Endless wrote:Zmann, the appeal of Monster Hunter is a pretty simple forumla, which combines many of the best aspects of gaming into a simple package. I mean, if somebody asked me the kinds of things that rope me into a game the list would probably go.
1) A competent combat engine - not some turn based menu or WOW's putting you in the role of a computer subroutine. If I have a gun I want to shoot something, and if I have a sword I want to hit something.
2) Some form of collectability or progressive achievement - I'm not asking for Pokemon here, but let me feel like I am progressing through your game by collecting tangible rewards - ones which actually tie back into the game in whatever form (weapon upgrades, new skills, etc, etc)
3) Multiplayer - preferably something where I can team up with friends as opposed to getting thrown on a server with random jackasses
4) A unique play experience - I want to play this game differently than Tom plays it. If it's a fighting game I want the character I like to be balanced with the rest of them, if it's an RPG I want to assign skills and not be assigned the obvious frail girl as the healer. Some of this ties into 2.
5) Decent storyline
Monster Hunter nails the first four points perfectly, while completely ignoring the forth one and replacing it instead with a bunch of cats (for real- they cook for you before every mission, and other stuff).
Obviously Monster Hunter is running towards the same casual MMO crowd who got up to level 100 in Mafia Wars without ever really wondering why. People really like the idea of growing a character, and collecting a bunch of random shit along the way. Monster Hunter doesn't have any levels. Your character is defined entirely by your gear. If you take your gear off, boom, you have the same basic character you started with. There is no focus on level grinding a guy, and hell, you might fight the same dragon 50 goddamn times and not get anywhere from it (though you will have a shitton of dragon parts waiting for your back home). Instead, true to the name, you really are a hunter. The whole game is about going to the blacksmith and saying "How do I upgrade this firesword I have here" and he says "Well, IMA NEED SOME SPLEENS" and you say "WELL FUCK MAN WHERE AM I GONNA GET DRAGON SPLEENS YOU JACKASS." So you and your friends run off into the forest, murder the shit out of some dragons, and pray to god you rip some spleens off the fucker.
Finally finding all the pieces to upgrade a sword is a goddamn thrill. Especially since you aren't limited just to the shit you rip off monsters. It really should be called Monster Hunter/Gatherer, because most hunters won't forget to bring along a bugnet, a pickaxe, a fishing pole, and whatever else they need to find the pieces to their next upgrade. This obviously appeals to the collector mentality I was talking about. I have about 17 different swords on the PSP game, all of which have two or three different upgrades depending on how I choose to develop them. The weapons are all this giant tree which keeps branching off, and you might keep developing down one road while constantly wondering if you should buy a new sword and develop down the weapon path you passed up on.
The good parts are that the combat does not suck. Repetitive is subjective, and depends entirely on what weapon you prefer, all of which handle in very different manners. I run the great sword almost exclusively, a big fucking thing good for chopping off tails and other bits to help with loot drops. Great swords have a rather simple combo scheme, as well as a charge attack and a block. These characters are like the tanks. There's also the Duel Swordsmen, who are there to run up in, combo like a bitch, and get the hell out, Lancers - who poke and defend like chumps, Gunners - who are super useful to have and spend all their freetime making alchemy bullets out of the shit they find lying around, etc, etc. I forget how many classes this new one is going to have - but this all ties into the "I WANT TO PLAY IT MY WAY" point.
Fuck I'm just rambling so hard. Point is its awesome to have a little band of you and three other dudes to kill shit with. This is some band of brothers type shit. You and some dudes against the world, and you've got three goddamn lives between the whole lot of you and if somebody dies you're like FUCK JOHNNY. FIRST OF ALL WE'VE GOT ONLY ONE LIFE LEFT AND SECOND OF ALL I TOLD YOU THE RATHIAN WAS GONNA DO THE POISON FLIP SO YOU SHOULDN'T OF BEEN ATTACKING ANYWAY. GET BACK HERE QUICK OR YOU'RE GONNA MISS YOUR CHANCE TO CUT THE THING OPEN.
Note that endless is Chris Gesualdi who has contributed a number of good reviews and mini-reviews to this site. He is only posting on Select Button by mistake.