Monster Hunter
Format: PS2.
Can you stomach it?
There’s an old Estonian saying that ‘Earth is dearer than gold’, in the case of Monster Hunter this could be the game’s subtitle. Prepare to spend your time foraging for herbs and mushrooms, fishing, bug catching, digging for ore and harvesting the freshly slain corpses of the local wildlife. Nothing is wasted and everything is valued, be it for selling to tradesmen or for practical use in alchemy and weapons craft - in the true spirit of recycling, bones, hide, teeth and claws can be reconstituted into new weapons and armour, creating slayers out of the slain.
Placing you in the role of a rookie hunter of your design, the game offers you quests of varying complexity and content. You’ll find yourself dealing with unruly dinosaurs, searching for rare plants and tracking, trapping and slaying giant monsters. Stealing a giant egg from beneath a Wyvern’s sleepy gaze and then trying to creep past three large angry boar with it certainly introduces a new meaning to ‘stealth’.
Monster Hunter can be a daunting experience at first as the wealth of strange items, their uses and value is overwhelming. Lengthy missions that would be better tackled at the same time drag out the game’s tutorials and combine with the slightly impenetrable Japanese design to make Monster Hunter a difficult beast to get into. Like a fine wine given time though, you’ll soon be breathing the game’s heady aromas with ease.
Away from the safety of the village you are not only vulnerable to the wildlife but also to your body’s and tool’s needs - weapons become blunt, ammo runs out and your hunter’s stamina and health needs replenishing. Without stamina you can’t run and without running you can’t escape the clutches of an angry dragon. If you ignore the warning signs of your hunter clutching his gurgling stomach then do so at your peril.
Thankfully the tools of the trade solve these problems with sword sharpening stones and a spit for cooking freshly rendered meat (some may be put out by the lack of a vegetarian option). Ammo can be created from found and harvested parts and various other bombs and traps can be built whilst out in the wild, turning nature against itself with man’s ingenuity.
If the thought of hunting alone doesn’t sound tempting then the prospect of online play certainly will as Monster Hunter is primarily geared towards it. If you’re lamenting the delay until March of the PS3 then perhaps this will give you a taste of the online future. Opening the game up into a Phantasy Star Online style adventure, you can hook up with three other intrepid hunters and chase down your monstrous quarry together. With four hunters working together the possibilities are endless and endlessly amusing and the ability to trade items means those rare weapons become a step closer to reality.
It’s just a shame that the infuriating camera control, the frequent load screens and accidental zone hopping mire what is essentially a great game made even greater online.
8/10