Game Review: World II: Hunting Boss (Xbox One)

World II: Hunting Boss is a straight-forward hack and slasher that takes the many missions you might take part in before facing a boss and cuts out the middle man. It’s called Hunting Boss for a reason.

Originally released on mobile, World II: Hunting Boss has been ported to the Xbox One without much in the way of changes (beyond adding achievements). You can choose one of three characters, each with a handful of their own attacks. Then choose a boss fight and get stuck in.

The game controls simply with the attack buttons clearly labelled on the right hand of the screen. As well as a standard attack, each button corresponds to a special move. One that comes with a brief cooldown after use. Not only that but the three moves will affect your stamina. Which, if depleted, will see you stunned and unable to move for around 10 seconds.

Managing your stamina would be strategic if World II: Hunting Boss had any kind of strategy about it. With no lock-on feature, the only way to fight is to get stuck in and hope for the best most of the time. You can rarely be sure if your attacks are going to hit. The only indication that they have are the large hit-point numbers that fly up.

The fights take place in small arenas with the aim being to kill the boss, earn the XP from it, level up then repeat the process. When you level up all your stats increase making the next boss that little bit easier but there is no actual customisation. You don’t get different weapons, armour to equip or any kind of consumable to use. It’s as bare bones as possible. Something that gets pretty frustrating later on as the game has a sharp difficulty curve.

You won’t level up fast enough to keep progressing through missions forcing you to replay already defeated bosses. This wouldn’t be a major problem if the game had a massive amount of variety but it doesn’t. Before you’ve even hit level 5 (max is 20) you’ll have seen almost every type of boss already.

To help, a little bit into the game the other two characters controlled by the AI will join you to fight. You have no control over their actions and you can’t give them commands. From the moment the fight starts they will get stuck in until you either win or they die.

The AI is decent and they can often be the difference between winning and losing. It would be nice though if they made more effort to get out of the way of the monster’s attacks!

In both the sound and the visuals department, World II: Hunting Boss is nothing special. Way below the capabilities of the Xbox One but certainly nothing offensive. You have to bear in mind it has been ported from a mobile game.

Simple to pick up and play, cheap and with a decent amount of fun, there is nothing really wrong with World II: Hunting Boss. You’re not going to get hours of play out of it but the hack and slash combat will hold your attention for a while.