AMN's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
After becoming the highest selling franchise on the PSP in Japan, Monster Hunter is making its way back into the American market with MMonster Hunter Freedom 2. Despite being a port of PS2 titles, the Monster Hunter titles have translated incredibly well onto the PSP with nearly every key feature that makes the series so grand and epic. Monster Hunter Freedom 2 gives players a chance to explore the snowy tops of Pokke Village, where you the player take on the role of a monster hunter, whose key role is to protect the village from the Giaprey, a raptor looking monster. Outside of protecting the villagers, you must also tend to their needs by gathering herbs or other natural substances that they ask of you. The game is devised of a series of quest in which the village chief will give you or you can visit the gathering hall and choose quests from there. The quest consists of three different objectives such as gathering quest, hunting, or slaying. Being a hunter has a lot of duties.

What’s Hot
Monster Hunter offers a lot of freedom and customization as far as portable titles go. With the options of choosing quests, weapons, armor, outfits, and character customization, the game offers a lot of… freedom. Initially the game will start you off with a gather quest, where you will have to locate some herbs and mushrooms, simple stuff. Once you complete the easy gather, hunting, and slaying missions, you'll be able to choose your quests from the Village Chief.

Like in life, apparel will play a role in the title. Since the village is stationed in the mountains, you'll want to wear heavy clothing and not anything really light. If you take a mission in the snow tops of a mountain but are equipped with light clothing, your character will feel the adverse effects of the weather and become cold. Your avatar will begin to shake and your stamina will start to decrease.

Clothing isn't the only thing that can help you in those types of situations. If you pack some warm drinks and food you'll be able to sustain the cold. This will also work in other environments like deserts and its extreme heat.

In a gathering quest, you can search everywhere and anywhere you desire. During a hunting or slaying quest you'll need to find the location of the species and explore that territory for your target. The game definitely gives you a true world feeling in the sense of a vast world and having you surrounded by nature, such as a waterfall.

The hunting and slaying sections of the game are the key action areas of the title. As you walk around the world you'll encounter over 70 different monsters, each with their own unique features. The Giadrome is fierce and aggressive whereas others are harmless like the Giaprey, which can be killed with relative ease.