Monster Hunter Tri (3) is one of the Wii’s most anticipated releases for this year — selling over 500,000 copies on its launch week in Japan in 2009 — and promises to be one of the most visually stunning and satisfying Wii games. Judging from the free demo available at GameStop, how does Monster Hunter Tri hold up?
Let’s get it out of the way right now: Monster Hunter Tri is an amazing looking game, and not just by Wii standards. Textures are very detailed, lighting is great, framerate speed is flawless, and the world varies in color. Monsters are highly detailed along with character models, making for an all-around stunning visual package.
So, what is Monster Hunter? It isn’t your epic action-adventure Zelda title — though it is filled with epic battles — Monster Hunter Tri is a quest based action-adventure title in which players hunt different monsters in an open world. The monsters closely resemble dinosaurs and some are many times larger than the player’s character.
With that out of the way, we can get on to the demo. Right from the get-go a warning pops up informing players that there might be a few bugs here and there in the demo. The only bug I encountered was that the character can walk through defeated monsters.
You’ll be able to select from two control styles: Wii Remote and Nunchuck or Classic Controller. It’s all a personal preference, really; motion control for attacks can be toggled off or on if you prefer Wii Remote controls. I found the Classic Controller to be more engaging since the camera can be freely controlled via the right thumb stick instead of with the Wii Remote’s D-Pad.
In the full Monster Hunter Tri, character customization is a big part of the game play. Everything from weapons, armor and character appearance can be fully customized. Naturally, this isn’t the case in the demo: you’ll only be able to select from a few weapon types. These include basic sword and shield, great sword, bowgun, lance, and switch axe. My favorites were the basic sword/shield and the bowgun — the great sword and lance felt too slow — I preferred quick attacks on monsters as opposed to slower, more powerful attacks. The bowgun felt pretty rewarding, even though it has a high learning curve. With it you can snipe monsters from a distance, unfortunately without IR control. I tried sniping down a more aggressive monster, but it called a pack of smaller monsters that swarmed and killed me. It was pretty fun, though.
The demo offers two quests to complete, both with 20 minute time limits (you can replay them as many times as you wish). The first quest has you hunt an aggressive type monster and the second quest a flying monster. The monsters that you’re set to hunt will wander all over the world, but luckily their location will always appear on the on-screen map. The world itself is filled with a variety of monsters to hunt for the sheer fun of the kill; some monsters will run away from your attacks and others will fight back. At first I had some trouble taking down the more aggressive monsters — I relied on a strategy of attack and defend — then I discovered the character can perform an evasive dodge reminiscent of a barrel roll. This tactic proves dividends when combating faster monsters.
Combat isn’t sluggish but at the same time it isn’t as smooth as a 3D Zelda game. There isn’t a lock on system so you’ll be constantly moving the camera and centering it behind you with the L or Z buttons (depending on your control style). The biggest new game play aspect of Monster Hunter Tri is underwater battles, and the demo thankfully allows for underwater exploration. Combat under water is practically the same as on land, only you’ll be swimming around dodging attacks instead of rolling. Controls while swimming work as well as controls on land too; there was never an awkward moment while swimming around. Of course, the entire world in Monster Hunter Tri wasn’t open in the demo, most notably the sea side city was off limits. The game’s online multiplayer wasn’t available either. In the final Monster Hunter Tri, dedicated servers will be available for players to team up and take on quests without tedious friend codes and with WiiSpeak support.
From the demo, Monster Hunter Tri is looking to fulfill its promises and even take them a notch further. Expect a full review for the game on RoboAwesome when the title lands on NA store shelves April 20th. Until then, head over to your local GameStop and try out the demo for yourself.
