Maneater for PS5 is one of the free games to PlayStation Plus users during January 2021. After spending about 10 hours with this game, I have already achieved 100% completion and the platinum trophy.

This video shows highlights of me earning all of the trophies in the game.

Feed my belly 🦈

If you are like me and have a tremendous love for the ocean and all of its unique forms of life, then Maneater is the game for you. It may not be a super long experience, but what is there will satisfy any fan of hypnotic aquatics.

I managed to snag Maneater for free this week since it is one of the three games available to PS Plus members during the month of January 2021. Shortly after beginning my play through I realized that the developers who created this game (Tripwire Interactive) are the same people who created one of my favorite games called Killing Floor 2. This gave me even more confidence in what was already feeling like a very worthwhile experience.

What is Maneater?

Upon starting this quirky game, you are an adult bull shark down on the Gulf Coast. Think New Orleans here with a mixture of bayous and oceanic tides. They tease you with an upgraded shark in the beginning, but in no time the story has you murdered by a brutal shark hunter named Scaly Pete. Once killed, the mother is cut open and a baby bull shark is released into the wild. So the story goes, grow into a massive shark and seek vengeance for your mother.

Scaly Pete has his own tv show and the story periodically checks back in with him. Also throughout the game the show host blurts out many cool shark and sea facts. I actually learned lots of things I didn’t know before playing this game. The story is in no way the main focus of Maneater, the gameplay is really where it’s at.

Simple yet effective gameplay loop

During your pup phase you will start out in the bayou area where you will discover your first grotto. It is in the grottos where you are safe and able to upgrade your sharks abilities in the form of evolutions and new organs. The customization isn’t terribly deep, but what you do get is so cool. There are three main shark evolutions which can be mixed and matched to create whatever type of violent beast you wish to be. Plus around 10 different organs that function simiLe to perks. All of which start at a basic level and have tiers that go up, think basic/common/rare/epic/legendary.

At the start you are very small, so much so that a simple gator is something you shouldn’t dare attempt to battle. You must rely on smaller fish such as the catfish to grow in size and power. There are also many collectibles that will help you level up quicker. Things like license plates, land marks, and nutrient crates will encourage you to explore the open world and gain more skills.

There are 8 different regions, each with their own feel to them. Upon entering each one you will use sonar to begin revealing everything in the area. I recommend maxing out your sonar before everything else, this makes it a lot easier to find everything in each region and keep up with the higher leveled creatures your encounter.

In each area are new types of fish. You will find progressively more dangerous things to munch on, some of which fight back and make things difficult at times. This is especially true when you do everything a region has to offer and then are challenged by its apex predator. These battles are totally bad ass and each creature looks and acts more intimidating than anything else you have seen in that part of the world.

You will make your way through all 8 areas and as you do so begin evolving your Shark. The stages are as follows:

Pup
Teen
Adult
Elder
Mega

Once you reach mega evolution, you will be 9 meters (about 30 ft) in length. You’re massive, but get capped at level 30. You will encounter enemies in the world such as whales which are much higher level. I saw up to level 60, no worries though you can still handle yourself in battle if you know what you’re doing. You can always run away and eat some

Give the controls a chance

When I first started playing I wasn’t sure I was into how the game felt. Like any game it takes time to get used to how things work. Within an hour I knew exactly what was going on and was able to maneuver and use abilities with ease. They really did a good job enabling a human being to become an actual shark. It feels right, even when your flopping around on a beach chomping on humans.

I was playing on PS5, so I was expecting the DualSense to be used in some unique ways. Sadly all they did was implement some advanced haptics. The adaptive triggers were left out of this one. No worries, it’s still a blast. One you get your shark to a high level and increase your speed, you can zoom through the ocean and it’s a ton of fun.

The platinum trophy

You will easily be able to get 100% on this game just by playing. It only took me 10 hours to do so. The only part that was a bit tedious was raising my infamy level by killing shark hunters. Most of the game I avoided them, so after I beat the story I had to grind a bit just killing them over and over. It only took me about an hour to get to level 10 infamy, but maybe try to spread it out through the game instead of saving it for the end like I did.

You can use this guide if for some reason you have any troubles unlocking everything. I seriously doubt you will need to rely on the guide though. If you like this game like I did, you’ll eventually do everything on your own out of pure curiosity.

I recommend this game for sure

If you love sharks and the ocean, give this game a try. I haven’t played a game like it honestly and it’s well worth your time. No glitches, frame rate is solid, and you are constantly discovering something new. Give it a chance and I’m willing to bet you won’t be disappointed.