Monster Hunter Review

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Oh I should have guessed! I should have known by the outstanding quality of the opening scene that I was in for an average game. I don't know if it's because I am
jaded or just unlucky but generally when I find a game that has a kick-arse opening sequence it turns out that this is where 80% of the developers imagination was used up.

This game harks back to the days of early role playing games, the type of game that busies itself with mundane pursuits like buying and selling supplies and being sent on quests that slowly improve your skill levels and wealth but Monster Hunter adds blood and gore - so much in fact it warns you at the start of the game!!. While in most of today's violent games the upgrade of weaponry comes about by running over the
Multiblast Hyper Rifle (or whatever) so it's added to your seemingly endless capacity for bulk, this game makes you wander around and buy swords and knives as well as sharpening stones, potions and countless other things that will be needed at some stage no doubt. But even if you like this kind of game and the thought of shopping for weapons while chatting with the locals has you weak at the knees you might want to
keep reading before you go out and buy this latest adaptation. There are a number of things that make Monster Hunter just a little more dodgy than the average.

After you have named your character and chosen from a large selection of hair styles, skin colour and face shapes (all of which is rather pointless because your never see the character again in any kind of detail) this game falls into 2 distinct modes which I will call 'village' mode and 'fighting' mode - and both have their problems. Lets start with village mode.

As is the case with games such as these text and endless lists of options are very important. Unfortunately the choice of font in Monster Hunter makes for very difficult reading if you are anything more than a reasonable distance away from your
screen (let's say 2 feet) and this is made doubly worse because there is a lot of text in this game to squint your way through. Panel afterpanel of voiceless conversation makes its way across the screen and before long you are reminded of vintage games
like Leisure suit Larry that used the same technique when actual speech was technically not an option. This process is made all the more tedious by the lack of any atmosphere or decent music to while away what seems like the hours it takes to suffer these moments.