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Hunting monsters isn't much fun alone
Publisher: Capcom/THQ
Fri, 22 July 2005
by: Australian Ninja
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Strap on your loincloth, sharpen your sword because we gots some real purty monsters to kill. Hunting monsters. Haven’t we all given that a go at some point in our lives, or is that just me?
Monster Hunter (M.H.) features two games. Online and offline. The offline mode has a bunch of item gathering (thirty plus) quests. Kill an animal take meat / bones / hide. Pick some berries / flowers / stinkweed / whatever. Online mode (which I have not played) seems to be about setting up traps and hunting monsters in pairs or teams. The item gathering is faster and more efficient this way. Resulting in completing more quests (which are different quests only available online) faster and surely having more fun than I did in the slow snail paced boring offline mode. M.H. is a game that requires great patience. You really have to want to put serious hours into this game to get the good weapons and armour. You want good stats then you better do the time.
I only experienced the offline mode of M.H. Which was more of a chore that what I would call a fun gaming experience. Basically the offline mode is slow repetitive and boring. It’s a waste of your time to play the offline mode. The only reason to play it would be if your were in ‘training’ for the online mode. Once you’d played it a bit, you would never bother with it again. The impression I’m given of the online mode (from forums by people who have played it) is that it is significantly different than the offline mode. Some people enjoy it, which indicates that you may get some fun out of it if you are committed to putting the hours into online mode.
There are a significant lack of Monsters in Monster Hunter. Plenty of dinosaurs, annoying insects, wild boars, gazelles, small cat/raccoon mammals - are these creatures really monsters? The main contender is the giant fire-breathing Dragonheart style dragon.
 | | I really should have found a more exciting screenshot |
M.H. is Capcom’s first crack at a MMORPG (Massively-massive online role playing game) on a console. A genre that is hugely popular on PCs but so far under whelming on consoles. For consoles it’s more a matter of having the online infrastructure to make a good MMORG. Online is still in its infancy for consoles so its no surprise that this game is pretty average. In the next generation of consoles there will most likely be a worthwhile console MMORG. So far there has really only been Phantasy Star Online that proved it could be done.
Capcom make great games. Period. But in recent years their efforts have been a bit hit and miss. I think the main reason is that they have been experimenting with different game styles etc. Also, people have come and gone from the company, which shows in their products. Here we have a Japanese company producing a Western / European style fantasy MMORG. No matter how you view that it’s not like you could expect this game to be the next Evercrack. I mean Everquest. So it kind of makes sense that M.H. is a clunky, boring game. Given its Capcom’s first MMORG. It’s almost forgivable that it is so mediocre. I said ALMOST forgivable.
The graphics are pretty, a visual feast in the outdoor field environments. The village is bland in comparison. The sounds are adequate and occasional short dramatic movie style music plays over the game sounds. Similar to what you’d see in movies such as Jurassic Park. Sweeping camera pan included. The movement of the various monsters is fluid and dynamic. The same can be said of your character’s animation, but not the controls.
The combat is not fun. The clunky camera does it’s best to obscure your view. The quests are repetitive and tedious. The quests earn you hardly any money. Which ensure that you’ll have to put some serious hours into this game to get the fancy weapons, armor and special items such as monster traps. That’s fine if you don’t mind RPG style questing for many many hours to get every last item and weapon.
The highlights of the game for me were few. The opening FMV is most spectacular, showcasing a herd of plant eating dinosaurs grazing in large green fields by a lake. Several raptor-like dinos attack the herd, killing one of the smaller plant eaters. Out of nowhere a dragon - bigger than a two-story house – swoops down and plucks the carcass away from the hungry raptors in its massive claws. Next human hunters in full armor kit hunt the dragon. Two hunters lure the dragon out into the open while a hidden third hunter fires a mini-cannon weapon strapped to his chest.
The other highlight was meeting the big-ass dragon face to face in-game. Then getting attacked by the dragon’s ball of flame attack and finally watching my weak gun-less character being trampled to death by the giant death lizard. Good times, how few they were.
There is no storyline whatsoever to speak of. Which suggests the emphasis in this game is on the questing action and the combat. The combat is dull, repetitive and un-responsive. Attack in this direction and your character will swing here there and everywhere, like a crazed berserker occasionally hitting the thing you are trying to kill. Bloody marvelous. In short it leaves you wanting something more, wishing there was a story, or some mini-games or anything to take a break from the endless quests.
Attack too many monsters and your blade will get dull. Stand around doing nothing and your stamina will go down. Forget to take the map with you every time you leave the village and you will get lost. Hang around a dinosaur long enough and you can pick up some of its poo. Then combine it with other items. Personally I’d rather not get dinosaur poo on my sword and food rations.
 | | Yeah, this one is a bit more like it. |
Attacking monsters. I didn’t mind killing the raptors that attacked my character first. The wild boar that repeatedly mauled my poor character to death deserved to get its ass kicked. I was only trying to go fishing and it wouldn’t leave me alone. Bastard.
However I felt that slicing the docile plant eating dinos over and again while they cried in pain, I felt that this was un-necessary. While I did like the realism of killing an animal for meat and the hide the butchery was overdone. A real hunter would go for the cleanest kill possible – the head, the throat, or the gut. Something that makes sense and would kill the animal as fast as possible. Slicing the dino repeatedly with a large sword on the outside of the body would be pointless and make a heck of a mess. I’m nit picking here but I do have a point.
I know this is a fantasy game and not to be taken too seriously. What has been well executed is the environment and look of the game. Sunny green fields, wild animals frolicking and acting very much like real wild animals. Ambient environmental sounds used well. Forests, lakes, streams, trees, grass. Very nice. Dramatic hunter / prey themes. A nice environment that is pleasing to the eye and would be beautiful to hike through, minus the monsters obviously.
Immersion. Imagine you are in this pristine, stunningly beautiful environment, luscious green hills, deep blue water, amazing dinosaurs eating away. You kill one in a highly ineffective manner while the rest of the herd ignores you. Strangely when other monsters attack the dinos they all run away. But when you attack, they don’t seem to care. After killing the dino you carve some fresh meat from the carcass. Then you roast it on a portable spit. While you cook the meat, comical accordion type music plays in the background. Your character eats the meat and says out loud "Mmmm – tastes yummy."
This totally ruins the ‘immersion’ established up until this point. It’s like watching a serious nature documentary and having a cartoon character come running onto the screen with crazy sound effects for no reason at all. You’re left thinking "What the hell?"
While this portable spit scene was funny to watch it was also ridiculous in a game aiming at ‘realism within a fantasy setting.’
The bottom line is that the single player offline game is pointless. Don’t bother with it. If you’re serious about online only then is it worth playing the offline mode. You’ll get more out of it, but you better be committed. It’s commendable that Capcom included some offline content, as this kind of game usually wouldn’t have any at all. Consider the offline mode as a "practice" mode. Then ask yourself if it’s worth playing a game with only a practice mode. The online is where it’s at people.
by: Australian Ninja
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