Reviews// Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate

Posted 15 Mar 2013 17:10 by
Somewhat unique is Monster Hunter’s complete lack of typical RPG staples such as levelling up or character classes. Instead your character’s abilities are determined entirely by the equipment, hence the focus on gathering crafting materials to create new gear and upgrade it to higher levels of power. Your stats can be tweaked further by accessorising your armour, but each piece of armour has a limited number of accessory slots so it’s up to you on how to make the best use of them.

There are plenty of armour pieces available to choose from and you can freely mix and match them until you look like anything from a typical knight in shining armour to a flamboyant Power Rangers villain. The lack of levelling up means your health and stamina pools won’t get any larger as you get further into the game. Instead, when things start to get tough you’ll be forced to rely more on your item gathering and cooking skills to survive in the wild, which definitely gives the game a nice unique flavour.

The underwater sections make for a nice change of pace, and the controls are handled reasonably well, although again you’re forced to constantly adjust the camera as you swim. It’s very easy to get disorientated when you’re trying to change direction while simultaneously fighting a giant sea monster, but I’ll let that slide just because it’s so cool to fight a giant sea monster.

It’s not like you need to really worry about inevitably being eaten or drowned, either. Death is a bit of a slap on the wrist in Monster Hunter. Falling in battle will simply cause you to respawn at the nearest battle camp, minus a bit of cash and some of your items. During active quests it’s slightly more serious as dying three times is an automatic fail, but failed quests can be reattempted straight away anyway.

Where the combat does really shine is in the wide range of fighting styles available to the player, but even this isn’t perfect. Some of the heavier weapons have such slow attack animations that by the time I actually finished an attack even the most docile of creatures had wandered away from me. And ranged weapons, especially the slower but more powerful crossbows, are almost impossible to aim in the middle of a fight without going into a first-person mode which leaves you pretty vulnerable to attacks from other directions.

Fortunately there’s nothing tying you down to any particular weapon style early on, and after I got bored of slowly missing enemies with my massive gunlance I soon swapped to the much faster double blade style and went to town. In a rare instance of convenience, Monster Hunter does provide you with a beginner weapon of each type right from the start of the game. Being able to take each weapon type out for a spin without having to spend valuable cash or materials is very helpful, and there’s still a lot to choose from even once you eliminate the weapons that flat-out suck. It’s definitely a good idea to try out as many styles as you can in the early stages of the game to find out what works for you. It can save you the pain of investing materials into crafting and upgrading weapons that might end up wasted.

This weapons issue brings us handily to multiplayer, as it’s obvious that having a team of like-minded fellow hunters watching your back would make heavier or ranged weapons far more viable. Which raises a slight problem, in that while the big console Monster Hunter games let you team up with friends across the Internet, this one is restricted to linking up with other nearby players.

Which I imagine will make it a lot more difficult to put a party together than it should be. Fortunately, a little way into the game you recruit an AI controlled helper who’ll follow you into battle and help gather up nearby materials. It’s a pretty far cry from having another player on hand, but at least it’s something.

The more I played the more I was reminded of Phantasy Star Online. Combos based on steady timing? Hordes of enemies? Constant hunting for loot? Vaguely MMOish but with a focus on four-man teams? Constantly revisiting the same areas with things shuffled around depending on the activated quest? That’s a lot of ticks in a lot of boxes. And like any right-thinking gamer, I loved Phantasy Star Online. And while I didn’t fall in love with Monster Hunter straight away, I have to admit that it has slowly sunk its claws into me.

Monster Hunter takes a long time to get rolling, but once it does it’s easy to see how the series has managed to hook so many fans. By the same token, anyone looking for anything resembling instant gratification will no doubt be put off by the amount of grinding that this massive time sink of a game requires. It’s almost pointless to play Monster Hunter casually, if you want to take a crack at it you have to go all in or you won’t even begin to scratch the surface of the endless hunting, looting and crafting cycle.

The limited multiplayer options are likely to be a real drawback to the game’s longevity. It’s worth pointing out that a fully online Wii U port is due out at the same time with the ability to transfer save data back and forth between the console and handheld ports, letting overly dedicated fans play on the Wii U at home and then transfer their character to the 3DS to continue playing on the move.

No doubt Capcom would love it if people bought both versions for this reason, and I’m sure plenty of hardcore Monster Hunter fans plan on doing just that. Hey, it’s their money. But while the Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on the 3DS might be a solid game in its own right, if I had the option I think I’d sooner just pick up the Wii U version.

Pros
+ Looks great.
+ Lots to do.
+ Addictive.
+ Dinosaurs!

Cons
- Slow to get started.
- Can get repetitive.
- Cumbersome inventory.
- Limited multiplayer.

SPOnG score: 8/10
<< prev    1 -2-

Read More Like This


Comments

Adam 15 Mar 2013 20:37
1/17
monster hunter is a game where you spend 100s maybe 1000s of hours playing. the first few hours of each game are only a miniscule part of the game and shouldnt always be used against it. also there is a target camera where u tap the ivon of the monster on the touch screen and the L button is reassigned to turn the camera to the monster isntead of your back. as for the weapons being too slow that is by design. its supposed to actually feel like your swinging a 6 foot long sword made out of iron. would you expect the big characters with giant weapons in most fighting games to be fast as well? im not sure what you mean by the inventory being cumbersome as a monster hunter veteran i havnt had many problems with there not being enough room. not so much as id label it a major problem with the game at least.
jbnagis 15 Mar 2013 21:47
2/17
Sounds like the majority of the gripes come from not being good at the game. ive killed every big monster with the ranged weapons. and the slow weapons. One of the big things about monster hunter is learning the monsters tells, and moves. and knowing when you can unleash maximum punishment. just going in there swinging willy nilly willl get you killed quickly.i bet once the reviewer actually gets GOOD at the game. every single inventory gripe and combat gripe will go away. i think people who love and under a game like dark souls will know exactly what this game is about.
more comments below our sponsor's message
Anonymous Guy 15 Mar 2013 22:09
3/17
Like Adam said, this series will take awhile to fully understand. By personal experience:

about 30 hours to understand the differences between the weapon types,
about 15 hours to figure out the basics,
by the 20 hour mark I started to realize you could cancel the recovery animations with evasive moves.

Again, it just takes time.
Luke_Matos 15 Mar 2013 22:18
4/17
Oh...you want a lock-On feature ahn?MonHun it's a Hardcore Franchise,and it needs pratice to play,you'll spend at least 3~10 hours to learn the mechanics,but after you learn.....:D.





MH fan 15 Mar 2013 23:45
5/17
i have devoted over 400 hours into the franchise so i understand the prerequisites of getting into this game. I do agree that at the beginning things are pretty slow. but in comparison to the entire amount of quests and content, it is understandable. this game takes investment, so this may be hard to do for some gamers. you have to learn every monster, every weapon, every area, and so on. MH is not a game to where you can hold right on the direction pad and button mash to beat the game. so once you put in the time, the game becomes a real jewel.
monsterhunterrulez 16 Mar 2013 08:03
6/17
So fun reading MH reviews from people that are used to the simplistic straightforward actionbased buttonmashing gameplay in western games. It's like putting a person that never played anything more complicated than Pac-man to review Skyrim.
Another_Thousand_Hours 16 Mar 2013 09:16
7/17
Towards the end of the review it seems the reviewer is just starting to grasp the essence of the game. The little monster are just there to get in your way. The early missions have you hunting them as a warm-up. Once you get past the basics, it's all about hunting the big beasties. Persistence is required, keep scratching at the surface to find one of the greatest treasures of gaming within.
Sloshy 17 Mar 2013 07:12
8/17
Quick correction: your game is saved in three ways. First: by your bed, as mentioned, second: whenever you finish or abandon a quest, and third: whenever you manually quit the game from the main menu (assuming you can still do this).
bob 17 Mar 2013 08:38
9/17
monster hunter
Gluh 17 Mar 2013 13:25
10/17
You don't have to sleep to save........ When you finish a quest (or abandon) it AUTOMATICALLY saves. And when you quit the game from the menu it also saves. IMO you need to play at least 30 hours before a review (a decent one is written) Probably upto 50. I'm guessing you put 5-15 which resulted in your idiotic gripes
Zurrix 17 Mar 2013 13:33
11/17
I bet this reviewer has played under 40 hours.
vatto 17 Mar 2013 16:25
12/17
I understand that the reviewer never played the series so some rookie mistakes were made.
First, the heavy weapons. Yes, they are slow. You have to learn it's moves and time them wisely. It's well worth it as greatsword and hammers achieve great results against most monsters.
Second, the camera. It's common to expect that the game just point you to the monster and you mash A or X. But that's not monster hunter. Monster Hunter requires that you actually aim your attacks at the monster's weakspots. Almost like an improved Zelda combat system, because zelda locked on specific targets for you, and that completely ruins the control of where you want to hit. You cannot understand how to aim properly until you see someone hammering some monsters and getting headshots every single time exploring the weapon movement set.
3rd, the game is about hunting BIG monsters. Those quests of gathering or kill X monsters don't last until after 4*. Those are actually the minority. You have almost 60 big monsters to hunt. Stop hunting bugs.
4th, ranged is really easy. Pick the bow, learn to aim. It's an easy path for fun in the MH series.
MightyZee 18 Mar 2013 21:27
13/17
@_MH_fan Yes, I did find myself enjoying it more the further I got. Not sure I've got the dedication to commit to MH enough but I can definitely understand the people who do now. Thanks for the comment.
MightyZee 18 Mar 2013 21:34
14/17
@Adam Thanks for the comment. I agree that MH gets a lot better once you're a lot further in and people should definitely give it a chance before deciding it's boring. It would have been great to put in a few hundred hours but the review's not going to write itself so sooner or later I had to put the DS down. And I wouldn't say my issues with the inventory were a major problem, just the biggest one I had. I don't think I had any major problems with the game.
MightyZee 18 Mar 2013 21:41
15/17
@Sloshy Thanks for the tip. I did notice it autosaving after every mission but my deep-rooted distrust of autosaves must have let it slip my mind. My bad.
MightyZee 18 Mar 2013 21:49
16/17
@Gluh Sorry you didn't care for the review. Most of the problems I had with the game were obviously from the point of a new player in the early stages of the game. I would enjoy hearing what your less idiotic gripes were with the game as a more advanced player.
katsuo 1 Apr 2013 14:51
17/17
haha least u gave it a good score..any lower and id have 2 cut u...am 20 hours in and i have 2 say am loving it. i dont think i can call myself a advanced player but am no new player..this game did wht it was meant 2 do... made me feel like i really was a hunter
Posting of new comments is now locked for this page.