Way of the Hunter 2

About

Way of the Hunter 2 is a single player and multiplayer shooter game. It was developed by Nine Rocks Games and was released on March 26, 2026. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Explore the vast outdoors of North America in this next level open world hunting game. Feel the thrill of the hunt and keep an eye out for the wild and wonderous species that are roaming the Canadian wilderness. Hunt and display big game like Moose, Elk, Bears or Bison as well as, smaller animals like Rabbits, Turkeys and various other birds. As the ultimate hunting simulator, Way of t…

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75%

Audience ScoreBased on 382 reviews

graphics31 positive mentions

optimization14 negative mentions

The game offers very realistic hunting mechanics that emphasize tracking, stalking, and animal fitness, providing an immersive hunting experience.
Graphics are visually impressive and immersive, utilizing Unreal Engine 5 to create beautiful natural environments and detailed animal animations.
The addition of quality-of-life features such as a hunting dog companion, tents, new weapons, and an improved user interface enhances gameplay and immersion.

Performance and optimization issues are prevalent, including frequent crashes, memory leaks, low frame rates, and poor stability on various systems.
Numerous bugs and glitches affect gameplay, such as frozen or clustered animals, inconsistent hit registration, problematic AI behavior, and UI/control problems.
Gameplay is often criticized for lacking depth in ballistics and weapon realism, simplified dog mechanics, limited weapon and ammo variety, and sometimes an unbalanced economy system.

graphics
104 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
59%
11%
The graphics in this game show a significant improvement over its predecessor, featuring beautiful visuals, realistic lighting, and detailed animal models enhanced by Unreal Engine 5. However, many users report frequent graphical glitches, optimization issues, and performance drops, especially on lower-end systems, which detract from the overall experience. While the visuals are praised as stunning and immersive, the game still requires further polish to address stability and graphical bugs.
- “The graphics are absolutely amazing, and are an aspect of the game that far outpaces those of its counterpart, thehunter: cotw.”
- “Overall it feels like a vast improvement over the first one, graphics are fantastic, the guns feel and sound excellent and the animal models are amazing.”
- “Graphics are the best in hunting games, ever, period.”
- “Runs like straight piped ass, optimization is a complete joke. In The Hunter: Call of the Wild I average 90-110fps with maxed out graphics settings, meanwhile Way of the Hunter struggles to stay above 30fps without DLSS maxed out and the lowest settings.”
- “Once you turn down the graphics to make it run half decent, it looks horrible.”
- “It's seems good but don't buy it. I spent $35 AUD on this and the second I got on it, massive chunks of the ground were missing when I put it in high graphics, so I had to put it in low graphics. Not to mention the fps rate: I'm stuck at 3 fps, and when I tried to change my scope it kicked me out. Same when I started exploring the map; I got to a certain point and it kicked me out.”
optimization
61 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
56%
23%
Optimization for the game is currently inconsistent, with many users reporting poor performance, frequent lag, and visual glitches even on high-end PCs, particularly in early access. While some players experience decent or improved frame rates with settings tweaks and DLSS, widespread issues like stuttering, crashes, and graphical bugs indicate the game needs significant optimization work. Overall, the consensus is that better performance and stability are essential priorities for future updates.
- “On my PC the performance is fully sufficient even at the highest settings and with DLSS quality I get around 60 to 90 FPS on average.”
- “Performance: with everything maxed but effects set to low, I’m pulling high 60s – low 80s depending on the terrain.”
- “The performance has improved even further since the demo, and I'm playing on the highest possible settings.”
- “Runs like straight piped ass, optimization is a complete joke. In The Hunter: Call of the Wild I average 90-110fps with maxed out graphics settings, meanwhile Way of the Hunter struggles to stay above 30fps without DLSS maxed out and the lowest of settings.”
- “On top of that, performance is terrible, no matter how good your PC is. There’s constant lag in all areas, especially around water where both the animals and the hunter start glitching badly.”
- “The bones are there for a great hunting game, but this is horrendously optimized and lazily thrown together like most UE5 engine games are.”
gameplay
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
68%
6%
Gameplay in the game offers solid mechanics with improvements in areas like herd management, stalking, and unique fitness systems, making hunting engaging and satisfying. However, many reviews highlight persistent bugs, performance issues, and a lack of significant innovation from the first game, leading to mixed feelings about its current state in early access. Overall, while promising and fun for some, the gameplay still requires refinement and added depth to fully realize its potential.
- “Gameplay is solid, I absolutely loved the herd management aspect in the previous game over what some of the competition tries to pass for an outdoorsman game.”
- “With updates to the dog, tracking mechanics, weapon info, and quality-of-life features, I believe it could become a truly great hunting experience.”
- “The animal fitness mechanic is also very unique and ties into the herd status, strengthening a population of animals by targeting lower fitness animals to create a stronger stock is very satisfying.”
- “It doesn’t matter if you’re 1 meter away or 100 meters away, hunting feels pointless because there’s no real gameplay involved, they just don't move.”
- “Creating a second game on UE5 was a bold decision under the pretense that it would pave the way for improving the mechanics, but none of the major gameplay mechanic gripes from the original game seem to be addressed here.”
- “Okay, so, having played the first game intermittently for a long time, I can definitely see this being a good sequel in the future, but as of right now I cannot say this is a great game to play; I will definitely play the first over this one due to the sheer amount of bugs, performance issues, and just general gameplay and quality-of-life problems.”
stability
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
85%
The game is currently in early access and exhibits numerous bugs, glitches, crashes, and occasional stuttering, impacting overall stability and enjoyment. While some users experience decent performance even on older hardware, the game is not fully optimized and has visible visual issues, especially in certain areas. Stability is expected to improve as development progresses.
- “I love this game so far, it runs great even on my older rig. I am still getting a steady 60fps on medium settings with DLSS set to quality. I would say it is decently optimized, in my opinion.”
- “Runs great on my older gaming laptop.”
- “Enjoying the game so far, runs great for me.”
- “Just too many glitches to be fun to play.”
- “The game frequently crashes or freezes.”
- “I get early access is to work out bugs and all that... but this is a buggy mess.”
story
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
68%
12%
The story is generally well-received for its engaging missions and character interactions, though some find the dialogue overly saccharine or unrealistic. Players appreciate the ability to choose difficulty and animal abundance, but early access bugs—like quest animals not spawning or mission acceptance issues—can hinder progression and immersion. Despite these flaws, the core gameplay and story structure show strong potential and provide enjoyable hunting experiences.
- “Great game so far – finished all the main character missions at the hardest level and I have enjoyed the challenges.”
- “I really like the story mode, and enjoy the fact that you can choose difficulty and abundance of animals.”
- “I have really enjoyed exploring the map, hunting down animals and seeing what the story has to offer.”
- “Spend about an hour in the tutorial, then spent 2 hours hunting elk for a mission the game gave only for the elk to not spawn.”
- “I get this is early access but if a quest animal is supposed to spawn and you can't progress because it doesn't that is a fun destroying bug.”
- “I am soft locked on the sick moose quest lol, but other than that, almost all bugs can be fixed by restarting the game.”
atmosphere
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
60%
The game's atmosphere is praised for building on the immersive sound and environment of similar hunting games, but is hindered by unrealistic animated animals and sparse vegetation that reduce immersion and the natural feel. Enhancing undergrowth and plant density could significantly improve the overall atmosphere.
- “The advantage of Way of the Hunter 2 lies in its atmosphere and sound.”
- “It shares the atmosphere with games like The Hunter: Call of the Wild, Legendary Deer Hunter, Cabela's Big Game Hunter, and the first WOTH, but takes it a step further.”
- “In some places, adding more undergrowth and dense plants could create a truly natural atmosphere.”
- “This animated animal absolutely ruins that atmosphere.”
- “Everything feels casual now and the game lost its immersion and atmosphere!”
- “But at some places they could definitely add some more undergrowth and dense plants to create a truly natural atmosphere.”
replayability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
Users note that while the game initially lacked polish affecting replayability, recent updates and improvements have made it significantly more playable and enjoyable. Suggestions like adding features such as a replayable shot camera could further enhance the experience. Overall, ongoing developer support is positively impacting the game's replay value.
- “A replayable shot camera like Sniper Elite has would also be a nice function for two reasons: entertainment and post-shot recap, so you can see where you aimed and then get to see a better point of impact.”
- “It has many improvements that make it even more playable for any kind of players.”
- “Update: within 24 hours the devs did a hot fix and the game is much more playable now.”
- “I get it, that's the whole point of early release, but it has to be a bit more playable than it is presently.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is well-received, featuring witty dialogue through voice acting and RPG-style dialog trees. Players particularly enjoy unexpected comedic moments like animals freezing and amusing car-related glitches, which add charm and lightheartedness to the gameplay.
- “The voice acting is great and the added dialog tree has nice humor and adds a slight RPG element to gameplay.”
- “Lol the animals freezing is hilarious and caught me off guard a few times.”
- “If you time it right, it’s actually quieter than a slow crouch-walk, which is ridiculous but hilarious.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users find grinding in the game to be time-consuming and problematic, noting issues like progress resetting unexpectedly, which hampers the overall experience and requires extended playtime to achieve goals.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “Do not make the same mistake as Farming Simulator.”
- “I've had multiple encounters where after logging off, the herds I was grinding reset and everything there turned a year old when I returned.”
monetization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users criticize the game's monetization as a cash grab, expressing frustration over bugs and paying for a seemingly unfinished product. They feel the developers prioritized profit despite known issues from the beta.
- “Such a buggy game right now and a cash grab. They knew this was happening from the beta and still released and made us pay for the game.”
- “A cash grab I guess without a better explanation... coming from COTW this will be a much better game for me eventually.”
music
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Users find the music in Way of the Hunter 1 more enjoyable, especially due to the ability to listen to it while driving in first person, a feature not present in the sequel. However, sound settings are limited, with all sound effects controlled by a single slider.
- “Every sound effect is controlled by just one slider, lumping master, sound effects, voice, and music together.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional feedback highlights a desire for more immersive and noticeable sound effects to enhance player engagement, as current audio feels too subtle and underwhelming in quiet environments.

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Way of the Hunter 2
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18h Median play time

14h Average play time

5-20h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 3 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Way of the Hunter 2 is a shooter game.

Way of the Hunter 2 is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 14 hours playing Way of the Hunter 2.

Way of the Hunter 2 was released on March 26, 2026.

Way of the Hunter 2 was developed by Nine Rocks Games.

Way of the Hunter 2 has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked Way of the Hunter 2 for its graphics but disliked it for its optimization.

Way of the Hunter 2 is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.

Similar games include Way of the Hunter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, Into the Radius 2, Call of the Wild: The Angler, No More Room in Hell 2 and others.

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