Outdoor Life: Sportsman's Challenge Review

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Game Description

Outdoor Life Sportsman's Challenge

From Outdoor Life, the hunting and fishing experts, comes a game where you design and build the kind of outdoor rec area you would want to use!

You control the development of a large tract of wilderness to create the ultimate hunting, fishing and sightseeing haven for outdoor lovers everywhere. Buy and place campgrounds, cabins, and lodges at prices that are affordable but will still allow you to make money and expand.

Customize for the best hunting and fishing experience

Add shops that sell guns, fishing supplies, and bows to equip your guests.  Keep them entertained with pubs and rec facilities.  Keep them safe with first aid stations and ranger towers to spot wildfires.

Build trails to the best fishing and sightseeing spots. Populate your land with a variety of animals and determine hunting and fishing seasons. Above all, find the balance between keeping your guests happy and maintaing a thriving ecosystem to ensure the success of your park!

Once your park is built, you will need to attract the right kind of guests with targeted advertising.  After that, open the park and watch the guests fly in!

2 Ways to Play

Outdoor Life Sportsman's Challenge lets you take on various set goals to learn the elements of the game.  You might need to keep your guests happy for a certain number of days or earn a certain amount of revenue in a specific period of time.

If you dont' want to be constrained by the challenges you can just launch into a Quick Action game where you can build what you want and when you want and see how people like it!

Outdoor Life Sportsman's Challenge Download Features:

• Explore 12 immense 3D environments filled with lakes, mountains, and forests
• Market your park to attract more riflemen, bow hunters, fishermen and tourists
• A variety of scenarios for all skill levels
• Arrange sightseeing tours, ATV rentals, and boat rentals
• Create the ultimate sportsmans paradise with over 30 buildings - including cabins, lodges, supply shops and more
• Build construction yards and lumber mills to clear new ares, but be careful not to damage the animal population
• Construct trail networks to provide easy access to the best park locations
• Over 25 animals to choose from including trout, quail, fox, deer, boar, bear, elk and more
• Hire 7 employees - from rangers, who stop forest fires, to game wardens, who stop poachers

Game Tips:

1. Definitely start with the Tutorial to learn the basics of the game
2. Don't overbuild in the beginning. You may find yourself without enough money to expand
3. Building facilities too close to the wildlife might drive them away
4. Control hunting seasons and tag prices so your animals don't get hunted to extinction!
5. Guests come for 1 week then leave.  Re-evaluate your strategy between weeks and listen to guest feedback!

If you love the outdoors, are interested in hunting and fishing, and like tycoon games where you manage facilities and try to earn money, this is a great game.  Download the free trial and give Outdoor Life Sportsman's Challenge a shot!

If you are looking for more action oriented games that just focus on hunting, try the very popular Deer Hunter 2005 or Cabela's Grandslam Hunting 2004 Trophies.  Both games are 3D hunting simulations that are quite a bit of fun!

Outdoor Life: Sportsman's Challenge Review

Outdoor Life: Sportsman's Challenge is a sportsman tycoon game that will have you outdoors, duking it out with mother nature. This tycoon is the simulation loving, camouflage wearing, hunters dream as you are put in control of constructing and maintaining a state of the art outdoor get away. Your ability to fill the lodges and sell hunting permits determines your success.

Company Sponsored Game

Sportsman's Challenge carries the label of Outdoor Life, which is a sportsman's magazine. This company's influence in the game does not taint the integrity of play or enjoyability. Actually Outdoor Life's touch is beneficial, as it adds great extras that are both interesting and educational. You can read both a letter from the editor explaining the magazine or you can read published articles on fishing, hunting, survival, and gear. These features add an interesting and educational twist to the game.

Tutorial is Helpful

The tutorial is helpful and clearly illustrates the game's objectives and commands. You will learn the basics of building different lodges, raising money from your businesses, and building trails to different points of interest. These basics are later expanded upon during the later challenges, adding a “learn as you go” element to the game that is more than rewarding.

Game Modes

Outside of the tutorial, there are two game modes available for play. The first mode is a 12 level set of challenges, ranging in difficulty. The first of the levels are relatively easy and require you to change only a few things before you “wait it out” and relish in your victory. For example, if you are required to decrease the salmon population you can easily add more fishing shops and lower the tag price for salmon. Once these changes are made, you need to wait it out and victory will be yours. Difficulty does increase as the levels increase, with the last eight being significantly more difficult than the first four.

Instant Action is the second of the modes. This is also comprised of 12 varying levels, with each level introducing a new environment to the game. This is essentially the free-play mode of the game.

A Few Drawbacks

The drawbacks of this game are not things that will ruin your time in the least. There are a few quirks that detract from the overall quality, however, their significance isn't great. The first of these flaws is satisfying the needs of your patrons. The news feed will tell you what your guests are thinking, however it's difficult to satisfy those needs. While you can easily tell guest needs, it remains your job to randomly hunt down the guest or problem. As you can imagine, finding an ailing guest is more than difficult in a crowded outdoor park. If you are lucky enough to track your guests with problems down, alleviating their angst can be difficult. One might be hurt and need medical help. Even if you purchase a first aid center, a doctor or medical technician does not track the hurt guest down. This is extremely frustrating. You may have all the resources to help your guests, however you may not be able to help them because of interface errors.

Another small annoying part of the game is the long work week. You begin the week filling your park and during the week you won't take on any new clients. Because people aren't constantly pouring in, the money during the week is sparse and you will end up spending a lot just to pass the time. This can be a bad habit to get in if you are trying to save, however buying things is fun to do, especially if you are getting bored.

Conclusion - A Decent Sportsman Tycoon Sim

Overall, Outdoor Life's: Sportsman's Challenge is a niche game that is accessible for all people, regardless of their hunting likes or dislikes. The interface difficulties are small and don't significantly take away from the gameplay. If you are looking for a new simulation, especially with an atypical theme, this game has your name on it.

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