Series Retrospective
Hunter: The Reckoning (Video Game Series)
Series Retrospective
Hunter: The Reckoning (Video Game Series)
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Hunter: The Reckoning (Video Game Series)
This Series Retrospective is focused on the Hunter: The Reckoning series of games based on the "Hunter: The Reckoning" RPG (roleplaying game) universe created by White Wolf. It is part of the "World of Darkness" universe.
Characters & Terminology
Characters & Terminology
Imbued
Imbued
The Imbued (also called Hunters) are the protagonists of Hunter: The Reckoning. They are ordinary humans who are awakened to the presence of supernatural monsters through contact with the Messengers at a time of crisis. During this moment of imbuing, an individual sees the true nature of a supernatural creature or event, and either takes action or resolves to do so, confirming their status as a Hunter. Those who hesitate or recoil do not become Imbued, but are forever aware of their glimpse of the supernatural; these "failed" Hunters are generally known as bystanders.
The Imbuing
The Imbuing
For most Imbued, the Hunt begins during an otherwise normal (if sometimes stressful) experience: another day at the office, watching a parade, a backstreet mugging. But the potential Hunter's life changes when he or she hears the voice of the Messengers, uttering a single short phrase that focused their attention as the true world was revealed to them. An office worker may be revealed as a zombie, with dry flaking skin and gaping wounds; the mugger may be glimpsed with a hideously distended jaw containing huge canines, marking him as a vampire; perhaps ghostly, nightmarish figures are glimpsed controlling participants in the parade. The glimpse of "true reality" given during an imbuing is often exaggerated, and most Imbued do not see things quite the same way afterwards, even when piercing illusions by calling on their Conviction (see below).
Hunters debate among themselves the reasons why they are chosen by the Messengers; it often seems to be random. Most Imbued feel compelled to act against the monsters which secretly control the world, and some consider this criteria enough for their selection, but they are still entirely human in mind and body, and many do not feel up to the task. Normal social interaction becomes difficult; many Hunters hear the voices of the Messengers, but even without this schizophrenic whispering, their knowledge of the truth can make them seem insanely paranoid in a world which denies the supernatural, and very few Hunters have the power to reveal the truth to others. Once Imbued, however, there is no turning back; a Hunter can never forget the hidden evils of the world, and her Conviction - and ordinary conscience - will drive her to combat it.
Messages
Messages
The nature of the Messengers is also hotly debated among the Imbued; no-one truly knows what or who they are, where they come from, or why they oppose the monsters of the world. The messages they whisper into the minds of the Imbued - often as a "voice in the head", but sometimes as visions or "writing on the wall" - are similarly poorly understood. They are personalized, unique to each Hunter, and nearly always cryptic - especially the messages received during the imbuing. Sometimes they describe a supernatural being or problem: "It Does Not Breathe", "Their Will Is Gone". Sometimes they give a directive: "Inherit the Earth", "Burn It Down". Some Hunters receive many more messages from the Messengers than others, while some are reluctant to share their own messages. As with so much of Imbued existence, uncertainty is the only constant.
Powers
Powers
Hunters are specifically not turned into supernatural creatures when they are Imbued; they still need everything a normal human does and can't take Aggravated damage. All they are really given are abilities which allow them to resist, in various ways, the powers of truly supernatural enemies. Only two types of supernatural blessing are bestowed on Hunters by the Messengers: Conviction and Edges.
Conviction
Conviction
Conviction is a reserve of strength and faith Hunters may draw upon to resist the control of supernatural entities and pierce their illusions. Depending on the success of their activities, Hunters' Conviction may rise or fall from night to night. Conviction is "risked" when used to fuel powers granted by the Messengers; if they fail in their task, Hunters' Conviction is lowered, while if they succeed, it may be increased. When Conviction is at to a sufficiently high level, a Hunter may permanently bolster one of their virtues, gaining a more concrete faith in an aspect of the hunt; doing so lowers their ordinary Conviction until such time as their newfound virtue can be tested.
Edges
Edges
Edges are (usually minor) supernatural powers granted by the Messengers. In general, Edges allow Hunters only to resist the effects and defenses of the supernatural, though some certainly have more dramatic effects. Each creed has its own set of Edges, though a Hunter will only ever be granted a limited number during their career. More powerful Edges are only granted to Hunters who reinforce their commitment to the Hunt by bolstering their virtues, becoming more zealous, merciful or visionary. The most powerful Edges are thus only granted to Hunters who become virtually insane, obsessed with their aspect of the Hunt above all else in life; such Hunters are exceedingly rare, since the Imbued rarely survive long enough to become so devoted.
Virtues and Creeds
Virtues and Creeds
Most humans' virtue is defined by their self-control, compassion and courage. While Hunters certainly can display these traits, their devotion to the Hunt takes greater importance. Their virtues define how they view the Hunt, and their own role in it.
More specific than virtues are the Creeds. The nine creeds are broad categories for different approaches to the Hunt, and a Hunter's creed is determined by the way in which they react during their imbuing. How strong a Hunter's Conviction is, and which Edges they may be granted, are determined in part by an Imbued's creed. There are three creeds for each of the three virtues, which represent the nature of a Hunter's Conviction.
Mercy is the virtue of forgiveness. Merciful Hunters seek to redeem or protect those monsters worth saving, or to take the suffering of others onto themselves. They primarily focus on what they can save via the Hunt. The Innocent, Martyr and Redeemer creeds all focus on Mercy; their Edges rarely inflict physical harm, but are either defensive or attempts to reach what humanity is left within their foes. The Merciful Hunter, in the moment of his Imbuing, might have taken an action along the lines of pulling a fire alarm to empty a building, or attempting first to reason with the beast before engaging in it combat, or to distract the creature, "holding it off" while the prey makes an escape.
Vision is the least-understood virtue by those who do not possess it. It represents a hope for the future, a plan for a new world, and a belief that the Hunt will have an end. Visionaries are the rarest of the common creeds, looking beyond the night's Hunt to the consequences of their actions and the big picture, and usually seek to make changes with wide-ranging effect. Their Edges help them see the path that other Hunters must follow. The two other creeds based on Vision are the Hermits and Waywards, both of whom are dysfunctional; those rare few in the Hunter community aware of their existence tend to consider them 'lost', failed experiments by the Messengers who have been broken by their imbuing.
Zeal is like righteous anger, a fierce desire to see justice done. Zealous Hunters focus on the destruction or punishment of evil, and are the most obvious group of Imbued, though it is a mistake to assume they are all violent warriors. The zealous creeds are Avengers, Defenders, and Judges; their Edges generally affect supernatural creatures directly, though not always by inflicting physical harm. There are other ways to punish evil, after all. The Zealous Hunter, in the moment of Imbuing, might have taken an action like grabbing the nearest heavy or sharp object and attacking, or placing him or herself firmly between the creature and its target.
Father Esteban Cortez, aka Priest316, is a hunter who helped liberate Ashcroft several times.
Born in 1957, Cortez was the chaplain at Ashcroft State Penitentiary. He was the last person to speak to Nathaniel Arkady before his execution in 2001. Cortez theorized that Arkady was either channeling spirits or they were actually occupying his body. In the chaos of Arkady's execution, Cortez was Imbued as a Judge.
Cortez gains the following Edges:
Trivia
Cortez was initially voiced by Jerry Bloom (and mo-capped by David A. Rodriguez) in HTR: Hunter: The Reckoning (video game) , and then Lex Lang in HTR: Hunter: The Reckoning - Wayward and HTR: Hunter: The Reckoning - Redeemer .
Kassandra Cheyung, aka Raver620, is a hunter who helped liberate Ashcroft several times.
Born in 1983 as the sole heir to the Fairday Manufacturing fortune, Kassandra was a typical trust-fund kid with little to worry about except where to spend her father's money. In 2000, a barn rave she was attending was raided, and the panicking crowd trampled her friend Marnie. Unable to move her, Kassandra covered her friend's body with her own, and woke up in the hospital with a boot print on her back. The event changed her perspective, and Kassandra started volunteering at the hospital in the critical care ward.
In 2001, Kassandra was in Ashcroft State Penitentiary with Marnie to visit Marnie's rave date, who had abandoned her with the raid started, who was now doing time for drug dealing. She attended the (attempted) execution of Nathaniel Arkady, and was witness to the ensuing spiritual outbreak and attack on the populace, causing her to be Imbued as a Martyr. She helped Deuce take down Cornelius Boothe and shut down the Penitentiary.
Edges
Kassandra gains the following Edges:
Trivia
Kassandra was initially voiced by Michelle Lukivich in HTR: Hunter: The Reckoning (video game) , and then Grey DeLisle-Griffin in HTR: Hunter: The Reckoning - Wayward and HTR: Hunter: The Reckoning - Redeemer .
Samantha Alexander is a Hunter of the Defender creed who appeared in the console game Hunter: The Reckoning. She operated on Hunter-net under the name "cop380," the second user with that name after cop90.
Samantha was often bullied as a child, which motivated her to learn to defend herself and others. She joined the police out of a desire to keep helping others and was instrumental in bringing Nathaniel Arkady to justice. As a favor to her mentor, Detective Warren, she attended Arkady's execution at Ashcroft Penitentiary, and witnessed the revenge of the wraiths that haunted the prison. At this moment, she was imbued by the Messengers and became a Hunter.
Edges
Samantha gains the following Edges:
Trivia
Samantha was initially voiced by Karen Woods in HTR: Hunter: The Reckoning (video game) , and then Masasa Moyo in HTR: Hunter: The Reckoning - Wayward and HTR: Hunter: The Reckoning - Redeemer .
Spenser "Deuce" Wyatt, aka Biker365, is a hunter who helped liberate Ashcroft several times.
In 1981, Spenser watched Cornelius Boothe murder his mother in Gertie's Diner. Later that night, Wyatt plunged a butcher's knife into Boothe's heart, and fearing reprisal, fled town.
Returning to town in 2001 to visit his mother's grave, Wyatt was stunned to see Boothe climbing out of a car, not looking a day older. Wyatt followed Booth to Ashcroft Penitentiary on the day Nathaniel Arkady was scheduled to be executed, and was Imbued as an Avenger when he witnessed the prison's vengeful dead rise up to slay the living. Together with three other Imbued, Wyatt helped shut down the prison.
Edges
Wyatt gains the following Edges:
Trivia
Deuce was voiced by Alan Stag for all of his appearances. With Adam Conway, the two are the only actors to appear in all three video games in the series.
Carpenter was a primary antagonist in the Hunter: The Reckoning console game and its sequels. Although he shares the same name as Dennis Maxwell, he's a different person.
Carpenter is often depicted wearing leather and cloth wraps around his body, although when preparing for combat he removes the wraps, going bare-chested and donning a mask. He has spikes the left side of his head and his right shoulder.
Carpenter was a convict at the Ashcroft State Penitentiary for two years before finally dying at the hands of the Tzimisce Dr. Hadrian in one of his vile experiments. Following the Arkady execution anniversary rave, Carpenter returns as a Risen. He helps the four Imbued enter the Penitentiary in order to for them open the way to Hadrian and Warden Degenhardt so he can get revenge, but is enraged to find out that the Imbued beat him to it. It's implied that Hadrian is his Fetter, since Carpenter is surprised to find out that he's still here although Hadrian is dead.
Background Information
Carpenter is voiced by Adam Conway in all three of his appearances throughout the series.
Carpenter is presented in Hunter: The Reckoning - Redeemer using Hunter-like mechanics, with the Risen "creed." He wields the following powers:
Purify: Enhances the character's Melee and Ranged skills to hit harder than normal for a short period of time.
Phantom: Surrounds the character in a purple mist protecting them from enemies nearby.
Crescendo: Fires a mist of poisonous gas from the character's mouth to harm opponents.
Imitate: Increases the character's speed, melee, ranged, strength, and stamina for a short period of time.
Kaylie Winter is a Redeemer and is the little girl the original four Hunters saved from her own mutated Teddy Bear in Ashcroft during the events of the first game.
She is a playable character in Hunter: The Reckoning - Redeemer where she has undergone training to be Hunter and ready to fight alongside the rest of the Imbued at the age of 18 years old.
Creed: Redeemer
Height: 5'6
Weight: 118
Age: 18
Weapons: Broad Single Bladed Sword and Shotgun Pistol
Edges:
Edge 1: Shame
Edge 2: Abjure
Edge 3: Respire
Edge 4: Cleave
Hunter: The Reckoning
Hunter: The Reckoning
Published by Interplay Entertainment Corp.
Developed by Digital Mayhem, High Voltage Software, Inc.
Released: May 14, 2002
Platforms: GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Hunter: The Reckoning is a 2002 hack-and-slash video game developed by High Voltage Software and published by Interplay Entertainment for the Xbox and GameCube. It is based on the tabletop role-playing game of the same name, and is part of the larger World of Darkness series. Two sequels, Wayward and Redeemer, were both released in 2003.
Players take the roles of hunters who fight hordes of enemies with melee weapons, ranged weapons, and magic. The story revolves around Ashcroft Penitentiary, a prison which has been taken over by vampires as their feeding grounds; the inmates who die there rise again as vengeful and destructive wraiths.
Interplay chose to adapt Hunter: The Reckoning into a video game as they thought it would translate well into an action game, a genre their division Digital Mayhem was focusing on. It was intended from the start to be a flagship title for them, and the first in a series, which led to the decision to develop it for the Xbox, as it was new at the time and had greater graphical capabilities than other consoles.
Description
Description
You have been chosen to join the reckoning—you are to step into the World of Darkness where humanity is ravaged by vampires and marauding monsters. As a Hunter, you are immune to these beasts' illusions, but with your power comes a daunting destiny: to destroy these evil beings before mankind is massacred.
Hunter takes place over 23 different stages in which you and up to three of your friends can wield up to twenty different weapons against a horde of enemies. Each player chooses from one of four classes: the Avenger, Martyr, Defender, or Judge. Each one possesses different strengths and weaknesses along with their own individual set of spells. Gameplay can very much be compared to the Gauntlet games, where you face innumerable odds while building up your own characters in order to take down the ultimate evil.
Gameplay
Gameplay
Hunter: The Reckoning is a hack-and-slash game where players fight hordes of enemies in a single-player or multiplayer mode for up to four players. The players fight using ranged and melee weapons, but can also use magic spells called "edges", with effects such as dealing damage to a group of enemies, or healing oneself. Certain weapons can be earned as pick-ups through exploration, including a machine gun, a chainsaw, and a shotgun.
Players take the roles of four hunters, which have different character classes: Deuce is an Avenger, and the strongest; Samantha is a Defender, and is balanced between speed and power; Father Cortez is a Judge, and has weak melee skills but strong edges; and Kassandra is a Martyr, and is fast and has quick attacks. The characters also have a set of statistics, such as strength and accuracy, which can be raised throughout the game.
The game consists of 23 levels, set in locations including a graveyard, sewer system, prison, hospital, mansion, and a torture chamber. The levels vary in length, ranging from around five minutes to around half an hour, and have a variety of different objectives, including traversing the map, freeing hostages, escorting non-player characters, and searching for things. After finishing the game, players get access to a new difficulty level and alternate costumes for their characters.
Plot
Plot
Hunter: The Reckoning is set in the prison town Ashcroft in the World of Darkness, a gothic-punk take on the real world where monsters exist and hide in plain sight. The prison, Ashcroft Penitentiary, has been taken over by vampires as their feeding grounds for the last 50 years, and the warden has been embraced by the vampires, turned into one himself. In addition to feeding on the inmates, the vampires are subjecting them to torture and experiments; the inmates that die end up rising again as vengeful wraiths who do not care who or what they destroy.
One year before the events of the game, four people are present at the execution by electric chair of the serial killer Nathaniel Arkady at Ashcroft Penitentiary: Spenser "Deuce" Wyatt, Samantha Alexander, Kassandra Cheyung, and Father Esteban Cortez. As the switch was 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 witnessed the uprising of the supernatural evil, and received a message in their minds from benign supernatural beings called messengers to act against the vast supernatural force that threatened the 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 hold a rave in the courtyard. The lively celebration awakens the dormant wraiths, who slaughter most of the teenagers, and, freed from their prison, rage out into the town and begin to destroy the population. The Imbued return to Ashcroft to confront the source of the evil that threatens the town and protect the remaining survivors.
A wraith appears to the hunters, named Carpenter, and tells them that warden Degenhardt is a vampire, and that Dr. Hadrian has been performing flesh-warping experiments on the inmates. Arkady, they find out, is a werewolf and still alive. After they kill Degenhardt and Hadrian, Carpenter attacks them for denying him his revenge on Hadrian. Degenhardt turns out to not be truly dead, and to have deliberately reawakened the haunting as part of his plan to find his living family's ghosts and give them new bodies. By confronting him in the attic of his mansion, the hunters release the tortured spirits, kill Degenhardt, and escape Ashcroft.
Development
Development
Hunter: The Reckoning was developed by High Voltage Software in the AtlasTech game engine, and was published by Interplay Entertainment. The game was produced by Scot Lane and Kevin Sheller, designed by Dave Rodriguez, and programmed by Dan Goodman, with art by Matt Corso.
The concept of a World of Darkness video game adaptation came up during a brainstorm meeting at Interplay, whose staff included many fans of the series. When choosing which of the tabletop role-playing games in the series to adapt, Hunter: The Reckoning was picked over more established games like Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension or Changeling: The Dreaming due to Interplay's division Digital Mayhem's focus on action games, which they thought Hunter would translate well into. Production began around the beginning of 2001, and the game was announced in April of the same year. The choice to develop the game for the Xbox specifically came from how the console was new at the time, offering higher graphical capabilities compared to other available consoles. This was seen as important, as the game was intended from the beginning to be the first in a series, and be a flagship title for the publisher that gave a good impression.
Hunter: The Reckoning differed from most of High Voltage Software's games based on licensed properties, in that it was based on a game system rather than on characters in a specific setting with an established look. In adapting the tabletop game into a video game format, the developers focused on elements that would fit well in an action video game. They considered making the game appeal to younger audiences, but decided against it to avoid straying too far from the nature of the tabletop game. Certain characters were taken from the tabletop game, while the main cast was based on pre-made characters by High Voltage Software staff. The art direction was influenced by films, including Blade, The Crow, Blade Runner, and Dark City. The game's horror often relied on visuals and audio, with dark and dank environments; the developers also made use of the scare tactic of warping something that normally is seen as comforting into something scary, as seen in one part where a little girl's teddy bear transforms into a monster and kills her parents.
Hunter: The Reckoning - Wayward
Hunter: The Reckoning - Wayward
Published by Vivendi Universal Games, Inc.
Developed by High Voltage Software, Inc.
Released: Sep 09, 2003
Platform: PlayStation 2
Hunter: The Reckoning – Wayward is a 2003 hack-and-slash video game developed by High Voltage Software and published by Vivendi Universal Games for the PlayStation 2. It is based on the tabletop role-playing game Hunter: The Reckoning, and is part of the larger World of Darkness series. It is a sequel to the 2002 video game Hunter: The Reckoning, and was followed by Redeemer in 2003.
Players control hunters, progressing through missions and areas non-linearly while fighting enemies with physical and magical attacks. The story is set two years after the previous game, and sees the hunters returning to the town of Ashcroft following the appearance of a witch's cult and supernatural beings.
The game was announced in early 2003 as a port of the previous Hunter: The Reckoning game, but with a new story, and with gameplay changes made based on player feedback
Description
Description
The town of Ashcroft is plagued by darkness once again. A cult of evil has formed; the undead threaten the living. All that stands between light and darkness is a group of Hunters, rogues and renegades who have had their life touched by darkness and now battle against it.
This one or two-player game allows the player/s to pick among five unique Hunters and battle the undead in Ashcroft using a variety of weapons and special powers called Edges.
Gameplay
Gameplay
Hunter: The Reckoning – Wayward is a hack-and-slash game in which 1–2 players take the roles of hunters while fighting large amounts of enemies, including undead and cultists, using melee and ranged attacks, and magical abilities called "edges". Edges have several kinds of effects, such as enhancing one's attacks, or protecting oneself. Using them consumes some of a character's conviction meter, which is recharged with gems that fallen enemies drop. In addition to the basic melee and ranged weapons each character have, players can also collect special weapons with limited ammunition, such as flare guns and shotguns.
The characters belong to different classes that play differently. These include those for the four returning hunters from the previous Hunter: The Reckoning video game – the quick Martyr, the melee-focused Avenger, the magic-focused Judge, and the balanced Defender – and the newly added, strong Wayward, and the all-around powerful Risen. Players initially only have access to the Martyr, Avenger, Judge, and Defender; the two Wayward characters are made available by completing a certain area, and by playing through the entire game, respectively, and the Risen is made available by completing the game on its "nightmare" difficulty setting. Each character has a set of statistics, such as strength and speed, which slowly rise as players fight enemies. Characters that are not in use still gain experience, but less than the actively used characters.
Progression is non-linear: players have access to an open-ended hub area, from which they can choose which stages and missions to go to. Several of the areas are reused from the first game, but have new goals. Mission objectives vary, and include getting to the exit, finding and rescuing innocents, protecting a character from oncoming hordes of enemies, escorting characters, assembling silver weapons to fight werewolves, and defeating boss enemies.
Gaming magazine ad advertising both Redeemer AND Wayward.
Plot
Plot
Wayward is set in the town of Ashcroft, in the World of Darkness – a gothic-punk interpretation of the real world, where monsters exist and hide in plain sight – and takes place two years after the events of the first Hunter: The Reckoning video game. Since the siege by darkness there in the previous game, the town has been rebuilt, and two hunters have arrived there. Before going on a hunt, one of them emails the hunters from the previous game – Deuce, Samantha, Father Cortez, and Kassandra – telling them that the battle is not over: an all-female cult led by a witch has entered Ashcroft, and with them large amounts of supernatural creatures that the hunters must return to quell. The four go to meet up with the Ashcroft hunters in a hotel, but the room is empty without signs of any struggle; searching the room, they find a map with marked locations, and use it to search for the hunters.
Eventually they find one of them, Joshua, being attacked by a werewolf from the cult in the graveyard; they defeat the werewolf, and take Joshua back to the hotel, where he tells the rest how he and his partner Devin had been captured by the cult and taken to the Ashcroft prison; Joshua was freed by the risen wraith Carpenter. The hunters steal a school bus and crash it through the prison gates to get inside, and set up a new base of operations in the security room. Aware of their arrival, the witch sends her cultists after them, but they manage to overpower her and save Devin while she escapes.
The hunters learn that the witch is planning to perform a ritual which requires the sacrifice of innocent life. Devin breaks off from the rest of the group, intending to kill everyone in Ashcroft to prevent the completion of the ritual. The other hunters strongly oppose this, and set off to save innocents, and eventually confront Devin, who has retreated on the hospital roof, from which he tries to shoot innocents. After they take down Devin, however, the witch uses Devin as her sacrifice, and a large tower materializes as the town starts to warp and beings from the Shadowlands appear. Atop the tower, the witch is used as an anchor for a Nephwrack – an ancient spirit from the Shadowlands – and is confronted by Carpenter, who opposes her, saying that Ashcroft is his town, and that she will be his when she is returned to the Shadowlands. The hunters climb the tower and fight the Nephwrack, destroying its material form and causing the tower to crumble. Back in safety, the hunters leave the town.
Development
Development
Wayward was developed by High Voltage Software, based on White Wolf Publishing's tabletop role-playing game Hunter: The Reckoning, and was published by Vivendi Universal Games following former series publisher Interplay Entertainment's sale of the Hunter: The Reckoning video game rights in March 2003. It was produced by Chad Kent, designed by Warren Capps, and programmed by Anthony Glueck, with art by Joe Hamell. The game's score includes two songs by Forty Foot Echo, and five by No One. The developers relied heavily on visuals and audio in creating the horror, with dank and dark environments for the player to visit.
The game was announced in January 2003 as a PlayStation 2 version of the previous Hunter: The Reckoning video game, although with a new story, new gameplay features and an additional playable character. The core gameplay was tweaked based on issues players had had with the previous game. It was released for the PlayStation 2 on September 8, 2003 in North America, and on October 17 in Europe. A sequel, Hunter: The Reckoning – Redeemer, was released the following month for the Xbox.
Hunter: The Reckoning - Redeemer
Hunter: The Reckoning - Redeemer
Published by Vivendi Universal Games, Inc.
Developed by High Voltage Software, Inc.
Released: Oct 28, 2003
Platform: Xbox
Another gaming magazine ad advertising both Redeemer AND Wayward.
Description
Description
Hunter: The Reckoning - Redeemer takes place 10 years after the original Hunter: The Reckoning in the same sleepy town of Ashcroft. In the original game, the Hunters saved an innocent orphan named Kaylie. After Father Esteban realized she had been imbued that day, he decided to be her caretaker and train her to use her new-found powers the best way possible. Now 19, Kaylie has matured into a confident and independent young Hunter.
Five playable Hunter Characters; each with their own unique weapons, edges and supernatural abilities; Single and multi player cooperative play.
Note: The game states that it's been five years since the events of Hunter: The Reckoning - Wayward , but 10 years since Hunter: The Reckoning (console game) . Wayward, however, states that it had only been two years since the earlier game. This Wiki assumes that the "five years" between this game and the previous is an error and should be "seven years," since that assumption requires the fewest changes to text across the trilogy. Redeemer thus takes place in 2012.
Gameplay
Gameplay
Hunter: The Reckoning – Redeemer is a hack-and-slash game in which players fight large amounts of enemies in a third-person perspective, either in a single-player mode or in a multiplayer mode supporting up to four players. The gameplay is very similar to that of the previous two Hunter: The Reckoning video games, and sees players fight undead hordes with ranged or melee weapons, including powerful limited-use weapons found in levels; players also have access to magic spells called edges, with effects such as healing or increasing one's attack power. The game is divided into levels, which have different objectives, including traversing an area, escorting characters, freeing innocents from zombies, clearing an area from monsters, and defeating bosses.
Players initially have five hunter characters to choose from, each with their own specialties and edges: Kaylie is a Redeemer, and is focused on ranged attacks; Deuce is an Avenger, with strong melee attacks; Kassandra is a Martyr, who moves quickly; Father Cortez is a Judge, and is focused on magic attacks; and Samantha is a Defender, and balanced. The player can also unlock two more characters – the Wayward hunter Joshua and the Risen wraith Carpenter – by fulfilling certain conditions; by collecting monster cards dropped by some enemies, the player can also play the game as those monsters. As players gain experience, they are given skill points to allocate between their characters' statistics, to customize them in accordance to their preferred playstyle, such as making a slow character faster; when a player wants to switch characters, they can transfer the skill points to the new character. The characters' appearances can also be customized with clothing.
Plot
Plot
Redeemer is set in the World of Darkness – a gothic-punk interpretation of the real world, where monsters exist and hide in plain sight – and takes place in the town of Ashcroft, ten years after the events of the first game. The team of hunters from the first Hunter video game – Deuce, Samantha, Father Cortez, and Kassandra – have teamed up with Kaylie Winter, who they saved as a child during the first game and who has been raised by Father Cortez. Kaylie spies on the Genefex Corporation's CEO Xavier Lucien as he oversees a shipment of products, when werewolves enter the warehouse and corner him. Kaylie and the other hunters drive the werewolves away, and they learn that werewolves have been attacking Genefex shipments for some time, since Genefex began hunting them in addition to the undead.
As Genefex shipments to Ripper's Nightclub have been intercepted, the hunters go there to investigate, and learn that it is a haven for vampires. They meet their nemesis there, the risen wraith Carpenter, who says he had to make a deal with a powerful being to be able to return to the world of the living after the events of the previous game, and that he is required to kill them. They defeat him and his vampire henchwomen in battle, and he tells them that the deal involved him having to oversee the club and mix an unknown substance shipped from Genefex Labs into the drinks served at the club, but that he does not work for Lucien. Having failed at his objective, he flees.
After protecting Genefex Labs from a werewolf attack and noticing that one of Lucien's staff is not human, the hunters sneak inside to investigate. They find and free the captive werewolf leader, who tells them that the substance is a spiritual poison used in Genefex products to turn humans into slaves to a powerful entity that Lucien has sold his soul to. The hunters join forces with the werewolves, and turn off Genefex pumps contaminating Ashcroft's water supply with the poison.
Lucien discovers that the werewolf leader has been freed, and sends his security team to the forest to kill the werewolves. The hunters help defend the werewolves and innocent humans, and infiltrate Genefex's headquarters, placing explosives throughout the building. They confront Lucien, who with the power of the entity has become demonic, and defeat him in battle. Father Cortez stays behind to kill Lucien, and the others escape the building before the explosives detonate.
Development
Development
The game was developed by High Voltage Software, and was produced by Chad Kent, designed by David A. Rodriguez, and programmed by Nigel Rankin and John Sanderson, with art by Matt Corso. The development team started planning for Redeemer while in the middle of developing the first Hunter: The Reckoning; following its release, they visited internet message boards every day to see what players liked and disliked about the game, which they collated to know what to focus on for Redeemer. Based on this, they focused on improving the camera, and designed the game to be more replayable, with a lot of unlockable content, and with a more in-depth system for character customization.
The developers made heavy use of visuals and audio in creating the horror for the game, with several dark and dank environments enhanced with sound effects for the supernatural beings players encounter. Their approach to horror was also heavily affected by how powerful the main characters are, as players are aware that they can defeat a few monsters with ease: they designed the game to let the player become comfortable in that feeling before starting to introduce hordes of undead, intending for a foreboding feeling of uncertainty as to whether they have the resources to overcome the threat, followed by introducing a new and more powerful enemy in a more disturbing environment as a scare. Kent described it as a challenge to create good and mature horror in a video game format, due to the convention of fast-paced and ever-increasing action beginning early on, unlike in film, where the audiences accept some time for establishing the plot and characters before the first real scare; due to the high costs of producing AAA video games, publishers are often unwilling to deviate from these conventions.
Redeemer was announced in early 2003, and was published by Vivendi Universal Games for the Xbox on October 28, 2003, in North America and on November 21, 2003, in Europe. Microsoft Japan published the game in Japan on January 22, 2004, as part of their "World Collection" line. After Paradox Interactive acquired the World of Darkness series in 2015, they said that they wanted to create a fourth Hunter: The Reckoning video game.
In Other Media
In Other Media
In 2004, Uwe Boll acquired the movie rights for the original game. The film was planned to be directed by Boll, produced by Shawn Williamson, and written by David Schneider and Drew Daywalt, with shooting planned to take place in British Columbia.
From the White Wolf Website, circa Jan. 2004:
White Wolf Sells Film Rights for HUNTER: THE RECKONING® to Uwe Boll and BOLL KG
Atlanta, GA, January 16, 2004 — White Wolf Publishing, Inc. today finalized an agreement with German director/producer Uwe Boll for the film rights of its Hunter: The Reckoning horror property.
Hunter: The Reckoning is one of several horror properties developed by White Wolf as part of its award-winning World of Darkness® setting. The property’s focus is on men and women who become aware of supernatural monsters preying on humanity and who are imbued with special abilities to combat them. Since its introduction in 1999, Hunter has spawned a line of pen-and-paper roleplaying games, a series of mass-market novels and three video games from Vivendi Universal: 2002’s Hunter: The Reckoning (X-Box, Gamecube), 2003’s Hunter: The Reckoning—Wayward (PlayStation2) and Hunter: The Reckoning—Redeemer (X-Box). “Hunter has become one of our most successful mass-media properties,” said White Wolf’s President, Mike Tinney, “and we’re thrilled to see it head toward the big screen.”
"This game provides a great opportunity to produce an exciting feature film,” added Uwe Boll. “We look forward to capturing the unique and frightening qualities of Hunter: The Reckoning.” Boll and his film fund Boll KG specialize in developing films based on successful video game and media properties.
The film will be produced with Shawn Williamson (Alone in the Dark, White Noise) of Brightlight Pictures Inc. Williamson said: “This property lends itself very well to feature film adaptation. Hunter: The Reckoning is a spectacular game, and we look forward to bringing the most thrilling elements to the big screen.” White Wolf's film rights are represented by the Gersh Agency.
Since its entry into the roleplaying game market in 1991, White Wolf Publishing, Inc. has grown, maintaining an average market share of 26%. With collective book sales in excess of 5.5 million copies during this time, White Wolf is one of two undisputed worldwide publishing leaders for pen and paper roleplaying games. White Wolf properties have been licensed for television series, comic books, action figures, console and computer video games, coin-operated arcade games, professional wrestlers, replica props and weapons, interactive media events, and a myriad of merchandise. More information on White Wolf can be found at www.white-wolf.com.
With 78 million dollars in production funds raised in the past two years, Boll KG is a fast-growing film production entity based in Frankfurt, Germany under the aegis of Dr. Uwe Boll. With this most recent acquisition, Boll has emerged as a pre-eminent director and producer of films based on video games. Artisan Entertainment released House of the Dead, based on the Sega franchise, in Fall 2003; Boll is in post-production on a film adaptation of Atari’s Alone in the Dark (with Christian Slater, Tara Reid and Stephen Dorff) in Vancouver.
Brightlight Pictures, a feature film and television production company based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, develops, finances and produces independent feature films and television projects for the domestic and international marketplace. Company principals and producers, Stephen Hegyes and Shawn Williamson, have worked on over 50 productions in the last 10 years, including Bruce Sweeney’s Last Wedding which opened the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival and starred Molly Parker, and Alone in the Dark starring Christian Slater, Stephen Dorff, and Tara Reid. Brightlight is currently shooting The Long Weekend, a Canada / UK co-production between Brightlight Pictures and Gold Circle Films UK starring Chris Klein and Brendan Fehr. More information on Brightlight Pictures can be found at www.brightlightpictures.com.
Quoted interview from IMSOMNIAC Mania (Defunct website):
Question - In the movie "Hunter : The Reckoning" how will you match the perspective that we see in the game?
Dr Boll - We have an extremely well drafted script, it will include skin riders, ghouls and carpenters etc. It is a little complicated but they took care together with the company "White Wolf" to bring all of the game elements on paper.
Question - In the game, evil is everywhere, "they are our babysitters, policemen, bartenders and even our friends." Dr Boll, how will you display this concept without the film becoming a cheesy rip off of say "The Body snatchers"? How will you demonstrate that these characters are evil?
Dr Boll - This is a good point - everyone is suspicious - there is no place safe. It is a good question because it was a general decision for the skin rider to use his own body? He will have a split personality, where he can morph into different bodies. The writers made some very good decisions.
Question - In your movie how do people become Hunters? Will you avoid giving them a uncreative name like Blade Trinity's Nightstalkers?
Dr Boll - Hunters are hunters, is is like an underground army - not essentially made of up of an elite team - more likely containing the last survivors, some with special abilities. Our lead character will refuse to be a Hunter. He wants his normal life back - but there is no way back
Question - How will you start the movie "Hunter : The Reckoning"? A great introduction would be a multi-layered action shot introducing us to the main characters, Deuce, Father Cortez, Kassandra and Samantha? Will you combine their introductions to save screen time?
Dr Boll - Yes, they will come into the film as a group. Our lead character is called "Riggs".
Question - How will you differentiate the characters? Will you give each one a special ability, weapon or combo to impress the reviewers?
Dr Boll - We will do exactly that.
Question - There should be a lengthy use of all weapons seen in the game from twenty melee weapons, ranged and spell weapons, axes, shotguns, swords and flamethrowers, which weapons will appear in the film? How long will we see them featured?
Dr Boll - We will use all weapons and we shall have very big action sequences. There will also be a massacre in a big slaughterhouse with chainsaws.
Question - In the game the characters improve in skills and stats, how will you express this in the movie? Are you just going to give them bigger weapons to delude us that have improved? I would be most impressed if at the beginning you could make the characters miss or get in less fatal shots. Then near the end they can take out some of the characters with fatal headshots in fewer bullets with less powerful weapons!?
Dr Boll - Everybody has special weapons and abilities from the beginning on
Question - Which actors are you wanting to use for the lead roles?
Dr Boll - I do not know yet. I have a great part that Donald Sutherland.
Question - Will you use the music band "Coma"? The same band that was used for the game?
Dr Boll - I will talk to "White Wolf" about it.
Question - Will you combine CGI with live action shots to pull the effects off?
Dr Boll - Absolutely
Question - Graphical effects are always referred back to the Matrix movies these days, how will your movies separate themselves from this shadow? What unique shots are we most likely going to see that could do this for your films?
Dr Boll - I like the camera work used in "Pirates of the Caribbean", we used something similar in our latest film "BloodRayne".
Question - You can also take out the enemies piece by piece, shooting off body parts etc...could we see this feature often, instead of just taking out loads of enemies using big explosions?
Dr Boll - Cutting or shooting people in pieces is defiantly one of my strong sides as a director.
Question - The scenic view can sometimes let a movie down, if there is not much change in the environment. Could you blend many different environments smoothly to make the film look fantastic? Research suggests there is a cemetery, gothic church, train station and prison. Instead of copying Resident Evil perhaps the zombies could be walking around before the characters realize they are in the cemetery?
Dr Boll - Our ghouls are under a graveyard eating the dead people. A lot of skin riders are based in a hospital. The Hunters are situated in an old church.
Question - Will you incorporate a few split screen scenes? If you have seen the TV series 24, they sometimes split the screen up to follow a character and then join up again at the end of the shot. You could mimic the multiplayer features you seen in a game for a split second to make the fight sequences fluent?
Dr Boll - I do not know. I got roasted because I used videogame footage in "House of the Dead".
Question - How will you handle the choreography of the characters? Each one will move differently to the other; how will you pull this off subtly?
Dr Boll - This is interesting in a game and easy in a movie to show, with more subjective strategies at our disposal.
Question - Will we see dual gun action? A character emptying both clips at once, into all of the monsters featured in the game in just one shot?
Dr Boll - Absolutely. I have never seen this in any other movie before.
Question - Will the zombies in this project resemble those from House of the Dead? How will you upgrade your work, to make them look cooler and more horrific?
Dr Boll - We will have different special effect make up. Our zombies here will look and act even more screwed up then those from "House of the Dead".
Question - The film should also include Ghouls and Vampires! How will you portray these characters, how can you make your vampires cooler then those seen in BloodRayne and Blade?
Dr Boll - The Ghouls will look human, they will eat the dead. Carpenters will also be featured in the film - a kind of werewolf/vampires - but we will not have Vampires in this particular film.
Question - There will be 7 "insane" boss monsters right? Will you match these bosses with those in the game, a true adaptation?
Dr Boll - We cannot bring in the 7 monsters - it is not in the script that "White Wolf" approved.
Question - Will the concept artwork and downloads featured on the official site of "Hunter: The Reckoning" be reflected in the upcoming posters?
Dr Boll - Production will start soon. "Dungeon Siege" is my next project before "Hunter : The Reckoning"
At this point, I should remind my readers who Uwe Boll is. He's the director behind a laundry list of horrible, god-awful live-action adaptations to video games, including the BloodRayne films.
(Laughs) The only thing good to come out of that film was the fact that we got to see Kristanna Loken topless if we could stop kidding ourselves on anything positive in that film other than that.
I'm glad someone in Hollywood came to their senses and never allowed him to adapt this video games series and add it to his resume of cinematic train wrecks. To this day, there's no record of how far into pre-production did this adaptation make it before the film was cancelled and scrapped. The fact that it was even considered for an adaptation by this clown is very scary thought to me. We really dodged a bullet on that one, HTR fans...
My Thoughts
My Thoughts
Hunter: The Reckoning was easily my favorite out of this trilogy of games. I'll never tire of Tony Jay's epic narration over the opening cinematic/trailer when first fire the game up into your Xbox. It always manages to pump me up for good time of killing zombies and hunting down other demonic baddies either solo or with a friend. My older brother and I rented it one lazy Saturday afternoon when it first came out, only to enjoy the game so much that we bought a copy to own shortly thereafter from the punishingly hard difficulty. I'm not talking about Dark Souls level hard either, I'm talking about that NES era hard where random shit could instantly kill you at any given time, from exploding vehicles (or from those annoying fucking spiders) that you just happened to neglect noticing when a big battle starts when these hordes of enemies start filling up the screen, splash damage from your own weapons (such as firing a rocket launcher too close), or merely from the demonic spiders that randomly spawn if you wander too far away from your teammates/allies. When I say this game throws a ton of enemies at you, I'm not kidding. In comparison to the sequels and ports on other consoles, the occasional slowdown or hiccup in gameplay was justified as that level of insanity was pretty unheard of at that time period/console era of gaming. This was a game that wasn't without it's share of faults too. Multiplayer games turned hectic at times not due to the action on screen but from the limitations of players being unable to move too far away from each other, causing unintentional deaths. Friendly fire was a cause of concern too with explosions in the game's environments as they were lethal to anything nearby in the area of impact.
My fondest memories of this game was facing those massive hordes of enemies that would fill up the screen with the game's blazing soundtrack accompanying behind it, even though it would take a moment to boot up in really hectic moments from everything going on with the occasional slowdown or two. Even though this game was littered with some groan-inducing fetch quests and escort missions, I still look back at it fondly to this day. It remains as one of the Xbox titles that I desperately hope and wish would get a modern remake or HD remaster in some capacity. It's one of those games that I would share with people in co-op on occasion from time to time every few years and they would instantly become fans from the utter chaos that this game brings to the table. Teamwork is definitely key in multiplayer sessions but it's definitely fair enough to complete solo. I personally stuck with either Martyr (Kassandra Cheyung) or Judge (Father Esteban Cortez) as the two Hunters I preferred to play as the most, but I thought Judge was by far the easiest character to clear the game with solo from his devastating ability to deal with crowd control and his basic weapons instantly kill the wealth of vampire enemies you encounter towards the end of the game. Martyr is arguably the weakest Hunter out of the four offensively early on, but her abilities are a godsend in the last few boss fights in multiplayer since her late game abilities allow her to deal back the damage dealt onto her with a damage multiplier. Another reason I like Martyr is her witty banter and commentary on things throughout the game's story.
(Laughs) Random fact: There was a point where I could recite all of Carpenter's dialogue from memory. That's how much I loved that character in this game and how awesome I thought he was.
I took pride in introducing this game to my college roommates and having it being added to our regular nights of gaming when we weren't warming up for Halo sessions with the rest of our suitemates on our hall playing Fusion Frenzy. Instead, we were piled on the couch and on the carpeted floor playing this (and on a lesser extent, Brute Force...) for hours on end.
I'm glad that it's not stuck on the original Xbox either as it's currently available via backwards compatibility for the Xbox Series X. This remains to be a game I keep telling myself that I'm going to stream on my Twitch channel for Halloween if the stars line up properly in terms of free time.
Hunter: The Reckoning - Wayward was a random purchase from the local discount video music store (one of the FYE affiliates, Manifest, for those curious...) nearby the college I went to at the time. I know I didn't pay more than $10-20 for it either. In comparison to the original game, this looked visually washed out and dull in terms of the presentation and the action is hindered by long loading screens between levels and the performance issues with the game slowing down to a crawl when there are too many enemies on screen. That's one reason why I was never enamored with the PlayStation 2 port of Resident Evil 4 (outside of Ada's exclusive content) as that game was dumbed down in terms of how many enemies were on screen to cater to the PlayStation 2's limitations in comparison to the GameCube at the time. It was a similar issue here with this sequel. Truth be told, I grew bored with this quickly and traded it back in after never bothering to finish it. Another knock against it for me was the lack of 4-player multiplayer support. It was locked at just 2-players at a time when the PlayStation 2 could support 4-players with the Multi-Tap accessory for the console. This is just a personal gripe but I have to admit that I thought that the controller layout for this game on the PlayStation 2 just felt all kinds of wrong on their DualShock 2 controllers too. I will never understand why they went with the trend of changing the cast's designs from game to game either. The Hunters' designs were great in the original game. There was no reason to keep changing their looks, especially when this game and Redeemer (on Xbox) were being released a month apart from each other. If you want to do some costume customization system for replay value, cool, but don't change the looks that worked for these characters. The new designs made almost everyone from the original game look borderline unrecognizable to me at least, save for Deuce (Avenger) and Father Cortez (Judge).
I still frown upon this outing on the PlayStation 2 as an eye sore on this franchise because I see it as a massive missed opportunity to make a splash on different console than the Xbox and they ended up creating a lackluster sequel that couldn't hold a candle to anything significant and memorable about the original that was extremely underwhelming and an overall lackluster effort to port over what worked in the original game to this console.
Hunter: The Reckoning - Redeemer was visually stunning at the time for it's graphical improvements over the original and not just the added hotness of the now grown up Kaylie Winter joining the Hunters' ranks as the Redeemer, but in terms of the environments and locales. Unfortunately, the game ended up being extremely boring and lackluster in comparison to the original game. The difficulty was definitely scaled down in comparison to the original game as when my older brother and I went through it on our first playthrough together in co-op, we ran into little to no difficulties clearing the stages. The plot was completely forgettable too, despite it was cool to see Carpenter make another appearance since he was my favorite character in the original game. Knocking down the difficulty a few notches in this sequel made all of the Hunters feel really powerful early on too. It made almost anything and everything (outside of the bosses who were merely damage sponges) feel non-threatening and piled on the feelings of boredom with this sequel. Unlike the original game, I had no desires to come back to this sequel after completing it, despite the sheer amount of unlockable customizations.
In hindsight, I can see why both Wayward and Redeemer failed to impress fans of the original and didn't rake in any new fans since these two sequels were both released within a span of a month of each other and weren't really given any room to breathe at all. Just imagine if High Voltage Software weren't splitting it's resources to create two games for two different consoles, but had their entire work force focused on just a single multiplatform sequel.
Despite these shortcomings on the two sequels, I still wish to see this franchise revived/continued on modern consoles. It definitely deserves to be reimagined with better technology being applied to modern gaming. Hunter: The Reckoning was a franchise that offered something different before the whole zombie outbreak niche in gaming became so oversaturated. I would love to see that series reimagined with a new team and minds behind it who can capture what was great about the original title while managing to bring something new and fresh to the table.
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