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| Source // Wikipedia |
When I first read what Hunter was, I had a very similar reaction to that which I had when first seeing Far Cry 2 or even The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion back in the day: "You can do what? Gaming now has the technology to do all that?!"
Both games can owe a lot to Hunter as it happens, though you'll notice a lot more similarities between Hunter and the Far Cry series. You're a lone operative on a mission in a massive open world where the choices are all yours and are probably made on the fly.
Do you want to complete your mission quietly? You can. Do you want to go in all guns blazing? You can. Do you want to fly a helicopter or drive a tank straight to your target? You can. All on the Amiga or Atari ST.
Frustrations
Which means that I'm going to have to watch Hunter for the moment, and that sucks, because it looks and sounds pretty awesome, despite how barebones and funny it may appear to look.
Fun Times
There are a number of game modes, but all of them are some variation on dumping you into an open world and letting you get on with your mission, in whichever way you want to do it. With all kinds of vehicles to drive, weapons to fire, items to use and civilians to talk to, the way you go about your business can seem nearly limitless.
The more scouting you do, the more information you'll learn about enemy positions and defences, or the locations of supplies and ammo, or where to find people with information that may be useful to your cause.
I would assume you can bumble your way through the mission, but with a time limit and a day/night cycle, a little preparation will go a long way.
I would assume you can bumble your way through the mission, but with a time limit and a day/night cycle, a little preparation will go a long way.
Final Word
Of course, all of this is conjecture, because, for as much as you can watch a game, you can't really grasp what it's like to play, and I want to play Hunter. It seems so full of depth and complexity that you could spend hours just finding out what you can and can't do with the many toys at your disposal.
I probably wouldn't spend hours finding things out, but I'd hope to have an entertaining life and not blow myself up with a grenade or whatever, though that could be entertaining too.
Hunter is definitely on the list of must play titles that I must try harder to actually play, and for the sheer amount of open world stuff it manages to cram into the game so early in the origins of the sandbox genre, Hunter is definitely worthy of a spot on the 1001 list.
One day I'll know how good it is for sure.
Fun Facts
Bicycles and surfboards are driveable vehicles in Hunter. How useful there are, I have no idea.
Hunter, developed by Paul Holmes, first released in 1991.
Version watched: Amiga, 1991 (LemonTubeAmiga)