Monster Hunter Freedom 2

"Excruciating"

The premise of Monster Hunter Freedom 2 is that you are a hunter-gatherer. That's it, all you do. Never before have gamers been asked to put so much time and effort into such a pointless enterprise. Simply put, this is an empty game.

Story: n/a
This game has no story, other than what you are told at the start of the game: you are a monster hunter, who was completely obliterated by an unnamed monster before the events of the game. You might think that you would have an objective to get revenge on this beast, but I'm afraid you'd be mistaken. Really I don't know why they even told you this, because all the game consists of is hunting things, and then being able to hunt bigger things. Your central hub of sorts is a village, with a house, a couple of shops, some people, a farm and a training centre. There is absolutely no interaction with characters other than being offered quests, or buying items. You can defeat the mightiest fiend in the entire world, and no one in the town will even bat an eyelid. This makes the game feel very hollow.

Graphics: 9/10
The world which you hunt in is beautiful, especially for a PSP game. There's a wide variety of environments, from snow-capped mountains to deserts and even a volcano. However, all they are is backdrops, there is no interaction with them, no way in which they are integrated with the gameplay at all, other than making you use cold protection in cold areas and heat protection in hot areas, which is just annoying. Your home village which you have been enlisted to coach it back to prosperity is stunning. However, these areas are few and far between, and 95% of the world at least consists of those bland backdrops.

Sound: 7/10
There is no real soundtrack to speak of, but the little sound it provides is well done and appropriate. There is basically no noise when you're just wandering around, but engage with a monster and a specific theme will play, which is a more fitting accompaniment to the life and times of a hunter gatherer than an orchestral masterpiece, but this just goes to emphasis the main weaknesses of the game: it is bland, limp and lifeless.

Gameplay: 2/10
Much has been made of the incredible depth of this game, with some proclaiming that you can easily rack up 500+ hours doing everything, and it's true that there are a huge number of quests for you to complete, and a gargantuan selection of armour, weapons and items for you to amass, with almost unlimited customisation potential. However, this is artificial length. Every single quest comes in one of 3 forms: gathering resources, killing a number of a certain monster, or hunting a stronger, more distinctive beast. Of these by far the most interesting is the latter of the three, with dozens of different 'bosses' each of which require a different intricate strategy with their own unique moves and behaviours. However, many of these are obscenely difficult and require you to spend eons of time improving your equipment, by doing the other mundane quests.

In gathering quests, you are told to collect a certain number of a resource. Does it tell you where to find them? Nope, so you'll be forced to spend time searching out a huge area for these rare items. This is incredibly tedious, and will get old, fast. Unfortunately, to have any chance at progressing in the harder quests, you will have to do these more mundane quests, sometimes dozens of times to get a specific rare reward.

There lies my largest quarrel with this game. I have no problem with grinding, as long as I know what I'm doing is benefiting my character. That's not the case here. There is no experience or levelling up, and there are precious few skills to obtain which have precious little impact. The only significant way to improve your hunter is in your equipment. How do you do that? Customise it with items you find while you're hunting from the bodies of animals or with resources. Where can I find them? I don't know! And neither will you, and it will take hours and hours to see even a little improvement in your character.

Now I hear you say, with all these problems, at least playing the game must be fun right? Wrong. You can choose from 11 different weapon types, and yet they are all absolutely terrible, doing either no damage or being so unwieldy that they are basically unuseable, and this makes fighting a chore. Combining that with a steep difficulty curve makes for one hellish gaming experience. For 500 hours. Yikes.

Do not play this game. It is a thief of your time and a criminal of RPGs, breaking that most important of laws that time must yield results.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/08/09

Game Release: Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (EU, 09/07/07)