Hunter: The Reckoning (video game)

Gameplay

The Reckoning is an action game, with elements of the hack and slash and the beat em up genre of fighting. The game lets the player choose between one of four characters, each of which has different weapons and abilities. The player acts as a human monster-hunter combining melee, ranged and spell-driven attacks called "edges." The Reckoning has single-player and multiplayer modes allowing up to four players.

Also dropped in random places during the game are special weapons such as shotguns or machine guns, which have a limited amount of ammo and are usable until their ammo runs out. Ammo for the player's standard weapon is infinite, but must be reloaded after a mag runs out. The game allows up to four players play simultaneously, fighting on one screen against multiple enemies.

Enemies in the game spawn at different points in the game, and attack in large groups. Bosses end a level, at which point the player progresses into the level until the end of the game.

Plot

One year before the events of the game, four people are present at the execution (by electric chair) of convicted serial killer Nathaniel Arkady at Ashcroft Penitentiary: Spencer "Deuce" Wyatt, Samantha Alexander, Kassandra Cheyung, and Father Esteban Cortez. As the switch is thrown, the souls of the dead who suffered at the hands of the prison's warden and his supernatural staff rose up in vengeful rage, driven by evil to exact their vengeance upon the residents of Ashcroft. The four people who were present at Arkady's execution witnessed the uprising of the supernatural evil, and all four received a message in their minds (from benign supernatural beings called "The Messengers") to act against the vast supernatural force that threatened the entire population of Ashcroft. Choosing to heed their "Calling", the four became Imbued, and destroyed the evil inside the prison. The four Imbued locked the prison, sealing what was left of the evil inside, and left Ashcroft.

On the anniversary of the closing and abandonment of Ashcroft Penitentiary, several hundred local teenagers held a rave in the courtyard. The lively celebration awakened the dormant spirits, who sought to begin their onslaught once again. The awakened spirits brought the rave to an early end by slaughtering the vast majority of the teenagers, and the evil, now freed from its prison, raged out into the town and began to destroy the population. The four Imbued return to Ashcroft to confront the source of the evil that threatens the town and protect the remaining survivors.

A ghost appears to the Hunters, named Carpenter, and tells them that Warden Degenhardt is a vampire, and Dr. Hadrian has been performing sadistic flesh-warping experiments on the inmates of Ashcroft. Arkady, the Hunters find out, is a werewolf and still alive, and after they kill Degenhardt, Carpenter attacks them for denying him his revenge.

Unfortunately, Degenhardt was not truly dead, and is revealed to have deliberately reawakened the haunting as part of his plan to find his living family's ghosts and give them new bodies. Only by confronting him in the attic of his mansion, in his monstrous tenebrous form, can the Hunters release the tortured spirits, kill Degenhardt, and escape Ashcroft alive.

Reception

The game was met with positive to average reception. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 80% and 79 out of 100 for the Xbox version, and 72% and 70 out of 100 for the GameCube version.