The sequel to Hunter The Reckoning, which could support up to four players on Xbox, this sequel was a PS2 exclusive that only supports two players. I got through it with a friend two decades ago, but this time I did it alone. And now I can’t believe I have two more of these games to play when I revisit all my Xbox games. Blech.
In this game you can pick your character, and each one has different strengths. I always go for the biggest, sleaziest looking guy in the bunch and just keep building up his skills, but occasionally you might need to switch characters for one whose skills better suit a particular challenge.
The game starts you with a training mission, where you learn to use the excessive number of buttons to push in different orders to fight, move, jump, shoot enemies, pick up items, change weapons, etc. In an effort to give you the freedom to move and fight at the same time, the game makes a mess of having you use the left stick to move while using the right stick to aim independently. The results are so sloppy that aiming and moving together become a horrible chore. You’ll mostly use melee weapons because you can just button mash to set off various combos. Firing weapons suffer from terrible aiming issues, and you end up wasting more ammo than actually hitting enemies.
There’s a third weapon in your arsenal, and it’s called Edging. Um, the edging I’m familiar with is a whole different ball game, so to speak. I didn’t quite understand these powers and so I didn’t bother to use them.
There are also lit symbols on the ground that serve various functions, and there are too many to memorize. Most important is the one that refills your health, although those have limited usage, so use them sparingly, and the ones that give you a power boost.
As you kill enemies, they drop various items, as well as red or blue orbs that supply you with health and edging power. You can also save cowering survivors when you come upon them, which earns you continues, which serve as extra lives and will be desperately needed during certain boss battles.
There are several annoying aspects to the controls. For instance, you have to go into the menu to look at maps when you find them. Also, to back out of the menu you use the triangle, except when you want to back out of the first menu you are brought to, then it’s the start button. Consistency matters. You also can’t reposition the camera behind you, which is frustrating when you suddenly find yourself running back towards the camera and can’t see what is ahead of you. You also have the ability to zoom in and out incrementally or fast using the up and down arrows, but why you would ever want to shrink your scope is beyond me.
The game plays very much like the various Evil Dead games, with you just running through locations while being swarmed by hordes of zombies and other enemies as you try to accomplish missions like collecting items or releasing spirits. It’s a very repetitive hack n slash experience, which is why it’s more fun with a friend. You can also do side missions at the same time, search for secrets in each level, and find survivors to rescue to gain continues. Saving only happens at the end of each level, so the goal is always to make it through a level without dying.
The game actually has built-in cheat options after you beat it once, and although they were unlocked in the “trophy room” in my character’s apartment thanks to my old save from years ago, I have no idea how to input the codes and get them to work. Extensive researching online turned up the same non-answer every time. Half the information said to enter codes (including a cheat enable code) in the cheat menu, which is totally nonexistent, and half the information said to enter the codes during gameplay, which had no effect other than to make my character do what he does during gameplay when you press each button.
You begin the game in your apartment and go to each level using a map on the wall. Initially they’re all locked so you have to play the game in order. Once you’ve opened each level, you can go back into missions to try to find secrets you may have missed the first time through. Other times going back to previous levels is required…not that the game tells you that, which is why you need to use a walkthrough, otherwise you’re be clicking on every location on the map for an information screen that tells you what goals await you in the locations.
The first level takes place on the street, and it is strictly a search and find mission. Aside from the zombies, there are these spider buggers that blow up right next to you if you don’t shoot them from afar, taking down your health. There’s also a brief boss of sorts right in the middle of the mission. You also find a map for this area, which helps.
You don’t find a map for the second area, which is a sprawling cemetery in which you have to find two tall tombstones to destroy, with an option to release some spirits from their corpses while you’re searching. Other than zombies coming out of the ground, you fight some ghosts and two living gargoyle statues.
There’s a very short church segment where you basically just have to fight some enemies, destroy things in the church to find secret items, and then rescue a survivor.
The subway part is annoying. You have to find a CD hidden somewhere in the vicinity then go down onto the train tracks to get to the end of the level. But a subway starts chasing you (you’re running towards the screen), and of course enemies get in your way to slow you down, including the exploding spiders. Argh! There are also some giant rats here, and this should have been the first place they appear, but you do meet them first in an earlier level.
In the catacombs you just have to run around and find five skeletons to release their spirits, which is a challenge because they tend to blend into the scenery.
Next you have to escort a character through the downtown area to get her to her shop safely. She can fight, but you definitely have to help or she will die (she has a life bar). The annoying thing is that she doesn’t just keep running. She stops and fights all enemies, so you constantly have to turn back to help her out, and the fact that she’s not leading the way to her own shop is kind of ridiculous. You’ll often get to corners and not be sure which way to turn. There is also a new enemy here…the good old zombie dog, and it’s fast. This is like a double mission, because after you get the character to safety, you have to go back into the level and find 12 pieces of silver before you can move on to the next level. And this time through there are zombies that shoot at you. Argh! But wait. There’s more. You can’t find all 12 pieces in this level, but the game doesn’t tell you that. You have to go through several previous levels, and you’ll know which ones by clicking on “info” on the map for each section, which will show you which levels now have an objective of finding silver. This is also your opportunity to complete some other optional objectives in each area if you’re a completist, like finding parts for a grenade launcher and fighting a boss in the church…trick is, you need to know that you have to play the organ twice to summon him, otherwise he doesn’t appear. In other words…you need a walkthrough.
Once you collect all the silver, prepare for the longest 90 seconds of your life. You have to protect the woman who is making silver bullets for you at her work table. Zombies come at her from three sides. Ugh. Be warned, her health bar goes down fast! Before you even go up to her when you enter the level, make sure to run around the edges of the room and collect all ammo and weapons you can. Once you approach her the fighting starts and you won’t have time to grab items that far away from her. Later in the game you have to do this challenge again, for two minutes, with more enemies, including shooters.
The next section is a boss fight in a cemetery arena…a werewolf. Unless you have dozens of continues, I don’t see how you’d ever beat this boss. He pounces on you relentlessly and you aren’t fast enough to run away from him to create distance to shoot at him. At the same time, there are regular enemies roaming around taking cheap shots at you as well. If there’s any part of the game that will make you want to quit, it’s this one.
In the midtown area, you once again have to escort someone to safety. Argh.
The next level is a mechanic shop, and now you have to contend with harder enemies that take more hits to die, fricking robots that shoot bullets and fire at you, and some canisters that explode when you break them, but seem to do more damage to you than to enemies. And that sucks, because you still get items and necessary items from breaking canisters, you just don’t know which ones are safe to smash and which aren’t. Plus, be warned that when the level begins you are immediately being shot at and hit by a robot that is right above you on a platform. What a scam.
In an annoying effort to extend the game, you next have to revisit midtown and then the mechanics shop to retrieve bus parts, which are located at the very end of the level in both cases. So you have to fight your way all the way through these levels just to get to the end to grab the bus part and complete the mission.
The third bus part is found after defeating this mechanical monster that swings at you, shoots at you, and hits you with ground shakes, all while the robot enemies are regenerating constantly and beating your ass as you try to struggle to stay standing with moving conveyor belts in the way. Ridiculous and not doable without a Codebreaker cheat system.
The prison is fun. First you have to fight off loads of enemies while entering various cells to save 9 innocents. This includes a bunch of guards with guns and new hanging ghosts. Next section is the prison yard. Again, there are more shooting guards, and now you have to find 5 switches to turn on plus find all the “totems”, which are these skeletal things that serve as respawn points for enemies. It’s so satisfying to be able to shut down the respawning for a change.
Up next is another boss battle that is a harsh reminder that boss battles used to be ridiculous. There’s a flying witch and her respawning minions who are all just shooting at your relentlessly from every angle, on and off screen and even though glass walls as you try to target the main witch specifically. I don’t know how you were expected to defeat these bosses without cheats.
In the morgue, which is an optional level where you can get a chain gun part, you meet a new flying enemy that spits acid at you, as well as these dreary floating ghouls you have to kill to get keys to move on to the next spaces.
The next level is infuriating. First you need to pick one of the fastest characters, and second, that won’t even help you. You are placed in a series of hallways with quadrants. At the end of each quadrant there are two survivors. The goal is to touch six of them in total before this shooter who can just beam into the quadtrants shoots them. I kid you not when I say that in every quadrant, the dude shoots one survivor before you’re even all the way in the quadrant. On top of that, there are obstacles in the way and enemies impeding your path. You will play this section over and over until you know exactly where each survivor is so you can better steer directly for them when you enter each quadrant.
The next few levels are revisits of previous areas and clearly in place just to extend the game. Only now there are more enemies, including these annoying slugs on the ground and dudes with flamethrowers.
Finally you reach the tower, and you have to climb winding stairs, fighting hordes of enemies while trying to break down ghost barriers that get in your way.
The final boss is a bitch, because of course there are tons of regular enemies coming at you while you try to defeat him, plus he has an array of swing attacks and projectile attacks. He has two phases. The first can only be done by melee fighting, the second only with guns. It is utter chaos and the boss takes forever to die with even the most powerful weapons, so I don’t see how you could possibly beat him without cheats. This is yet another game I’ll be selling off on ebay.
