Monster Hunter Tri
Reviewed by BrunoBRS on Oct 02, 2010
Monster Hunter Tri is not a game for everyone. It's challenging, unforgiving and time consuming. It's as close to an MMORPG as the Wii will ever get, which means the focus of the game is grind, grind and grind some more. But for those who enjoy this kind of experience, there's no better game.
The premise is as simple as it can get: you're a hunter, go hunt something! In other words, you choose a quest, complete it, get materials to upgrade your gear and do more quests. It's a simple, but effective system. If you're playing offline on the single player mode, there's a story going on too, but nothing too intriguing.
So how does hunting work? After you choose a quest, which may or may not have optional subquests (that earn you extra rewards), you're teleported to the "base camp". There you'll find a box to deliver objectives (say, for example, some monster eggs), a box to get temporary supplies, and a bed where you can sleep to recover health or to end the quest by only completing the subquests (doing it this way will not count the quest as done).
There's a time limit to do the quest (usually 50 minutes), but most of the time, it's more than enough to gather some resources from mining spots, small monsters, etc, and do the quest.
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A hunter drooling at the scenario before going out on a quest
You navigate through various connected areas while questing, and changing areas means a loading screen. Now, don't panic, as the loading screens are so short they won't bother you, and they even give you a look at the map with your position, the position of your friends and even the controller's battery.
Once back from your quest, you can use the resources gathered to forge/upgrade your weapon/armor in order to become stronger (there isn't a levelling system in MHT) and take tougher quests. Repeat this ad infinitum and you got Monster Hunter in a nutshell. But Monster Hunter is more than a mere nutshell.
There are two big selling points in the Monster Hunter franchise: the heavy emphasis on cooperative gameplay and the feeling of fighting real, gigantic monsters, not as a god or a superhero, but as a human being with a brain as sharp as their blade.
The big monsters in the game act as you'd expect an animal to behave: aggressive once their territory has been invaded, running for shelter once weak, feeding on weaker animals when hungry... the list goes forever. When you fight a monster, you're supposed to do one of those things: merely killing it, or capturing. Sounds easy? Well it isn't.
First thing you'll realize in MHT is that you're human, and your foe is at least 3 times your size and strength. You can't just tackle it down. You have to learn its attack patterns, its behavior and use the chances you get to attack as well as possible, even if it is to heal or sharpen your blade. Because a real monster wouldn't stop and wait for you to eat your steak, it would use the chance to knock you down and finish you off. Also, the monster takes damage differently based on the attack (concussion or cut) and the area you hit. if you deal enough damage, you might even shatter or cut off a part of it.
Easier said than done.
Now the real challenge is in capturing. When you're hunting, all you need to know is that you win when the monster falls dead, but when you're in to capture, you have to worry about not damaging too much the monster. And how are you supposed to know when the monster's ready to be captured? When it's so weak it'll limp when trying to escape from you. After that, it's a matter of successfully setting a trap, making the monster fall on it and using tranquilizer bombs to knock it out.
The sense of achievement when you finally manage to defeat/capture a monster that's been a challenge to you for days is undescribable. I'm not one to react physically to a game, but after capturing the Lagiacrus for the first time, i caught myself screaming and jumping and punching the air as the "quest complete" screen appeared.
As mentioned before, on single player mode, you'll have a story going on. Not only that, but you'll have sidequests to do in order to upgrade the farm where you'll be able to cultivate from plants and mushrooms to bugs and honey, among other things. You can also trade commodities for supplies with the merchant ship captain, send the local sailors on sailing missions, or even run around a variation the first region of the game, where most of the monsters you spot in quests (even from other regions) will eventually appear.
But single player is but a mere portion of what the game has to offer. The real deal is the online mode. After connecting and transporting all of your offline data to the online world (the opposite is also valid, meaning you can use the same character and gear to play both online and offline), you choose between 4 servers, each with its own specifications. each server will have lots of cities (lobbies) from which you can choose a gate (the city itself). There's a limit of 4 players per gate, and these players can either quest together or separately.
Completing a quest online earns you points to increase your hunter rank, which eventually allows you to take harder quests online. But don't go thinking online quests are easier. Yes, there are 4 of you now, but the monsters also get four times stronger, to even out. And don't forget that the limit of 3 deaths per mission is shared by the whole team. To avoid this, you can either use preset messages, type with your analog stick and A button, use a USB keyboard or even wii speak, as long as the others also have it.
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Online MIGHT be SLIGHTlY easier, if you and your friends are skilled enough.
Adding friends is really easy too. there's a 6 character unique code for each hunter, but you can search for your friends by typing their hunters' names. Of course, there's the chance more than one person uses the same name, hence the importance of the code. As long as your friend is online, you'll be able to locate him, and by doing that, you can send a message (with or without a friend invitation) or even warp to their gate.
As for the connection, the game runs smooth 90% of the time, rarely showing lag or DC issues.
Another thing that is impossible to not mention when talking about Monster Hunter Tri is the graphics. They're by far the best seen on the wii, and, dare i say, even better than some early HD games. The water is clear, the textures never look pixelated, animations are great and natural, the lighting is good and the art direction is astonishing (look up in the sky at night and you'll see what i mean). It's nearly impossible to find a flaw on the graphics, and the ones that exist are small and common of every game.
The controls also work great, provided you have a hand big enough to reach the 1 and 2 butttons. [note: this part of the review was written taking the wii remote + nunchuk controls] There are 6 melee weapons and 1 ranged weapon, and each weapon has a different control scheme. Depending on which weapon you're using, the Z button can do anything from blocking to unleashing a special attack, and depending on how you twist the wiimote, you'll perform a different attack. You control the camera with the C button (to reset it behind the character) and the D-pad. Again, this configuration isn't uncomfortable, if you have big hands. A player with small hands would have a tough time having to be able to reach the D-pad, the A button, the B button (all at the same time) and having to quickly press 1 to use an item, or press + to draw/seathe the weapon.
The camera works perfectly most of the time, until you go underwater. to dive/emerge, you need to point the camera on the direction you want to swim, and this means not looking at the irate monster behind you. If it weren't by that, underwater camera would be great. It's also worth mentioning that, to use the Bowgun (the ranged weapon), you must hold Z to activate the aiming reticule and proceed to aim with the Dpad. While it sounds absurd at first that you don't use the IR pointer to aim, i've personally not only tested, but witnessed a player preferring it to the traditional way of playing shooters on the wii, meaning the awkward design choice works just fine.
Go ahead and stop looking at him if you dare.
Monster Hunter Tri is a unique game. A challenging action RPG game where strategy and micromanagement matters much more than mashing the attack button, with a huge focus on online multiplayer, a rewarding online system that works great and gorgeous graphics, all of it exclusive for the Wii. It's an awkward combination of qualities, and it's not surprising if you end up disliking it for one reason or another. But for those that love a challenge, love online gaming or want to try something different, Monster Hunter Tri is a great game, with the undenyable quality of bringing the thrilling sensation of being a true monster hunter.
Graphics - 10
Absolutely perfect. Nitpicking is possible, but if you look at what the game does with limited hardware and still complain, you'll probably regret later.
Absolutely perfect. Nitpicking is possible, but if you look at what the game does with limited hardware and still complain, you'll probably regret later.
Sound - 8.5
There's an orchestrated soundtrack for the bosses, but most of the time it's just the nature sounds. The reason behind the score lies on the sound effects, especially for the monsters.
There's an orchestrated soundtrack for the bosses, but most of the time it's just the nature sounds. The reason behind the score lies on the sound effects, especially for the monsters.
Gameplay - 9.7
Might not be the typical game everyone can enjoy, but then again, the game wasn't made with everyone in mind. If you give MHT to someone who likes grind-based games, that person won't find a single reason to complain.
Might not be the typical game everyone can enjoy, but then again, the game wasn't made with everyone in mind. If you give MHT to someone who likes grind-based games, that person won't find a single reason to complain.
Controls - 9.0
Could take a perfect score home, if it wasn't so complex and hard for people with small hands. The underwater camera didn't help much either.
Could take a perfect score home, if it wasn't so complex and hard for people with small hands. The underwater camera didn't help much either.
Replay Value - 10
a grind-based online game with more quests than you can count, event quests with exclusive weapons (read: free DLC) and battles that are still fun even after hours of gameplay.
a grind-based online game with more quests than you can count, event quests with exclusive weapons (read: free DLC) and battles that are still fun even after hours of gameplay.
Overall - 9.5
It does have some flaws, but those flaws are so small they don't damage the overall product too much.
It does have some flaws, but those flaws are so small they don't damage the overall product too much.
Subscriber, NoobFeed
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