Monster Hunter – Review

Capcom’s Monster Hunter is a serious departure from any previous prehistoric fighting title we’ve really seen before, despite the inevitable comparisons this is most definitely NOT ‘Dino Crisis’ or ‘Turok’, it’s a pretty original quest based RPG, although very much with the reigns on.

Gameplay
From the producer of ‘Resident Evil: Outbreak’ Monster Hunter bears certain similarities with the multiplayer (option not available in PAL) zombie help-em-up. As a one player game Monster Hunter is a decent, though repetitive beast, when you start you will be faced with the task of creating the character whom you will guide through the wilderness and on to the title of Monster Hunter’. There are a variety of options but first you have to elect male, or female – considering the theme of the site I was reviewing the game for you can imagine my choice – then a series of typically Capcom faces and RPG hairstyles to choose from, like me you might notice certain similarity’s in the faces to other, more famous, RPG characters: Did somebody say Final Fantasy X? Once you have completed configuring your character its time to set out into the big bad world.

And big it is, sort of, the game relies on receiving quests from a particular in your hub town that has apparently been deemed the most suited to dole out legendary adventures. However unless you’re embarking on one of these epic battles often between defenseless sword-wielding hunters and ruthless herbivorous pigs the entirety of the map bar the hub town is of limits, so there’s no real chance for exploration. When you do accept a quest, which vary in difficulty and objective (be it gathering, hunting, stealing eggs, scrumping apples or holding barbeques), the whole world literally becomes your pearl holding clam fish. Each map area opens up with numerous ledges, tunnels wooded areas and fishing spots for you to investigate, and you’ll soon find that sometimes the time allotted for your quest (usually around 40 minutes) isn’t quite enough to get a complete feel of all the wide expanses of nice looking terrain has to offer. This wide terrain despite its freedom has its fair share of annoyances too: when I climbed a series of ledges to the top of a mountain I found it was impossible to climb back down, so I had to resort to lobbing myself off of a hundred foot ledge (which luckily caused me no Ill effect whatsoever); often when gathering items for a quest despite the huge expanse of the map said item can be found in one place only; or the briefing doesn’t actually instruct you that you have to bring back two objects and after gathering bones, and blue mushrooms you find your not actually finished and have to go back.

These petty annoyances aside the gameplay stands up well in single player though repetitive you should enjoy building up your character from the start – where your only belongings are a fur bikini, or a pair of freakishly tight prehistoric Speedos to larger weapons and better armor. Don’t skip ahead and save all your cash to buy the best sword you can, or you might find it’s freakishly large and to slow to wield in any sensible way and you’ll be killed by a hoard of marauding Velociprey’s.

In multiplayer however Monster Hunter, like ‘Resident Evil: Outbreak’, is an entirely different animal. There are certain quests within the single player mode, which, although not completely impossible, are completely unfeasible to even attempt alone, so you need some help: and who better than the worlds finest pimply internerds when you take Monster Hunter online. There is little or no lag between areas and it hold up extremely well. The quests were really set out for the cooperative gameplay and banter you find on the internet which makes them lonely exploits when played alone.

Graphics
Monster Hunter mixes a variety of influences for its visual theme – if you can call it that – there are certain parts of the maps that bear a striking resemblance to a number of Scottish Loch’s, as well as more tropical settings in places and a seemingly Mayan typeface, the game doesn’t really suffer from all this though and the in game aesthetics are good, there is no major slowdown, and without too many of those jaggies that made PS2 infamous it looks good, though it does nothing to stretch the machine to the extremes we should be seeing this late in its lifespan.

Sound
The sound is a bone of contention really, the intermittent music has no real consistent theme, and often it sounds like it has been stolen from ‘Medal of Honor’ of all things. The sound effects are passable though really are no great shakes – although the game does give you the option to choose your own voice so even those patented Lara Croft grunts can be personalized, although only one of the optional voices would have sounded out of place in an eighties Dutch “art” film. As you would expect there is no speech and what little dialogue there is appears in text boxes, in a font so small that an ant with a microscope would struggle to read it, although how it would carry the microscope I’m unsure, but it is there so the deaf or hard of hearing gamer should have few problems with this title.

Female Gamer Angle
With the ability to play as a female, customize your face, hair and voice coupled with the community play online Monster Hunter should be of great appeal to the female gamer, although the single player less so.

Monster Hunter’s lack of a real, even basic, story line like you find in other online RPG’s and it’s repetitiveness in both single and online play modes mean it’s unlikely to last too long before something takes it’s place, which is a shame as it’s a decent title. Unfortunately there are certain aspects which make it not quite great. So like ‘Resident Evil: Outbreak’ it’s destined to wander the high planes with only a few die hard onliners keeping it alive despite attacks from the great hulking dragons of the gaming industry.

Review by Pete

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