Untamed: Life Of A Cougar

Very interesting experience playing this, feels like a weird dream or something. If you want a pretty realistic, unintentionally funny, glitchy game with weird graphics and funky music then you're in the right place! It can be quite frustrating tho.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☑ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☑ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☑ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10


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it's a fun game and all.. but I can't rlly recommend it because it has been abandoned and I've experienced so many breaking glitches that have forced me to restart. The models are old. And so on..

The game feels kinda knockoff and clunky, but it’s alright. Takes a long time to complete and waiting can be pretty boring, and there isn’t that much in terms of options. It’s pretty unique compared to other animal survival games, and it’s the only one I’ve seen portraying a cougar, but is a not that good gameplay and graphic wise. I can see what the dev was trying to achieve, but just didn’t quite reach. Overall, I’d recommend it only if you’re willing to set aside the flaws.

This game is terrible... and yet I still recommend it because at least its ACTUALLY a survival game featuring a cougar living its best life. There are simply not enough games in the wildlife simulation genre. My quote after two hours: "Omg... this game is so bad its good".

SOMEHOW... despite all the odds... and poor design choices.... this game provides the player a decent survival loop... Which is surprising considering how botched everything else is. For example the mini map doesn't follow standard compass rules or get directions correct with master map itself. The master map screen looks as though it was drawn by children or sleep deprived programmers.

Despite the low artistic polish, however the game does deliver on simulating a cougars daily x rated romps though the wilderness. Your character model is fairly well done actually, and you can tell there was a desire to get cougar related things done right. Despite the games rough quality the simulation part is largely correct.

Games Accuracy?

More or less passable, but keep in mind the cougars in the wild are going to hunt and eat more bunnies and smaller game. Yet we have the option to put down bison spawns in Untamed. At least the game does a good job encouraging players to take down smaller game since its easier to bring them to the hungry kitters. Prey also fights back (especially things like Bison) and these prey can kill you.

My Gripes:

In game design its common knowledge UI and menus should not jarringly stop players from doing things. However Untamed doesn't give a fuck, flashing full screen ugly kitten images. Sometimes I marvel at the ability of this developer to make kitten images ugly. Sometimes I scream and jump out of my chair at the unexpected jarring flash of ugly kitteh. A true horror story. After 12 hours I don't even care what is written anymore. You never know when these will appear next.

Another design flaw is enemy combat:

Most games will not have entry level enemies just BOOM, one shot your character. I mean realistically even in real life a cougar is not going to just flop over and die instantly. The reason that games don't insta-kill players straight out the gate is to manage frustrations and allow players to learn. Untamed doesn't care about your feelings, and so it takes a little while to get use to combat and come to terms with getting absolutely destroyed. Once you have been thoroughly crushed it begins to get better.

The combat system is actually pretty similar to a triple A title called " Man Eater " which is another animal game about a bull shark. The difference between the two was you had time to learn shark combat, while no such luxury is afforded in Untamed. The good news is once you understand the attack animations timing, and understand target mode (being able to snap, and lock onto enemies)... then combat is fine.

My suggestion to a new player would be start in easy mode for an hour or two and then go normal mode. This will afford you the time to learn and will fix the entry level problems so you can enjoy combat more. Stealth is also a thing, and all creatures also have openings during combat for example eagles have moments when they are vulnerable, and moments when you should dodge away or risk death. Stealth can also be used against creatures that do not provide many openings. Combat is sometimes not the correct choice.

Sound design:

Don't expect much. I'v learned that there are "basic animal sounds" that play when you are near a creature. These are short loops of sound on repeat. So if you hear a horse loosing its shit in a field nearby probably just the audio for them. Same thing with howling wolves on repeat. Given the barrage of horrible groans coming from the forest its not a relaxing game. XD

As for bugs. There are many of them, some can be worked around - marking a tree with your scent is often easier when done near the part of the trunk that has a bump on it. Otherwise you may spend several minutes having a seizure next to it , if you try and mark the tree in the "wrong" place . Eventually you just work around the glitches , and sometimes it can be downright funny watching derpy deer accidentally jump off cliffs. The glitches were actually less offputting to me then the horrible pop ups and screaming animals.

Anyway, thats it... Thats the review... I'm going to give it a thumbs up. Just don't expect much from this product.

I really need to install DOS box, and download "Lion" (Sanctuary Woods) from 1995 again. It still blows my mind that a game that was around before windows was mainstream is still better then half of the animal survival games out here..

Lol, we need more shelter games.

This game is completely unplayable. Controls and graphics are absolutely atrocious. I forgot I had this in my library because it was so bad. It needs an update, but it seems abandoned. Don't waste your money on this game like I did. I wish I had gotten a refund.

This game had so much promise, but ultimately failed in almost every aspect. Do not buy this game, it is not worth your money.

- Graphics are meh at best, even on "Fantastic" settings. When you have to stare at the same bleached white rock den even after migrating across the map, it gets pretty dull.

- A lot of the places and game mechanics are broken. Some of the bridges still register your cougar as swimming, so even on dry wood you must suffer the awkward, slow swimming animation through the air. On multiple games, my cougar somehow was gifted with infinite stamina/energy, which was admittedly great for escaping moose and bison, but meant there was no challenge or risk with smaller prey. Hunting was awful as it was; despite the fact I was sneaking, stalking and hiding exactly as the game told me how to do it in the tutorial, every single animal spotted me the moment I got even remotely close. Hunting large prey was impossible, as you must sneak up close to then spook them so they don't attack you immediately, and every deer and rabbit fled immediately- presumably from hearing my cougar fart from a mile away. If I didn't have that infinite stamina glitch, I would've been doomed from the beginning.

The final kick to the gut was when my cubs grew up and left, but no new males appeared for me to have the next litter and continue the game. Say goodbye to all those stat points you spent ages grinding for.

- You want to fight the other predators to defend yourself/your cubs/gain points to upgrade stats? Hahaha... No.
What happens instead feels like what happens if a 10 year old joins a public roleplay thread with their OP Mary Sue character. You can fight and strafe and claw all you like, but your opponent will just scream "I DODGE ALL UR ATTACKS BECUZ IM SO AWESUM!!1!" and not take any damage whatsoever. Wolves and dogs can only just be beaten on their own, but if their pack joins them you're dead. Golden eagles are somehow untouchable, horses and bison seem to actively chase you to stomp you to death, and don't even think about even breathing near a bear. For all of the predators, it was all the same: any damage you did miraculously deal was immediately healed, while even with max stats you were killed with 2 hits. You don't feel like a cougar, you feel like a house cat.

- Gameplay manages to be tedious, even with so many animals and so much potential. It might be somewhere near fun the first time around, but very quickly it gets boring. Watch the male cougars fight and glitch out around you. Squat and let the victor bang you 30 times (yes, 30 times.) Run around until your cubs are born. Dump a carcass on them for food and then abandon them for like 2 in-game days while you find some very specific trees to pee on. Run back and get your cubs to veeeery sloooowly waddle to another den because some male cougar decided to try and kill your cubs by... veeeery sloooowly walking in their general direction. Rinse and repeat the last 2 steps until your cubs ditch you.

So yeah, overall this game was a complete wreck. It's a shame, really, but when you buy this game for that much it feels like a scam. Did I mention the developer hasn't worked on this game in at least a year? They're at college, so fair enough, but it'd be nice if they'd let people know instead of just ghosting.

You still want a good animal simulator? Wolfquest is decent- I played it before it came to steam though, so I'd check for any changes or progress. If you want an animal sim but you're willing to give up a little realism, take a look at Shelter 2. Same kind of gameplay, but with pretty patchwork textures. It's exactly the same price as this (plus a little more if you want the Mountains DLC, which adds a lot) and it's much better.

this is a fun concept that was never fully realized. the game has not been updated since 2016 and the website for the game hasnt been updated since 2015.

with some polishing and content, this could have been a cool game.

i supported it because i like to see cool things done with video games. if i had known this is where they were going to stop, i wouldnt have done so.

Hoooooo boy. I'd been told this game was a lot like WolfQuest, which it is... in theory. The mechanics and gameplay are similar. However, Untamed doesn't possess even a fraction of the quality that WolfQuest does. With the way the graphics and AI are, I'd think this was a super early release product. But alas, it doesn't seem this poor game will be getting upgrades anytime soon.

It could have been great, truly.

I love this game! I actually haven't come across any bad glitches. The music is relaxing, and the gameplay is fun/challenging.
Not to mention the cubs are super cute and it's easy to get attached to them.

TIPS:
-Don't leave prey at the den. It may seem really efficient, but it'll just attract eagles and other unwanted predators.
-Before you go and mark trees/hunt, feed your cubs. You might get caught up fighting off predators or hunters, which takes time. By the time you come back, your cubs could be starving.
-Fight off rival females as soon as they come close. Even if they don't look close to the den, while you're out hunting, they could get to your cubs before you do.
-Character upgrades are important. Without them, it'll take longer to kill predators. (Example: two eagles are attacking you. While you slowly fight one of them, the other eagle kills a cub.)
-Crouching to hunt is pretty much useless. It's faster to just chase the prey.
-Keep prey piles a little while away from the den. This way, you can always have prey to give your cubs. Refill it when it gets low.
-Stay in target mode at all times. It'll alert you when predators/prey are near.
-Moose are scary. Stay away from moose. (RIP Fern and Pine... ;-;)

My remaining cub, Stone, forever hates moose for killing his siblings. xD

Anyways, this game is worth the $14.99! I recommend it.

Recommended only when on sale.

Love the call of screaming, ungrateful kittens who don't understand that mommy has places to go and animals to slaughter? Well well well, welcome to Untamed! The cougars here are seriously Untamed. Like, they have to be "untamed" 30 times just to get the whiny little cubs.

And what happens when those tiny, little, precious cubs are finally here? Time to hunt, of course! But not only do you get to hunt, you also get to run from a feral male cougar trying to kill your family! Yay!

Once you finally get away from the male there's a good chance you've lost a cub or two (honestly not the worst thing in the world, I chose favorites anyway.) And after that you better get to hunting. Soon your cubs will be in the next stage of life, and will actually be able to walk at an acceptable speed. Oh joy!

The male will return, you'll have to change dens again, and any sort of social life mommy cougar had before will fade away just as quickly as your cubs' health will.

In time the little bitc- I mean your precious angels will grow up and leave you behind. Hey look, you gave up your life to raise cubs for nothing! Woo! And after that what does mommy cougar do? Hunt, increase stats, try not to die a lot. Currently the only way to have more cubs is by starting over with a new character.

Summary: Overall the game is fun for a playthrough or two and occasional play after the cubs are gone, but I don't think it's worth the money unless on sale. It's not always the most realistic either; predators and prey spawn at every turn. Also you can't eat the hunters who try to kill you. Phooey.

I mean it's a really cool idea, and I did somewhat enjoy it, but there are a lot of bugs.
And like they are really "game breaking" bugs *in my opinion* - Just because raising my kittens to adulthood was my goal, and 2/3 of them got stuck in terrain. One in a rock and the other in a bed of water. :/

And it wasn't like I could pick them up to pull them out, I spent a while trying to save the one in the rock, but because they couldn't move, they starved to death. The kitten in the water, that was quitting time for me. :P
Honestly if you want to play a game where you play as a big cat and raise your kittens.. Go play Paws: A shelter 2 game. This game was a nice idea but not as good as Paws. I did however like the variety of animals (prey and enemy) in this game!

while i enjoyed this game, it is clearly not for everyone. the game takes a while to complete and you do a lot of the same thing (hunting, exploring, and escaping enemies), so if you get bored easily you might not enjoy it. there are still a few small glitches i have found, and i do recommend hitting the save button often.
i enjoyed the large map, the fact that the cubs look different depending on genetics, the variety of other animals and that you can level up. if you are a fan of games like shelter, shelter 2 or wolfquest then i recommend this completely!

The game is interesting when you just read about it, but the graphics are beyond terrible, when you run it is actually slower than walking, and the music was distorted terribly.
If someone were to remake this game properly, as in they made it look and sound realistic, they fixed up controls and movement, and actually spent some time on this, this could be a good game.

i think this game needs some work. i really like the concept, being a cougar is fun and interesting and raising my cubs was challenging. but the ui was just awful. and turning up my resolution made it much worse. the graphics could be better, but overall not TOO bad. i can certainly live with it. the mini map is terrible and the game has some bugs. the AI is bad too. this really does have potential to be a great and fun game, but it just seems unfinished atm. despite all the negatives, i do enjoy playing it, but im not sure i can really recommend it to others.

This is a FANTASTIC animal sim that is more thoughtful than I expected!
The entire life of a cougar, from finding a mate to the last days of motherhood, is expressed in this game and it is not shy of showing the HARSHNESS of being a mother cougar either! Enemies everywhere (*@#! those freaking eagles!!!), prey (both easy kills and hard fights), and other cougars make up the in game world where they all interact with not only you the player but also each other making it feel more alive!
I highly recommend it!
The recent addition of new enemies adds more fun to it and I hope the dev will continue to expand upon this great game!

I played the beta for this game and I really want to say I like it still... but I can't.
The beta was relaxing, a little slow at times but very fun and enjoyable.
This "finished" version? I hardly have any hours on it because it's such a pain to play.
The map is confusing, the prey is way too hard to catch (Better programmed for reaction to make it harder, but a doe running in circles so I can't catch it isn't better programming to me.)
The prey that attacks you and predators are way over powered now too.

It USED to have a nice ambiant soundtrack, now it's got the nasty music in the video and loud overpowering, annoying nature sounds.
You can upgrade your character but the highest points you get from killing one animal is 10 and the upgrades can get up to 400 points for one. No thanks.

My final say? The developer took a nice, easy going game and rushed everything in at the end making it cramped and crappy.

The AI for the cubs is really annoying. They are constantly trying to wander away from the safe den and directly into danger. Plus the playing mechancis are really weird. Also, the graphics are dated. I mean, some of the symbols for eating and picking up the cubs make me think of pre N64 games. 2/10 would not recommend.

I fell in love with the concept of being a cougar, but was sorely disappointed when everything on the map was a blob and there was no mouse sensitivity options to allow me to actually catch prey instead of spinning in circles. Not something I'd recommend.

If your the type of person that's into Proper animal simulation games. It's nothing like those crappy Ipad games you find that claim to be an animal simulation but is clearly not. untamed life a cougar is quite a realistic Cougar simulation. The graphics are good, and have improved alot since when it first came out. You play the role of a female cougar, which you get to pick out of quite a few colors. You start out in search of a mate. This is the only time that the males are Friendly to the female. Infact on my first try I sat and watched several males fight eachother over the right to mate with the female cougar. Once the strongest male won, I allowed him to do the 'Deed'. After falling pregnant, i started searching for a den to give birth in, catching prey and avoiding hunters along the way. When i found a place i liked, I give birth to 3 cubs. They were small and slow, but adorable. I left them at the den to search for food and to mark my territory to keep rival females at bay. We stayed there, until a male had learnt of our whereabouts. And so i had to lead my cubs to safety, otherwise that male would kill them. My cubs are now on the second stage of life. They are still spotted but are able to keep up with mum. The female you begin with isn't that strong or able to run for a longer period of time. That's where the stats come in. You can gain stats and use those stats to unlock abilities. Like Longer health, Stamina and even Quicker acceleration. I've also recently found out that the cubs have genetics from both of the parent's. So the parent's colors affect the cubs colors. Each animal reacts differently to your approach. A deer will flee, a Male deer, will also flee, but if attacked he will kick. A bison,Moose and Horse will warn you by either shaking their heads or scraping their hoof along the ground. If you get too close they attack, instead of other games where npc's automatically attack the second your in range. Predators though will attack you when in range. Specially wolves. Bears and foxes, i've caught them stalking my cubs. Eagles attack both mum and cubs. I've caught them swooping down on my cubs, i just manage to get there in time and the eagle hobbles along on the ground trying to take off. Not all of the human NPC's are alone.. That's right, some of them have backup.

Pro's
Realistic Animal behaviour. (For both Cougar's and npc's.)
Realistic Cougar and animal Sounds.
Quite Realistic Animations.
Different Life stages for cubs. I've only witnessed 2 so far. Barely walking stage (Maybe a week or 2. Has Spots), And Cub stage(Has Spots, and can keep up with mum.) But from the website, i've seen a slightly older cub with no spots.
Upgradable Cougar. (Stats)
Plenty of prey to hunt and dangers to face to keep you on your toes.
Game not easy, (Even on easy.) Prey is sometimes hard to Stalk and catch in normal mode. That's what Target mode is for (T)
Cubs play with eachother.
Day and Night cycle.
The Game World is beautifully detailed.

Con's
Foggy. It's too foggy so you can't always see where your going.
You can get swarmed by a lot of predators. I was attacking humans as i ended up bumping into them, since the fog made it hard to see a few feet in front of you. When i had Told my cubs to stay, and focused on the humans, a bear came out of nowhere, and attacked 1 of my cubs, then the dogs decided it would be fun to join in to. I had 1 cub left. So i had no choice to maul everyone who provoked my wrath and then reloaded my save.
No weather. (Though that's probably coming in later.)
Seasons. There's no seasons. It's always spring. I wonder what it'll be like in winter. How hard it would be to survive if prey numbers dropped.
Having to shift constantly between target mode to normal mode after each fight. As when attacking in normal mode it's hard to keep sight of your prey. If in Target mode it automatically locks on for you which makes it easier. But because i'm the type of person that likes there character to be fully zoomed in, i have to keep constantly scrolling after exiting out of target mode. Though it's not a big deal as i'm getting used to it.
Killed prey despawns too quickly. At the newborn stage, i left the cubs at the den since they are far too slow to keep up with mum at that age. Well there was no food near home so i travelled for awhile. When i caught a deer, i dragged it back home only to get a few feet away from my den and have it poof. My poor cubs were starving by this time. Maybe have it where prey that have been killed have a longer time to despawn.

Things i'd hope the developer will consider is random litter numbers. Each time you always have 3 cubs. I think it would add alittle suspense to the whole "oh i wonder how many cubs i'll have this time" kind of thing.

Other than those the game is fun to play. This game is to show you all the things a cougar must face to raise offspring and survive. And it pulls it off.

So started out my game trying to avoid the amorous advances of a male mountain lion, wanted to explore the surronding area. After a few adventures I stalked through a piece of heavy vegetation and found myself two metres away from a hunters big bad rifle, I swiftly pounced mauled the hunter senseless then threw him off a cliff. I scampered down after him to have nice tasty breakfast of Cletus but unfortunately it seems human meat is off the menu...I was then killed by his hunting dogs in brutal revenge attack! 10/10 would maul human hunter and be ripped apart by hunting dogs again!!
This game jumped out at me when it went on sale today due to my love of sandbox games and big cats. Very unusual and brave concept for a game and so far it really pulls it off. The developer obviously done their research on mountain lions as its very true to a BBC documentary I watched about them recently, mating, hunting, marking territory etc. The terrain is also authethetic and the map is quite large. Can't wait to see what the developer has in store for the future, playing as a male mountain lion might be interesting for example. Keep up the good work.