Does anyone else remember Live from Daryl’s House?
To this day, I don’t think I ever ended up finishing Maneater, but I’d still recommend it to anyone wanting a silly arcadey action diversion with RPG progression to keep you going. It’s been out for two years, and if you never got around to it, today’s your day to grab Maneater for free from the Epic Games Store. The PC copy is up for grabs until June 16.
The game lets you conquer your oceanic fears — instead of a helpless human, you play the power-hungry shark who’s out for (well-justified!) revenge. Of course, you’ll start off as a weakling in the shallows before bulking up enough to face your fisherman rival as the apex predator. The game has a satirical story for those who need some rising stakes.
I would’ve been fine exclusively focusing on the “game”-ier elements: fighting other aquatic life, feeding, gaining mass, and evolving new abilities. I mean, I’m the sorta person who grew up on educational (?) stuff like Odell Down Under. They had me at “shark game.”
Fun as it is to flop around on land as a massive shark, I didn’t necessarily care to chomp down on beach-goers, and I definitely liked the roaming hit-squad boats the least of anything in Maneater. You may feel differently, though! This is a somewhat uneven game when you rattle off nitpicks, but if you’re mostly after exploration, collectibles, and powering up your shark like I was, there’s fun to be had without too many unfun bits.
Maneater was a “free” game for PlayStation Plus subscribers, so I’m sure plenty of you played this and can speak to it as an experience you invested more time than money in. Worth adding: the expansion, Maneater: Truth Quest, is not included with this Epic Games Store free-to-keep deal — you’re just getting the eight-ish-hour base game.
Next week’s free PC game, Supraland, will be claimable from June 16–23. I’ve been meaning to check it out! Inspired by Zelda, Metroid, and Portal, it’s a first-person action-puzzle game that “assumes that you are intelligent and lets you play independently.”
