Hunter: The Reckoning Wayward
We reckon it's crap.
Published: November 25, 2003
Once upon a time, a simple hack and slash game could reel in the masses like crazy. Mention something like Gauntlet - an endless sea of enemies to button mash through until there is blissful calm for a few seconds -- to an old school gamer, and watch their face light up and glaze over as they slowly trip down memory lane to a time when you didn't need a story or complex characters or fancy graphics to have fun in an arcade.
But, much like those arcades of yore, the mindless button mash is a dying breed, trampled under the eternal march of technology. There are times when I can take comfort in games without any real overarching plot or massive epic story, but those times usually come a quarter at a time (or, these days two or three), not $50 a pop. Hunter: The Reckoning Wayward tries hard to bring the mythology of the White Wolf universe to the PS2 after a successful run on the Xbox, but unfortunately these days, endless hordes that fall to melee combat and a few rounds from a chosen weapon just don't have legs if they're not accompanied by some kind of presentation, and with all the richness of the White Wolf background, it's a shame that there isn't more of a real story taking place in Wayward.
Sure, there's a story, at least in the beginning, but it's rather nebulous at best and doesn't really get added to much through the whole game. For those that need to catch up on the entire Hunter mythos, we'll make it easy. Originally, the town of Ashcroft and its resident penitentiary were overrun by sprits after the execution of a man named Nathaniel Arkady. Four people that witnessed the execution and resulting outpouring of things that go bump in the night were forever changed. Given unique gifts akin to their respective destinies, the four became Hunters and managed to lock the evil inside the prison, where they thought things would lay quiet. Even a rave held in the courtyard on the anniversary of Arkady's execution, and the obvious reawakening of evil that would come about from something like that was quelled.
Two years have passed, and two new Hunters, aware of a cult springing up in Ashcroft, visited the city, sending a mysterious message to the four original Hunters, then promptly disappeared. Thus, a new Hunter game is born, and another sea of baddies to buck and chop. The setup (essentially what you read in this last paragraph), is about all you get to get things going in the game, told through a nicely done CG sequence. However, as quickly as the presentation ramps up, it falls apart at the hands of the succeeding gameplay.
Wayward is a hack and slash in the very sense of the word. Each of the four characters have different stats, with three weighted towards speed, strength or conviction (read: special abilities), and a fourth that's a bit more balanced overall. All characters have either a melee attack consisting of some form of blade, and a projectile weapon (pistol, crossbow, shotgun, etc.) that they can use by default, but they can pick up weapons scattered around the various sections of Ashcroft as well. You'll make ample use of both, blasting and slashing through the undead hordes ad nauseum until you manage to get to the next bit of CG to move the story along.
The game's reliance on backtracking to some levels for items and the endless game of taking down swarms of enemies with limited ammo is its downfall. While it's entertaining enough at the beginning, and leveling up keeps things advancing a bit character- and ability-wise, it only holds up for so long before the endless cycle of blasting baddies and fetching items gets to you. If there had been more of a story - or even some voice acting to spice up the repetitive levels and looped ambient music, it might have made things last, but unfortunately Wayward gets hold long before it's over. There are times when the game tries to deviate from this pattern, such as when you have to defend characters from swarms of enemies or a sniper hell-bent on taking people out, as well as the occasional (and often difficult) boss fight, but they can't distract from what you almost instantly go back to doing for the rest of the 80% of the game. Even the ability to run through everything in co-op mode doesn't really do too much to keep things interesting. Sure, you get experience faster and levels are a bit easier, but it's still the same tired sequence for the most part.
Ever since the ultra-talented artists at Snowblind studios made top down tile-based levels pretty and fun again, developers have been retrying the approach when it comes to level design. After all, levels made from repeating pieces are easy on load times and don't take up too much of the PlayStation 2's valuable memory. The difference lies in making sure the game is varied and uses those templates to maximum effect. Wayward falters on this too, stringing together small levels that repeat the same basic sets of wall texture, cell, window, breakable object, etc. until you've seen things 50 times by the end of a single level.
The texture detail that's there is decent enough, though pulling the camera in (as is often the case in more confined levels) shows things don't hold up too well when zoomed in. Collision problems mean enemies can regularly emerge from walls or solid stone objects as if they were vapor, and combos often don't connect with enemies that are literally touching the player. Add to this the fact that there were more than a few occasions when the engine choked while rendering both seas of enemies and seemingly nothing at all beyond the level. While the graphics are pretty enough upon first inspection, with nicely detailed animations and decent detail, longer looks reveal more and more areas that could've used more work.
Oddly enough, the audio in the game is nearly flawless. Better-than-average acting aside, things are crisp, clean and wonderfully detailed. Imagine my surprise when I heard tools bouncing around in a toolbox as a girl ran around early in the game. The same attention to detail seems ladled on a couple of the non-player characters in the game, and it adds a great sense of depth to what's on screen. Ambient, moody tracks with muffled moans and the occasional note or two are punctuated by the music kicking into a more driving percussion and guitar track, then segues more or less seamlessly back into a few notes, then fades back into the usual ambient notes.
Fans of the first Hunter game will probably dig Wayward, since it manages to hold true to a lot of the action that was in the first game, but a very basic story setup and unfriendliness to anyone not schooled in White Wolf's World of Darkness universe mean the game is easy to pick up, but there's little to suck the player into the whole world. Rent if you must, but otherwise spend your money elsewhere.
But, much like those arcades of yore, the mindless button mash is a dying breed, trampled under the eternal march of technology. There are times when I can take comfort in games without any real overarching plot or massive epic story, but those times usually come a quarter at a time (or, these days two or three), not $50 a pop. Hunter: The Reckoning Wayward tries hard to bring the mythology of the White Wolf universe to the PS2 after a successful run on the Xbox, but unfortunately these days, endless hordes that fall to melee combat and a few rounds from a chosen weapon just don't have legs if they're not accompanied by some kind of presentation, and with all the richness of the White Wolf background, it's a shame that there isn't more of a real story taking place in Wayward.
Sure, there's a story, at least in the beginning, but it's rather nebulous at best and doesn't really get added to much through the whole game. For those that need to catch up on the entire Hunter mythos, we'll make it easy. Originally, the town of Ashcroft and its resident penitentiary were overrun by sprits after the execution of a man named Nathaniel Arkady. Four people that witnessed the execution and resulting outpouring of things that go bump in the night were forever changed. Given unique gifts akin to their respective destinies, the four became Hunters and managed to lock the evil inside the prison, where they thought things would lay quiet. Even a rave held in the courtyard on the anniversary of Arkady's execution, and the obvious reawakening of evil that would come about from something like that was quelled.
Two years have passed, and two new Hunters, aware of a cult springing up in Ashcroft, visited the city, sending a mysterious message to the four original Hunters, then promptly disappeared. Thus, a new Hunter game is born, and another sea of baddies to buck and chop. The setup (essentially what you read in this last paragraph), is about all you get to get things going in the game, told through a nicely done CG sequence. However, as quickly as the presentation ramps up, it falls apart at the hands of the succeeding gameplay.
Wayward is a hack and slash in the very sense of the word. Each of the four characters have different stats, with three weighted towards speed, strength or conviction (read: special abilities), and a fourth that's a bit more balanced overall. All characters have either a melee attack consisting of some form of blade, and a projectile weapon (pistol, crossbow, shotgun, etc.) that they can use by default, but they can pick up weapons scattered around the various sections of Ashcroft as well. You'll make ample use of both, blasting and slashing through the undead hordes ad nauseum until you manage to get to the next bit of CG to move the story along.
The game's reliance on backtracking to some levels for items and the endless game of taking down swarms of enemies with limited ammo is its downfall. While it's entertaining enough at the beginning, and leveling up keeps things advancing a bit character- and ability-wise, it only holds up for so long before the endless cycle of blasting baddies and fetching items gets to you. If there had been more of a story - or even some voice acting to spice up the repetitive levels and looped ambient music, it might have made things last, but unfortunately Wayward gets hold long before it's over. There are times when the game tries to deviate from this pattern, such as when you have to defend characters from swarms of enemies or a sniper hell-bent on taking people out, as well as the occasional (and often difficult) boss fight, but they can't distract from what you almost instantly go back to doing for the rest of the 80% of the game. Even the ability to run through everything in co-op mode doesn't really do too much to keep things interesting. Sure, you get experience faster and levels are a bit easier, but it's still the same tired sequence for the most part.
Ever since the ultra-talented artists at Snowblind studios made top down tile-based levels pretty and fun again, developers have been retrying the approach when it comes to level design. After all, levels made from repeating pieces are easy on load times and don't take up too much of the PlayStation 2's valuable memory. The difference lies in making sure the game is varied and uses those templates to maximum effect. Wayward falters on this too, stringing together small levels that repeat the same basic sets of wall texture, cell, window, breakable object, etc. until you've seen things 50 times by the end of a single level.
The texture detail that's there is decent enough, though pulling the camera in (as is often the case in more confined levels) shows things don't hold up too well when zoomed in. Collision problems mean enemies can regularly emerge from walls or solid stone objects as if they were vapor, and combos often don't connect with enemies that are literally touching the player. Add to this the fact that there were more than a few occasions when the engine choked while rendering both seas of enemies and seemingly nothing at all beyond the level. While the graphics are pretty enough upon first inspection, with nicely detailed animations and decent detail, longer looks reveal more and more areas that could've used more work.
Oddly enough, the audio in the game is nearly flawless. Better-than-average acting aside, things are crisp, clean and wonderfully detailed. Imagine my surprise when I heard tools bouncing around in a toolbox as a girl ran around early in the game. The same attention to detail seems ladled on a couple of the non-player characters in the game, and it adds a great sense of depth to what's on screen. Ambient, moody tracks with muffled moans and the occasional note or two are punctuated by the music kicking into a more driving percussion and guitar track, then segues more or less seamlessly back into a few notes, then fades back into the usual ambient notes.
Fans of the first Hunter game will probably dig Wayward, since it manages to hold true to a lot of the action that was in the first game, but a very basic story setup and unfriendliness to anyone not schooled in White Wolf's World of Darkness universe mean the game is easy to pick up, but there's little to suck the player into the whole world. Rent if you must, but otherwise spend your money elsewhere.
