Monster Hunter is a unique online/offline game that allows players to take to the great outdoors as they live the life of a monster hunter in a small medieval village. That's it. No great evil to face. No damsel in distress. Just you, your skills, and the occasional hunting party adventuring for the betterment of yourself and your home. At first glance this lack of story may seem to take away from the overall experience, but it's actually because of this that the game is so addictive.
Working as a hunter is a fairly easy task. It's simply a matter of waking up and heading over to the village elder and getting a quest. After that, it's off to the wilderness for some classic hunting and gathering. And for those times when the job is a little too big for just one person? Just hop online and grab a few fellow hunters to join in on the action.
Yeah, you can take it. Well, maybe.
There is plenty of customization in Monster Hunter. Starting with the initial character creation, the game offers up a good number of different looks to toy around with. Once the game gets rolling though, the customization options increase tenfold. Monster Hunter includes such a large number of weapon and armor choices that it's a rarity to come across another player who looks exactly like you.
The controls in Monster Hunter are fairly easy to use. The left analog stick controls movement, and the right stick is used to attack. Although the controls are simple to use, that's not to say that they are flawless by any means. Monster Hunter lacks any kind of lock-on option during combat, and the combo attacks run a little long on animation. Way too often I would be chaining attacks together against a creature, only to pass right through it and get hit from behind.
I was a little disappointed in the lack of depth in many of the quests. The majority of the quests are simple hunting missions with little variation. Occasionally, I may have needed to capture an animal alive or search for a particular herb, but beyond that the only real difference lay in the difficulty of the creatures I faced off against. Hopefully, the final release will include a few more types of missions to go on.
