Monster Hunters Assemble
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite might not be an entirely new game, but that doesn't stop it from rocking.
Published: June 28, 2009
It's actually rather interesting that more RPG elements have been injected into Unite, because the game isn't an RPG in the traditional sense. Rather than having the monsters serve as experience fodder, they're instead merely the source of spoils which can then be used in the game's extensive crafting system to make better equipment. The gear you wear and wield is your level, and in the case of the latter, it's also the determining class and type of character you have. In this sense, the game is incredibly flexible, and it's actually one of the biggest reasons why I got sucked into the series in the first place.
At first I missed the progression that comes with leveling up, but as I started consulting all those wikis and encyclopedias, it became clear just how much of a collaborative process these games are. It's completely unique among adventure games -- much less ones on the PSP -- and explains why the series has caught on in Japan where there's far more of a clustered, social attitude toward games.
Because of all the sharing of information about various missions, the game is a bit easier to get into now than it was when MHF2 hit, and that's a good thing. There thousands of weapons to find, make and, to an extent, trade, though harvesting materials is half the fun of the game. The missions are often in the order of 45 minutes or more of constant coordinated fights against smaller enemies (which are localized) and bigger ones (where everyone has to work together to thump on 'em), giving everything a sort of MMO raid-like quality. If you enjoy working with others, then bam, you're pretty much set here.
Being that this isn't a full upgrade, there are still issues with the camera in closer areas (a byproduct of not having a second analog stick, unfortunately), and it can make fighting bigger monsters a little rough at times, but by and large the game looks better than all but the biggest budget competition on the PSP. That means those monsters can be huge, and the sense of scale and breadth that the world of Monster Hunter affords is, frankly, amazing. The audio is also nicely atmospheric, and good enough that you'd want to throw on some headphones to get the whole experience.
Like the reviews of those other re-release games I talked about, making the recommendation of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is either insanely easy (provided you meet most of the criteria in this review; stuff like having friends or a way to tunnel or a PS3 and don't have MHF2) or far, far tougher (if you, say, do own MHF2 and realize I'm effectively paying the game lip service with my descriptions). If you loved the original enough to see the inherent value in having an AI companion while soloing early on, and can justify double-dipping for some new monsters, then you're set.
It's honestly something of a conundrum. How can the game gain any traction here in the US if it's not picked up by a bunch of people who are willing to go out of their way to either track down other people and play with them physically close by (not likely) or do the legwork to bypass the lack of Infrastructure (more likely, but not by much), but how can I recommend the game if it's going to be barely iterated upon instead of re-launching with a full, proper new experience that gets those that already played back in while introducing new players to the same world? In the end, I do think this is a great game, and one that all PSP owners should at least try, but only the hardcore crowd need double-dip.
