- Fills the Xbox’s Resident
Evil-style game void
- Good fun as a single-player game, GREAT gaming entertainment
as a
multiplayer frolic
- Ability to shoot in direction other than where you are running
(a la Robotron) can help get you out of sticky situations
- Hella-hard difficulty at times,
especially in multiplayer mode
- Can lose track of your character in large battles,
particularly in multiplayer games
- Too few power-ups and extra weapons on levels lead to “every
man for himself” breakdown of teamwork gameplay
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Hunter:
The Reckoning
Score: 8.6 / 10
As an Xbox-only console gamer, I’ll admit
to being a little envious of GameCube owners having exclusive access to
Resident Evil (RE). The original RE on the PlayStation was one of the
greatest, creepiest gaming experiences I have ever had, and I have been
waiting for a similar title to come to the Xbox. Well, if you own an
Xbox and have been looking for a RE-style title like I have, wait no
more, because Hunter: The Reckoning (H:TR) is that game. Obviously
inspired by both the RE and Gauntlet series of games, this crossbreed of
third-person action-adventure (most evident in multiplayer mode) and
survivor horror genres is a bloody good game. Don’t only take my word
for it. H:TR has been selling at a fast and furious clip since its
release. (The most recent Electronics Boutique sales figures show H:TR
as the top-selling console title on ANY system for the company.)
H:TR is based on the White Wolf Publishing pen & paper role-playing
World of Darkness Hunter cosmos. The gothic storyline of the hack &
slash game chronicles
the grisly happenings following the
electrocution execution of murderer Nathaniel Arkady in the prison town
of Ashcroft. Unknown to the townspeople, the penitentiary has been
secretly run by vampires since the 1920s, who have used the prisoners
for feeding and ghastly experiments. Creatures of the night walk amongst
us in everyday life, and only those that undergo an imbuing, known as
Hunters, can
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see these creatures and destroy them.
When the execution goes down, the vengeful souls of all the prisoners
who had died there lash out, killing many of the living who were in the
prison at the time. The four main characters you can select from are
Avenger (Spenser “Deuce” Wyatt),Defender (Samantha Alexander), Martyr (Kassandra
Cheyung), and Judge (Father Esteban Cortez).
All witnesses to Arkady’s execution, they find out that they themselves
are Hunters and are just barely able to escape by defeating hordes of
undead and seal up the prison. One year later, a rave at the prison
again frees the incorporeal beings (by the severity of their vicious and
deadly behavior, those ghastly ghouls sure hate rave music) and once
more the Hunters get the call to duty. That’s where you come in.
Battling your way through 23 levels of horror, it’s your mission to
rescue the town of Ashcroft and the innocents who populate it and send
the hellish creatures back to the world of the dead where they belong.
Don't let a plausible plot deter you, though. If it's mindless killing
of huge numbers of evil enemies that you desire, H:TR is right up your
alley.
Choosing your character for single-player gaming involves some thought.
I found that the best-suited solo hero is Defender, whose speed helps
her escape tough situations until she gets stronger as a fighter.
Generally, faster moving characters (Defender, Martyr) tend to be weaker
fighters initially and conversely less speedy characters (Avenger,
Judge) tend to be much stronger until they gain some experience points
that build their individual statistics up enough to balance out any
weaknesses. At your disposal in your battle against the supernatural is
a selection of weapons (Some are restricted to a particular character)
such as swords, pistols, axes, varieties of shotguns and machine guns,
rocket launchers, chainsaws and flame-throwers. Also part of the Hunter
armory is the magical attacks known as Edges, (again some are restricted
to a particular character) which can be strengthened with experience and
is tracked along with your health (which can be restored with the red
orbs left after defeating an enemy). If you have enough magic energy
(restored with the blue orbs), you can use the Edges for their
particular purpose. Rejuvenate, one of the best Edges, can refill your
health meter. Others such as Cleave temporarily charge up a weapon,
while still others like Smite, are damaging energy bursts.
Visually, the game is definitely dark and gothic and extremely bloody as
you would expect (although those with squeamish stomachs can turn off
the blood spouting if they need to). H:TR’s creatures and characters
have a high-quality and gruesomely wonderful definition to them.
However, you sense that they could have been even sharper with the power
of the Xbox hardware behind them. Many of the enemies you battle are
huge, too, especially the “boss” characters. Check out the giant killer
stuffing-puking Teddy Bear (yeah, that’s right, I said a Teddy Bear, one
of the scariest kid’s-toy-turned-into- possessed-killing-creatures I’ve
ever seen) and Arkady in his werewolf form, both dwarf your Hunter
character in comparison which adds to the highly tense sensation of
danger you can’t help but feel. One graphical feature that does get the
power of the Xbox behind it is the lighting effects, everywhere from
weapons fire (fiery flame-throwers) to the scant amount of working
electrical lights scattered throughout Ashcroft and the prison. This
sweet effect is most evident in the electric-blue ghostly apparitions
that you run into in the game’s latter stages. One unfortunate aspect of
the gothic darkness that envelopes most of H:TR’s levels is that it is
too inky in areas, which may cause you to miss seeing innocents that
need rescuing or extra weapons. Two places that this becomes frustrating
in is a level that you need to free the spirits of skeletal remains, and
in the final battle of the game, where it is difficult to navigate
because it's too damn dark!
Control schematics of H:TR are for the most part comfortably executed,
particularly when it comes to shooting enemies with Robotron-style
options. That is, you can shoot in a different direction than where you
may be running. So, you can shoot pursuing enemies while fleeing in the
exact opposite way. The ease of jumping, which comes in handy as an
escape strategy, also allows for some smooth fighting techniques. But
the collision detection of H:TR could have used more work. One example
that immediately comes to mind is in the church, where the game can seem
to construct an invisible barrier wall around certain points, like the
steps leading to the organ that you would logically THINK you could
climb (and you eventually can after moving around like a madman to find
the right spot) but regularly cannot, giving the killer Teddy Bear
another unnecessary advantage over your Hunter.
The above-all worst feature of H:TR is the camera that follows the game
action, which is atrocious and unforgivable on occasion. What’s worse is
that you cannot change from the default camera at all, although you can
zoom in and out on the fly if you so desire. There are instances when
you will be fighting enemies where the camera doesn’t compensate for
your character being placed in a non-viewable location, such as behind
the mausoleums in the cemetery. It can lead to some unneeded hero
casualties. The most absolutely awful camera functioning takes place in
the last level of the game as you attempt to annihilate the head
vampire, the former prison warden. The camera provides enough
frustration at points that you’ll want to hurl your controller at the TV
(the only restraint I had from tossing my Xbox controller was realizing
is would cost $40 bucks to replace it).
Creepy crawly sounds that fill H:TR can absolutely send shivers down
your spine. Repulsive and frightening groans can be heard coming from
somewhere in the not-too-distant confines, and the climatic
techno-sounding tunage that blasts when you hit a large jackpot of
attacking enemies raises H:TR’s fright-meter to the max. There are some
good RE-style scare moments during the game. Many times you’ll get an
unexpected “introduction” to frightening enemies like the gargoyles who
pounce down from the sky, or the tough vampirettes that attack in the
same manner, which rivals the mutated dogs bursting through the window
in the original RE. A seemingly endless wave of vampires, zombies,
ghosts, mutated abominations, werewolves and other undead creatures of
the night keep your trigger finger very happy. It feels like you were
dropped in the middle of a Night of the Living Dead movie. There are
times when it literally appears that 30 individual enemies are on-screen
at once, which sometimes leads to losing track of where your character
is in relation to everybody else, definitely not a good situation to be
in if you want to survive. (This happens more often during multiplayer.)
This game is HARD, especially in multiplayer mode, which you would think
would be much easier with up to three additional teammates. But actually
it’s the exact opposite. Even though H:TR's gameplay really shines
brightest in its multiplayer, the game can almost be a downright
impossible challenge when you partake in a group mission. I guess the
developers figured they would pump up the game’s AI and difficulty to
compensate for the additional players, but they went a tad overboard.
One minor problem is when multiplayer characters get separated on
opposite sides of the on-screen map. While one or more characters are
fighting on one side of the screen, others could be impeded from going
either forward or backward because they need the other characters to
move first before they can continue. At times off-screen enemies can be
pummeling you because you are unable to move due to the above-mentioned
problem. It also doesn’t help that there are too few power-ups and extra
weapons lying around to restock your individual arsenal. This all too
often leads to a “Lord of the Flies” every-man-or-woman-for-themselves
mentality when teamwork is a necessity to wipe out the evil creatures
that oppose your forces. One extra that adds to the collective fortunes
of all players is the additional reserve lives that can be attained by
rescuing the town’s innocents trapped in and around the prison. No
matter who “saves” the innocent, it adds to the team total of extra
lives, and can be used by any expired teammates until they are
exhausted.
Due to the customarily slow industry-wide late spring dearth of
available new releases, Xbox owners don’t have many high-quality titles
to choose from besides H:TR and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind to fill
their gaming jones. Fortunately, both games are excellent. Maybe RPG’s
aren’t your thing and you’re feeling jealous of the GameCube exclusivity
of RE. Then go out and pick up a copy of H:TR, which despite some
issues, remains a solid Xbox gaming selection. If its good single-player
action doesn’t get you addicted, then the excellent multiplayer romp
definitely will.
