Cabela's Outdoor Adventures is a hunting video game released only in North America on September 8, 2009 by Activision for home consoles, and on October 13, 2009 for Microsoft Windows.
The game was announced by Activision in a press release in July 2009. There are over 50 hunting and fishing adventures and intensive use of gear and tactics. Emphasis is placed on moments that are instinctively associated with hunting and fishing. New to the series is a reworked shooting system known as VITALS (Visually Integrated Targeting and Lock-on System) that allows the player to focus on delivering an accurate shot to the prey's vitals. The game received favorable reviews from critics, with praise given for improvement from previous installments of the series. Unlike the first game, this one only has the story mode and lets players shoot whatever they encounter.
Gameplay
The game features North America's top outdoor destinations, over 50 hunting and fishing adventures and intensive use of gear and tactics, such as animal calls and stealth skills. Emphasis is placed on moments that are instinctively associated with hunting and fishing, like deer stalking, squeezing the trigger, hooking a fish or snap-shooting a flushed bird, all while respecting real life hunting rules and regulations. Players can also upgrade their hunting gear with authentically branded real life equipment. It features fishing, bird hunting, and hunting for bigger game. In the 50 planned outings that are available for play, virtual outdoorsmen and women can set their sights on great variety of a herd animals, predators, and game birds, or cast a line for several species of fresh and saltwater fish. Multiple difficulty levels are available, with a tutorial mode for less experienced hunters and gamers.
New to the series is a reworked shooting system known as VITALS (Visually Integrated Targeting and Lock-on System) that allows the player to focus on delivering an accurate shot to the prey's vitals, while also creating a closer and more personal view of the animals as they react realistically to being hunted.
Plot
An unnamed character is in Kansas to hunt for some trophy white-tailed deer. His guide, Ricky, tells him to first practice his wing-shooting skills on some ring-necked pheasants. Then the player stalks up to a meadow where he sees a few bucks. The guide spooks the deer towards the player and he kills a 10 pt. buck. The player is told by the guide to hike to a ridge to get a view of some deer he spotted in the valley below. The player hikes through a forest, hunting black-tailed prairie dog and blue grouse, and gets to the valley and shoots the buck from a lower ridge. Then the guide tells the player to head over the next ridge to get to another deer herd. Once the player makes it to the narrow valley, the guide scares the deer toward him. In the next area, there is a buck grazing that is deaf because of a nearby waterfall. The player takes the advantage and stalks up and shoots it. Then he hikes through another ravine to get to a forest clearing where the guide put scent spots to attract the deer. The player hikes to an outcropping to wait, where he sees a 6. point buck and shoots it. Then the player is in a blind and is told to hunt some mallard ducks and then he goes to fish for white bass and crappie. The player is stalking a group of deer but when he shoots one buck, the other runs away. The guide tells the player to hike up to a mountain ridge to get a view of the other side. Once the player completes a hunt for eastern turkey, he hikes up the mountain and shoots the other buck in the clearing below. Then he is told by the guide that he saw a large buck in a valley and that the player should take it, after he hunts cottontail rabbits. After some hiking, the player stumbles across a battle site and spooks the trophy, and he shoots him on the run.