So, I finished Hunter: The Reckoning, and immediately moved on to Hunter: The Reckoning - Wayward. Which, as near as I can tell, came about because someone at Sony said, "Hey, we want a H:TR game, too!" So High Voltage said, "Uh, yeah, okay," slapped a new paint job on the original, and sent it to Sony. And yet, to continue my previous metaphor, it's like the original was painted a sickly greenish-yellow with some primer showing here and there, and the new one is a nice solid black with some cool flame graphics and such. All the levels except one(so far), are just levels from the first game, same layout, same enemy spawns, same ammo pickups. The characters are unchanged except for new outfits and one new Edge power each, although they did add a new character that you get about halfway through, and a couple of unlockable characters as well, although I haven't got those yet. Heck, they even have the same bosses, pretty much.
However, instead of being a completely linear exercise like the first one, this time out the game is mission-based, with you returning to "home" at the end of each level, and selecting where you want to go from there. At first, of course, there are only a couple of areas open to you, but each one you finish opens up a new area, some of which are completely optional. There are secrets and optional missions galore, actually, and a good helping of cheats, none of which you can use until you've finished the game once. Once you've completed an area, you can go back to it at any time, as often as you want. Well, for the most part. Some of the smaller areas close down completely once you've finished all of its missions and found all its secrets.
The game also lets you switch between Hunters at the beginning of each mission, and unlike in the first game, non-active Hunters get XP, too, at about 2/3 of the active Hunter's, so if you decide to switch or add in a friend, you're not completely screwed.
And the best part is the escort missions. Yeah, I know, I know, I hate escort missions, and I would actually prefer not to do these, but this time, the VIPs have a decent amount of health, and the first one has a gun that does decent damage and they both have melee weapons. You only need to worry about fast enemies and large swarms of them. It's like a balm to my soul after the hellish escort missions of past games.
Ut, time for work. Must hurry.
Posted by stirge at August 1, 2004 11:19 AM