‘90s PC gaming lives again!
Hunters’ arrival on Android seems to be a bit of good timing. Hot on the heels of the critically acclaimed revival of XCOM – not to mention a Jagged Alliance revival earlier this year – it seems like the right moment to release a nostalgic hardcore turn-based strategy game in the grand tradition of those PC classics. Thus far, Android gamers have been mostly left with Japanese-style S-RPGs to scratch that itch, but Hunters strays far from the tropes of Final Fantasy Tactics.
Although it has apparently picked up a few upgrades in the transition from iPhone, Hunters’ presentation is still very spare. From the simple Arial font of the title logo, to the basic 2D graphics, to the complete lack of any music, it’s clear that this is not a game about flash or style. More importantly, Hunters also lacks any kind of story mode or campaign, instead offering up a smattering of missions that change every day. This makes for a great pick-up-and-play experience, but it doesn’t allow for much sense of progress.
This leaves the strategic gameplay as the core focus. In that regard, you’ll find the mechanics comfortable and familiar, if not especially unique. You control a squad of four members, each of which can be armed with unique weapons and abilities. Movement is restricted to a typical grid, and the usual fog of war limits your ability to see enemies on the map. Rushing through choke points can often lead to an ambush, so scouting is important. There isn’t a tremendous amount of depth to the combat, especially early on before you’ve built up your characters, but there’s at least some technique, and a range of abilities to use.
Between missions, you can level up your characters, spend your hard-earned credits, and assign new abilities, but that’s about the extent of it. There isn’t any XCOM-like research or a larger conflict to manage. Every day, you have a roster of missions – all of which seem to be based around a handful of maps – that you can choose to play or not play. These can be played over and over if you like, which makes grinding a simple matter, made even simpler by the fact that fallen characters will revive when a mission is over. Each time you launch a mission, you can choose the difficulty, but since the missions are somewhat random the challenge can sometimes feel erratic, and as you progress, the game seems to drift toward the easy side.
The nuts and bolts of Hunters’ gameplay are certainly fun, and it’s the closest thing to a hardcore PC-style strategy game you’re likely to find on the Play Store. This can’t offset the fact that the whole experience feels a bit thin. The unique daily mission delivery system is a fresh idea that gives Hunters a lot of casual replayability, but it proves to be an inadequate substitute for some kind of campaign. This, along with a lack of multiplayer, are wasted opportunities for something that could be genuinely engrossing, rather than just an amusing pick-up-and-play.
