User blog:MC707/Cnet Review Comment

I write this blog in the frustration of not being able to comment a review by CNet. The review is for MHF2, although most (if not all) points are the same for MHFU (correct me if I'm wrong), which is the first MH game that I've played (and that I am currently playin'). I want to tackle some points that make me sick about the review, and support other points which just make me nod in agreement (the former having more).

The Review
"'Like the previous PSP entry, the latest lacks a lock-on system, is afflicted with a terrible camera, and misses the Internet play that made Monster Hunter G so amenable.'"
 * I almost hit my face against my desk trying to nod in agreement. Despite many people putting excuses like using the index finger to move camera or something like that, lock-on is a must. I lost count of how many times I got my *** wiped trying to escape to heal myself only to feel two thousand pounds on top of my fainted body, or trying to evade one of those backjump-counter attacks that many monsters like Blangonga do.
 * Internet play only with PS3/wifi max? Thats playing dirty.

"'It also struggles under the weight of its content; the quests, rewards, weapons, and crafts are all out of sync, so you'll find yourself with a million items you don't need, and be forced to grind earlier quests for the few things that you do.'"
 * Yes, there is a steep learning curve. However, most items that the game gives me, I do use.
 * Yes, you are always forced to do earlier quests, though many are excusable because they are relatively fast to redo. However, I agree some are just plain abusive. For instance, many people can't play in the internet for obvious reasons nor have friends to play with, so some items like Asure LaoS horn are too damn long for a single playa to get in even a week.

"'It isn't all bad--the cooperative play returns, the environments look incredible, and there is a ton of content. But the overall game is unbelievably obtuse and frustrating.'"
 * Yes, environments are just plain f****** amazing (except when Rathalos falls off the cliff trying to attack you, therefore showing the skybox xD).
 * Well, the game is very frustrating at times indeed. But obtuse...? Naw.

"'At times, it gets so irritating it'll make you want to throw it off a cliff, which, fittingly, is how the game begins. Your character is in a snowy mountain pass, when a big dragon lunges down and triumphantly knocks him or her into oblivion. What a great start! You're rescued by suspiciously kind villagers, who nurse you back to health, train you, offer lots of advice, and even give you your own house. But there's nothing creepy going on, it's just a shabbily constructed excuse to get you hunting monsters, especially in light of the fact that falling is the one thing in the game that can never, ever hurt you.'"


 * Again, yes it gets very irritating at times.
 * Ummm it is a Wyvern if I am not mistaken, huh?
 * Uhhh yes, they are kind, nurse you back to health, train you, offer you lots of advice, and even give your own house. But no, its not a shabbily constructed excuse to get you hunting monsters. You see, you are not the average joe just walking around and suddendly becoming a hunter. You are actually going there with the mission of being the only hunter after the last hunter was injured to retirement! And they are not suspiciously kind, its just that people 3000 years ago were much better people than the average mother ****** of nowadays.

"'Hunter training, it turns out, is like a small version of the entire game. You run quests to learn the basics, as well as one for each weapon, and a few more on top of that. But in spite of the long list of training missions, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. The game throws 11 completely different weapons at you, as well as about a dozen different items, plus a phone book's worth of information on how to use it all. '"


 * Oh yes, this game is overwhelming indeed. Yet again, that is what makes this game so complete and never-ending (which I ******* love considering I already finished all of my PSP games and the only never-ending game I had left was Tekken, which sucks especially with godlike enemies in the highest ranks [this comment comes from me, a Dark Lord. It is the second best rank in the entire game]).


 * You don't swallow a phone book in a single day, don't you? Then don't try to swallow all that information in a single day. You can do like me: I began with a great sword, equally pissed off at the overwhelming quantity of information. Then I just slowly started opening to the Long Sword, then Lance, then Hammer, then Sword'n'Shield, then dual blades, then every weapon except for gun-type weapons (I don't like to complicate myself with ammunition and tons of upgrades and all those stats, plus getting gunner armor :S)

"'Slaying quests, on the other hand, ask you to kill a large number of relatively weaker enemies.'" Are Elder Dragons "relatively weaker"? Or is it that Elder Dragons only came with MHFU??

"'The objectives of these quests are also the stars of the series, including huge, frilled dinosaurs that fly and spit fire, big-assed baboon scorpion monsters, and the tyrannosaurus tiger bat creature that knocks you off the cliff in the beginning. All are impressive chimeras with tons of hit points and devastating attacks, but most have one weakness in common--getting stabbed in the posterior. By constantly circling your foes and hacking away at their behinds, you can avoid their devastating attacks while causing plenty of damage. '" I believe Blangongas jump backwards and with that they kick your ***, especially if you try to kill 'im with a Hammer... so don't generalise dude.

"'This leads to some truly horrifying battles, as it can literally take you a half an hour of butt-stabbing a monster to finally kill it. You should know, though, that this stratagem doesn't universally apply to all weapons in the game. If you wield the gunbow, for instance, you'll mostly run around taking potshots for an hour until the beast is felled by the 6,000th bullet. Or if you go with the giant hammer, you'll deal stunning blows to the head, and then hammer away.'" I agree, some monsters are stupidly long to kill. Just plain stupidly long.

"'While smacking your enemies in the noggin might sound more heroic than stabbing them in the butt, every approach has serious drawbacks that go beyond the boundaries of normal game balance. Indeed, combat tends to be awful in Freedom 2 no matter what weapon you wield. For one thing, you can't lock onto your enemies. For another, the camera is controlled with the D pad, so you can't move and adjust the camera at the same time. That's why running circles around an enemy while hacking at their shanks is one of the best options--it requires the least amount of camera adjustment. Watch out, though: If you enter a command during the wrong bit of animation, it won't execute. It isn't rare, for instance, to run up to an animal's tail end, hit the button to swing, and see your character just stand there. '" The only comment here is that attacking the monster's butt is not the only option. Many enemies flinch if hit in the face, y'know?

"'You'll need health potions to regain lost hit points, food to replenish stamina, whetstones to sharpen your blades, hot or cold drinks to protect you from various environmental conditions (if it's supercold, your stamina will quickly diminish without a hot toddy), traps to lay for the monsters, and stuff to throw at them while they're trapped. Some of this is provided for you at the start of a given quest, but at other times you'll realize, after 20 minutes of very dirty fighting, that your blade has dulled and you forgot to bring whetstones. Ouch.'" No comments here, except for the fact that there should be some sort of "Equipment Set", only that it would be for Items. How many times I have forgot about my energy drinks or the oh-so-hated cool and hot drinks.

"'While a dull blade might seem more painful in some ways than a sharp one, you'll have to head back to town for more whetstones if you ever want to kill anything. In town, you can either buy what you need (which is usually superexpensive), or craft it. But things aren't quite that simple. There are roughly a million crafting reagents in Freedom 2 that, when combined, will create another item. However, instead of recipes, all you have is a 160-entry list of combinations that details which items can be combined, but not what they make--that is, until you make one of them. So rather than knowing you want to make an item and gathering the ingredients, you have to blindly combine things until you stumble upon the item you were originally looking for.'"

C'mon, you don't have to blindly combine things. Stuff that cannot be combined is not shown, y'know? And once you have it, it is in your reference list. Plus, you usually need a VERY few ammount of items that need to be combined, like energy drinks, cool drinks and stuff like that, nothing else.

"'This is complicated in two ways. The most useful items are created by combining previously crafted items, so you have to literally find your way through a multilevel blind maze of unintuitive combinations before making anything useful. Furthermore, you store your items in a big box with room for 100 different things (though later it can be made to hold more), yet you can carry only 30 items in your inventory. Only items in your inventory can be combined, yet you need to try combining everything. So to work your way through the system, you have to constantly swap items in and out of your inventory, while inevitably losing track of it all. This may be the most obtuse crafting system ever. '" Is it only MHFU, or you can also combine stuff in the box in MHF2?

"'Speaking of the kingdom, or at least the world, the environmental graphics really got the royal treatment. The mountain lake is a serene pool that reflects the sky, while further up into the snowy heights, white wind swirls about your hunter, threatening a blizzard. Then there's the tropical jungle, surrounded by azure water and adorned with vivid rainbows. Sadly, these good looks come at a high price--Freedom 2's loading times are frequent and lengthy. You'll face a long loading time when you begin a quest, load every time you move from zone to zone within an area, and reload when you win or lose. With graphics, as with everything else, this game bites off more than it can chew. '"
 * Is it only MHFU, or you can do data install on MHF2 as well?
 * I'd say the only thing that annoys me regarding loading times, is the actual bootup of the darn game. From pressing the "UMD" button on the PSP menu, to spawning your character in the village, it is slow as hell dictates. And no, I am not using PSP phat. The thing is, that "Capcom" crap and all those other things just take too much damn time. Do I have to see that "Capcom" logo 30,000 times to know the game was made by Capcom? So yes, I have to resign to leave my PSP in sleep mode always (battery life anyone?).

"'This is Magilla Gorilla on drugs. Any questions?'" C'mon dude, don't take your *** beating personal. Plus I don't hate Congalala, he is seriously not as hateful as other monsters are.

"'It's easy to admire Monster Hunter Freedom 2's ambition--it has many of the ingredients of a good online RPG. But to handle all those disparate elements, you need a recipe for success, and that's something the game lacks. There's no coherent system or vision underneath all the quests, items, and monsters, and as a result the overall product is much less than the sum of its parts. While it certainly offers plenty of meat for those who decide to bag it, there is certainly better game elsewhere.'"

All in all, ignoring me throwing the UMD (and nearly the PSP) to the wall (xD), this is a darn good game. It has kept me hooked to it more than three months straight, so I can say I love the game, defects aside (I cannot say the same about certain monsters though...[cough] this goes to you blangonga, tigrex and fatalis [cough]...)

If you want to add something about the review or [gulp] my responses, just comment out.

-Regards