Afrika Review

By Ellie Gibson Published 18 September, 2008

Big game.

Version tested: PlayStation 3

  • "Can you run over small animals in this game? i read somewhere that later on in the game you can drive yourself around, so they better make it realistic so you can run over a lion or something and break its legs off."
  • - Forum post by "contempt456" on GameFaqs.com.

Dear contempt456,

Bad news, I'm afraid. No, you cannot run over a lion in Afrika. Nor can you break its legs off. Nor can you tie an elephant's trunk in a knot, cut off a giraffe's head or inflate a hippo till it goes pop. You can't even make a monkey wear an embarrassing hat.

So Afrika is probably not the game for you. In fact, Sony has decided it's not the game for anyone outside of Japan - at least not enough people to make a release commercially viable. If you want a copy, you'll have to import one. And unless you can understand Japanese, you'll spend the first hour or so turning to websites like GameFaqs as you try to work out what's going on.

This isn't too tricky, as there's not an awful lot going on. You explore pretty African landscapes and take pictures of animals. That's about it. Tedious? You may well think so, if breaking the legs off lions is your idea of a good time. But give it a go and, like me, you could find playing Afrika to be a relaxing, rewarding and enjoyable experience. Even though at no point do you so much as get to give a zebra a Chinese burn.

You play as a wildlife photographer based in an unspecified African country, almost as if the game designers consider all the countries of Africa to be basically the same anyway, in the same way some non-Europeans think Spain is the same as Ireland. There are two characters to choose from - a small American lady and a tall French man.

'Afrika' Screenshot 1

All the pics in this review were taken in-game by Robert from Eurogamer.de. Thanks, Robert!

Why the French man is wearing a beanie hat in the middle of Africa is anyone's guess. Perhaps he's just incredibly lifestyle, in which case he should be at home with his Wii and white furniture. It might have been nice to have the option to play as, you know, an African. There is a non-playable African character in the game, though. He gets to drive the jeep.

Whichever character you don't pick will be waiting to welcome you at base camp. Here you can store and select camera equipment, look at the map and rest overnight. You can also chat to the American lady / French man between missions. If you don't understand what you're chatting about because you can't read Japanese, you can have a nice time making up what they might be saying in your head. ("Hello. See any lions today?" "No, just boring old gazelles again. Has Hollyoaks started yet?")

Most importantly, base camp is where you'll find your laptop. This is used for storing your photos, updating the electronic field guide with new animals you've spotted, buying new items and saving the game. It's also where you receive emails from clients with briefs on what they want you to photograph next (helpfully for non-Japanese speakers, the emails have relevant images attached).

Some briefs are quite simple - you may be asked take a photo of a zebra eating his lunch, or an ostrich wandering about. Others are more specific and tougher to fulfil; you might have to capture an elephant spraying water with its trunk, or a meerkat doing pilates while eating a kebab and wearing a turquoise poncho. (Maybe not the last one, but that's how it feels sometimes.)

Once you've worked out what you're supposed to photograph (perhaps with the help of a handy internet guide), it's time to head out on the plain. For the first handful of missions, your driver will automatically take you to the best spots. You can relax for the duration of the journey, using the right analog stick and your virtual binoculars to enjoy the view. It's not quite breathtaking, and you couldn't describe the visuals as photo-real. But the sheer scale of the landscape is striking, and there is an impressively high level of realism to the lighting, textures and environmental details.

The orchestral soundtrack adds significantly to the overall experience. Sometimes it's so sweeping and elegant it's reminiscent of Sydney Pollack's 1985 big screen adaptation of Out of Africa, or an episode of The Flying Doctors. Most of the time, it's so blatantly nicked off John Williams you keep expecting a diplodocus to come lumbering across the screen.

'Afrika' Screenshot 2

It's the circle, triangle, square and x of life.

There are no dinosaurs, of course (sorry, contempt456), but there are more than 50 different species of animal to photograph. Gazelles, giraffes, lions, rhinos, elephants, zebras, hippos, leopards, cheetahs... The gang's all here, though only by completing missions and unlocking new areas will you get to see the lot.

The basic mechanic for taking photos is simple. You press the square button to point your camera, zoom in and out with the right stick and hit circle to take your snap. The challenge is getting the shot without scaring off your target. Or, in the case of some animals, without getting so close they go mental and attempt to murder you.

(Sorry again, contempt456 - there's no blood and gore. The screen simply fades to black and you wake up back at base camp, with the French man / American woman leaning over you, saying something in Japanese. Perhaps, "You're lucky you've still got a torso, mate. By the way, Dave says he's bored of driving the jeep and can he borrow your camera.")

If you want the best photos, you'll have to do a lot of standing about, creeping around, crouching down, hiding in bushes and keeping still. This isn't as dull as it sounds. No, really. It can actually be exciting to nudge the analog stick ever so gently, watching to see if the hippo will notice you edge two inches closer, or see your patience rewarded as the giraffe fails to spot you in your hiding place and walks directly into your line of sight. But most of all, there's the huge sense of satisfaction when finally you get that perfect shot.

It's even more gratifying when you get back to base camp and email your photo to the client. In return, you'll receive a rating based on your technique, angle, the subject you photographed and your distance from it, and you'll be paid accordingly. Earnings can be used to purchase new items, such as a bigger hard drive to store your photos on, and of course new cameras. You start out with the basic Tsetse camera (why is it named after a disease-spreading parasite? It's a bit like calling a new car the Vauxhall MRSA) but you can unlock and purchase much fancier ones - with the word SONY stamped on them of course.

True, none of this could be described as thrilling, but every so often you're rewarded for your patience with a set piece. These usually involve photographing one of the big game animals in action - a cheetah taking down a gazelle, for example. Still no blood and gore, contempt456, but the animations are extremely realistic and just as violent as they should be. Relatively exciting, then.

(Besides, I've been on a real safari. There's a lot more waiting around and being still than there is in Afrika, not to mention more mosquitos, dust, sunburn and having to share jeep space with aggressive estate agents from Cape Town. And to be honest, the most interesting thing I saw in four days was a monkey do a wank and eat it.)

The game follows pretty much the same pattern as you progress: new areas, different animals, bigger zoom lenses, and lots, lots more photographs. Also you get to drive the jeep, which handles just fine. It's great to have the freedom of deciding where to go, and thank goodness Dave gets a day off. The cameras get increasingly complex and you can start mucking about with focus, frames per second and all that. But for the most part, it's straightforward stuff.

'Afrika' Screenshot 3

Oh dear, Robert went to Wetherspoons for lunch again. Or whatever the German equivalent is.

The incentive to keep playing comes with the promise of new animals to discover and the gratification from fulfilling the briefs. That might not be enough for you, contempt456. Afrika isn't about violence, and it's not designed to provide fast-paced thrills or test your reflexes. It offers a more serene, relaxed, even soothing experience, and rewards you for patience and gentleness.

It's not perfect. The visuals are a little disappointing; they're pretty rather than stunning. While the animals look realistic they don't exhibit much individual behaviour, and their actions can be predictable. And, oh all right, hiding behind bushes can get a bit boring.

Still. Afrika is one of the most pleasant, enjoyable and gently engrossing games I've played in a while. It's a shame Sony isn't releasing it here, and it's worth importing. Especially if you're the type of person who can imagine experiencing a special kind of thrill from snapping a monkey up a tree instead of shooting a zombie in the face. Though it's not as much fun as running over a lion, obviously.

7 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (89) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mattigan #1 3 years ago

    Looks purdy

  • Pike #2 3 years ago

    Sounds like it would have been a better game with contempt456 in charge, if you ask me.

  • the_dudefather #3 3 years ago

    We need next gen Jambo safari, with the ability to run over animals

  • retr0gamer #4 3 years ago

    Give me a large calibur elephant rifle instead of a camera and I'd be buying it. Want to bag me a white rhino.

  • menage #5 3 years ago

    I really don't get why Sony doesn't bring this here. PS2 got big with shit like this. Somebody kick somebody over there.

  • dr_faulk #6 3 years ago

    Looks like a shit PC game you'd buy off a rack beside the checkout in Tesco.

  • 1Dgaf #7 3 years ago

    So this is 'Endless Savannah', then.

  • Beek4257 #8 3 years ago

    @retr0gamer

    Wasn't there some godawful game called Big Game Hunter that let you ... erm ... shoot animals? And then there's allways Tomb Raider offcourse.

  • Carrybagma #9 3 years ago

    It's just a shame that Ellie had to visit TardSchool in order find a suitable comment to build the review around. Couldn't someone here have done the job? This place has gone to the dogs.

  • jonsaan #10 3 years ago

    I'm off to the toilets to 'do a wank'. May even eat it too.

  • dr_faulk #11 3 years ago

    Check out the Japanese trailer! The reaction of the two participants sums the game up quite well.

  • Widge #12 3 years ago

    I was going to steal disc's news, but he beat me in here

  • rprince #13 3 years ago

    Oh. My. God. What do you mean? Spain and Ireland are different places?

  • Widge #14 3 years ago

    Just checked the screenies. Animal models and textures look great, the locations seem a bit like Oblivion but with less going on in them.

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #15 3 years ago

    So this is 'Endless Savannah', then.

    Excellent! Endless Ocean is one of my favourite games of this gen.

    If this is as good as that (imho an 8/10 pushing a 9/10 when EG rated Endless Ocean 6/10) then it makes the PS3 much more compelling. Once we find out if LBP and Heavy Rain live up to the hype then I might actually have a reason to buy one! :)

    Edited by 1 at 18/09/08 @ 14:18

  • coomber #16 3 years ago

    I can't believe I read that whole review. A game I have not even the slightest interest in, but it was such a great article I read it anyway. Ellie is one of the best writers on the internet for my money.

    Shame "monkey wanking" couldn't have made it into a headline lol.

  • dr_faulk #17 3 years ago

    ""Ellie is one of the best writers on the internet for my money."
    I hope you are being sarcastic.

    He is - he has no money.

  • UncleLou #18 3 years ago

    It's the circle, triangle, square and x of life.

    :D

  • kinky_mong #19 3 years ago

    So nearly as good as MGS4 then?

  • HolyJebus #20 3 years ago

    "non-Europeans think Spain is the same as Ireland"

    But aren't all non-Europeans part Irish anyway?

  • chudders #21 3 years ago

    It began in Afrika-ka-ka-ka-ka.

    Funny review, thanks for 5 minutes entertainment.
    Edited by 1 at 18/09/08 @ 15:49

  • Spazzfish #22 3 years ago

    I liked Pokemon snap, so no doubt I'd like this, but I'm not importing a Jap copy.
    Shame it's not getting a UK release because the other half would love this game.

  • SEVQA #23 3 years ago

    Do the animals shag?

  • Raya #24 3 years ago

    I've been making an underwater photography game for quite some time (youTube 'miniclip diver') and I felt it needed some sort of 'sting in the tail' added to it. See the shark attack in the video.... Have to keep the player on their toes at least a wee bit ;-)
    Edited by 1 at 18/09/08 @ 14:37

  • Tenaflyviper #25 3 years ago

    If you could bludgeon the monkeys to death with your camera I would buy it.

  • Aname #26 3 years ago

    So one of the most enjoyable games you've played in a while.. Gets a 7?

  • IronCladChicken #27 3 years ago

    @1Dgaf
    Thats what I was thinking... Except you put it better

  • Stu #28 3 years ago

    @ N@ (if that makes any sense)

    I concurr. More different, peaceful games please. I am old now.

  • Nick #29 3 years ago

    Dear Ms. Gibson

    I enjoyed your recent publication entitled "Africa: Review" a great deal.

    However, my eye was drawn to this comment:

    "You start out with the basic Tsetse camera (why is it named after a disease-spreading parasite? It's a bit like calling a new car the Vauxhall MRSA) but you can unlock and purchase much fancier ones - with the word SONY stamped on them of course."

    As the resident doctor I have to correct your science: the tsetse fly is in fact the vector for Plasmodium vivax, the parasite (technically a trypanosome) which causes malaria. The tsetse itself is not the parasite.

    Anyway, I didn't let this small error spoil my enjoyment of the article.

    Sincerely yours

    Prof WG B'stard.

  • Lukus #30 3 years ago

    Haha, excellent opening to the review.

  • Cappy #31 3 years ago

    I guess this isn't being considered for Western release because photography games are not considered that appealing to other audiences. Pokémon Snap, a Nintendoised, simplified, reskin of the genre and Paparazzi are the only releases of this type I've ever seen in English.

  • Darren #32 3 years ago

    I'd really love to try this game but I'm put off by the fact that it's in Japanese. I don't care if Sony never release this game in Europe but for the love of all things holy, please CAN they release in the US... in English... so those of us that want it can import it?

    Is there a petition anywhere I can sign to get Sony to change their minds? Afrika might not be perfect but it's the kind of quirky Japanese-designed game that the PS3 needs to make it stand out from the Xbox 360.

  • AaronTurner #33 3 years ago

    Looks great, I'd really enjoy having something like this on the Xbox. nice to take it easy with.

  • thewolfiv #34 3 years ago

    "Can you run over small animals in this game? i read somewhere that later on in the game you can drive yourself around, so they better make it realistic so you can run over a lion or something or break its legs off

    "the most interesting thing I saw in four days was a monkey do a wank and eat it"

    Pure gold!

  • Vanmunt #35 3 years ago

    "the most interesting thing I saw in four days was a monkey do a wank and eat it"

    You only get a bucket and a half.. makes sense to recycle!!!


  • andywilkie35 #36 3 years ago

    Brilliant opening!

  • KayJay #37 3 years ago

    I would import this in a second with English an option. I dont think I could be bothererd to FAQ it up every 5 minutes.
    I hope that 11th December release is true. This would be a nice crimbo pressie. :-)

  • kangarootoo #38 3 years ago

    Holy mother of contempt456! That is one pretty looking game.

    So someone makes a game in which you DON'T shoot animals, and some gamers don't like it.

    Let me feign surprise.

  • NegativeZero #39 3 years ago

    You know, maybe it should have dinosaurs. Fuck off all these mammals and get some giant reptilian monsters wandering around. Make it scientifically accurate to fuck with people a bit when they find out that Velociraptors were less 5-foot lizardy killing machines and more turkey-sized buggers. With feathers.

    I think the market for a Dino Safari game would be far bigger than this, at least.

  • Hamflank #40 3 years ago

    "Why the French man is wearing a beanie hat in the middle of Africa is anyone's guess. Perhaps he's just incredibly lifestyle, in which case he should be at home with his Wii and white furniture."

    You should get a raise everytime you write stuff like this.

  • Whitewalker #41 3 years ago

    That's the problem with Sony, they don't have the courage to push anything out of Japan other than 'shoot, shoot, kill, kill' games, pity as my PS3 is still only a BR player with the occasional sport or adventure/action...but it also goes on to explains why Nintendo are doing so much better this time round in the consuls wars.

    Endless Oceans is just such a good example of how with the Wii Nintendo have the courage to send a nature sim game out of Japan to the US and Europe & market it to a crowd that appreciates it. Sony really needs to get its act together.

  • L42yB #42 3 years ago

    Looks very boring... And since it's not in English, it will be even more tedious for someone like me to play... will be giving this a miss, I think.

  • Red930 #43 3 years ago

    why oh why oh why not just pop it on psn for us EU-ers if they cant be arsed to relese it on blu-ray? Sigh. I would buy this, but I aint importing it in japanese

  • Widge #44 3 years ago

    Because it then become a case of localisation... which isn't as simple as translating. For one if you do it to english, it takes a hell of alot more characters to say what is said in Japanese, so you'd have to re-do all the written bits, going over to make sure stuff fits on the right pages, fit in text boxes and stuff. Then apply that across all the EU language variations, all facing the same issues.

  • Amajiro #45 3 years ago

    Great review - informative and with laughs.

  • Thunderbolt #46 3 years ago

    It began in afrika-ka-ka-ka-ka

  • Cappy #47 3 years ago

    What utter bollocks.

    You do realise that games like Endless Ocean are pretty old news for people who owned a PS2? Same developers, the games were just called Everblue 1 & 2 instead. Before that we got Aquanaut's Holiday in English on the PS1. Yes, Nintendo are pretty courageous.

  • Nodebug #48 3 years ago

    Great review :)

  • drumbaby #49 3 years ago

    Sony, just release all your stuff everywhere, and let us be the judges.

  • Miths #50 3 years ago

    I imagine I might be tempted to buy this if it was released here, but to be honest, I think Far Cry 2 will present a vastly more interesting - and visually stunning - Africa "safari" :).

  • oreillymj #51 3 years ago

    BTW Aquanaut's Holiday is out for PS3 shortly. Downloaded a trailer for it off JAP PS store.

    Need to know -

    If you can do doughnuts/stunts in the jeep?
    If you drive at full speed into a tree, does the bird fly through the windscreen?
    Can you jump the lake in the jeep using a small animal as a "ramp".

    I love these sandbox games.

  • Darren #52 3 years ago

    Far Cry 2 looks really good (much to my surprise)... how FC Instincts Predator *should* have looked on the 360 instead of the lazy, shite looking port that is was.

  • tomkuryakin #53 3 years ago

    Gosh, so many people to add to my ignore list here.

  • Les #54 3 years ago

    Who's started the internet petition to get this to the EU/US? I want this (not sure whether I ever get around to playing it (as with most games), but I want it nevertheless).

  • Luvbeers #55 3 years ago

    They could have at least put a QTE to try to escape a charging animal instead of merely fading to black.

  • Les #56 3 years ago

    "They could have at least put a QTE to try to escape a charging animal instead of merely fading to black."

    That doesn't exactly add to the realism...

  • Scimarad #57 3 years ago

    I'm not sure I absorbed any info about the game but it really made me laugh - Especially the bit with the monkey...

  • smelly #58 3 years ago

    "Still. Afrika is one of the most pleasant, enjoyable and gently engrossing games I've played in a while."
    ... 7/10


    eh?

  • Pulsar_t #59 3 years ago

    I used to import stuff like Densha de Go for the PS2, but it seems non-shooty titles will rarely leave the shores of Japan. Still want to get Railfan, if I opt for PS3 of course.

  • Azazel #60 3 years ago

    No breaking teh legs of li0ns = no sale.

  • canIdoyabombsforya #61 3 years ago

    Afrika was built up to be a possibble system seller, then again so was folding@home and a crippled Linux, PMSL,
    Boredom Station 3.

  • thebushmistake #62 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 21:30:01 13-12-2011

  • Rush2112 #63 3 years ago

    I've been playing the Asian version Hakuna Matata for the last few week and it's the perfect game to chill out with. Well worth importing for only 30 notes.

  • mkreku #64 3 years ago

    I wonder how big the area you get to move around in is? Anyhow, I wouldn't mind giving this a go. Can't they release it on PSN?

  • Agent_Llama #65 3 years ago

    Gah... /wants

  • Execta #66 3 years ago

    The idea seems shitty.

  • Trikk #67 3 years ago

    Isn't it cross?

  • zuljin #68 3 years ago

    @Luvbeers

    *WHACK*

    Thats for suggesting QTEs are a desired/fun game mechanic. Now don't do it again.

  • ph101 #69 3 years ago

    good read

  • captainrentboy #70 3 years ago

    ''A game where you don't shoot things!? Awesome, an xbots nightmare, LOL''
    Don't talk utter bullshit, kid.

  • Tomo #71 3 years ago

    I also don't understand why this has generated so much publicity. I'm sort of pleased it has since it's a bit different, but it really does just look like the old multimedia games you used to get bundled with PCs. Or something called Be A ZooKeeper!!1!

    When did this first get announced? Was Sony dishing out free lines of cocaine with it or something?

  • hiddenranbir #72 3 years ago

    Better if this was an animal simulator.

  • patchbox360 #73 3 years ago

    'You can't even make a monkey wear an embarrassing hat.'

    no sale

  • boadle #74 3 years ago

    I've created a petition to urge Sony to release an English language version. Let's show them there is a market for this game. Add your name to the list at: http://www.peti tiononline.com/afrika/

  • NorUraeus #75 3 years ago

    Hmm, wish they made a Hollywood version of this game where you have to sneak around and try to take a picture of Brittney not wearing any panties.

  • GitSomE_UK #76 3 years ago

    The PS3 needs something like this, my daughter loves Endless Ocean and I know she'd like this.

    Come on Sony not everyone wants to blow things away 24/7


  • Nikanoru #77 3 years ago

    I'm not buying a ps3 just for a safari sim, but god damn, the trailer makes me want this game so bad.

  • citizenHUNTER #78 3 years ago

    I know people want freedom, but why does having freedom mean that immediately you need to explore the depths of human violence...? (in terms of a game I mean).

    I love this concept and it looks pretty stunning in places. I'm amazed there aren't more games sort of like this, and in fact why do we need to make 'games' all the time. We have hardware capable nowadays of rendering any real world city you can imagine, or any fictional place the most creative people could envisage, simply to look at and explore and soak up a different ambience, why isn't there for instance, tourist games done ala PGR, but just letting you explore the city, even better if they simulated the people, traffic, sounds etcetera (who knows, maybe even using live information/microphones picking up the real live ambience of say, Times Square. These sorts of experiences would be amazing but we're so limited by thinking if we switch on our console we must have some end purpose to it all (which usually is rather bland anyway when you think about it).

    Imagine being able to roam around digital versions of that city you'd always wanted to visit but haven't yet, or roam around the whole of Discworld or something, it would be unbelievable. People, as always, are idiots.

  • Kryon #79 3 years ago

    Did anyone tell Sony they spelt Africa wrong?

  • busboy33 #80 3 years ago

    @cappy:

    There's a photog game on XBLA -- the name escapes me at the moment, but it's an on-rails, underwater, photog-the-target-critters-game. If that's your bag, it's not too shabby, especially for 800 points.

  • ochinembiri #81 3 years ago

    well, only sony make a movie and sell it as a game. the graphics are absolutely great though. they shoud have included missions like a client would like a bbq with a zebra and elephant, instead of a camera here is a knife and short gun.

  • Ryze #82 3 years ago

    Dinosaurs - this needs dinosaurs!!!!

  • oreillymj #83 3 years ago

    @boadle

    Online petitions aren't worth the paper their written on. File in bin.

  • michaelius #84 3 years ago

    Give me remington hunting rifle and we can play this "afrika" game :D

  • Grogmonkey #85 3 years ago

    Anyone actually found a decent, reputable shop to get this from? My usual haunts (Play-Asia and the like) don't seem to want to ship to the EU. I've been half tempted to get a copy from eBay, but would sooner go for the whole 'actual shop' thing first, if possible.

  • captain-future #86 3 years ago

    Q: "Can you run over small animals in this game? i read somewhere that later on in the game you can drive yourself around, so they better make it realistic so you can run over a lion or something or break its legs off."
    - Forum post by "contempt456" on GameFaqs.com.

    A: Dear contempt456,

    Bad news, I'm afraid. No (...)

    Aaaaah, so I'm not interested in the game!


    ...just kidding...

    When Afrika was announced first I didn't have a glue what to make of it, but now I'm actually mildly interested - basically it's a "Endless Ocean" simulation game where you just wander around and explore...?

  • captain-future #87 3 years ago

    a small American lady and a tall French man

    Ah, it should be just the other way around: small French man! I always wanted to play as Sarkozy!

  • oerhoert #88 3 years ago

    Classy review. +1 to Ellie.

  • Les #89 3 years ago

    For those wanting to import Afrika, http://www.renchi.com is a site that has worked fine for me in the past. Will ship to the EU.

    Apparently there's an Asian version (as opposed to the Japanese version) of Afrika as well, renamed Hakuna Matata. It features an English manual and English menus but the rest of the in-game text is still Japanese-only as far as my googling skills have been able to find out.

    What's strange is that Play-Asia has a Chinese/English version listed that will be released in December. Don't know what the difference is with the Chinese/English version that's already available (since August actually) through Renchi.com.