Maneater: Truth Quest Review – Red Pilled

After completing my bloody tour of the ocean as an overpowered bull shark, I haven’t thought about Maneater too much. Still, the experience was memorable, but I can’t say that I was really looking for more. Well, Tripwire doesn’t care what I think because they decided to release Maneater: Truth Quest, a DLC expansion to the game that takes players down a rabbit hole of conspiracies that hits close to home. So don’t mind me as I grab my tinfoil hat and jump right back into this fishy situation.

Maneater: Truth Quest combines the best two parts of the game, the shark and narrator Trip Westhaven, for a series of missions around a new area. The narrative is extremely self-aware and almost timely as it revolves around conspiracy theories that might explain the Bull Shark’s mutations.

However, it’s Chris Parnell’s voice-over that really sells the experience during every moment. He’s constantly going off the rails about government cover-ups and how he is the absolute truth to every unexplained phenomenon. I wouldn’t be surprised if the developers just let him rant off-script and included most of it in the game because it becomes hysterically random at times.

The expansion opens up a few new missions and a new area known as Port Clovis. This new ocean to explore isn’t as big as the other areas, but the missions take players across every inch of it. However, I grew tired of the loop of similar mission types, which had you taking out 10 sailors, destroying a tower, swimming through rings, and fighting an Apex Predator. However, every mission really tests your skills as a killer shark, and the challenge is kept high. For example, the sailors have some intense firepower that makes them rather annoying at times, especially when you’re trying to summon the new bounty characters.

Further, as annoying as the ring missions may seem on paper, they offer a decent challenge as you try to race a countdown. The biggest problem with this DLC is that it does heavily test you, and many of us probably haven’t played this game in a while. The control scheme is rather specific as you navigate the underwater world and perfect your loadout. I had to take some time to remember what every button did before even thinking about fighting against one of the new Apex Predators.

The DLC seems to be largely aimed at players who just want more. The level cap has been increased with a new evolution set, but I felt like more could have been added here. I would have liked several new sets if only to play around with an absurd amount of combinations for my shark. An additional organ slot is also available, which is needed if you hope to survive some of these encounters.

The design of Port Clovis encourages some rather fun moments of playing. There’s just something great about launching onto a beach of soldiers exercising and ruining their day. The tone continues to be comical, and gameplay is compared to a strategical mindless enjoyment. Your understanding of the controls and shark’s abilities are pushed to the depths during each mission so expect to come with your A-game. There are also new missions found in the old areas, which was nice to be able to return to the beaches I used to torment.

Maneater: Truth Quest is for those Maneater fans who only stopped playing because they completed everything the base game had to offer. This new expansion ups the challenge, but at the cost of repeated mission types. The narration steals the show throughout every moment of gameplay. Now, you can add conspiracies and bull shark facts to the useless knowledge Maneater has taught us, and yet, I’m all here for it.