Think back to the last role-playing or action game you played and the long trek you probably made towards the ultimate villain battle, dispatching minions aplenty along the way. Did you find it thrilling or gruelling? If it’s the latter, then developers Guangzhou Good Games may have something of interest to you in the form of The World 2: Hunting BOSS. It’s a straight to the point, hack ‘n’ slash fighting game that wants to take gamers to the boss characters instantly. But is it a concept that pays off?
Right from the off there are three characters thrust upon you to choose from, having to decide which one to use for the battles ahead. All three offer more or less the same move types which only differ visually when performed, so it comes down to whether you’d prefer Shaw (the only male), Dorrit or Violet, based on their appearances. Stat-wise there isn’t enough between them for it to matter. Fear not though, because after a while the two left out will join your team and help take down the enemies in your way. It’s rather disappointing to see such a small selection of playable characters though, especially compared to that of its PC counter-part.
World 2 really isn’t messing about with any padding or filler as there’s no real story whatsoever, just a set of missions that are graded dependent on the difficulty. That’s unless of course you take into account and spend time reading the help guide, which explains that these warriors are part of guild that only take on huge monsters, or something. It’s all very pointless to me and whilst the lore shouldn’t be hidden away, I can see why it was with it being a lame offering. The developers genuinely want to throw you straight into the clutches of a mega boss immediately upon selecting a mission and cut out any of the usual build up. So, within mere seconds the confrontation begins.
The best thing I can say about World 2 is that the majority of the bosses are creatively, very interesting; it’s not often you see a fiery gorilla or a steel infused dinosaur – Magma Kong and Mecha Rex respectively. When battles only last a couple of minutes at best, the boss variation wears thin because after a handful of levels, the same beasts tend to crop up again, with more health this time. In the time it’ll take you to read this review, I could’ve probably slashed my way through the small selection on offer. It’s also a letdown that some bosses are simply other humans wielding the same weapons and performing the same moves as the playable characters do.
It cannot be denied, the gameplay is fast and furious but having only three special moves, each of which drains the limited amount of stamina, means that eventually your warrior gets tired and stands still for a while, susceptible to attacks. That’s akin to giving me a Ferrari then saying ‘don’t drive faster than 40mph’. But anyway, like any good boss stage, being aware of the enemy movements certainly helps in order to stay alive and inflict most damage at the opportune times. The bosses are dumb though and will throw stuff over your head when you’re slashing at its legs for example. Having blissfully unaware A.I. with zero strategic mindset adds to the notion that the artificial life-forms lack intelligence all round.
What I would’ve liked is more control of the upgrades when characters level up. At the moment it automatically upgrades stats in areas such as health, stamina, strength etc. This means you can’t invest in the attributes to suit your play-style or needs and doesn’t help with distinguishing between the different warriors, meaning I just stuck with the same one all the way through.
Visually it tries to impress, but ultimately World 2 comes in at about average for games nowadays. Having 3D destructible environments is a nifty idea; that is until any and all attacks destroy it within mere seconds of battle commencing.
Achievement hunters will be pleased to know the achievements are easily obtainable with a few hours of grinding to get all characters to level 20. The only one that was a pain in the behind was gaining A Ranks on completed missions, mainly because S Ranks are too damn easy to get and actually trying to do worse, by taking longer to finish off a boss, is an unnecessary hassle.
For the most part, World 2 brings a quick dash of excitement with its extraordinary boss monsters and fast, frantic gameplay. There’s just too much recycled content too soon into the playthrough and doesn’t offer anywhere near the same amount of variation in playable characters or enemies as it seemingly does on the PC. Without a story of substance, it turns into a nonsensical hack ’n’ slash experience that fails to enthral the player for too long. But hey, there’s a healthy load of cheevos to sweeten the deal.
Should you purchase The World 2: Hunting BOSS? Not unless you’re eager to boost your gamerscore or catch a look at the very well designed bosses.
