the original series' key features are back, expanded upon, and improved. Players who were unimpressed with Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter will no doubt find this to be a much deeper, more enjoyable title regardless of whether or not they're fans of the series. HD's main downfall is a lack of content, sporting six huntable dinosaurs (only two of which are predatory) and technically only three maps. To the game's credit it does an impressive job of getting the most out of what it offers, though, with each new version of an old map offering variations in time of day, weather, and visibility, as well as switching up the types of dinosaurs present, how big their populations are, and how large they grow. Overall the game still feels a bit small, but its replayability is high, especially with the addition of online leaderboards. As it stands as of launch, HD is a short but very solid, fun title that's well worth it's price. With some more content it could really be something special.

Most fans of the Carnivores series try to forget this game exists. They're not wrong to do so. Cityscape was developed not by the original Carnivores team, but by Sunstorm Interactive, who developed Primal Prey. This is very apparent from the start as the style of the dinosaurs, the gameplay (right down to the "decaying corpse" mechanic), and the sci-fi style weapons are identical to what you'd have expected from a hypothetical "Primal Prey 2". There's very little connecting this game to the original Carnivores series, and whenever it tries to bring in the (very short, very simple) lore of those games it somehow manages to always get it wrong. The biggest deviation, obviously, is that this is an FPS rather than a hunting game. Taking the connection to the original games aside, this still seems like a very bad idea. Cityscape does a poor job of competing with other shooters from its time, both graphically and gameplay-wise, and makes poor use of the Serious Sam engine. The game as a whole feels very lazy, with lots of bugs, nonsensical missions, gaping seams in character models and even a level where they didn't even bother to animate the water. The game does offer the unique option to play as a dinosaur, but the concept is so horribly executed that no one in their right mind would ever want to. As a human, the game is playable, but laughably bad and very easy- big guns and thermal goggles ensure that you'll never be outmatched or caught off guard. As a stand-alone game it's mediocre, and as a Carnivores game it's even worse.

Undeniably the black sheep of the series- at least until Cityscape came around. Ice Age isn't a bad game for what it is, but doesn't do much to change the hunting experience. The gameplay is identical to Carnivores 2, sans the "sighted/heard/smelled" feature, as is the main menu, the weapon selection, and the cheat menu. Furthermore there isn't as much level variety here as there is in C1 or C2; most of the coolest geography is in the first two stages, and after a while most players will probably get tired of seeing snow-covered forest after snow-covered forest. The setting is excellently put together, just not very diverse. Getting to hunt ice age mammals instead of dinosaurs is a welcome change of pace, however, as is the fact that players can now be killed by ALL of the animals... the secret creature at the end of the game is pretty satisfying, too.

A good example of how to do a sequel right. Carnivores 2 keeps the gameplay nearly identical, but streamlines everything to make the game feel bigger, faster, and creepier. The maps are larger, dinos are more numerous and more dangerous, and there are several new environmental features that make the game even more immersive (though good luck getting the full set of graphics to work!). The new hunting menu is much improved, there are more fun cheats to play around with, and a new feature that alerts players to when they've been seen/heard/smelled raises the paranoia factor immensely. Easily the scariest and most satisfying of the original series of games.

An underrated classic! It's pretty dated by today's standards, but back in the day this game's graphics were very impressive. The gameplay is simple but solid and does a great job of **** players in with immersive environments and a sense of paranoia. It has great replayability, a fun cheat menu, and the infamous jump scares make for great stories!