Tiger Simulator Review (PC)

I’m running amok like a bat out of hell, claws buried deep into the ankle of a pensioner, and my carnassials performing sudoku on the cartilage of a clueless man, wondering where on earth it all went wrong. It has been a good twenty minutes since I embarked on this mindless quest to slaughter an entire civilization, and I’m beginning to wonder what the point is. I’m here to accrue points — that much I understand. But I just don’t see the value in chasing these goals. If it’s for entertainment purposes, then perhaps I’m just being overly pessimistic about it all. Maybe I’m getting old, or maybe I’m just unable to see the comedy in the concept of the game. Whatever it is, I just don’t think that Tiger Simulator is scratching that itch. And it should be.

To quote Forest Gump: ‘life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.’ Funnily enough, the exact same thing applies in most video games that adopt simulator in the title. Take Goat Simulator, for example. In that unorthodox creation, you could play the part of a goat, true — but not in the way that we initially came to expect. A lot of coffee-induced fever dreams and LSD-powered laudanum went into creating that. Sadly, I can’t quite say the same about Tiger Simulator. Like in Goat Simulator, you can knock heads with strangers and wreak havoc on a dozy cartoon world. But that’s about as much as it’s willing to give.

I’m on the fence about this one, as I do enjoy several of the game’s signature elements. But is there a reason for you to take it for a spin on the block? Let’s sink our teeth in a little deeper and figure that out.

Tiger King?

Tiger Simulator isn’t so much about being a tiger as it is about upsetting the apple cart and aggravating the social food chain. It’s not so much about doing the things that a tiger normally would do, either. Well, it does make an effort to at least cram its barbarically carnivorous behavior into the mix. But other than that, Tiger Simulator isn’t much more than an arcade-like, point-based claw-and-slash brawler with a cartoon locale, to boot. In other words, a far cry from a Goat Simulator rip-off. Not that it needs to be that to gain accreditation, mind you.

The idea behind Tiger Simulator is a simple one: risk life and limb to enact temper tantrums against the inhabitants of a sleepy suburban town. As a tiger—the front page hero of this grizzly tale—you have the task of mauling pedestrians down with your trusty claws and scoring points in an allotted time. Simply put, the more pedestrians you mindlessly batter, the more points you acquire, and so on and so forth. And that’s really all there is to it. There aren’t any side quests for you to bite into, nor are there any fascinating items to unlock or mysteries to unravel, for that matter. You terrorize civilians, and you earn points. Does this warrant the inception of a video game? You tell me.

Toothless Tantrums

The pedestrians in question don’t put up a fight when attacked, and so, there isn’t much of a challenge for you to overcome here. In fact, other than having to memorize certain areas of the game world, there aren’t all that many things that pose a threat to you at all. It’s a game that solely relies on dumb luck, if anything. There isn’t much pre-planning involved in the process, so while it does task you with accruing as many points as possible, it doesn’t actually make it so that you need to plan ahead to achieve your goals. In a nutshell, you drop into the world, run from one enemy to then next, and swipe away at their rag doll vessel to earn a bunch of points. Time whittles down, and the points you earn essentially carry over to your final score. Is it fun? Yes. Well, sort of.

Tiger Simulator breathes a smidgen of life into an incredibly novel experience—an experience that you could probably sweep beneath the rug in an hour, maybe less, depending on how you feel about mauling civilians for pockets of points. There isn’t much more for you to chase outside of that, sadly, and so, while the game does offer a vibrant cartoon sandbox and all the bells and whistles to boot, it really doesn’t contain any post-completion secrets or stages to return to. In other words, if you’re looking for something with a bit of extra replay value, then you might be disappointed with the lack of content that falls into Tiger Simulator and its bite-sized arcade mode. That isn’t to say that it can’t produce more content in future patches, mind you. But right now, eh — it’s a little short of a full-fledged game.

Verdict

As much as I wanted to enjoy mauling pedestrians on the sidewalk in exchange for a sweet, sweet chunk of points, I couldn’t help but wonder if there could’ve been a lot more to the experience than just that. Don’t get me wrong, it was a lot of fun at first—thirty minutes, give or take—but that novelty factor soon wore off, and the excitement that came with tackling OAPs on the road gradually became, I don’t know, boring. Collecting points and elevating my score with each passing round was great, I’ll admit — but that just wasn’t enough of an incentive to keep me going.

Of course, if you enjoy point-based arcade games with silly rag doll physics and breakable worlds, then I’d like to imagine that you would enjoy butting heads with the folks who populate this wild suburb. That said, if you’re after something with a little more oomph, or perhaps something with more depth in its storyline or gameplay department, then chances are you won’t find enough to scratch that itch here.