The World of Darkness.

Doesn’t sound like a very happy place, does it? There’s a good reason for that, and it’s because the World of Darkness, created by White Wolf Publishing, is a very twisted version of our own world. Just about every possible nightmare you could imagine exists in one fashion or the other, be it Vampires, Werewolves, or ghouls, and the bad news is that they’re all using humanity to meet their unholy ends.

The good news is that you’re now a Hunter, and kicking ass just so happens to be your newly imbued specialty.

As the sequel to the super fun, top-down hack ‘n slash Hunter: The Reckoning, Hunter: The Reckoning – Redeemer features more of the same.

A lot more.

And really, that’s what you should base your purchase on.

Yes, this is a sequel, and it does come with all of the standard sequel shininess like improved graphics, sound, and some enhanced gameplay, but all in all, this is pretty much just revisiting Ashcroft. It may be a different part of Ashcroft, and it may be ten years later, but it’s still Ashcroft.

Of course…this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

For those of you fresh to the two game series, let me explain.

Redeemer, like its predecessor, features some truly amazing graphics. The original looked good, but Redeemer looks even better. The water effects are still abit peculiar, as liquid will continue to behave more like Jell-O than water, but the lighting has been taken to the next level and looks absolutely fantastic. Falling snow looks great, and overall the player characters and NPCs look even better than the last game. Considering that the original Hunter was one of the prettiest games on the Xbox, that’s saying a lot.

Sound is slightly improved, still with great monster groans and moans, and the music is even better than before. The BGM is better placed with improved timing to ensure you won’t hear the most intense tunes until you’re knee deep in apparitions. More importantly, however, Redeemer features some absolutely wonderful voice acting. Each Hunter and many of the bosses you’ll face, and NPCs you’ll interact with, have a great voice actor behind them, which really adds to the experience. Although the character-specific cut scenes that we saw in the last game have unfortunately been eliminated, the overall quality of the Redeemer cut scenes makes up for it.

The gameplay is the most vastly improved area of Redeemer. The original Hunter featured great hack ‘n slash action that was a lot of fun, but was also somewhat shallow, being limited to only four or so attack combinations per Hunter. Redeemer does a great job of correcting this, now featuring several combos with different difficulty and damage potential for each. The number of special weapons has also been increased, with some particularly lethal additions like a High-Powered Rifle and, my favorite, the Chain Gun.

Unfortunately, difficulty is one area where Redeemer falls abit short. The original Hunter featured some of the most challenging four-player gameplay on the Xbox, and Redeemer…doesn’t. Gameplay actually gets easier with the more players you have. There really isn’t an increase in the number of attacking monsters, and the boss’ health doesn’t increase nearly as much as it did in the original to compensate for the increase in players. This can result in a very easy gaming experience, even on the harder difficulty settings. Depending on your personal preferences and gaming skills, however, this may or may not be a bad thing.

One of my favorite aspects to Redeemer is the improved storyline. Although this isn’t a Final Fantasy, it still has enough of a plot behind it to keep you interested. You’ll feel much more connected to the characters this time around, and if you played the previous Hunter you’re sure to get a good laugh out of some of the comments from the Hunters…especially Deuce.

There is one final thing to note about Redeemer, and that would be the great replay value. Downloadable Content aside, Redeemer features an all new level up system, where your combat style will affect your Hunter’s abilities. If you enjoy using your ranged weapon more than your melee weapon, then your Range level will increase as you shoot. The same goes for your Conviction, as using a lot of Edges will level up your Conviction level. The sweetest part about this is that after playing through the game once, you can save your Hunter to a memory card or the Xbox hard drive and replay the game with your previous statistics. Since you have five Hunters to choose from and countless unlockable characters as well, each with different abilities that can be improved, Redeemer’s replay value is high. With enough time and butt kicking, you can create a super-Hunter capable of destroying the most dangerous of the supernatural with only a few swipes of your sword. This can be extremely fun, especially if a particular monster in the first playthrough gave you a hard time.

Hunter: The Reckoning – Redeemer has improvements over the original, but also suffers from a few flaws that keep it from being amazing. Overall, with the new level building system and an even better version of the great gameplay from before, the latest installation in the Hunter series is well worth your money, especially with three friends alongside you.

Humanity has had enough, and we’re not gonna take it anymore. Prey for your life.

Pros:

• Great graphics.
  
• Awesome replayability.
  
• Addictive level building.
  

  Cons:
  

  • Not enough monsters attacking at once.
    
  • Decrease in difficulty.