Video Game Vintage Title: Cabela's Outdoor Adventures

Cabela's Outdoor Adventures

Cabela's Outdoor Adventures is a hunting video game released only in North America on September 8, 2009 by Activision for home consoles, and on October 13, 2009 for the PC. It is the first game in the series to be released on the seventh-generation consoles, as well as on PlayStation 2 and PC.

The game was announced by Activision in a press release in July 2009. There are over 50 hunting and fishing adventures and intensive use of gear and tactics. Emphasis is placed on moments that are instinctively associated with hunting and fishing. New to the series is a reworked shooting system known as VITALS that allows the player to focus on delivering an accurate shot to the prey's vitals. The game received favorable reviews from critics, with praise given for improvement from previous installments of the series.

Cabela's Outdoor Adventures Plot

In the game you are always an unnamed character. You start out in Kansas to hunt for some trophy White-tailed Deer. Your guide, Ricky, tells you to first practice your wing-shooting skills on some Ring-necked Pheasants. Then you stalk up to a meadow where you see a 10 pt. buck. Your guide tells you to hike up to a ridge that overlooks the meadow. When you get up there, he tells you to aim at the doe to practice the VITALS. After that, your guide spooks the deer towards you and you kill the 10 pt buck. You are told by your guide to hike to a mossy boulder across the ridge to get a view of some deer he spotted in the valley below. You hike through a forest, hunting Black-tailed Prairie Dog in the process, and get to the valley and shoot the buck from a lower ridge, then your guide tells you to head over the next ridge to get to another deer herd. You hike up and hunt more pheasants in a meadow on top of the ridge, you make it to a narrow valley where your guide scares the deer into you. You shoot a 6. point buck on the run. You are told to hike through a narrow canyon to another meadow your guide spotted. When you arrive, there is a 8. point buck grazing and deaf because of the waterfall. You take the advantage and stalk up and shoot it. Then you hunt Blue Grouse and hike through another ravine to get to a forest clearing where your guide put scent spots to attract the deer, you take your recurve bow and hike to this outcropping to wait, you see a 6. point buck and shoot it. You are in a blind and you are told to hunt some Mallard Ducks and then you go to fish for White Bass, Crappie, Largemouth Bass and Striped Bass. You are stalking a group of deer but when you shoot one buck, the other runs away. Your guide tells you to hike up to a mountain ridge to get a view of the other side. To get there, you have to go past a canyon where your guide spotted some Eastern Turkey. After you shoot a couple, you hike up the mountain and shoot the other buck in the forest below. You are told by your guide that he saw a monster 15. point buck in a valley and that you should take it, after you hunt cottontail rabbits. After some hiking, you stumble across a battle site and spook the trophy, you shoot him on the run. You are in Idaho where your guide tells you that you are going to hunt Rocky Mountain Elk. You first have to find a few elk signs to make sure that the elk are in the area. After you find them, you hike up a slope where your guide set up a blind to hunt Merriam's Turkey while he calls them in. After you hunt one, you go to a lone tree to set up a tree stand and call in the elk. You shoot a 5 pt. bull. You are on a forest slope when your guide tells you to practice your shooting on some Yellow-bellied Marmots. After that, your guide tells you that he spotted a Mule Deer herd in a clearing up the slope. You hike up there and shoot a doe. After that, your guide makes a deal with a rancher.

Cabela's Outdoor Adventures Gameplay

The game features North America's top outdoor destinations, over 50 hunting and fishing adventures and intensive use of gear and tactics, such as animal calls and stealth skills. Emphasis is placed on moments that are instinctively associated with hunting and fishing, like deer stalking, squeezing the trigger, hooking a fish or snap-shooting a flushed bird, all while respecting real life hunting rules and regulations. Players can also upgrade their hunting gear with authentically branded real life equipment. It features fishing, bird hunting, and hunting for bigger game. In the 50 planned outings that are available for play, virtual outdoorsmen and women can set their sights on great variety of a herd animals, predators, and game birds, or cast a line for several species of fresh and saltwater fish. Multiple difficulty levels are available, with a tutorial mode for less experienced hunters and gamers.

New to the series is a reworked shooting system known as VITALS (Visually Integrated Targeting and Lock-on System) that allows the player to focus on delivering an accurate shot to the prey's vitals, while also creating a closer and more personal view of the animals as they react realistically to being hunted.

Reception
The game received mixed reviews from critics. For the Xbox 360 version, GameFocus stated that it "was able to see an improvement from most of past Cabela games". Lucas Thomas from IGN noted "It's got a few issues and the fishing's mostly phoned in, but Outdoor Adventures may well be a decent option for aspiring woodsmen this season". While Official Xbox Magazine called the game "A decent hunting adventure". PSX Extreme editor Ben Dutka commented "Cabela's Outdoor Adventures is an okay production that has some nice elements and makes a valiant effort to be well worth the $40 price tag. It falls just a little shy".

For the Wii version, IGN's Lucas Thomas stated "Diving into this one is quick and easy, and you can play for short periods of time and still see a lot of action, instead of just sitting around and waiting for hours for bucks and birds to wander by".