"Ever wondered what the difference between a casual gamer game and a hardcore gamer game is? Well, here's the latter."

Monster Hunter Freedom, while not a Role-Playing Game in any conventional sense, assumes a similar form to games of the Action/RPG genre.

With every leap and bound of technology, we see the gaming era advance into new realms, spanning vast universes with many people to meet and experiences to undergo... but seldom to we step back to wonder what a game would be like had we not been spoiled with auto-lock ons and focusing cameras to help hack away at the beast known as "human error"(or the tedium henceforth). Who better to raise the answer to this unrequested trial than the harbingers of difficulty themselves, Capcom.

Monster Hunter Freedom is just as the title suggests - a monster hunting simulator; and get this, you have total freedom. With this title, however, Capcom has succeeded to take the concept of a "simulation" much further than what many would expect in this sense that this is a complete simulator down to the very bone, meaning the gamer is exposed to all the faults human error will cause, and must rely completely on their own skill, intuition and reflexes to master this game.

That's right, this game is absent of any kind of auto-lock on, or any kind of guided camera system, meaning that if you'd like to be the big guy with a great sword, and you find less than half your hits connecting, your only hope will be to get better with your own precision and timing... and if you get hit by any high-velocity attacks and are sent hurling down a hill or into a wall(which you will, tens of thousands of times) the camera will fly out of control. While the untrained eye will see this as a poorly coded and unacceptable camera, it just all adds to the feel Capcom wants to portray, in which you must immediately get into the habit of being ready to adjust the camera as soon as you take a fall, or leave yourself open for whatever critical attacks may come your way. Also, if there's a tree obstructing your view, you can't expect it to magically become transparent for you.

In luscious graphical detail, you will hack and slash your way through lands ranging from humid deserts to volcanoes and forest lands, honing your skill and reflexes to take down many reiterations of velociprey and their hostile residents, as well as the ferocious Yian Kut-Ku, Rathalos, Yian Garuga, Diablos and many others... or get struck, thrusted paralyzed, and sent back to town with no monetary reward after you find your avatar overwhelmed by a dragon by one measly attack... that is, after you've completed a few initial fetch quests.

From the get-go, you are allowed to create your own avatar with many customization opportunities. The gameplay is based primarily around you taking a quest, and trying to complete whatever sadistic task the elder, or hunter's guild has put forth, whether it be something easy like catching a certain kind of fish, trying to swindle an egg from a mighty wyvern and return it safely by the request of a greedy chef, or trying to take down a wyvern that no human has any business trying to fight. To start off, there are about three basic kinds of quests(Gathering, Hunting, and Capture) that can range from anything and involve any kind of quirk Capcom wants to throw at you, which yield Guild Points upon completion. The true beauty of the quests comes from the Guild Quests, which are located right behind the elder. As they are intended for 2-4 players to tackle, they are significantly harder than the elder quests, if not impossible to do alone. Unlike the Elder Quests, completion of enough Guild Quests is where you can actually raise your hunter rank.

Contrary to what the impression implies, there are actually forces in this game that aren't working against you; the development of your character actually gets very deep in this aspect, in the sense that you can engage in all kinds of actions such as fishing, mining, and all other kinds of farm work. Right from the start, you are given a farm, in which you can rack up on all kinds of useful supplies. In addition to this, your interaction with various markets will reward you with points that can be used to renovate your farm so that you can... rack up on even more useful supplies. A little later on, you will also meet an old lady that will let you hire Felynes to cook you food that will affect your stats directly. To add to the helpfulness, there is also a training school provided to help you better your skill as a monster hunter and earn some tokens that can be used later.

If you're a role-playing gamer though, you know all the best stats equipment comes from bare attack and defense. All the prizes of the Bullfango, Velociprey, and Wyverns you slay, as well as the stamps and coins you've gained from training and your stones from mining can be used to improve your existing equipment and create new equipment which is a pretty mandatory procedure for survival. This game does take a major hit when considering collision detection between the monster attacks and yourself; often, you will be clearly out of range of a wyvern's tail, but still get knocked back plenty distance from an attack the eye can see did not connect, meaning that a lot of the times you take a hit, it's not always your fault.

Menus are easy to navigate, and the game is very multiplayer-friendly. Unlike it's predecessors, Monster Hunter Freedom does not feature online play, but does utilize it's ad-hoc connectivity the best it can, and can quickly strip you of a month's time given you can grab three PSP-toting friends to join you beneath the relentless missiles of Rathalos and his ever scare-inducing shriek. The atmosphere of this game is well introduced with all the necessary sounds of nature, as well as some very powerfully composed theatrical themes that introduce you to new levels and accompany you in most fall-outs with boss monsters. Load time is especially forgiving too; while there is about 6-12 seconds of load time per level, it balances out with the size of levels and the time you usually spend in one area, but can become problematic when paired with the instances you'll be struck and thrown out of an area from a high-velocity impact.

Although it takes time to get a hang of all the concepts, it's not all that hard to get into the swing of constantly upgrading your equipment to take on bigger and meaner monsters for this addictive grindfesting saga, although the concept of using pure skill will bring many casual gamers to their knees in frustration. With all the innovations and activities presented in this game, and the behemoth of power, technology and versatility the platform is, it just seems unreasonable that this title does not have online play. If the idea of having to use your own actual skill to fight in a game strikes fear into you, avoid this game with your life, however, if it's a challenge you're looking for - or you wanna see how "hardcore" you really are as a gamer; Monster Hunter Freedom is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/07