Monster Hunter Freedom

"Monster Failure would be a better title."

Monster hunter on PS2 was a great online game. Unfortunately when it was caged for PSP it was hamstrung and left to fight for its life.

The graphics are good with well drawn people, armour and monsters. The backgrounds are really good too. The blood effects are just silly and are really cartoony and a bit Kill Bill. The real gripe i have is with the font used for the text, it is really naff and hard to look at and read. The font drags the graphics from a 9/10 to a 8/10.

The sound in the game is also quite good with decent background music and all the appropriate sound effects for all things. The meaty smacks are nice and the swings are very nice to listen to. The sound is functional and is 7/10 material.

The lifespan of the game is huge, and if you are bothered about getting all the best armour, weapons and doing all the quests it will last 50+ hours. This really deserves 10/10 on its lifespan.

So now you are thinking theres a catch? Well its a big one and its the gameplay. If you put something from your pack onto the ground, like a piece of meat, you cannot pick it back up, yet you can search trees for invisible nitro mushrooms. It is silly. The combat is clunky and it feels like a chore rather than a pleasure and you will be bored quickly. Navigating menus is daft and not being able to change equipment sets mid quest. is really annoying. The gameplay is so naff it deserves 1/10.

The story is non existent. If you are looking for a deep epic story with a moral or something you are wasting your time. It is rubbish like "look a monster outside, kill it". So another 1/10 is in order.

If the game had a good story and decent controls with faster combat it would be one of the best games on PSP. But it doesn't. So it gets 6/10. Anyone giving ot more than 7/10 is either silly or a deluded fanboy.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/06