The Huntsman: Winter's Curse (PlayStation 4) Review

The Huntsman: Winter's Curse is story centric. Cutting rope and letting horses run wild to create a distraction, a feisty dwarf scaling a gargantuan troll and stabbing him in the eye, corrupted siblings fighting to the death; all thrilling stuff… or it would be if the game was fully animated. Instead, the player must imagine what is going on while two characters sway left and right, regardless of what the textbox claims is happening.

The lack of animation also extends to the battle scenes where each character has a single animation for attacking. Choose a kick with Elizabeth and she will still slash at the enemy with her sword, and even if that enemy is a spirit - a floating ball of transparent mist - they will bleed. This is disappointing for a title where a huge chunk of the play time is allotted to story.

One redeeming factor lies in its battle system. Imagine a cross between a tactical card game and a traditional turn-based RPG and you have The Huntsman: Winter's Curse, albeit the complexity has been cranked down to beginner level. The party consists of one to three members, depending on how independent the protagonist feels at that point of the tale. Each party member has four item slots; one weapon, one piece of armour, and two assist items. One Item consists of two cards that contain attacks or basic effects that consist of boosting or reducing attributes. There's nothing surprising here.

Where combat system shines is in its organic timing system. On the top left of the screen rests a timeline with each combatant lined up in order of who is next to attack. While faster characters have less time between attacks, it is a negligible difference and will play out like a regular turn-based RPG. This makes the system seem rather pointless for the first few battles. The battles heat up, however, when moves that give instant speed boosts or slow down the enemy become available. There is something very satisfying about using a move that raises both attack and speed, only to land a devastating blow before the enemy has the time to retaliate.

This happens around the second and third episodes, but instead of introducing more complex moves and battles that require strategy as the game progresses, The Huntsman: Winter's Curse simply forces the player to fight the same enemy types in repetition. Interest quickly fades. By failing to engage beyond simply learning how the timing system works, Desert Owl Games has wasted a chance to make a truly memorable battle system. It's hard to not feel unsatisfied, longing for something deeper.

The Huntsman: Winter's Curse will take about six hours to complete, but that's not including an additional two hours to that for the time wasted dealing with bugs. Equipment can be changed in the space between the end of a story scene and the start of a battle, but when the battle begins the player won't be able to select anything. The game must be restarted. Once it has loaded and the title scene appears, seemingly it is fate that will decide whether you can move the cursor or must reset yet again. Random bugs also seem to show up in almost every part of the game. This causes a lack of motivation knowing that no matter how well a battle goes, it can all be in vain. Bugs are so frequent that it feels as if The Huntsman: Winter's Curse may have a touch of the medieval plague.