Hunter the Reckoning Xbox Review

When I received this game I thought it was going to be like Resident Evil which has been a very successful series of games on many platforms. Although the story line of zombies and creatures from hell are very like the Resident Evil games. This game has something different. All out carnage.

Rather then exploring a house, or scenes of pre-rendered backdrops. You are treated to Xbox glorified 3D scenes with reflections, rippling water and all manner of Xbox goodness. The idea of finding keys is here, but rather then searching and getting bored of it all. The elusive key is found by destroying a creature that is holding it, and destroy you will.

Wave after wave of monster will come at you from all directions and with limited weapons on your person you are resorted to scrambling for your life aiming a hopefully good shot at the enemy to slow them down as you look for something better.

At the start of the game comes the character selection screen where you have the choice of 4 people. Two women and two men. All who have very different occupations but share the same fate.

The story starts with this guy being put to the electric chair and after this all hell brakes loose….. literally…. Out of all the people in the building only a few survive and this is where the four characters come into it. You see these braincases thought that blocking off the main entrance would keep all the nastiness locked inside and for a while it did, but one year later some silly teenagers held a rave up there and now the monsters and all the rest of the hideous creatures want revenge on everybody.

So the four characters that initially locked up the main entrance now have to begin the task of saving everybody in the city, and to make it worse the only way of escape from the city is to take a train which has crashed and blocked off the exit. So as you manically go round shooting these strange creatures and also you have the task of saving people and sending them back to repair the train. If life wasn’t hard enough.

So back to the graphics and they are just plain gorgeous. Even from your view of the player and the things you are trying to kill which is quite high up, the level of detail is very impressive and certainly makes good use of the Xbox power and capabilities. Explosions, reflections and all manner of effects are present and look wonderful when you are blasting your way through the levels. The detail on the characters and monsters are equally as impressive as the surrounding elements.

The levels themselves are quite long and entertaining if a little repetitive, but thankfully we have a nice multiplayer mode which doesn’t need split screen so all players are on 1 screen at the same time which makes the game much more fun then on your own. The only downside here is that if one player wants to go up the screen and the other in another direction you will find your players running on the spot as you must all be heading in the same direction, which is fine but make sure you play with mates who follow your lead.

Your characters all have a simple weapon with unlimited ammo (although you have to reload quite often) and a hand held weapon like an axe or knifes depending on which character you choose. These will have to be worked out carefully and soon enough you will realise that some enemies require certain attacks to get the most effective kills. This is fine when you are only with a few enemies on screen, but when you have many more your only option is to run like hell and shoot from a distance which makes for great fun.

Unfortunately for the player all the good weapons have limited ammo so tactics is everything to get the most out of your arsenal. Oh yes and of course you have lovely little powers called Glyphs.

Glyphs are basically short bursts of power ups that can provide your character with extra health, faster speed or even an impressive attack for when things get to much for you alone. Many more can be earned throughout the game.

So with shotguns, chainsaws and glyphs, what effect does this have on the enemy. Well pretty destructive if used correctly. Arms, legs and heads come off and fly all over the place which makes for good fun, but be warned. Even a creature with no head, no arms and in fact no upper body can still give you a swift kick if allowed.

Conclusion

Hell is here, but strangely in a good way, for its on Xbox. Powering to the Xbox this game has more creatures coming at you then Resident Evil ever had. A good romp through of a game and a good solid purchase in any collection who likes the more sinister games.

[xrr rating=4/5]