It's time to play Monster Hunter again, but now you're an Orc
Hunters Inc gets a WAAAAGHY demo
The release of Monster Hunter Wilds brought with it the usual comments about the hypocrisy of a series that wants to both protect ecosystems and grind them up for parts. "When will Monster Hunter just be honest about its desire to endlessly turn dragons into pants," we lamented to ourselves. "When will the Monster Hunters recognise - nay, embrace the fact that they are the biggest Monsters of all".
We could have saved ourselves a few thousand words and just pointed at Hunters Inc, instead. It's basically a first-person low-budget Monster Hunter game in which the Hunters are Orcs. Orcs do not do self-deception, as a rule. They do not go for sanitised violence or anthropocentric fantasies about becoming "nature's caretakers". They are straightforwardly happy to club things to bits. Looks like ludonarrative consonance is back on the menu, boys!
In Hunters Inc, you and up to three of your greenskin friends rampage around procedurally generated biomes mashing up the fauna. Their weapons include spears, hammers and bows, and their prey ranges from giant spiders to smaller giant spiders, giant crocodiles and, er, snails. Not especially giant snails, no, just regular snails that made the mistake of looking smashable. There are four Orc RPG classes to choose from: the Berserker, who's all about DPS, the Tracker, who's all about recon, the Blacksmith, who builds war machines using gatherable resources, and the Shaman, who is armed with protective totems and spells.
The larger creatures are so large they can smash up bits of the environment. You'll need to kite them around and exploit the terrain to get the drop on them, which, yes, I do mean literally. Orcs don't seem to have a problem with fall damage as long as they land spear-first on something with tendons. Once slain, you can carve the beasts up for upgrade materials and yes, I also mean "carving" literally. There's no performative jabbing with your beltknife while the slaughtered quarry gracefully dematerialises, as in Capcom's game. You can actually chop a giant croc's head off and roll around in the gore like a toddler invading a chocolate fountain.
Creators Wylderzone are also responsible for Guards!, in which you play a bunch of city watchmen hobnail-booting the crims. That game wasn't rapturously received, but perhaps they've struck gold this time. Regardless, I consider this good catharsis after Wilds. The only thing I'm left bewildered by is the "Inc" part. This is an Orc corporation then? Do they have shareholders? Where are they registered for tax purposes?
You can assess the game for yourself by downloading the Steam demo. The full thing is out in July 2025. I feel bad about writing this up because it absolutely should have gone to Nic, author of the very best piece on video game Orcs, but that's what he gets for [placeholder for whatever he does next that annoys me].