| |
| Publisher: Interplay |
| Year released: 2002 |
| Genre: Action
Adventure |
| ESRB Rating:
Mature 17+ (blood and gore, violence) |
| Platforms: |
What to expect
Hunter is a relatively fun third-person shooter where human
vigilantes battle legions of undead. The different playable characters have
various strengths and special abilities that complement those of other
characters, enhancing multiplayer games. As the game progresses, players obtain
more weapons and skills. The graphics are dark and creepy and the overall
production is good. Unfortunately, the bosses are very tough to kill when only
one or two people are playing, and unless you save all “innocents” it is
quite likely that you will not win enough extra lives required to ever complete
the game, because saved games remember the number of lives you had left when you
saved. My wife and I gave up playing this game during the second boss battle.
What's good
 | There
are options to control the amount of blood displayed during gameplay and
whether players can inflict friendly fire on each other. |
| Interesting
control options that let you run in one direction and shoot in another. |
| The
different abilities of the characters encourage real teamwork. |
| Players
can restore health and mana by picking up little spheres that sometimes
appear where enemies are dispatched. If a player with full health or mana
touches the respective sphere, the sphere will not be consumed- leaving it
for players who need it. |
What's bad
| The
game is not well tuned for different numbers of players; it is significantly
harder for one or two players to get through than it is for four. |
| Bosses
are extremely hard to kill, requiring many hundreds of shots to take down.
This makes boss battles extremely tedious. |
| You
can only save your game after completing an entire level. There are no
mid-level checkpoints. |
| Saved
games also retain the number of lives each player had remaining at the time
of the save. When saved games are loaded, players only have that many lives
left until they save more “innocents,” who are often hidden in regular
levels and are not available during boss battles.
|
Multiplayer info
| Max. number of
players: 4 |
| Multiplayer format:
Simultaneous, single screen |
| Story mode in
multiplayer: yes |
| Save game in
multiplayer: yes |
| AI companion option:
no |
| What happens when
you die: Players start with 3 lives and can get more extra lives by
saving “innocents” in the game. If you have lives left after dying,
you can re-enter the game immediately. Game ends when all players’ lives
are expended. Note: Saving the
game also saves the number of lives you have left. So if all players only
have a single life when saving before entering a very tough boss battle,
they will continue to only have a single life remaining every time they
reload the game. |
Recommendation
Only buy this game if you plan to play with more than one
companion, you have the patience to examine every square inch of all levels, and
you don’t mind bosses that take over half and hour to kill.
Difficulty (from
Very Easy to Very Hard): Very Hard – The general gameplay is not too
difficult, but the boss battles are just idiotically tough for fewer than 3
people.
My rating (from
Very Bad to Very Good): Okay
You might like this game if you liked these:
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Gauntlet: Dark Legends |
