ALPHA TESTING REVIEW:

Thoughts after a few games:

Extremely entertaining game (at least thus far)
Easy learning curve for beginners, I feel, but a long one to become really good at the game
Very nice looking game, but was quite demanding on my system (to max out, anyways) and actually froze at the start of the first match; turned down to medium for my second

Pros:
- Gorgeous environments
- Plenty of flora and fauna
- Guns feel somewhat authentic; each one feels well designed and powerful (and unique)
- 4-man squads work perfectly (however, when one person disconnects it suddenly becomes VERY 1-sided)
- Regardless of what people are saying, this game is FUN, and I definately think it's worth a try

Cons:
- SUPER RELIANT ON JETPACKS TO MOVE ACROSS MAPS (I feel like some of the structures should have ladders that you can use when you are either trying to save jetpack or trying to be stealthy, or if you're simply out of jetpack and running for your life)
- Against a really good monster, 90% of the match is you following his (or her) tracks, then meeting a highly evolved monster that wrecks you in the first actual meeting
- Exp grind. At a certain point, this game turns from fun, into an XP grind afair (which I am not a fan of)
- PRICE TAG. $70 CAD FOR THIS GAME? That is so unjustified. Just because a game looks good, doesn't mean it's worth a $70 price-tag. This game does not have enough maps, different guns, or different playstyle for it be justified at $70, in my opinion

Thoughts
I would buy this game on sale, but at a pre-release price of $70 I know that I won't be playing this game anytime soon; (even a 50% off sale still puts this game @ $35, which imo, is still high. I'd value this game at $45, and would likely get it on sale if a few things were added/fixed)

Suggestions:

- increase the number of playstyles for hunters. At the moment, all you really do is hunt, shoot, retreat/push. You can't really set up an ambush, or have one player take the high ground with a sniper rifle and harass the monster while calling out positions for your companions (but make it so that the sniper would be SUPER vulnerable if he didn't move/hide)

- explosive barrels/stuff; having an environment that you can use against the monster, I feel, would help a lot of the Hunters (as a good monster makes himself (or herself) scarce for much of the early part of the game)

- pick-up-able items; make some of the explosive barrels pick-up-able so that hunters can carry them and set up traps and ambushes, or block off a certain area to the Monster (without it taking serious damage). Even adding things like an insta medpac, or 2x jetpack fuel. (I would also suggest allowing the monster to throw certain things back, increasing the amount of ways to play, and changing situations)

- ranking (not sure if this is a thing, but i'd like it to be. 4 of us 1st game guys went up against a 4th level monster in our second game, and he destroyed us. half of the game he hid, then when he was strong enough, he just charged us and destroyed us. Wasn't a very fun experience)

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Second edit, more pondering

AMMUNITION; the lack of there being ANY ammunition SEVERLY OVERPOWERS THE HUNTERS EARLY. I understand that it' sort of necessary for the FINAL fight, but for the whole game having to NEVER re-supply is a bit silly. It would add another meta level to the game: ammo awareness. So you can just spam shots willy nilly hoping to hit the monster and do a little damage to it. Additionally, if you instantly find the monster, and run out of ammo, it gives the monster a chance to escape and hopefully evolve a little bit, or even heal if anything. But having the Hunters literally have no consequences for just spamming their weapons seems a little unbalanced to me. If the Relay had like, crates of ammo that you needed to return to to restock, or call in a dropship to drop of a crate on the fly, I think THAT would add a whole nother dimension to the game.
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OVERALL RECOMMENDATION: This game is extremely good, satisfying and tense, but I feel that it is NOT justified by it's price-tag. I would pick this game up for anything under $35. There is no single player for you to practice on, learn maps, creatures, playstyles, etc, and I feel that that limits the game somewhat. I think a simple "TEST MAP" or practice arena would help many people, ESPECIALLY FIRST TIME MONSTERS. I look forward to picking this game up upon a sale, but as of now (Nov 1st), the $70 price-tag is extremely off-putting.

------- PICK UP ON SALE!!!!!!!!!!!!! --------

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COMMENT SECTION EDIT: (too big to be a comment)

As I stated initially, this was a review of the game AS OF THE ALPHA TEST.

This game has no singleplayer (which sucks for people who have poor internet connections), so that earned it minus points,

The game is priced @ $70CAD (CAD is Canadian Dollars, for those of you who don't know), which I think is roaringly offensive; I understand that this will not be the full game, but there is almost no character customization (if skins were added for guns/player models/monstahs/creatures, for some diversification, I think this game would probably be a $50 game). But from what I have seen thus far, there isn't really much customization, which I feel seriously detracts from investing into any class or repeated play.

This game is missing heart. Odd to explain, but what I mean by that is, after a certain point in a game it's just chase and shoot. The ONLY time it has felt different is when you play with people with mics, and they actually TALK AND HAVE FUN. Playing a 4v1 when nobody else talks is soooooo very boring, I can't even explain. This game is somewhat reliant on players making it fun, and that hugely detracts from the games rating, again.

I didn't say it in the review, but the NOT RECOMMENDED comes from the price-tag. I can't find a way to justify this being a $70 game. Borderlands 2 had a ton more characterization options, was a $60 game, and it fell short; I didn't think it was worth the $60 + tax I payed for it.

I will likely buy this game (not on sale, if I can afford it) and probably play the heck out of it, but with all the flashiness the game has (which I can't really use to the max as I have both a somewhat outdated computer and a poor internet connection), it seriously needs more features; hopefully, more game modes, skins, customization options, and most importantly a single player training arena (I wanted to try monster, so I did. I was lvl 1 against lvl 10+'s, and I got reamed in like 2 minutes. I had no idea what to do, didn't really know how to play, and these guys did. It made it no fun, and I expect I won't play the monster again unless a ranking system is implimented or a singleplayer mode is. That was so hugely not fun.

@Davchip, thank you :)

@The_Reaper95, hopefully this helps somewhat

@Narcissus, thank you :)

Also, I would like to point out I am not a professional game critic, I just thought I'd give my two-cents and see if it helped anyone, or if anyone agreed with me. I am sorry if I offended anyone with my thoughts. Thanks for reading my essay!