Afrika is a wildlife photography game. It’s a very unique game and it ranks quite highly is my all time favourite video games. In the game you play as a photographer who has been sent out to the African plains to take photos of the wildlife for all sorts of clients.

The game revolves around you receiving missions/jobs via email on your laptop. These jobs require you to a capture a certain animal doing a certain action. For example this can be anything from a Hippo yawning to a Giraffe eating. It may sound boring to some but for wildlife lovers it is very interesting. There are over 100 jobs to complete in the game. Each job is graded from A-F, and your reward for each job is money. You will receive more money for the higher grade you get. The grade is determined by variables such as distance from target and the angle of the shot. The money which you do receive from jobs can be used to buy better equipment such as lens for your camera and large photo storage for your camera. Also it can be used to buy different vinyls for the safari jeep in the game.

The most important part of the game is how it looks and plays. It certainly doesn’t disappoint. The visuals are top notch; the textures of the grasses and African plains look fantastic. The way the sun shines across the mud and water in the game is wonderful. There are 5 different areas of the African plains to explore. The animals look even better. Their motions and characteristic are almost life like – there is so much attention to detail. There are over 40 animals in the game from Lions, to Elephants and even lizards. There are even insects to find such as dung beetles.

The camera and player controls are easy. Simply bring up your camera using the square button and click away using R1. The sixaxis controller is implemented very well into the game. To take a vertical shot you tilt your controller vertically and vice versa for horizontal shots. Sometimes it can become quite clunky and slow to take a photo when you have difficulty focusing the camera. However, it is usually a smooth operation. The player which you use (either male or female) can be played in first or third person view. You can crouch in bushes and climb trees to get a better view on the plains or to approach animals silently to get a close up shot. All photos can be saved to your PS3’s HDD.

As well as the usual camera in hand approach throughout the game there are certain missions which involve you using new equipment. There is a RC cam to utilize when you want to get up and close with a deadly predator. This is simply a camera on a remote controlled car. Also you can use a wirelessly controlled camera at various points. This adds something new to the game every so often. However, it would be nice if you could use all this equipment freely instead of it being restricted to certain missions. Another feature in the game is certain missions which involve something more exciting and bigger than the usual jobs you receive. These can be from a Cheetah hunt to the Wildebeest river crossing. They are really enjoyable to complete and cane also be played.

You can also drive a safari jeep in Afrika. Don’t expect anything special from the driving. It will only just get your from A to B. Even though it’s a jeep it will have trouble climbing hills and driving over certain terrain. Also you can’t run over the animals. For the first hour of the game you are not allowed to freely drive the jeep for yourself, instead a guide drives it for you. After this you can driver wherever you want.

There is no spoken dialogue in Afrika, only subtitles. However, the game features a brilliant soundtrack. The noises the animals make also sound great. This helps you immerge into the African setting.

National geographic are involved in Afrika. This means in the game there is wealth of detailed information available on each animal in the game; this is also accompanied with real footage. It’s a very nice touch to the game, and both helpful and interesting to read and watch.

Overall Afrika is a wonderful game for all wildlife and photography lovers. It will not appeal to everyone but that is no way makes it a bad game. It is visually stunning and very extensive, at the same time it is very relaxing to play. It a fantastic game for the purpose it was intended for – a wildlife photography game.