Monster Hunter Freedom Review

Also known as:
Monster Hunter Portable

Release date:
2006 on PSP

Also released on:
PlayStation2 as Monster Hunter (2004/2005)
PlayStation2 as Monster Hunter G (2005)
PC as Monster Hunter Frontier (2007)



For those of you who may, or may not know, this is a port of Monster Hunter on PlayStation2. Some of the newer features were in Monster Hunter G, which was only released in Japan. The PSP version includes everything from both PlayStation2 versions and much, much more.

Before Your Game Begins

Before you even start the game you’ll have to make a character. There are a lot of customisation options available so this may take about ten minutes.

You start by choosing either a male or female and your character’s name. Next is the face type and skin colour. Your ‘naked’ clothes colour will change depending on your skin colour. Finally are your character’s voice, hair style and colour. When choosing the hair colour you can manually pick it so it’s completely your choice.

Welcome to Kokoto Village

Once you’ve made your character you’ll wake up in your house in Kokoto Village. This is where you save your game, change equipment, store items and access the Felyne Kitchen. Later on in the game you’ll get a pet pig which apparently increases rare items in your quest rewards.

Once you’re outside you can access a variety of different shops. These include shops for items, weapons/armour and two travelling sales people. The item shop is only useful for the first few quests. It only offers basic things which you can usually find in a quest. Once you’ve finished enough quests a travelling salesman will sell you a wide selection of items. Apart from the usual stuff, he sells information books on enemies, more storage space for items and combo books which increase your item combination rate. There’s also a saleswoman who appears in the middle of town and sells a selection of items. She has three different rotations of items and appears at random after a quest.

There are two types of weapon/armour shops. One is where you buy and one is where you make your own. The only way to get the best equipment is to make your own. This means you won’t be using the shop to buy equipment for very long. The way you make and upgrade your equipment is by killing enemies and carving them up for body parts. New equipment won’t show up in the shop until you have at least one part to make it.

New PSP features

A new feature to the PSP version is the Kokoto Fields. This is an area which is looked after by a number of Felyne cats. There are a number of different areas in here where you can collect ores, bugs, fish and herbs. This is extremely useful and will help you a lot if it’s used after each quest. When you try and collect these types of items in a quest it’s really tedious. Using the Kokoto Field makes things a lot easier.

Each area of the Kokoto Field can be upgraded and will give you more or rarer items. You need to talk to a guy at the entrance of the Kokoto Field and use points to upgrade. You get points by either buying or selling items and equipment. You also unlock more upgrades by progressing through the game.

Apart from the mining spots there’s a Felyne cat to help you in quite a strange way. The cat will ask for a small or large barrel bomb and ask you to pick from three tunnels. After you’ve made your selection, the cat will run inside then tunnel with the bomb. The bomb will explode and the cat will fly out on fire and give you some ore. This is really amusing and part of the Japanese humour used through out the game.

The PSP version includes the training mode from Monster Hunter G. This is extremely hard because you’re given a set amount of equipment and only get one life. You’re also given a limited selection of items which is different depending on the weapon you choose. The training is used to improve your skills against the boss monsters. Once you’ve killed every boss monster with the same weapon you’re given a medal on your Guild Card.



Cooking cats… what the hell?

Occasionally you’ll see the Felyne cat saleswoman. She’ll sell you a selection of different cats which have different cooking specialities and skill levels. Your cats can level up by using the kitchen more. Once you get them to level nine they’ll become master chefs and be able to prepare better food. The higher the cat’s level, the more food you can choose from. When you have the maximum of five cats you’ll be able to have about twenty different choices of food.

Depending on what your cat’s specialities are depends on the food you can choose from. You choose from two foods from a list and then see the cats cook the food. Eating the cat’s food will give you status enhancing effects like more health or stamina. You sometimes get bonus effects at random which give you better rewards among other things. If you pick a bad choice of foods you can get negative effects like reduced health. Finally the effect only lasts for your first life and only for that quest. This is highly amusing and I enjoy seeing it every time.



Where's My Storyline?

This game pretty much has no storyline what so ever. The only things you’ll be doing are quests, quests and more quests. The quests are split up into difficulty levels of between one and five stars. You’ll have to talk to the village chief each time you want to start a quest. You’ll be given a number of quests to complete and once you’ve done them all you’ll be given an urgent quest. If you complete the urgent quest you’ll unlock the next selection of quests. Once you’ve completed all the village chief’s quests you’ll have to play ‘online’ for more quests.

Here's a brief description of the quest types;

Hunting quests requires you to kill either a boss monster or a certain amount of regular monsters. This is the most common type of quest you’ll be doing.

Capture quests need you to find a boss monster, weaken it until near death then capture it. This can sometimes be difficult when fighting a Plesioth or Gypceros because they don’t show any sign that they’re near death. When the boss is weak enough you’ll need to trap in a ‘pitfall trap’. Once the monster is trapped you’ll quickly have to throw or shoot a tranquilliser at it to put it to sleep. If the boss isn’t weakened enough you’ll have to continue the fight and try again.

Gathering quests are just there so you can easily collect resources. This is good if you want to kill regular monster, do some mining or do some fishing. There is usually a boss monster, so it’s up to you if you kill it or not. To complete this quest all you’ll need to do is collect a ‘paw pass’ ticket from the item box, and put it in the quest box at your base camp. Occasionally you get a quest to deliver monster eggs or ore. This must be carried back to the base camp and is extremely heavy. If you drop it you'll have to start over again.

The final quest type is only used for Lao-Shan Lung. This quest involves protecting a castle from a 60ft dragon type monster. Lao moves extremely slowly, pulling itself on its stomach. It’ll take 20-30 minutes to get to the castle depending on the damage you do to it. Lao is so big that you can climb on its back while it’s crawling and it just carries on as normal. When it finally gets to the castle you can attack it with a cannon, giant spikes at the front gate or your standard weapons. To shoot the cannon you’ll need to carry the heavy cannon balls from your camp to the castle gate. This is tricky because they’ll be a few Ioprey trying to stop you. This quest is completed by dealing enough damage to Lao or killing it. You fail if Lao does enough damage to the castle.

Combining Items

One of the best things in this game is the fact that you can combine two items make a new item. There are 124 different combinations and it’s up to you to find out what they are. You can on only combine the correct items so this isn’t as bad as it sounds. Some items require the ‘alchemy’ skill to be able to combine them. I believe this make you think there are less combinations than there actually are.

Each time you successfully combine a new item it’s added to your ‘combo list’. This is a quick reference guide and it also gives the success rate of each combination. If you have one of the five ‘combo books’ in your inventory this will increase your success rate. The more books you have the greater the success rate will be. If you have all five books it’ll increase the success rate by an additional 45%.

When you’ve finally completed every single combination you’ll get a medal on your Guild Card. You’ll also get an ‘alchemy guide’ which will let you combine items that require the ‘alchemy’ skill without having it equipped to your armour.




Choosing Your Weapon

This is one of the most important things you need to consider. Choosing the right equipment is the key to success. This may sound obvious, but there’s a lot to consider. Each weapon can usually be upgraded multiple times and each upgrade having two or three different outcomes.

There are seven different weapon types so choosing the right weapon crucial. Apart from the bowguns, each weapon can also have an elemental attribute attached to it. These are fire, water, thunder, poison, sleep, paralysis and dragon.

Finding each boss' elemental weakness is the easiest way to defeat them. Having a weapon with the right element added will cause you to do drastically more damage. Every weapon that has high elemental damage will usually have low ‘raw’ damage. This means that if you use the wrong element for a boss it’ll only do the ‘raw’ damage amount.

One of the things that really annoys me is the amount of damage to game says each weapon deals. If the damage shown was actually what it says it is you’ll kill every boss monster in about 30 seconds. For example a Rathalos has about 2,000 hit points and the great sword you’re using says it deals 932 damage. If this was true you’d kill it only 3 hits.

Blademaster

The sword and shield is swift and agile so can attack and then quickly escape. It doesn’t do much damage, but can get a lot of hits in by using combos of up to six hits. You can also keep it out and run around at normal speed.

As the name suggests, the great sword is a massive sword. It has great distance and can hit multiple enemies with a single hit. It also has slow attacks and can take a long time to get out and attack. You can however get into a continuous combo of attacks if timed correctly. When your sword is drawn you move really slowly.

The lance is quite an effective weapon, but needs a lot of stamina to use it. You can attack at maximum range and then dodge back, left or right after an attack. You can also attack forwards or upwards with up to three hits in a combo. The lance has a ‘charge’ attack which makes your character run fast towards your enemies hitting as many as you can. This consumes a lot of stamina so can’t be done for long. When your stamina bar is extremely low you can’t dodge after an attack. With your lance drawn you move really slowly, just like the great sword.

The duel swords are the weakest of the swords, but have a special attack that makes up for that. When you normally attack you can get approximately ten hits in using three different combos. You get a massive amount of hits in when you use the special attack, but it’ll consume your stamina super fast. You can also run around with the swords drawn, but they have no way to block attacks. This means you have to be really good at dodging attacks.

Hammers are quite powerful, but really hard to use. It’s really hard to hit enemies because you need to get your timing just right. Your standard attacks are a sideways jab or an overhead smash. The hammer’s best moves are its changed attacks. The first is a forward spinning attack which hits the enemy about seven times. The other is a powerful overhead smash. Just like the duel swords, you can run with the weapon out and can’t block.

Gunner

The light and heavy bowguns are pretty much the same. Both require you to carry ammo so you’ll have to choose the other items very carefully. The amount of ammo you’ll need could up to half your inventory space. You’ll also need to combine items in-game to make even more ammo. This is because most ammo types have a very limited amount you can carry. This may make gunners sound bad, but they’re actually quite good.

Gunners have a wide verity of ammo types including elemental ammo. The main ammo types have three levels of ammo power. The more powerful the ammo, the less you can carry. The types are normal, pierce, crag, pellet and clust. The gunners also have elemental and other ammos. These are flaming, ice, thunder, poison, stun, sleep, recover, paintball, tranquilliser and dung.

Obviously the best thing about gunners is their attack range. You can also upgrade your bowguns power by five levels and add a zoom scope or silencer. This will cost a lot of money, but it’ll be worth once it’s fully upgraded. Each gun can hold different amounts of certain ammo types. This means you'll need to choose your gun carefully.

The only real drawback to being a gunner is that if you run out of ammo you’ll have to forfeit your quest and start over. This is because there’s no way to pickup extra ammo in a quest. The only way you can solve this is to always carry lv1 normal ammo which is unlimited.

Choosing Your Armour

Making this choice depends if you’re a Blademaster or Gunner. Both categories have different armour which can’t be used for both types apart from a select few. Blademasters usually have low elemental defence and high standard defence and Gunners have the opposite.

Each piece of armour has certain amount of ability points. When you get the same set of points to ten you’ll get that ability. Some armour sets can get the points to twenty which gives an advanced form of the ability. You can also get negative abilities as well as positive with the same armour. You don’t have to get a full set of armour for the ability you want. You can mix and match pieces until you’ve got what you need.

The only armour that both Blademasters and Gunners can use is usually the ‘comedy’ outfits. These make you look like an enemy or someone in the game. Almost all of these have no real use apart from they make you look funny. There are also other sets which both categories can use which have low defence but good abilities. These include Guild Knight, Shinobi Heaven and Shinobi Earth.



Enemies and Sub-Bosses

There are a wide number and verity of enemies that inhabit the world. Some are content with minding their own business and others make it their job to make your life a constant nightmare.

The main creatures that’ll try and attack you throughout the game are the Velociprey, Genprey and Ioprey. These are Velociraptor like creatures that’ll bite and jump at you continuously. There are usually an unlimited number of these on the level, so as soon as you kill one another will take its place. They also attack you in packs just like real Velociraptors.

There are superior versions of the Velociprey, Genprey and Ioprey which are basically sub-bosses. They’ll appear early in the game as the main monster to kill in the Village Chief’s quests. You’ll find them later in the game in other quests along with the boss monsters. These sub-bosses are larger and more elaborate looking than their lesser counterparts. They also deal a lot more damage and will run in to a different area when they’re low on health.

The Different Areas

Forest and Hills
This area is exactly what you’d expect from its name. Your base camp is in a secluded area with a small fishing spot. You exit into the hills area and can go left into the forest. Most of the hills area is wide open and have grey mountain areas. There are three different ways to go to forest from the hills area.

If you go towards the mountains from camp then climb up to your left, it leads to large cliff. You can climb the cliffs and eventually get to a Wyvern nesting area. This cave leads to a large open area, which then leads to the second mountain area.

Once you’re in the forest there is a secluded area to the north you can do some fishing. Further north the the Felyne cats’ hide out. There is a large area with water where the aggressive Felyne cats will try and attack you with small bombs. If you go south there is a connecting area where an abandoned camp is. There are three different exits in this area. One is to a secluded area where can trade items with the Forest Elder. Another way is to a narrow forest area that has Felyne cats that try and steal items. Finally the last exit leads to the area when you left the camp.

Desert
Your camp is in a plain orange coloured mountain area. You can either go down a ladder to the main desert or the opposite direction to a mountain area. If you go to the mountains there is a medium sized area with a ledge to climb and two exits. The left exit leads to a secluded area with a small lake. There is another exit which leads to the same place as the right exit from the previous area.

The next area is a large mountain area with a fish spot. It leads to an underground cave if you go north or another mountain area to the west. The new mountain area leads to the Felyne cats’ hide out if you go north and the second large desert to the west. This second large desert has two small caves and leads to the first desert. The first desert is extremely large and has three small caves in the mountain and leads back to base camp. Both desert areas are full of Cephalos, which are sand sharks.

Jungle
The camp is on the edge of a mountain and has two exits into the jungle. The left exit leads into a large area which is full of all sorts of trees and has two exits. One is to a secluded area where can trade items with the Jungle Elder and the other leads to a river side jungle area. In this new area you can go right which leads to the jungle right of the camp or north into a different riverside jungle. You can then climb up the mountain which leads to a Wyvern nesting site. If you continue on you’ll go into a cave which then leads to the right jungle from camp. If you didn’t climb the mountain it leads to a cave which then has a further two caves if you continue on.

Swamp
The base camp is in a similar to Forest and Hills, but not as enclosed. The swamp itself is gloomy with purple coloured fog in a lot of areas. Lots of the areas in the swamp look identical, but have minor differences.

Once you exit the camp you’ll be in a medium sized woodland area with a few trees. You can either go right in to a large long grassed area or left in to an almost identical area. In the left area you can go left to a secluded area where can trade items with the Swamp Elder or right to another almost identical area. This third area has a left exit into a doughnut shaped cave or goes to an open marsh area to the right. In the marsh area you can go up or right to almost identical marsh areas. If you went up, this area has a cave at the side and goes right into another marsh area. This is the last marsh area also has a cave at the side. This area goes right into the large long grassed area if you went right from camp.

Volcano
The camp is in a wide open grey mountain area which has left and right exit. The left area is wide open circular room surrounded by mountains. It has large rocks which explode if they’re hit. The right area is a connecting area which leads to left, into the some caves or right into a similar area left of the camp. Whichever way you take they’ll all lead into almost identical areas inside the caves. Each cave is quite large and you can see lava flowing towards the volcano. If you keep going left you’ll eventually go to a wide open area. This area has lots of lava flowing through it, but has a path clear for you to walk through. If you continue along the path you’ll come to a further lava filled area. This next area is used for some of the later boss battles and leads to the base of the volcano. You can climb all the way up the volcano and even see flames shooting out from inside its base. This area has four mining spots which give you ‘rust stones’ or ‘ancient stones’.

The Arena
You start off in the camp and there’s only one which leads into the arena. The arena itself is a single large room with a ledge at one side. This area is used to challenge you to fight enemies without being able to escape. This can be extremely hard when fighting two bosses at once.



Bosses, Bosses and More Bosses

A lot of the bosses have the same sort of attacks so I’ll explain them briefly;

Tail whip – Spins around in a complete circle while stood still.
Fireball – It’ll shoot either a single shot straight or three in a circular motion towards you.
Scream – This will cause your character to hold their ears leaving them open for an attack. You can block this, but it’ll cause you to stagger backwards.
Charge – The boss will run towards you at high speed then fall over.

When you do enough damage to a boss it’ll get enraged. When this happens its damage, speed and defence increase by about 40%. This can last a short period of time then ware off. When the boss is almost dead it’ll constantly be enraged until you kill it.

Most bosses can get their body parts damaged like their wings and head. Most can also get their tail cut off which will make them a lot easier to fight. When you carve the tail it’ll usually give you rare rewards.

Yian Kut-Ku (pink or blue)
This is the first proper boss you’ll encounter in the game. It’s a dragon type creature which has webbed ears. It has all the common attacks plus three others. It can walk and peck at you which will knock you quickly to the floor. An attack where it stands still, shoots fireballs up than they land all around. Finally it can charge at you while shooting fireballs left and right. You can tell when it’s almost dead because its ears will go back.

Rathalos (red, dark blue or silver)
This is your more common looking dragon type boss and is a male. It has all the common attacks as well as two others. It can hover above you and shoot a fireball down and can also swoop down while flying and poison you. This boss loves to fly to different areas a lot so you’ll get really annoyed having to find it all the time.

Rathian (green, pink or gold)
This boss is a female and is looks just like a Rathalos. She has Rathalos’ poison swoop attack and can also back flip and poison you. Unlike a Rathalos she’ll rarely fly away. This makes her a more manageable boss to fight.

Gypceros (black or purple)
This boss looks like a fat hairless chicken with a white American football on its nose. It acts a lot like a Yian Kut-Ku but can poison you. The thing on its nose call shoot out a blinding light and cause you be temporally stunned. Its most deadly attack is to feign death and kill you if you go near it. You can avoid this by throwing something at it to take it up. There’s no way to tell when it’s near death. This is a real pain if you want to trap it.

Plesioth (blue or green)
If you imagine a fish with legs then you’ve got a Plesioth. This boss is almost always in water and has a few cunning attacks. Its first attack is shooting water straight or in a circular motion while in the water. It can also do it straight on land. Its other attack is a shoulder barge attack which does massive damage.

You’ll need to use ‘sonic bomb’ to cause a shockwave and make it jump out of the water. Once out, you’ll have a short time to attack it before it goes back in.

The thing I hate the most about this boss is when it does its land attacks. It’ll do a shoulder barge or tail whip and can hit you when you’re no where near it. This is extremely frustrating and unnecessary. Just like the Gipsarios, there’s no way to tell when it’s near death.

Cephadrome (dark brown)
This boss is exactly the same as a Plesioth, but it’s in the desert sand. Instead of shooting water it shoots sand. You can see its fin in the sand and you’ll have to hit it to make it jump out.

Basarios (grey)
This is a monster which hides in the volcano area and look just like rocks. You’ll have to look hard to find his guy because he really blends in with the scenery. His attacks are a giant fire beam that shoots forward and it can also excrete a poison or sleep gas cloud. His skin is made of stone on top but not underneath. You’ll have to try and attack him by hitting his soft underside.

Gravios (white or black)
Exactly the same as a Basiros, but not made of stone. This guy is a lot bigger and can also go in the lava to change areas.

Khezu (white or red)
This thing is like a fat ball with a long neck with a mouth. It has no eyes so relies on what I think is its nose. This is one of the most annoying bosses in the game because of its cheesy moves. Its first attack is to stand still and generate an electrical shield which does massive damage. It can also shoot out an electrical ball which splits into three. This attack moves really fast and will usually be done more than once in a row. It’ll occasionally jump and try and squash you.

Monoblos (brown or white)
Looks like a Triceratops with a tail that splits in two. It has no projectile attacks so isn’t too hard to fight. Its main attacks are to charge at you and tail whip. It can also dig into the floor and attack from right underneath you. If it charges at you it’ll get its horn stuck in the wall. You can cut its horn off to decrease its damage when charging. This guy does massive damage, but is quite slow.

Diablos (brown or black)
Exactly the same as a Monoblos, but has two horns. I think it moves faster when it’s enraged.

Kirin (white)
This guy is a Unicorn that can use electrical attacks. His attacks are to stand still and generate multiple lightning bolts around himself and he also charges a lot. He moves really fast and can’t be stopped until you get a critical hit on him. When moving normally he’ll jump around in small bursts. He’s got no elemental weakness so the fight usually takes a long time.

Yian Garuga (purple)
This is a more aggressive version of a Yian Kut-Ku. The only difference apart from his appearance is that he’ll poison you when doing a tail whip or other attacks. You have to do a certain amount of damage to him to complete the quest. He can’t be defeated in a single quest so this fight will last at for quite a while.

Lao-Shan Lung (red or black)
A 60ft dragon type monster that moves extremely slowly, pulling itself on its stomach.

Fatalis (black or red)
This guy looks like a Chinese dragon and is about 30ft tall. He’s basically the last boss and can kill you in one hit with almost every attack. As with a Plesioth, his attacks rarely actually hit you, but you still die. The black and red versions of this boss are in different areas and have different attacks.

The black version is fought in a castle courtyard with a gate which can close in the middle. There’s a ladder on the side of the castle where you can get to the camp room. His main attacks are single fireball and hover then fireball. He also loves to go on his on this stomach and crawl extremely fast at you. This battle will last a few rounds because he can’t be defeated in a single round. It’s impossible to defeat him unless you’re a Gunner.

The red version is fought in the area leading to the volcano base. This version has all the moves of the black version plus three more. He can fly through the air at extreme speed and can also summon meteors around himself. His most deadly move is to fly really high up and drive bomb at you at extreme speed. He’s drastically more aggressive and is almost always attacking.



The Guild Hall

This is where you go to play with other people to complete more quests. Most of the quests are similar to the ones you’ll find in single player. The only way to get the best equipment and weapons is to complete the Guild Hall quests. The game is a lot more fun playing with other people because of the team work aspect. The maximum amount of people you can have in a team is four. Unlike the single player missions, the Guild Hall's difficulty goes up to eight stars.

The first thing you’ll notice about doing a Guild Hall quest is the dramatic increase in difficulty. All the enemies and bosses will deal about twice the damage and have about twice the health. This may seem harsh, but when you’re doing a quest with someone else it’s not so bad. Completing the quest will also give you greater rewards than you’ll get playing alone.

Once you’ve completed enough quests you’ll get an urgent quest. Completing this will increase your Hunter Rank and unlock harder quests. Hunter Ranks are supposed to be used to ensure that you’re at the correct skill level for quests. However, you can cheat to increase your rank. All you need to do is host the quest and get other people to do it for you. Once the quest is complete you’ll rank up, making the ranking system useless.

No Shovels Required

As well as you’re standard quests you’ll also be able to do a treasure hunt. This involves two people competing against each other for the highest score possible. This is mode is like a gathering quest, but with a few twists. Every item you’ll pick up will be completely different to other quests. Once your inventory is full you’ll have to deliver the strange items to the treasure hunt guy. Once you’ve emptied your pockets you’ll get points for each item. You’re then free to continue the collect more. The common way to play this mode is one person is an item gatherer and the other kills enemies and bosses. This way you’ll get the most points possible for a great high score. Each different area has five different secret items which get put on your Guild Card as medals.

No Online Play… WRONG!

The PSP version doesn’t have infrastructure (online play), but does have Ad-Hoc (local play). Ad-Hoc multiplayer only allows you connect to people who are nearby. If you use a third party program called Xlink Kai you can play online. Xlink Kai is a program that can trick your PSP into thinking that you’re using Ad-Hoc. All you need is a Windows PC and a WiFi MAX.

PLAY ONLINE USING WiFi MAX

Setup guide videos part 1/3, part 2/3 and part 3/3



Japanese Version Differences

The first difference is the option to download additional quests. The English version includes almost all the downloadable quest, but no option to download more. I’ve no idea why Capcom decided to remove this feature because it’s a great idea. There are certain pieces of equipment that are only obtainable by getting items from the downloaded quests. As far as I know, you can hold a maximum of six quests on your memory card at a time.

The second difference is the amount of blood. The Japanese version has drastically more blood. The more damage you do, the more blood there is. Trying to find a boss' weak point is almost impossible on the English version because of the blood reduction. This isn’t a major difference, the option for reduced blood would have been better.

Finally is the way you defeat Yian Garuga. This is done by linking your PSP to Monster Hunter 2 on the PS2. If you don’t do this you can never carve him up for all the items he can give you. This will mean you won’t be able to make his weapons parts of his armour. I’m not sure if you have to do this each time or not.

Graphics, Music, Sound and Controls

This game looks almost exactly the same as its PS2 counterpart. The only thing that I’ve noticed that’s different is the reduced texture quality. This is a common thing when a game is ported from a console to a handheld. The only time you’ll really notice the difference is when you’re looking at your character very close up. I doubt you’ll find a PSP game that looks as good as this.

There’s a lot of music when you’re in the town area, but not a lot when you’re in-game. The music really suits whichever area you’re in and that’ll immerse you further into the game. The only music you’ll usually hear in-game is the boss music. There is other music, but it isn’t really noticeable. The lack of in-game music doesn’t really hinder the game in any way. I noticed that the music from the Swamp Elder was used as the merchant’s theme in Resident Evil 4.

I can’t fault the game’s sound. Everything’s spot on and there isn’t a sound out of place. Everything that’s in the PS2 version is here without any loss in quality.

Due to the PSP’s lack of two analogue sticks the controls were changed. On the PS2 version you used the right analogue stick to control all your attacks. The PSP version uses TRIANGLE, X and TRIANGLE + X to attack. You still rotate the camera using the d-pad which is annoying at times.

Final Thoughts

Overall this is a great action adventure RPG. This is however, one of those games where you'll either love or hate instantly. You really have to be dedicated to playing to get the most out of it. You'll spend a lot of time doing the same quests over and over to get good equipment. There's no levelling up system which some people might not like. The game is more about skill and tactics then anything else. Equipment and rewards can't be traded between characters. This means you'll have to be a good player to get good rewards. You won't get much of the single player game because everything good is 'online'. You should get about 50 hours from single player and an additional 200 hours at least from multiplayer. I've played this game for over 515 hours and I highly recommend playing it.

THUMBS UPS

Score: 9.5/10

References

http://www.capcom.com/monster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Hunter_Freedom

http://www.angelfire.com/stars5/tkcpics2/mhf

The Club Review

Intro
The Racing game developer Bizarre Creations have made there 3rd person arcade shooter 'The Club' The game is available for PS3 Xbox 360 and PC, the PC version is 10$ less so I picked that up. I really liked the Demo and gave that an 9/10 so we will see how the whole game plays.

Story
The Club is about a secret club that organises a bloodsport were the main goal is were you need to kill a enough enemies in a record time.
Rich and influences people will give money to 'The Club' to organise these bloodsports, these rich people will bet on who will survive, this is just the plot though and it's only shown in one videoclip at the beginning in the game after that only some introduction for levels are shown via videoclips.

You can choose between 8 different characters every character has there own stats defieded between strength, speed and stamina.
The story isn't very deep, but it doesn't have to, and besides have you ever seen a good story in a racing game?

Gameplay
The Club's gameplay looks the most like Gears of War except it's missing the hiding system, instead it's the idea you rush through levels shooting as much enemies as you can and make it in time to the end of the game, you can shoot skullshots and secret skullshots to earn more points, these 'shots' are just plates that hang around all over the level, there also bonus enemies who give bonus points if you shoot them if they run past you.

The big feature in The Club is the combo system, if you shoot an enemy after a few seconds after you shot another enemy you get and combo point, the higher the points the more points you get for every kill, the time in what time you need to shoot the next target will also shorten so you have to be fast if you want to keep your high combo, if your combo time runs out you will lose your combo and you will need to start over, You can also shoot normal Skullshot to lengthen your combo.
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There 3 different singleplayer events: Tournament Mode, Single Event and Gunplay.
In Tournament Mode you play the main 'campaign' which is 8 different levels and a dozen of modes, you play it in a racing game style with ranking and points in which you compete with other players. In Single Event you can play any level you unlocked in any mode you like. In Gunplay you can play a set of modes and levels in a playlist you can compose. In all these events you can pick a different mode, differentiating from fast speed run to survival mode.

The weapons in The Club are all good but aren't all that special, you can also have a few grenade types but that's it. You can also use special moves like kick open doors and such to gain bonus points if you kill someone directly after you did such an much.

Controls
You can control 'The Club' in two different ways, with the gamepad or with mouse+keyboard.
But it seems the game is more meant to played with the gamepad, all the buttons are even all those of the xbox 360 version on the PC (the ironic part is, I can't get my 360 controller working though) Even though there 2 control types there very similar but the gamepad is a bit better to use since everything is just a small stretch away.

Shooting is done with the right trigger and aiming with the left trigger, you can move with the left analog stick and move your camera with the other, you can also run and crouch. All standard stuff so anyone could pick it up and play. I do thing the PC version is a bit hard to play with and since I can't get my xbox controller to work it should be fixed.

Presentation
The Clubs looks alright it isn't doesn't have the best graphics around but the game runs smooth and the explosions look nice and if your rushing trough an level you most likley won't notice much of it. The bad thing is that my computer can't really run it on max but the demo on the xbox 360 looked quite nice and the running in the game is nicely done. Also all the menus look very good and ever mode and level has there own cool looking icon.

The music is alright but it's the same track over and over again but it does work if your rushing trough levels. The gun sounds are good sounding and the voices of your enemies will change if your in a different land, so I was quite amused when i heard German shoots out of my boxes And every time you do a extra bonus filled move a cool voice will say wait move you did, so when you shoot a headshot it will say 'HEADSHOT' quite a cool feature.

Replay Value
The Club has quite some replay value there is a tournament mode which plays in all levels and modes, there is a Single Event mode which let you replay those levels separeted and there is a Gunplay mode which lets you pick your own levels and play them in your own playlist. All these modes have 4 different difficulty settings, these challenge you to earn a set amount of points.

There is also a big mulitplayer feature with some variation in modes and levels. There also Achievements which are quite hard to get. But the best part of The Club is the highscore competivity, since every difficulty has there own goal you are really triggert to finish every game on a high difficulty and why you are at it owning your friend's highscore so he can try to beat you, just like in Pacman: C.E. it's very addicting.

Verdict
The Club is a fun game but not everyone can enjoy it, the game isn't your average shooter but more a highscore rushing game, but the thing is I like those kind of games and I find it fantastic that a full game is based around such an cool expect. Even though there some minor flaws with the game, the game is still very fun and is atleast worth a rent, or try the demo first.

Score: 8/10

Links
Main Site
Wikipedia
PC Demo

Penumbra Black Plaque Review

Intro
Penumbra: Black Plaque is the second action horror game in the Penumbra series.
The series is made by Frictional Games and published by Paradox Interactive.
Black Plaque is released for PC, Mac and Linux.
The game is sold for only 20 USD in retail stores.

Story
Penumbra Black Plaque continues were the first Penumbra started.
The game is about an man who in search for his father goes to Greenland.
He gets lost and finds a hatch, he needs to get in or else he would freeze to death.
In Black Plaque your mainly in an research facility, which is filled with dead scientists and strange zombie like monsters.
In Black Plaque you also find signs of live from your father and ofcourse you even go father in trying to find him.
Black Plaque has a lot of speaking NPCs in comparison with Penumbra episode 1.
The story is very scary and sometimes I just quit the game with an aftershock.



Gameplay
Penumbra is based on a normal adventure game, you pick up items and use them in the environment, but the think what makes Penumbra different is that it has an physic based system, your cursor is an hand which can pull levers, pick stuff up, throw things etc.
With the level design you really can seen the developer have been playing Bioshock a lot, all levels look like Bioshock levels and the puzzles also look similar so if you want more Bioshock action this might be your game.
Maybe the one bad thing about Penumbra is that it doesn't have any combat what so ever, you can only run and hide, even though I don't like this it sure helps with the fear factor and you'll be running you ass off.
Black Plaque also has Save Points and no normal saves, I find this quite relaxing with other PC games I always forget to save and when I quit the game or it crashes I'm always pissed that i need to start over again.

Graphics
Black Plaque looks a bit dated, the graphics are very last gen but with what it does (physics, breakable items etc.) the game runs quite smooth and I have to turn down the graphics to play the game without lagging.
Also with all the darkness and spooky looking placing you won't even focus on the graphic but only on the growling zombie that is walking around.
And for an Indie game the graphics look quite nice.

Replay Value
There isn't much of replay value in Black Plaque, but a few, there is the quite long singleplayer game and there a few artefacts to find to unlock extras, thats about it, the singleplayer game is quite hard so that will keep you goning for a while and for only 20 USD it's quite a deal but not a very good one.

Verdict
Black Plaque is a quite an good deal but lags Replay Value.
But it's so scary I haven't finished it yet and if I don't ill be scarred for life.

Score: 7,5/10

Links
Main Site
Wikipedia
Metacritic
Free Tech Demo

Audiosurf Review

Intro
Audiosurf is a music based puzzle racer, it's made by 'BestGameEver' who are a Independent gaming studio. The game is available on Steam and costs 10 USD it also includes "The Official Orange Box Soundtrack" which costs 10 USD if you would buy it separately, so that's a steal itself.

Gameplay
The big feature of Audiosurf is that you can choose your own music and "ride" it, that's right you can just pick your favourite song on your PC and just ride on the music. Audiosurf is a music based puzzle racer, you play as a space ship who is on an on-rails road, your goal is to stop blocks and make combinations with the same kind of blocks. The cool thing is that the whole game is based of a song you pick, so if you pick some rock song the game is very fast paced and you need to react very fast but if it's a relaxing jazz song the game is very casual and slow. There are different ships and difficulty settings, these settings will alter the way the game is played:

• Casual Difficultly
  
• Mono - There only 2 block types, coloured and grey, dodge the grays and get the colours to win.
• Pointman - There 5 different colours you use, you need to combine the same colours to earn points, you can also catch block so you can use them later
• Double Vision - You can play with a friend, the field is split, but you can still combine blocks together.

• Pro Difficulty
• Mono Pro - Same as Mono but you can use 'jump' and your able to catch all 3 blocks at the same time.
• Pointman Pro - Same as Pointman but harder.
• Vegas - looks like Pointman but you can mix all colours to get a random effect.
• Eraser - Same as Pointman but you can destroy all of one colour.
• Pusher - Same as Pointman but you can push blocks left or right.
• Double Vision Pro - Same as Double Vision but harder.

• Elite Difficulty
• Ninja Mono - same as Mono Pro but you can't jump but destroy greys in your field.
• Eraser Elite - Same as Eraser but harder.
• Pusher Elite - Same as Pusher but harder.
• Pointman Elite - Same as Pointman but harder.
• Double Vision Elite - Same as Double Vision but harder.

Controls
The controls are very smooth, you can play with mouse, keyboard and x360 controller. With keyboard your not as faced but more responsive, with the mouse your very fast but not as responsive and the x360 controller is abit to responsive and to fast, also you need to lay down your controller to ride in the middle not very smart really, but they did say there going to patch it.

Graphics
Audiosurf looks very nice, the colours really return in to everything, your ships changes colours, there is 'fireworks' shooting around and some more crazy background stuff is happening.

Replay Value
Audiosurf is full of replay value, you can play all your songs you want and in the world that means over zillions of song/levels. You can also play with 2 players which is very much fun id say. The big Replay point in Audiosurf is the competitive highscore, you can play hours trying to beat your friends score and when you finally did, he already beat you at it.
There also a lot of achievements which are all quite hard but still fun to get.

Verdict
Audiosurf is a fun game and it is something fresh. The game will never get old because you can play your own music, if your looking for a nice music visualizator or a competitive highscore game, this game is for you and for only 10 USD + 'The Official Orange Box Soundtrack' it's a complete steal, get it now.

Score: 9,5/10

Links
Main Site
Steam
Wikipedia
Free 4 songs Demo

TF2 'CP_Badlands' Review

Intro
Valve has released there second free map for the ridiculously popular Team Fortress 2 (TF2)
The game costs only 30 dollars and it's an online only multiplayer shooter. Badlands is the second for free released map for TF2, the map is an Capture Control map

Gameplay
Badlands is an CP map, which means both team's goal is to capture CP points, if one team has all the CP points that team wins.
Badlands however brings some cool new ideas in the mix, the map is very open so a CP can be reached in a lot of ways, but the CP points all are surrounded by big open areas so it's hard to keep the CP points.



Replay Value
Badlands is big enough to have many secrets routes and tactics, you can play for 1 hour fighting over on CP point or you can be done within a few minutes.
The map can be replayed a zillion times and is just like the other TF2 maps well balanced.

Verdict
Badlands is a very open map, this I like and I would like to see more of these maps.
Badlands is another high quality map from Valve.

Score: 9/10

Links
Main Site
Wikipedia
Steam
Patch Notes
CTF_Well Review

Sam&Max 203: Night of the Raving Dead Review

Intro
Sam&Max is an long on going episodic series of adventure games.
Sam&Max 203 is made by TellTale games and publish by Gametap.
Every episode costs $9 episode203 also costs $9.

Story
Sam&Max episode 203, as all Sam and Max games, is based on an Dog called Sam and an Rabbit called Max, they have a mission to save the world from everything bad that happens, there freelance police and stopped by no one.
Episode 203 is about an Zombie Invasion in the world, Sam and Max find out there is an Zombie Factory in Stuttgart, they find an prince of darkness there who the need to defeat and there is an very cool plot twist almost everyone will enjoy.



Gameplay
Sam&Max is an point and click adventure game, you need to pick up items and use them to open an blocked door, defeat an enemy or get another item, episode 203 feature some cool "new" adventure gameplay and it's cool having the Sam&Max team experimenting with some new gameplay elements.
The puzzles in Episode 203 are quite hard, but still logic and fun I enjoyed the puzzles allot.
If you really can't solve the puzzle there is an hint system you can set up so your partner (Max) can give you some hints, there will also be an online walktrough on TellTale's main site.

Humour
I found the humour in "Nights of the Raving Dead" quite enjoyable, there even where a few Resident Evil 4 references.

Verdict
Night of the Raving Dead continuous the good Maoi Better Blues started.

Score: 8/10

Links
Main Site
Wikipedia
Episode 201 Review
Episode 202 Review

Barkley: Shut Up & Jam! Gaiden Review

Intro
Tales of Games has released there Basketball themed Indie RPG game.
The game costs 0$ and can be downloaded here.

Story
The game is set around Charles Barkley who is an ex-basketball player, basketball has become illegal and there has been a big purge of b-ballplayer, this all because are good friend Barley made an "Chaos Dunk" which destroyed whole Manhattan.
After somebody has made an second Chaos Dunk, Barkley is wanted and detective Michael Jordan tries to arrest Barkley.
The whole story is riddled with Basketball jokes and Space Jam references, most monsters and allies are made of Basketballs or are dead b-ballplayers.
The story, even insane crazy, is still very funny and has some cool twists.

Gameplay
The gameplay in BSU&JG is an mixture of standard JRPGs and some modern new techniques.
There is lots of walking around and talking in dialogues as in JRPGs but there also wacky things like quick time events, timed attack (you have seen in the most recent JRPGs) and so on.
The battle system is very cool, if you take Barkley and attack you can shoot a ball, but you need to time your throw so it hits, there also other button reaction attacks like this with other character, you will meet these characters in time.
There is also an full item system and curses/poisons system.



Replay Value
BSU&JG is quite an long game (not for an JRPG though) there a lot of cool dialogue and millions of easter eggs and inside jokes to be found.
The game is fun and with all the jokes it makes you keep playing the cool combat system also helps.

Verdict
BSU&JG is an fun game and for the full price of Zero USD you should just check it out and see if you like it.

Score: 8.5/10

Links
Main Site
Download

PVKII Beta 2 Review

Intro
Pirates, Vikings and Knights 2 is an Half Life 2 Multiplayer Mod with features melee weapon combat instead of only firing weapons.
The game is about 3 "races": The Pirates, The Vikings and The Knights.
The Pirates are a fast slashing race with a love of firearms and explosions.
The Vikings are more the strong dumb slashing race.
The Knights are slower but have crossbows and big swords.

Gameplay
The gameplay is similar to Half Life 2 and other HL2 mods, but the core difference is that the combat is based around melee weapons and not firing weapons.
There a few ranged weapons, like the throwing axes, the bows and the muskets.
Every "race" has 2 unit types:

• Pirates
• Skirmisher - Has an Musket, Sword and a big ton of explosion
• Captain - Has an big Musket, a big sword and a cool parrot

• Vikings
• Berserker - Has an Big axe and a axe and a sword
• Huscarl - Has an big axe an axe and a shield an throwing axes
  

• Knights
• Heavy Knight - Has an big sword and a sword and a shield
• Archer - Has an bow, crossbow and a dagger
  

The maps have different goals, sometimes you need to capture a point and in other maps you need to steal gold chests to win.
You also have an power bar, this bar will go full if you hit an enemy, if the bar is full you can do a special move.
You can also power boost attack by holding the attack button and releasing it when the power boost bar is full to do maximum damage.



Graphics
In beta 2 all maps look a lot better and the new unit just look perfect and fit good in with the old units.

Replay Value
Played PVKII can become a bit boring but with all the maps and the big difference between the "races" the game keeps it fresh and for 0 USD the mod is awesome!

Verdict
PVKII beta 2 is very awesome and it needs to be played even though it's a bit wacky it's lots of fun and it's always fresh.

Score: 9/10

Links
Mainsite/Download
Wikipedia

Sins of a Solar Empire Review

Intro
Sins of a Solar Empire is an RTS game made by Ironclad Games and publish by Stardock both not very well known studios.
Sins of a Solar Empire is an mixture of space simulator and an Real Time Strategy Game.

Gameplay
Sins of a Solar Empire is played as an regular RTS but with the depth of an turn based space simulator.
The game is set in space and the main goal is to take over other planets, these can give you income and with a bit of strategy you can even make much profit, the game is driven by economics, there 3 resources, Metal, Crystal and Credits the first 2 can be harvest the last one you earn by selling you metal an crystal on the black market or with your planets.
If you got credit you can make ships which can take over more planets or attack enemies.
But you do not have to always attack your enemies, you can also make peace, this sounds familiar, but in Sins of a Solar Empire it works for the first time in RTS history, you get mission from someone to destroy another enemies buildings or give resources and you will become friends with the computer.
There are also big tech threes and 3 races, even though they control the same.
I think this game has finally made offline play interesting without making an campaign mode, the whole friendship system makes it fun to engage with the AI and not only a slaughter on both ends.



Controls
Maybe the most important thing in an RTS is the controls, Sins of a Solar Empire plays very smooth with a good looking interface, there is enough in it and it's all hideable, the games layout looks a bit like Supreme Commander's there is also an zoom function which can really get you way back or up close.
The game plays strangely enough just like an regular RTS like Starcraft, but it's all on a far bigger scale.

Graphics
Sins of a Solar Empire looks very nice, the game loads very fast for the graphics you get for it and maybe it's not the best looking RTS like C&C3 but it still is very good looking and totality lag free (on my PC)

Replay Value
Sins of a Solar Empire doesn't have an campaign, however the game is build so that if you play a skirmish mode the game begins evolving it self, it's not like WC3 where the AI just does the same thing over and over, no, the game is build so that's almost random, also LAN is much fun, you can even save your game to play for another day, cause damn Sins of a Solar Empire has long games and big maps.

Verdict
Sins of a Solar Empire is something new and fresh but still has the old tactics to work on, the game is what I as an RTS lover have been waiting for for an long time.

Score: 8,5/10

Links
Main Site
Wikipedia
Metacritic

Sam&Max 202: Maoi Better Blues Review

Intro
Sam and Max is and episodic PC adventure game series.
It's made by TellTalle games and Published by GameTap.
The Series is based around and dog and an rabbit called Sam&Max there freelance police and are here to save the world (or destroy it)
The game is based off another Adventure game and other content related with Sam&Max.
In Maoi Better Blues the game is about Easter Island.

Story
Maoi Better Blues is about Sam&Max who travel to Easter Island (via an Bermuda Triangle)
In Easter Island there is an huge problem: the nearby volcano is about the erupt and destroy whole Easter Island.
Sam&Max are send out to save Easter Island and help some of the locals.
Talking about the locals, there not some voodoo tribe members, no, there famous celebrities who have been "disappeared" but really are just staying at Easter Island, but of course they where so stupid to drink from the fountain of youth and now there all babies.



Gameplay
Sam&Max is a point and click adventure game, This means you have to click on items to pick them up and get them out of your inventory to use it in your surrounding, this is quite an old gaming system but still does the job.
In Sam&Max the puzzles you need to solve are quite hard, even though this is the problem with most Adventure games.
But in Maoi Better Blues the puzzles are a bit easier (or: more logic) so that won't really be the problem.
if you really can't solve the puzzle there is an hint system you can set up so your partner (Max) can give you some hints, there is also an online review on TellTale's main site.

Humour
The humour in Maoi Better Blues is some what better then the other episodes, there also a few gaming related jokes that made me laugh out loud (Snake..SNAAAAAKE!)

Graphics
For some reason Maoi Better Blues looks better than other episodes, well detailed and good looking textures and some cool animations, just slick and smooth.

Verdict
Sam&Max Moai Better Blues is an cool game with funnier jokes and better puzzles, this is the real start of season 2.

Score: 8/10

Links
Main Site (Demo/Walktrough)
Wikipedia
Sam&Max 201 Review

Sam&Max 201: Ice Station Santa Review

Intro
Sam and Max is an episodic series of PC adventure games made by TellTale Games.
The game is about a Dog called Sam and a Rabbit called Max, who are private detectives and need to save the world.
Sam and Max is also based of: a comic, a tv serie and an other adventure game.
The episode Ice Station Santa is the beginning of the second season and has a Christmas theme.

Gameplay
Sam and Max is a point and click adventure game, in Sam and Max your mostly given an problem and you need to find and use items to solve the puzzle. As for Ice Station Santa the puzzles are quite hard with some solutions to be to hard for an player to find out. Good for all of us they have now added a hint system were you can change how frequently Max gives you hints, this really comes in handy and is an improvement from the episodes before season 2. It also has a tutorial to explain how you need to play an point-and-click adventure game, this is quite handy for the people who don't know how to play such a game.



Humour
The humour in Sam and Max is a little weird: Sam always makes long sentences with allot of hard word, and for a Dutchman its hard to understand and Max is always being rude and has the patience of an..well rabbit.. even though there are funny parts and animations but not so funny you'll be laughing for 10 minutes strait.

Story
In Ice Station Santa, Santa has gone mad and you need to stop him sending dangerous presents to everyone and shoot people on sight.(It isn't as bad as it sounds Razz) It is quite a good story and at least one of the better episodes because mostly it makes less sense.
Well in this new episode there 2 new character introduced: Stinky and Flint Paper.
Stinky is a girl, who ones a fast-food restauran and she is a filthy liar and things she's the best in everything and Flint Paper is a detective who you really don't need to finish any puzzle in the game maybe he will be used in episode 2 but he is for no use now.

Replay Value
Replaying an adventure game? o'rly? no there is no Replay Value at all.. only if you would want to hear some more dialogue but not even that is very fun the game is about 3 hours and for the price of 9 dollars that is quite worth it, but you really should see Sam and max as episodes of an tv serie not more.

Verdict
Sam and Max: Ice station Santa is a fun game and has some great puzzle to bad it's so short.. but for 9 dollars its worth a buy (or try out the demo first)

Score: 7,5/10

Links
Official Site
Wikipedia

Cave Story Review

Intro
Cave Story is one of the well known indie free games, it's made by a one-man develement team called Pixel, the game is an "MetroidVania" game and the graphics look like an SNES game.
The game is currently only released on the PC/MAC for free an Indie PSP version and Indie DS version are in the make.

Story
Cave Story starts out with a boy who is in an cave, as that boy you find your way out of the cave, to discover a rabbit-like race village.
After some drama where you only can put question marks behind you travel to other parts of the world via a teleporter, this sounds totality bad shit insane right? It isn't, Cave Story has maybe the best story of any NES/SNES game and totality the best story of any Indie game, you don't trust me?...you'll see..

Gameplay
Cave Story has quite an easy 2D platformer gameplay, making jumps and so on.
But in Cave Story you have guns which you shoot and kill enemy.
If an Enemy dies he drops little yellow triangles which you can pick up to upgrade your weapon, but if you get hurt you not only lose health you also lose a bit of your weapon upgrade.
This is quite a deep weapon system, every weapon in the game has 3 levels of upgrades and with over 5 weapons in the game, the game becomes very deep.



Graphics
Cave Story looks very nice and has the whole retro SNES style going on, it looks the most like Metroid.

Replayability
Cave Story has quite some Replay Value there 2 different endings and a lot of secret weapons and so on.

Verdict
Cave Story is the best Indie game there is and it deserves to be played and ported to every system possible.

Score: 10/10

Links
Cave Story Tribute Site/Download
Wikipedia
DS Port / Video
PSP Port
GP2x Port



Bonus
DeceasedCrab's Lets play Cave Story: