Blog of the Green Mage

     Gametrailers just put up their video review on Monster Hunter Tri (3) today. For those wondering why I've singled out both the IGN and Gametrailers reviews, it's because these are my two main go-to sources for reviews on video games.  Whether I actually agree with the reviews and scores is another thing, but I always found both sites to be deep enough in their reviews about a game for me to understand how the game will feel and whether or not it will be worth a buy or not.  You will probably see future posts like these reporting on the release of IGN and GT reviews, but they will hopefully be in a single post or at least on the same day.  IGN's weird and incredibly early release of their Monster Hunter review kinda threw it off this time, but seeing how both sites usually release reviews on either the Friday or Monday before a game's release, it shouldn't be too hard to combine the two.

     Okay, so on to my own thoughts about the review.  Since GT focuses purely on video reviews with no regard to written reviews, it can be a bit harder for me to comment on them.  The game's large amount of content and how it will keep players occupied for around 30 hours alone in the offline mode alone was quite impressive in and of itself.  The GT review also commends the game for fixing the camera controls present in past iterations of the game, as well as the different control set-ups it allows people to choose from.  Again, GT says the Classic Controller "is where it's at," making me feel all the worse that I somehow feel more comfortable with the Wii-mote and Nunchuk controls.  Maybe that will change once I play the actual game with the Classic Controller Pro, but I have a feeling it won't.  Perhaps the biggest point GT went out of their way to make in the video review can be summed up by the sentence(s), "Listen well, Nintendo and other Wii developers: this is how you do online right."  GT calls MH3's online "unmatched on the platform," with four-player hunts, text and voice chat, lobbies, lack of Friend Codes, etc.  While this doesn't come as any surprise at all, it is nice to hear consistency between reviews on MH3's amazing online.

     Although there weren't many, GT still expanded upon some of the game's lower points, several of which were, once again, mostly aimed at players new to the franchise.  Despite the different control schemes, GT called them complex, with each set up requiring some time to get accustomed to before becoming efficient with it.  The review also lightly went over the game's visuals and feel, upholding the monsters' realistic animations and the atmospheric environments, while noting the constant frequency of load screens and how "Monster Hunter 3 looks good, but doesn't raise the visual bar."  GT also points out that this is a game based heavily on developing a strategy with each monster and having a sound plan before heading off into battle, warning that "...simply leaping before you look will result in your demise..."  As this will be the first Monster Hunter game for many, myself included, this is again the same warning IGN gave to newcomers who believe this is just another hack-and-slash game.  Seeing how the demo was available nearly a month before the actual game's release, I am hoping that this will be enough for people to understand just how the game's combat works, yet at the same time, I am kind of worried that the demo's main focus on combat might lead new hunters into mistaking this as all there is to the game, when in fact there are other things you will be required to do in the game, such as searching and gathering materials, quests that don't require hunting and killing, farming of  weapon materials by killing the same monster repeatedly, etc.  I bought (not beat) the original Monster Hunter game for the PS2 to somewhat better prepare myself for MH3's arrival, and if the game's beginning is anything like the original, I can already say that the first several quests could be quite a grind before the action begins to really pick up.  As GT says, "If you can't stand the grind, then Monster Hunter Tri probably isn't for you."