Maneater: Truth Quest is an indie game developed by Moi-Gros. If you ask me, it’s a good game, but it’s not a flawless one. It’s a side-scroller with a grim, retro atmosphere and a protagonist with a distinctive face and a penchant for saying “I want to believe”.
When I was younger, I always wondered how people were able to find their true love. I thought about it a lot, until one day I realized that the answer was too simple. If you think about it, it’s easier to find true love than to find the perfect mate.
Part of the problem is that it’s hard to get people to believe anything that goes against their existing world view. We’re all surrounded by people who want to tell us what is the truth, but most of us just want to know that there’s some kind of truth that’s actually worth believing in. So, I decided that the best way to get people to believe, is to just show them.
Where Maneater is like a 10-hour SharkWeek documentary, the Truth Quest DLC is like Ancient Aliens or Monster Quest. While such a connection isn’t precisely fashionable, it’s so entwined in the web of conspiracy and “What if?” culture that it’s impossible to ignore, particularly for fans of such shows.
Whereas such programs are largely placid investigations of the unknown, Truth Quest happily dives headfirst into the tangled web of Q.
It’s difficult to deny that Maneater’s irreverent and quirky base game is escapist fun and “a sharky good time” when we played it last year, but the feeling of merry, good fun fades early in Truth Quest. This DLC eventually fails, at least narratively, due to its persistent dependence on the most bizarre and minute real-life conspiracies as its subject matter.
I Want to Believe — Maneater: Truth Quest Review
I won’t go into detail regarding Truth Quest’s plot, but based on the trailer, you can probably tell what it’s about. That’s partially because I’ve been urged to refrain. But, more significantly, doing so would ruin some of the film’s finest moments.
Despite my concerns about the film as a whole, there are some genuine laugh-out-loud moments in Truth Quest, even if some of them are purely comic in nature. They’re given by Trip West Haven, the narrator of Maneater, who has gone full Alex Jones since we last heard from him.
The long and short of TQ’s message-board-heavy story is that Westhaven has “seen” things while shooting Maneater, and he believes a satanic conspiracy is to blame. Aliens are also engaged in some way.
But don’t worry: Trip has done his homework and will tell you all about the nefarious plots afoot at Port Clovis, revealing what’s actually driving its fauna to mutate and terrify the Gulf of Mexico’s usually tranquil waters.
The issue is that, although Trip’s cheekiness is objectively amusing at times, it quickly wears thin as the narrative progresses. Starting off as well-delivered barbs intended to sarcastically mock the subject matter, the commentary eventually devolves into a stream of exhausting and harsh reminders of current events.
There’s no satisfying conclusion that ties all of the strands together, and while I’m not sure that’s Maneater’s place or purpose, we’re left with what seems like a lost opportunity at best after the credits roll. But, when we consider how things have ended out, maybe that is what it all means: there is no “end,” and what a tragic conclusion it is.
Fortunately, the gameplay in Truth Quest is just as excellent as the basic game, and it serves as the game’s driving, mega-mouthed force.
The current between Maneater and Truth Quest hasn’t changed much. You continue to eat both people and beasts, collecting resources to help you swim to the top of the food chain in Port Clovis. Bounty hunters and other apex predators continue to compete for supremacy.
There are a few new goals and items to find, such as standard time trials and Trip’s Viewtube followers, known as Questers, who spout a slew of conspiracy ideas that will either make you chuckle or make you roll your eyes.
When compared to Trip’s overconfident Facebook-group certainty, I’ll agree that these musings are probably more memorable for their uncomfortable, self-aware delivery. It doesn’t help that Chris Parnell, maybe ironically, plays Trip a bit too well, giving the role an unsettling gravity that eventually blunts the humor Truth Quest so badly seeks.
Regardless, even in its simplicity, eating wicked satanist sailors and black-ops-adjacent bounty hunters never fails to amuse. Hunting down other predators is still a thrilling experience. Even in the dingiest parts of Port Clovis, cutting through the wonderfully depicted waterways may be soothing if that’s what you’re searching for.
Along with the narrative, Truth Quest stumbles a little with its new goals, which require you to seek out and demolish towers on land.
You’re charged with bringing down these towers by tail whipping explosives or corpses at them while being surrounded by highly armed sailors. Not only does it almost lock you into a single organ mutation, but tail whipping things in these land-based portions is at best imprecise. Overall, they seem to have just one purpose: to extend the DLC’s duration.
Towers take a second, but extremely close, backseat to airborne attackers. Sure, shooting down a helicopter is thrilling. It’s a sight to see to see your meg rocket into the air, chewing rudders and wings, smashing metal in mesmeric death dervishes.
But, once again, these encounters seem to do nothing more than extend your time with Truth Quest without adding any real challenge or substance to the game. You may be able to get by without them and not even notice.
Aside from that, a new evolution adds intriguing ranged combat features and turns tail whipping into a profitable tactic against the deep’s terrors, both new and old. The evolution, along with Truth Quest’s new opponents, is so well-designed that you’ll be trading in your bone set as soon as possible (especially against those damnable helicopters…).
However, the new setting is likely to be one of the most appealing aspects of Truth Quest. It’s dripping with conspiratorial design, and it’s the most prominent figure in the DLC, even outshining the new Apex, which looms big in its own right. It looks like a Bond villain’s hideaway or a place where Maxmillian lives in Evil Genius.
It’s precisely the kind of location where I picture underhanded, shady transactions to take place, with roaming bands of military black caps patrolling the dark seas, moored ships obviously loaded with nefarious goods float in the rough waves, and a fishy hidden laboratory bathed in green lords over the sea.
The Bottom Line: Maneater: Truth Quest DLC Review
Pros
- Being a shark is still a lot of fun.
- Ranged combat options have been included in a new evolution.
- The new setting is brimming with personality.
Cons
- By the end, the jokes had grown stale.
- The tail-whipping technique is hit-or-miss.
Maneater Truth Quest goes a little too far in parodying the present real-world conspiratorial environment, taking an experience that provides a respite from the horrific every day of the COVID-19 epidemic and turning it into something that constantly reminds us of our divided reality. Sure, it’s amusing, but only for so long.
It doesn’t help that Chris Parnell, maybe ironically, plays the role of a deep-end Westhaven a bit too well, giving the character an unsettling gravity. By the conclusion of the approximately 5-hour campaign, the constant delivery has worn thin, making even the most bizarre old astronaut hypothesis or skunk ape story a welcome relief.
It’s a good thing being Jaws is still a lot of fun and oddly fascinating.
[The copy of Maneater: Truth Quest used for this review was supplied by Tripwire Interactive.]Can you believe that after nearly two years since the original Maneater game was released, there are still no official announcements about the sequel? There is no sign of the game in the Steam store either, nor any mention of it on the game’s game page on the Maneater website.. Read more about maneater truth quest plot and let us know what you think.
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