Recent reviews by Maaku

The newest Monster Hunter. I haven't gotten to play THAT much of it but as from somebody coming from MH World, it feels less polished in every way. Maybe it was my "novelty" effect but I don't know, MHW felt more polished in practically evereyway so far, with the only thing I'm noticing in MH Wilds is that there's more attack variations (which is cool) and some other QoL things that are neat (esp. Seikrets). but seriously. I heard much praise that this game is a great game besides the optimization and while I mean I'm still enjoying myself, I can't help but feel underwhelmed considering all of the hype.

So my tentative opinion is, if you're a Monster Hunter fan, this is still monster hunter. I can't particularly recommend this one though, its poor optimization coupled alongside what feels like a whole bunch of jank means its only a "recommendation" for a MH fan. Still a good game I mean and maybe you'd want to try it, but for $70, I'm very much underwhelmed and unimpressed.

Would be great if MH also got better at multiplayer, but it doesn't really seem like it.

A GREAT game. If you enjoyed Lethal Company and/or Content Warning then this is 100% a must buy, (especially if you have people to play it with.) it's a similar genre but it is new and refreshing.

Immediately I can say this is a game with a ton of depth and is very fun. Early access? To be honest this game the same polish, care, and detail as many other fully released games.

Not a game worthy of "Overwhelmingly Positive" in review status in my opinion. MAYBE if it was free.

I can tell this game is worth it. There's so much depth and I can tell even without really knowing all of it. It is more of a singleplayer experience, but does have the multiplayer option for a lot of the game. MHW is one of those games where you take your time to learn the game-- whether it's trying every weapon and their combos, or whether its learning how to defeat a specific monster, there is PLENTY of content.

A game that certainly has its charm but in 2024 I wouldn't find acceptable any longer.
The graphics are bad, that itself didn't discourage me much, I won't even talk about that from here on. As I had feared, this game feels mostly singleplayer until supposedly you hit max level 80 (which is now what some people say is "easy to hit now" but then proceed to say that they could hit it in 3-4 days if they wanted to, which doesn't sound like much, until you understand that it takes 3-4 days IF you treat it like a full-time job. With 31 hours of this game, I tried to enjoy it and while not completely joyless, I find is out of date for its time. Maybe I got unlucky, but thief was SO boring of a class INCLUDING its "variety in weapons" that change abilities. (Very little by the way) and honestly is lame. You know how you level up in games and get stronger and get cooler abilities? In GW2, at least as far as I can discern, you get "perks" where something like "Whenever you go stealth you get more strength" or maybe something a little more. It doesn't add to the gameplay whatsoever and I found myself from lvl 5 all the way to lvl 50+ that my abilities were the EXACT SAME and my 30 hour progression grind was the same mechanics, and this includes me switching weapons often to TRY to introduce some variety and keep myself entertained.

Random rant aside, numbers don't lie, GW 2 has a bustling community- but in the same way that sports technically all have large communities in that there's a lot of sports clubs, teams, whatever you call it, but it doesn't mean you can casually find a group unless you specifically look for a beginners group. I tried my damn hardest to like this game, but I'm sick of spending all of this time in order to get to "the actual game with other people". "It's not that long" is what people say but I would argue to even need grind for more than just an hour of singleplayer just to get to the good stuff is unacceptable. I'm over 30 hours and if I had to estimate, I'd say I would've probably hit lvl 80 in about.... at earliest 50 hours total? Investing 50 hours in order to see if you actually will enjoy the game that you came for is not okay. I am a huge fan of the idea of MMOs, fantasy, all that ♥♥♥♥, but even when I'm trying to like this game it just won't let me. So while this game has found a niche of people who do enjoy it (which is totally valid), in my opinion it's like OSRS where it has its audience but when you think of "Massive multiplayer online role playing game" and "Fantasy" it just doesn't stack up. Maybe that's the standard for MMORPGs is that they're simply like this, and in that case, I'm disappointed. The idea of an MMORPG is all I ever wanted, and so when I can't even force myself to like a game with that idea, suffice to say, it's clearly doing something else other than what it advertises to be. Don't call me a hater, I played 400+ hours of New World even though that game ALSO felt similarly singleplayer. My point is, at least I saw the appeal in New World enough to sink 400+ hours in with a game that most people don't consider as good (at least that's what popularity suggests), while for GW2 I was just hoping something would click for over 30 hours and nothing did.

If somebody could prove me wrong in that GW2 is 1. actually significantly more fun in terms of gameplay mechanics than I had given it credit for and 2. facilitates the idea of what in my opinion an MMORPG should be (a game that encourages and facilitates multiplayer and the idea of interacting with people) and that 3. The fun part starts at the beginning (or at least doesn't take hours+ to unlock) and I'm wrong about the lvl 80 idea, then PLEASE. If you can convince me, I would be so happy because I am desperate for that type of game, and as much as I really wanted GW2 to be it, I could not even convince myself to think "this is fine".

this game single-handedly achieved what everyone wanted pokémon to be and more and it's in early access.

130hr update: I still stand by the same statement, with a caveat that this game is pretty buggy-- but still better than Pokemon ever was.

Hunt: Showdown is an excellent (what I would call) semi-hardcore fps game that reminds me of the most interesting aspects of battle royale that battle royale games usually failed to emphasize.

Hunt: Showdown accentuates the ideas that made battle royale interesting/fun (e.g. last man standing & nobody wants to die. Compare this to Fortnite where everyone drops hot spots to fight because they want immediate action and half the lobby dies within the first 10 minutes. (Very unrealistic to say the least.) That and the slightly stressful situation of being as careful as possible to not take the risk of being clocked and losing it all, etc.

I was never really a fan of realistic shooters (except maybe a little bit of R6S) but with Hunt: Showdown's combined idea of the fantastical world (e.g. zombies & eldritch monsters), it serves as a great medium between hardcore versus play for fun. I always loved the idea of proximity chat and with that implemented including text chat, I think that it's such an awesome feeling that you'll never feel from games like Valorant, CS:GO, or Fortnite when you overhear enemy teammates talking to each other from a distance which prompts immediate caution on your end as you start to search for the source to execute an ambush attack. Unfortunately, this isn't THAT common from what I've seen (if the team isn't full of random, most if not all will opt for VoIP (e.g. Discord).

The game rewards careful and attentive play and strikes an excellent balance between PvP and PvE, so the game never feels super competitive for too long and breaks the monotony with consistent PvE.

To conclude, I think the game is a solid buy especially if you have friends interested. It has such a unique premise that many games have just failed to replicate without catering to the mainstream. You've likely never played a game like Hunt: Showdown, but I mean that in the best way possible.

The only scenario where I would NOT recommend this game is if you strongly dislike the battle royale genre because it shares many similarities with it. I guess I also would not recommend if you're a TikTok doom scroller with the attention span of a goldfish and just want immediate action all the time, you'll probably get bored from the lack of instant hits of dopamine.

This game looks great in everything so far but as other people have stated, the time limit makes this feel like a time optimization game, if you're okay with that go for it. It's pretty solid in every other way. I want to enjoy this game but I hope somehow this can be fixed. I also don't want to feel punished for not optimizing properly if I make a mistake.

I'd say just get it if you have the mentality of "eh $3 isn't much money". Especially if it's on sale for the $0.89 that I got it at.
The gameplay is simple-ish and yet enjoyable. You could play this game with only two buttons.

Some things to consider:
- hard lean into cute anime style (im sure you could tell but yeah) the game is very colorful.
- The game is kind've sexualized. The dev/publisher logo literally have a mock tits in the o's of "peropero". This doesn't make or break the game experience but it can definitely sour/sweeten(?) it depending on your preference.
- The game has very energetic music with a mix of chinese/japanese and just general electronic. if you're looking for a chill rhythm game this is almost certainly not it.