Monster Hunter

"A game doomed to extinction..."

Confessions of an habitual writer. I love dinosaurs. I love wyverns. I love reptiles. I love freaky animals. I love them all. From mythical wyverns and dragons, to extinct dinosaurs and current-day reptiles, I have a soft spot in my heart for creatures who dare to be "not very cute". I do look at reptiles and think, "Aww, ain't that cute?". Also, my brother, who also has been playing this game, is a dinosaurs fan and has been since he saw Jurassic Park all those years ago. So, if anyone could possibly glean any enjoyment out of a game with mythical beasts and dinosaurs, it would be us, right?

Err... no. We couldn't.

That isn't to say Monster Hunter is a bad game. Far, far from it. It's just so damn shallow and so damn average that somehow, the amazing visual feast and all the weird and wonderful creatures just can't hold the excitement for more than a few hours. But I'm getting to the point far too quickly.

The visuals, yes. From the character creation, to the hunting environments to the sumptuous FMV, this game is pretty. Scratch that, it's gorgeous. Everything looks, moves and sounds convincing enough, with lovely draw distances, wonderful skies, great scenery... it's as close to perfection as visuals could come for this kind of game . It's a breathtakingly beautiful game world... but this kind of look doesn't come without a price (Remember, Resident Evil 4 needed to be letterboxed!), and Monster Hunter's price is pretty heavy - long load times and even more load times between different "areas", which slows things down - and for a game all about hunting monsters, slow isn't good, especially when a monster slams you back into a zone point, forcing you to go through TWO load screens. Since Capcom have really done some great work in the past with reducing load times, you can't help but wonder if the zone-to-zone transitioning could have been smoother, and a little less noticable. As it stands, this is probably the ultimate turn-off for most people, but there's a few more good and bad points to come yet.

Obviously, as the game title suggests, you are a budding Monster Hunter - don't look for anything deeper in terms of a plot, because this is all you're going to get. You start from the bottom and work your way to the top, by completing a number of interesting quests... which is nice, except that the quests aren't very flexible, they are timed and you can't actually do any "proper" exploration because the paths between areas change from mission to mission... it's frustrating, it's dull and tedious farming and searching for quest items... and you'lll just want to get down to some old-fashioned smacking about of creatures... oh dear...

The combat system is actually where, for me, this game comes very unstuck, seeing as it is dull, characterless and frustrating. As in any game with RPG elements, you can equip yourself with a variety of cool-looking armour and weapons, which is always nice and makes you feel important. But combat itself is just the WORST I've played in any game for a long, long time. With no targeting/lock-on system, and the tendancy for creatures you hit to run away, killing monsters is a matter of using the R-stick (Yes, the R-Stick) to swing your sword about and try to hit your target. You do eventually get used to it, but the point here is we shouldn't have to. A targetting/lock-on system should have been added as standard, and is very noticably absent throughout the whole game.

Multiple-foe combat is another niggle, and it really is a nightmare. This is noticable in your first major multiple-foe battle, where you get a good five to six monsters on you at one time - once you're knocked down, you're going to get hammered a bit, losing a lot of health. No quick recoveries, no blocking - just hit or be hit. It's a laughably crude system from such a prolific company, and Capcom should be hanging their heads in shame.

There isn't much else to the game though. You keep completing quests and progressing further and further into the game. For the time lavished upon the settings anf scenery, it is a bit of a gaming crime that Capcom couldn't lavish the same kind of love and attention on the mechanics. Cooking raw meat is a little "hit X at the right time" game, creating and enhancing weapons doesn't feel anywhere near as deep or rewarding as other games I've played recently... it's just a pretty tedious experience.

That's not to say this game isn't going to be loved by some - time and time again I come back to the games saving grace, the visuals and sound. It's a wonderful world in which to get lost, if you enjoy getting lost. For those who want to progress deeper into the game, you'll be faced with fairly repetative missions, a difficult and often annoying camera system, poor combat mechanics and dialog which will make you cry just to get the cheesy imprint off your retina. It's so damned average, and that's all there is to it.

And after you've got past the, "Ooh! Pretty! Lookit those things!" - there really isn't anything more the game has to offer... which is a shame, and I hope Capcom learn from this experience for the sequel, because this has masses of potential - but they just wasted it here...

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/05