This game is clearly going to be an "Eye of the Beholder" scenerio, especially if you decide to compare it to the "dreamcast" era like the gamespot review did (which seems unfair since much of the community is still alive on Gamecube) but ANYWAY... the review... First off - Online Play. I agree that Capcom does need to rework its menus. It still has the same clunky user name and password utility that Resident Evil Outbreak had, and there are way too many towns and places to join up in online play. That isnt "gameplay" hopever and shouldn't be a major part of why you take away points because the time spent here is at most one minute anyway... The only real negative to all this menu hoopla brings is... --Finding good people to party with thus far has proven somewhat of a chore (that is mostly because you can't join IN a quest once it has started) It is this aspect alone that I find the game hurts because it really is annoying to sit in a village waiting for people to come help you... and the 8 person cap and fact that there are too many choices of villages is counter productive-- HOWEVER... Monster Hunter isn't a MMORPG, and I don't really see it being advertised as one. Although there is online play, there is a lot to do solo that (I hate to compare) that PSO doesn't have. In fact, so far, I have opted to do things solo only because i CAN and i don't have to split the rewards... this way I can be more useful earlier in the game. This game, although is set up like PSO, is kinda like how the ADnD game and the Everquest Heroes game is fun, its a game you can play alone or if you want, join up with your friends online. I feel that this is the reason why it is online playable, so you can play with friends AND meet new adventurers. Yet, the offline mode is still good. ::Gameplay:: The Gameplay is fairly unique. You use a completely new set of controls to move around. There is more of a hunt aspect. You can set traps, and lure monsters out. Sometimes in order to find items, you have to sneak around and observe monsters because you know what things they eat and you need the items. There is a lot of customization and weapons you can get and everything has its own look (Unless some MMORPG's I do know) and what is really cool, is that the boss moves around on the whole map. Its not the normal Level 1-1, 1-2, 1-3... and so forth wher ethe boss is on lvl 4... but... instead... he can show up at any time and you need to get really strong to be able to fight him early on. Its a unique thing that I found to be a plus to the game than am minus. You can fish, you can mine for your weapons.... Quests are the normal kind (What game is really revolutionary in this?) Collect, Kill, find, etc.... but until someone comes up with a NEW way of doing quests, I'm not going ot bash Capcom's head in. At least all the new "hunting" stuff is interesting and the graphics are really good so I don't get board. I can see some of the more silly elements where people will dislike the game For Example:: Cooking >>> Where you make your character put meat on a spit with circus music playing, and apparently, when the music ends you have to time a button press... its really..odd to say the least The thief cats>>> There is a race of cats that use their stick hands to steal items, and if you want them back, you have to find their hideout and search around until you find what they stole, which can be annoying when you lose something worth your money. ::Graphics:: The graphics are really done, they do some interesting things with 3d and 2d to give it a feel. Far better than PSO and I think if they patch the game and allow more and new interesting environments, the game can be really good. I have only seen about 4 environments so far, but I am still only of a MH rank 5. ::Sound:: Nothing revolutionary, but they seem to fit the game well, especailly the sound effects. I do however, hate the sound my character makes when she gets tired... it gets too repetative ::value:: I am still playing it - more than 10 hours into it. To me, lately, that's value. More than Outbreak at least and a lot of other games that I am done with quickly. ::Reviewer's Tilt:: I enjoy this game because my friends have it. Although, I think it could still be fun as more people buy the game, I know i have played with random people, without a keyboard, and we still party together sometimes. I think its really unfair to so explicitly relate a review to one game and one game only, without even mentioning what's different. It is not fair to say ever side scroller is a "Mario Ripoff" or every FPS is a "Halo" rip off and that happens too much lately. If it IS a ripoff with no difference, fine, but Monster Hunter does try hard to not be the same, and in that, it gets a high tilt with me. You won't play it forever, but the trip so far has been interesting and i can't wait to see what happens when i get my Rank to 20+.
After two years of playing Monster Hunter, what do I have to say about it now? By now, I’ve pretty much experienced every single sliver of the original Monster Hunter US version, first released in August 2004 for the Pla... Read Full Review
It is very hard to write a review about the beast that is Monster Hunter. First of all, the game is so very different online and offline that it almost warrants two reviews, despite sharing the same basic game mechanics.... Read Full Review
