Monster Hunter Freedom 2 Hands-on

via ign

After an hour of gameplay, it was clear that I'm a crappy monster hunter. The dragon-like creature called a Rathian leveled me with its tail, I couldn't scale a snowy cliff and my arrows did little to stop the Teostra from running me over at Capcom's Spring Gamer's Day in downtown San Francisco.

Monster Hunter Freedom 2, the sequel to last year's PSP hit, gave the ravenous public three four-player quests to hack though last night with Viking-looking guys packing enormous blades, a bow-hunting femme fatale and more.

I joined three other terrible monster hunters on the "Mountain" quest.



Nice doggy. Maybe I got a Milk-Bone.The level opened at our team's camp in the middle of the wilderness. We loaded up on supplies such as healing potions and exploding barrels and set out into the snowy landscape to find a giant Blangonga -- some sick lovechild of a yeti and a baboon. Armed and confident, the group stomped across the quest's eight-part map, battled moose-looking creatures and ran through ice caverns as we moved closer and closer to the blip on our small map that signified our foe.

He was 15 feet tall if he was an inch, I tell you! Enormous tusks, fur the kind of white that makes you think of the nothingness of death, and dark, deep eyes that meant he'd seen hell and wanted to show us, too.

Many of my guild-mates knew what it was like to be roasted in the belly of a Blangonga that day, my friend. I gave it my best as I hacked and clawed at the beast's limbs, but he just laughed and charged at me. I awoke on a medical cart that dropped me back at our camp. I tried to make it back to the frontlines, but time expired.

We failed. The Blangonga lived.

Just like the original, Monster Hunter Freedom 2 is an RPG to itself. Your character won't level up. Instead, you'll get better gear and a better understanding of how to play as you tackle the more than 350 missions on the UMD and brawl with the more than 700 weapons and 1,400 pieces of armor. Still not impressed? Capcom said Monster Hunter Freedom 2 is twice as big as the original PSP game and will feature downloadable quests through infrastructure mode to keep you busy after the initial batches of missions are done.

Multiplayer quests -- like the handful I bombed last night -- will be ad hoc only. To initiate the quests, you'll enter the guild hall, meet up with your crew and their created characters and head off to battle one of 60 monsters in the game.

Sharpen your blade, Monster Hunter Freedom 2 is scheduled to hit PSPs in September.

This keeps sounding better and better. Downloadable content is great but it sounds like this may be another lost opportunity to have an incredibly in depth infrastructure MMORPG on the PSP.

It would be great to be able to tap into an infrastructure lounge and connect with other players around the world or even around your particular region i.e. North America, Europe, Asia, etc.

With headset support this game could have some incredible social possibilities.

Enough people have broadband or access to hotspots these days and wireless access points are easy to set up that I'm really sad that developers have not created more social networking type games for the PSP.

i cant wait! this sold like 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000 copys in japan so im gonna get

Cant wait for this installment of the great series.

I've logged about 300 hours on this game so far. I've completed every guild mission and every single player except the 2 Rajans at the end of the single player missions. (I just got some new swords that may do the trick though)

I can say that this is by far the best game on PSP. No other game has replay value quite like this game.

While I have accomplished a great deal in the game, my native Japanese friends have managed to complete more and do it much quicker. So if you don't understand Japanese at all, I suggest waiting for the English version before making any judgements. Not understanding the game and playing the introductory levels can be very discouraging.

If you do eventually get to play the game, let me give some very important advice. Do NOT give up before putting in at least 5-10 hours of play. This game depends on your skill and knowledge of the monsters more than anything else, and when you first start, regardless of how many other games you've played, you know very little about the world of Monster Hunter.

HIGHLY recommended!!

Also, check out Kai for online multiplayer. Couple that with Skype and you've got everything you need for online play.

in your sig it says your psp is 0.25? wtf the first firmware was 1.0
edit: 8.12 oe-z? ok i see its a joke now