Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Unite is the fourth US release of the franchise, which is itself a translation of the Japanese Monster Hunter Portable 2 G, which was essentially an upgrade of the prior PSP Monster Hunter game, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite/Portable 2. Like the prior games, it’s about going out into the world and ending the lives of gigantic monsters you, by all rights, should be unable to take out. It allows you to go it alone or with friends while still staying incredibly challenging and incredibly rewarding if you can take on that challenge. Despite many similarities, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Unite is still unique enough to be worth a look even if you’ve played the last three US releases to death. Thanks to some rebalanced gear, a whole ton of added content, and a few little tweaks, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Unite is honestly the best game in the series so far, and one of the best games on the PSP to date.

Visually, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Unite is, as were its predecessors, one of the better looking games on the PSP. The character animations are fluid and feature large amounts of detail, the various monstrosities are appropriately awe inspiring and terrifying, and the game environments are lively and well-detailed. The new monsters are as epic and impressive as those that have come before, and the new armor and weapon designs are also quite nice looking. On the other hand, most of the content is repeated from Monster Hunter Freedom Unite 2, so a lot of what you’re seeing here was in that game as well, meaning that if you’ve played that, this will seem a good bit familiar.

The audio is also quite impressive, with some solid and well orchestrated musical tracks and some outstanding sound effects. The monster effects in particular are very powerful. Even from the smaller speakers on the PSP, when a monster discovers you for the first time, their powerful roar is something you’ll feel, thanks to the aural presentation. There’s also a smattering of voice acting here and there, though it’s mostly gibberish, and it sounds fine for what it is.

To be honest, though, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Unite is pretty much one of the best games available on the PSP. It’s absolutely the best version of Monster Hunter available in the US, and if you’re willing to devote some time and patience into learning the mechanics of the experience, it’s well worth the investment. The game is well presented in all respects, the gameplay is solid and satisfying, there’s a ton of content to see and lots to do, and there’s plenty of reasons to play and replay the game for hours upon hours. There’s something of a steep learning corve to the entire franchise, certainly, it can take a good amount of grinding to accomplish certain things, absolutely, the control mechanics can be odd for players to learn, definitely, and it’s depressing that this is more of an expansion pack than a full game and that there’s still no real online support for the game, without a doubt. This doesn’t change the fact that Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Unite is a fantastic game, if you’re willing to commit some time and patience to learning how it works, and anyone who has a PSP would be well served checking it out if they think they have what it takes to take on gigantic dragons and live to talk about it.

Get it now for US $ 27.99 (some saving inside!)

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Video games, PSP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.