A new game from Niantic has hit the market. The creators of Ingress and Pokemon Go have, in my opinion, done it again.
Based off the same platform as Ingress and Pokemon Go, Monster Hunter Now is a location based mobile game that you can play alone or with others.
Now I have heard of the Monster Hunter series in the past. Truthfully it was on my list of games to check out one day, I just haven’t gotten to it yet. What I wasn’t aware of was just how well this game could be converted into a mobile game as well.
Multiplayer
Capcom was brilliant in getting into the augmented reality gaming world. Monster Hunter lends itself perfectly to a location based game while being fun to play solo or with others. I’ve been finding myself introducing as many people as I can into the game so that we’ll be able to battle together when I’m stuck on a monster. With the ability to have up to three friends battling with you, difficult monsters become a walk in the park.
One thing that I am actually a fan of, but can be a hinderance. You can only join up with people who are near you. There is no long distance joining of battles. Forcing people to get together, or giving a reason to be excited to see co-workers, isn’t a bad thing and gives a nice aspect to the game for those who utilize it.
Battles
Battles are an easy one to jump into at any point.
There are a lot of different monster types in the game. They’ve done a wonderful job of slowly introducing more to you as you level up. Different types of monsters will unlock more equipment as well, but we’ll get into that in a sec.
Each monster that appears has a difficulty rating tied to it. Some are so easy that you can take them out with a couple swings. These one do give some materials but not any that I have bothered to take note of. What they are good for is charging up your special meter before attacking a more difficult monster.
Along with the new types of monsters that are being unlocked as you level up, there are also higher level monsters to deal with. This was introduced very well. There was never a point where I felt like it was absolutely impossible to take something down. Just that maybe I needed to upgrade equipment more or time my attacks better. Or get more weapons that match the enemies weakness. Due to the slow increase in enemies levels you really have to time to practice all that stuff. Whether it’s figuring out your own fighting style or building your arsenal of weapon types.
Blocking and Dodging
Two vital skills in battles are blocking and dodging attacks.
Not all weapons give you the ability to block attacks. Blocking is done by long pressing on the screen but you’ll quickly figure out which weapons allow for it and which ones do something else when long pressed. (Hint: shields are good for blocking).
Blocking does help you to avoid taking massive amounts of damage from a hit but won’t take that dame down to zero. Great for when you don’t have time to make a move out of there but not really your best option. Done perfectly it can give some bonuses to your next attack as well. Easier to pull off than dodging but decreased benefits as well.
The only thing better than a perfect blocked attack is not getting hit at all.
Dodging is a simple idea that takes a fair amount of time to get good at. Each monster has different attacks and each attack has a different attack area. While monster do glow red before they attack, it still comes down to a lot of trial and error before you learn what you should do in that moment. Once you get a handle on it there are two major benefits to dodging attacks:
One. When you successfully dodge an attack, you aren’t getting hit. Simple. No damage to take. No stunned effects or knockdowns to recover from. Nothing. You simply jump back into the fray and keep hacking away.
Two. Perfectly timed dodges give you a bonus based on the weapon you are using. It could be that your next blow deals massive damage or that you clip is instantly reloaded. Coupled with the other benefits of dodging it could easily mean the difference between getting killed or walking away the victor.
Inventory
There is a massive amount of inventory for Monster Hunter Now. From Weapons to armor is enough to keep you busy on its own. Once you start thinking about your inventory of monster parts as well it is insane. The one good thing in terms of monster parts is that you get what you get. There is really no point in worrying about that too much because you can’t control what you’re going to run into anyway. Unlike other versions of Monster Hunter, in the mobile game you are not able to really go hunting for something specific. It’ll show up eventually but think of that aspect as more of an AFK game design.
That being said, it would be a nice feature if you could select that the few monsters that get “paintballed” for you to attack later were a certain type if seen. It would increase the likelihood of you getting a part that you’re after with the possible trade off that you just won’t get anything at all.
As for weapons you’ll have to put some more effort in here. Each monster has certain types of damage that it is vulnerable to. Not a weapon type but something more like “water” or “poison” as a weakness. What this means is that you’re going to have to craft a lot of weapons. Whether you want to stay all in the same weapon type or spread it across a lot of different one is up to you. It is necessary to get ahold of all types in the long run to have any chance of taking everything on.
Overall.
I have put a lot of hours into Monster Hunter over the last few months. There is one thing that I gotta say I was surprised about. I want to go back to Pokemon Go. Not that there is anything wrong with Monster Hunter. I just didn’t get into it nearly as much as I thought I would. The two biggest things being: I never played any of the other Monster Hunter Games and, It is tougher to play while walking the dogs.
In regards to the second point, being harder to play while walking the dogs. What I mean there is that each large monster that I encounter I must fully stop to battle. With the addition of blocking and dodging, I can’t also be walking in real life. Pokemon Go on the other hand, I can continue to throw poke balls in relative safety while still walking along.
I have shared this game with a number of people as well as having it shared with me initially. The key thing I have noticed is that people who have played the original Monster Hunter games are a lot more into it than those who haven’t. Nostalgia can do a lot for a game.
I’ll check back in sometime in the future with this game. If I notice any major change I’ll update this review too. Because lets all remember, Pokemon Go was kinda garbage in the beginning too.
Update: After having spent some time playing this game I started to realize that I was forcing myself to load it up over pokemon. Not a fault on Monster Hunter but personally I think I’ll just go back to Pokemon Go. I can’t really get invested into both and Pokemon go appeals to me a lot more, especially while walking the dogs.
