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Hunter: The Reckoning Review |
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Hunter: The Reckoning
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By many, Hunter is considered to be one of the most currently anticipated games for the Xbox console. Promising furious 4-player action and literally dozens of enemies on screen at the same time, the game has a lot to live up to.
Players are given the choice of one of four characters or Hunters at the beginning of the game. Each with their own attributes and special powers. However most attributes can be enhanced thruout the game RPG-style, making the game's difficulty rise along with your experience. Primarily a hack and slash type game, using the triggers for your slashing/firing is fine for a while, but for extended periods of time it becomes rather painful.
There are various preset configurations for the controllers, but amazingly none of them allow the player to change the button used for fighting from the triggers to one of the face buttons. After a few hours, my trigger finger was aching so badly I begged for the option to change the control scheme so I could use button A for my weapon. No luck. You're stuck with triggers as Jump and Attack. Nevertheless, the game quickly becomes addicting, so even with substantial pain in my fingers I continued to play in four player mode for a total of 10 hours before finally calling it quits.
The controls are tight, and once you master the art of using both thumbsticks to run and fire backwards at the same time, the game becomes a real blast to play. Performing combos and special attacks does take practice, and the bosses will quickly teach you a lesson or two about pain. The levels are generally quite lengthy, and contain what seems to be hundreds of the undead waiting to take you out. The bosses are exceptionally hard even with 3 or 4 players hacking and slashing together to destroy them. The bosses are also very creatively designed in their fighting styles and appearance, I won't ruin the surprise by telling you what forms the bosses come in, but let's just say they are impressive. Hunter is a pure action title from start to finish, and is what the Gauntlet series should have evolved to become, but didn't.
The devil is in the details, and even though the zombies and other monster character models aren't as detailed as the Hunters themselves, they are still well done. The monsters do all look identical however, and a little variety in their appearance would have been a nice added touch. The detailing in the environments however is very impressive and the framerate is very smooth even with 10-20 enemies and 4 players on-screen at one time hacking and slashing. Animations are handled excellently and smoothlly and are realistically portrayed, while being unique to each character. Overall, a great looking game, and certain aspects are truly amazing, but as a whole, a little too repetitive in character design to rank in the top Xbox games graphically.
Original music is included and Interplay even included a music video for one of the title tracks on the DVD. Mostly heavy metal/goth metal crunch-a-thon tracks, it fits in nicely with the mood and feel of the game. In no way designed to be creepy, but rather to pump up your adrenaline, so that you can continue to destroy that trigger finger, followed by your middle, and if you play long enough even your ring finger from switching thru them so they don't fall off. Gun and weapon soulds are done well, and the voice acting is entertaining if a little but cheesy.
While the game is relatively short compared to RPG's it's just about the right length for a hack-n-slash action game. Playing thru the game is actually very addictive, especially when playing with friends. The single player mode is fun, but to me, the game shines in it's ability to keep four people on screen at the same time and have everyone barking orders and cooperating to defeat a foe. It's likely to become a great party game, and will keep most gamers engrossed for hours. Great game, great levels, and replayability is high with unlockable modes and difficulties.
At first, Hunter seemed rather simplistic in it's fighting system and overall presentation, but seemingly the more one plays Hunter, the more one want's to play Hunter. To me that's one of the signs of a great game, the ability to draw a gamer in and involve them in the game. I recommend this highly if you have at least one other person to play the game with, and only slightly less highly as a single player experience.
Review By: JakeT
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