As an avid fan of the Monster Hunter series, I naturally chose Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for the PSP as my play-testing game. Initiating a quest with my fellow classmate, Ming Che, I was excited at the prospect of defeating our target as a team. The basic aim of the game is to hunt down gigantic monsters with an arsenal of different weapons such as a Lance with an enormous shield, a mechanical Bowgun packing tremendous firepower and the fearsome Hammer that can stun monsters and dish out the hurt.
The fast loading speed (made possible by installing load data into the memory stck) was always a welcome perk. The excruciatingly long wait (about 15 to 20 seconds) everytime I initated a quest in the previous installment, Monster Hunter Freedom 2, was able to be reduced to just a mere 5 seconds in Unite, speeding up gameplay considerably.
Again, the realistic and well-detailed environments where the amazing yet believable monsters roamed never ceased to amaze me, especially since it was on a portable console system.
The various "boss" monsters of the game, which in majority of the quests were the main objective to be slain, were all unique and well-designed in their own right, and could instill different emotions in the player.
For example, I felt a slight fear when face-to-face with the Mighty Tigrex (below), whose powerful attacks could crush me in an instant, and I felt some frustration when fighting the agile Nargacuga (also below), whose speedy attacks and dodging gave me a hard time.
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| The Tigrex |
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| The Nargacuga |
However, some the monsters had unfair and badly implemented "hitboxes", which were invisible areas that caused you damage if you were in it. For example, the Diablos, a very tall creature, had a 360 degree tailspin attack that (somehow) always manages to knock me off my feet even when its tail was physically a few feet above me.
Imagine getting hit for no apparent reason and watching your precious health dwindle in the face of unprofessional and, dare I say it, lazy coding and dying as a result. Irritating would be an understatement. Also, repeating the same quest over and over and over again just to obtain that elusive rare material to craft a single weapon was indeed boring and repetitive, which would no doubt dampen the enthusiasm of some players at the prospect of spending 3+ hours to get one type of material.
Despite my previous point, the game does make up for this with extremely detailed and inspiring armour and weapon visuals, fluid gameplay and an exceptional mutliplayer experience.
Playtesting: My Friend's Experience
My friend and classmate, Ming Che, also had a copy of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite and thus could join me in quests via the PSP's Wireless Ad-hoc feature. Although his Hunter Rank (a ranking system in the game determined by the number and type of completed quests) was only 3 while mine was 9, Ming Che was definitely no inexperienced player. He was adept at a variety of weapons ranging from a Great Sword(an unbelievably large sword which he wonders whether you can actually swing it in real life) to a Long Sword or a katana, which allowed users to unleash devastating Spirit Slashes with consecutive hits. However, his best was a weapon called the Gun-lance, which is a lance outfitted with a cannon that allows users to simultaniously stab and shoot with it.
Ming Che enjoyed the various activities featured in the game like mining, fishing and catching insects. He also liked the equipment crafting system, which stipulated that players must use materials carved from dead or captured monsters such as wings, scales, shells and the like to create various aesthetically-pleasing armour and weapons that emulated the fallen beast. Like me, he also thoroughly enjoyed the multi-player experience of Unite that allowed him to clear harder quests with my assistance and definitely enhanced gameplay.
However, we were both in agreement that the game's badly-implemented hit-boxes that I mentioned in my play-test experience added frustration while playing. He also added that he was quite annoyed at the "Felyne Comrades", which were humanoid cats that could accompany solo players in quests and provide assistance, as the bombs that they threw usually interrupted his attack rhythm and hence were sometimes more of a hindrance than a help.
We both came to the conclusion that an intense game like Monster Hunter should be properly coded with good hit-boxes to avoid the unnecessary frustration from players. The constant "grinding" for rare materials wasted valuable time to an extent and also reducesd the enjoyability of the game.
Sure, the game throws you into the water without a tutorial and leaves you to learn fast which discourages many first-time players, but watching an enemy boss monster die before your eyes after a hard fight and then carving its remains is just so rewarding!
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