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Monster Hunter
This game was one of those titles that you
can play or leave to one side. Despite scoring only 60% there were a few
elements that make it a little bit of fun. The premise was simple;
everyone lives in a slightly prehistoric time although they have some
excellent technology on their side. Only problem they have is that there
are MONSTERS! Yes! MONSTERS! everywhere that you will have to knock off.
They all sort of look like dinosaurs with the exception of the cat
people and the dragons.
You get to make up your own character in
the game which is a pretty generic sort of character template that
you'll chuck all your gear that you want on them to get them ready for
the big bad world. There is a village which is your hub to all the
worlds where you can get new gear and upgrade all your bits and pieces,
sort of like the Villages in Diablo, but nowhere near as cool. There is
one system that is neat and that is the fact that you can "craft" the
items that you find in the field and make them into newer more powerful
weapons. It's pretty neat and also if you take the time to do it, is
cheaper than just buying the item outright.
The process of attacking monsters is
cumbersome and awkward, using the right stick to initiate attacks. There
are combos that can be done by moving the stick around in a number of
different ways, it's not greatly exciting and once you've commited to
that course of action there is no way of stopping it in time. The
monster has plenty of time to move aside and let your attack miss
altogether. There just isn't that sense of being fully in control of
everything once you have started a combo action.
One thing that I have noted is that the
whole game feels disjointed and a little bit wooden. Once you go online
though, it starts to make sense and the gameplay is a lot more enjoyable
although the fact that you can only communicate via USB keyboard sucks.
Your fellow gamers can help you online with all those tasks you
struggled with in the regular single player game and it's easy to see
which is the preferable way to play. However I am going throw a spanner
in that one and say, NOT GOOD ENOUGH. A game that has such a marked
difference in enjoyment when going online that does not profess to be as
such I simply score against how it plays in single player mode.
All things said and
done, I would rent this before buying. It's not going to appeal to
everyone and what appeal it does have might be limited. Some parts of
the game look great but overall I just didn't find this to be a game
that kept me hanging to play.
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