Monster Hunter Ltd (Part II)

Part twoooooooo!

First off, positives: very much a fan of the direct lead-on from the previous part ("Look at what those bastards did to my TV!") and the ensuing battle is pleasantly dynamic in its construction, both in terms of monsters and actual architecture. Apparently Monster Hunter was originally concepted as a single map and had to be split later on, but I still enjoy the usage of familiar space regardless and it's easily the high point.

Unfortunately it's a high point at the start of the map and the rest of the map never quite reaches the same heights. The cityscape that you see at the end of Part 1 feels under-utilized and I was constantly expecting a grueling battle that never really came for most of the remainder of the map: no enemies on the waterfront, nor the damaged courtyard past the blue key door. There's some good combat around the blue key but it's all very survivable and the handful of enemies on the way to the final area are really not that threatening.

As for that final area...resounding "ehhhh". There's a couple of tiers of middling difficulty combat and then a ROCKRED edifice full of enemies that you can methodically take down one by one, either from a distance or by progressing to the top. There's a Revenant ambush, but it quickly falls prey to the design of the area and you can pick them off with little difficulty. Grab the red key, go back up, open the box (door?) and there's the exit: no Doomcute this time, just an ordinary Doom 2 switch.

The last feature I'd like to harp on about is...well, there's this weird windstorm tornado thing. You find it before the final area and it moves very slowly towards you, dealing damage if you touch it. I recall there being others like it in an enclosed part of the map and for the life of me I have no idea why it exists: it's too slow to be a credible threat and it isn't used in any particularly compelling way. If it's there simply as decoration that just happens to hurt you...well, that's just a little disappointing.

This last bit is just speculation on my part, but I feel like Didy ran out of steam by the end of this project: when you take the project as a whole it becomes obvious exactly how much work went into realizing it and - if indeed this is the case - I can't blame them for running dry on the ol' creative juices just before they put the cherry on top. That being said, I did still have fun with Monster Hunter overall and it's possible that I'd have been kinder to Part II if it was indeed incorporated into its other half as the author intended.

Eh, who can say. It's still a good piece of map and I'd be fine recommending it...after Part 1, of course. :P