The first hunting game we played was Hunting Unlimited 2010. We remember coming back from school that winter, putting our cheap headphones on, and simply losing ourselves in the beautiful world. We remember walking a lot in the game, and yet we didn’t mind. Sooner or later, we knew we would come across an animal. The thrill was amazing. The anger, since we would almost always lose our prey, was monumental. And yet, the very next day, we would boot up the game again.
Throughout the years, we tried many games, but not a single one came close to HU, until theHunter: Call of the Wild. This is a game that we have absolutely adored since the very beginning. And the devs kept on giving with their numerous DLCs. This latest one is another great addition. The Peru Hunting Reserve DLC takes us down to South America, giving us fourteen animals and three map areas. Some cynics might say it’s just more of the same slow waiting game. We say, thank you very much, and Yeehaw! A slow waiting game? Is that supposed to be a bad thing? The slow waiting game is exactly why we play it.
Swapping Big Rifles for Quiet Hope
Starting high up in the mountains, everything feels wide open. Classic Call of the Wild. We spotted a vicuña far away, adjusted our scope, and took a breath. Normal stuff, up until we decided to go down the mountain.
The devs made it hard to see down in the foggy forests and thick river jungles. The bushes are crazy thick, and everything feels cramped. It’s a bad idea to fire loud guns. A single gunshot will either scare everything away or attract predators. Neither is a good thing. So, we were glad to try the new Dahler Reverse Draw CB-150 crossbow. It’s super quiet, as is the way of any crossbow for that matter. It felt good using it, to a point where we really wanted to sneak up on animals, get as close as we could, and avoid shooting them from a mile away (not that this is possible in such a dense environment).
The crossbow, like any crossbow, has limits. You cannot hit anything that’s even remotely far away, especially if the prey is big—that felt like throwing toothpicks at a rock. We realized this when we foolishly tried to shoot a giant Black Caiman by the river with it. Huge mistake. Feel free to try it if you don’t believe us.
Speaking of animals, the DLC will open doors to the jaguar’s kingdom. And yeah, the jaguars, they will keep you on edge. Good luck hunting them at night. Seeing two glowing yellow eyes in the dark bushes is the wildest thing we’ve ever experienced.
We tried to play it safe, relying on footprint trails and checking droppings. We’re ashamed to admit how much time we spent watching how the capybaras and tapirs act. So we won’t. Once we found the drinking zones, we mostly just went back to our usual routine of tracking and shooting (with a lot of admiring in between). We absolutely liked the 60 story missions. Having specific goals helped root out the feeling of walking aimlessly.
Unsurprisingly, the game’s sound design does wonders. It makes the dense jungle feel incredibly creepy when you hear something heavy moving through the brush. The worst part is not being able to see it.
For us, the whole experience was pretty smooth in terms of bugs, but we did read that some players ran into weird visual glitches on the harvest screen with the new Peru animals. We also read that the devs already have it on their known issues list. The same goes for a bug where the special Old Scar mission trophy shows up with a completely wrong model when you place it in your lodge.
The DLC works fine and, as long-standing fans, it made us happy campers. We loved the new maps and how they forced us to change our habits by encouraging close-quarters sneaking. If you love hunting games, this DLC comes well recommended, especially if you like freshening things up with new ways of playing in a sandbox where one second you’re a hunter, and the next you are prey.
ID Card
- Developer: Expansive Worlds
- Publisher: Avalanche Studios Group
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
- Release Date: June 16, 2026
- Genre: Hunting Simulation
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