Monster Hunter Freedom

"A lot less "freedom" than I expected."

When I picked this game up several months ago, I was immiediately enticed by the graphics, customization, and rave reviews that it received. More than anything else, the addition of the word "Freedom" immediately had me drawn to the fact that it was indeed a somewhat "free" game. Needless to say, I was horribly mistaken. But, before I get to that, let's look at some of the aspects of Monster Hunter: Freedom.

Graphics: 10/10

Not much to say here. The graphics, like that of any PSP title's are stunning. The ways animals move around and interact with the landscape is pretty incredible for a game on a portable console. You can customize your character, at least to some extent, and armor and weapons that you purchase are shown on your character, not just in the inventory. You can interact with villagers, to some extent, and most of the cut scenes are immaculately shown. I'd say that the graphics are probably the highlight of this game. Very well done, to say the least. probably one of the better PSP titles in terms of graphics. The only pet peeve I have is that the materials are marked with odd symbols to determine what they are. Obviously, this is no reason to take away from the score, but it's just a personal thing of mine.

Sound: 7/10

There really isn't much sound to the game. Sure, there's a little bit of background music every now and then, but it's really just the sounds of the wild as you prowl around, hunting down some of these tyrannic terrors. One of the things that gets to be very, very annoying is the sounds your character makes. Whenever he swings his hammer, he makes a dull 'Uuh' sound. Whenever he slashes his sword, he repeats this. After a while, this really does get to be annoying, although this can be solved quite simply.

Gameplay: 4/10

This is the area that really turned me off about this game. I'm sorry for the poor rating, but the game is just so ridiculously repetitive. Some would argue that it's fun upgrade your weapons and watch them turn bigger and badder, but really, there's not really much to do. It's the same routine over and over, slash, slash, slash, kill, salvage what you can take from the carcass, move on. After a while, the game really gets to be a chore. The difficulty level isn't too bad, if you know what you're doing, you should have a clue of what to do, however, watching your character propel themselves through the same acrobatics and combos over and over just isn't my cup of tea. As aforementioned, the lack of freedom in this game really turned me off. Instead of being able to freely explore each world, you still have parameters. Although you can go on scavanging missions where you just wander around and find useful materials here and there, the game just has far too many limitations. I was under the impression that you would be able to wander around, encountering a monster here or there, but I was sadly mistaken.

Rent or Buy?: Rent. If you enjoy it, buy, definitely. But after a few weeks of playing this, the repetition really just gets to you.

Overall: 5/10

The Graphics and Sound of the game are incredible, but the repetitive gameplay this game has to offer just doesn't make it worthwhile.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/06