i got my beta test disc for monster hunter last night.
monster hunter is kind of an online action RPG. it's not entirely massivly multi player since you only can play in parties of 4 people, and can only have 8 people in a town at a time... but then again it's not entirely an RPG either since you don't level up and gain experience for your kills.
okay let me try to sum this up by a compare and contrast sort of thing.
you have 2 different types of characters you can play. there's blade masters. these are your standard hack and slash mele guys. you have sword and shield fighters, who're kinda quick hitters, they get in there and slash stuff, block and slash. then there's lancers, who're more defenders and phalanx types. they can charge with their spears out to defend members and attack at the same time. then there's people with hammers and great swords who're strictly damage dealers. hammers are slower and with less finess than great swords, but they knock over monsters easier and keep them off balance while the rest of the team hacks away.
then you have those like me who're gunners (no more waiting till lvl 30 to be a ranger beeotch). you see your type is strictly based on whatever weapon you have equipped, and by what weapon you have equipped that defines your class and what armor you can wear.
now gunners are not only long range attackers with a far more variety of attack choices, but we're also the main healers and debuffers of the game. you can attack with normal shots, or you can shoot status inducing rounds like paralyze, sleep and poison, or you can even shoot your own team mates with healing rounds. i felt this role was a little more versatile than just running around hitting stuff, so i went with gunner.
basically you take on missions in this game, and the only reward is money and rank points. rank points allow you to take on bigger and better missions, and money lets you buy better gear, upgrade your current items, and get items to synth together. however, buying and upgrading weapons is about the only way that your character ever seems to advance. also on your weapons you get to learn new abilities and such... but this still isn't as fun or interesting to me without gaining levels to back it up. it doesn't really give me a feel that i'm advancing... unless you think of money as experience points.
item synthesis is kind of an expanded version of combining herbs and parts in resident evil to get some piece of new medicine or something. also borrowed from RE is the item boxes and such set up in your house and in safe spots in the levels called camps. here there's normally helpful stuff waiting for you such as rations (which restore your maximum stamina. stamina is what lets you continue doing strenuous activities like dashing, fighting for a long while, and dodging attacks. the max value decreases over time and you have to eat meats to keep it up.) healing potions and occasionally spits to cook meat on, binoculars (which are impossible to operate acuratly) to spot prey that you probably can't get to, and traps. traps are for setting up larger monsters to fall into and you get a load of free shots for it. you can also lure them into there with meat, and set bombs inside the traps as well, or poison the meat to get poison effects as well. that parts cool, but basically it comes down to a big hack and slash fit to win.. i've rarely had to dodge out of the way of any attack since 1 shot of mine normally knocks a monster off guard.
i guess the games fun for a while, but eventually i found myself doing the same stuff over and over again, and unable to really do it effectivly since the controls are really sloppy. i feel like i'm either controlling a tank, or sometimes an ice skater on an oil slick. the camera controls are also awkwards since it's set to the directional buttons, and the right analog stick is what you attack with. it doesn't quite give you the finess and skill of say, the lord of the rings games, where you can hack and slash and pull off sick combos with the stick, it's more of a plodding and unflowing string of moves. the only combo that really gets pulled off is doing a string of quick attacks. i find that rather odd since this is capcom, the ones that brought 100 hit combos into videogames in the first place.
i kinda wish this game wasn't so close to release, because it has a lot of work before it'll be enjoyable. i was forgiving on resident evil outbreak when i beta tested it because it was resident evil, but in the end it dissapointed me deeply. but if they're gonna try to put out a game like this, they should tweak it a lot more. they need some kind of targeting system definitly to stay locked onto your enemies, and trying to type when both of your hands are tied up desperatly means you need voice chat for the field
well that's all i'm gonna go on about, i figure i've said enough.
tofu "
"
monster hunter is kind of an online action RPG. it's not entirely massivly multi player since you only can play in parties of 4 people, and can only have 8 people in a town at a time... but then again it's not entirely an RPG either since you don't level up and gain experience for your kills.
okay let me try to sum this up by a compare and contrast sort of thing.
you have 2 different types of characters you can play. there's blade masters. these are your standard hack and slash mele guys. you have sword and shield fighters, who're kinda quick hitters, they get in there and slash stuff, block and slash. then there's lancers, who're more defenders and phalanx types. they can charge with their spears out to defend members and attack at the same time. then there's people with hammers and great swords who're strictly damage dealers. hammers are slower and with less finess than great swords, but they knock over monsters easier and keep them off balance while the rest of the team hacks away.
then you have those like me who're gunners (no more waiting till lvl 30 to be a ranger beeotch). you see your type is strictly based on whatever weapon you have equipped, and by what weapon you have equipped that defines your class and what armor you can wear.
now gunners are not only long range attackers with a far more variety of attack choices, but we're also the main healers and debuffers of the game. you can attack with normal shots, or you can shoot status inducing rounds like paralyze, sleep and poison, or you can even shoot your own team mates with healing rounds. i felt this role was a little more versatile than just running around hitting stuff, so i went with gunner.
basically you take on missions in this game, and the only reward is money and rank points. rank points allow you to take on bigger and better missions, and money lets you buy better gear, upgrade your current items, and get items to synth together. however, buying and upgrading weapons is about the only way that your character ever seems to advance. also on your weapons you get to learn new abilities and such... but this still isn't as fun or interesting to me without gaining levels to back it up. it doesn't really give me a feel that i'm advancing... unless you think of money as experience points.
item synthesis is kind of an expanded version of combining herbs and parts in resident evil to get some piece of new medicine or something. also borrowed from RE is the item boxes and such set up in your house and in safe spots in the levels called camps. here there's normally helpful stuff waiting for you such as rations (which restore your maximum stamina. stamina is what lets you continue doing strenuous activities like dashing, fighting for a long while, and dodging attacks. the max value decreases over time and you have to eat meats to keep it up.) healing potions and occasionally spits to cook meat on, binoculars (which are impossible to operate acuratly) to spot prey that you probably can't get to, and traps. traps are for setting up larger monsters to fall into and you get a load of free shots for it. you can also lure them into there with meat, and set bombs inside the traps as well, or poison the meat to get poison effects as well. that parts cool, but basically it comes down to a big hack and slash fit to win.. i've rarely had to dodge out of the way of any attack since 1 shot of mine normally knocks a monster off guard.
i guess the games fun for a while, but eventually i found myself doing the same stuff over and over again, and unable to really do it effectivly since the controls are really sloppy. i feel like i'm either controlling a tank, or sometimes an ice skater on an oil slick. the camera controls are also awkwards since it's set to the directional buttons, and the right analog stick is what you attack with. it doesn't quite give you the finess and skill of say, the lord of the rings games, where you can hack and slash and pull off sick combos with the stick, it's more of a plodding and unflowing string of moves. the only combo that really gets pulled off is doing a string of quick attacks. i find that rather odd since this is capcom, the ones that brought 100 hit combos into videogames in the first place.
i kinda wish this game wasn't so close to release, because it has a lot of work before it'll be enjoyable. i was forgiving on resident evil outbreak when i beta tested it because it was resident evil, but in the end it dissapointed me deeply. but if they're gonna try to put out a game like this, they should tweak it a lot more. they need some kind of targeting system definitly to stay locked onto your enemies, and trying to type when both of your hands are tied up desperatly means you need voice chat for the field
well that's all i'm gonna go on about, i figure i've said enough.
tofu "
"