10 years ago little Kaylie Winter watched as her parents were torn apart by her teddy bear turned terrible monster. With that she was Imbued, and turned into a Hunter, one who defends humanity against the supernatural monsters that knock in the night. Her arsenal is composed of a pistol, a sword, and a set of powers given to her to fight the darkness. Hunter: The Reckoning: Redeemer is clumsy in more than just its name, it also has a combo system that makes little sense and areas so dark it can be difficult to keep up with the action. Still, the game keeps the core that gained fans for the previous Hunter games, fast paced multiplayer action.

It's been 5 years since the Hunters last gathered in Ashcroft. Then it was to fight off an invasion from the Shadowlands, a fight that left the town devastated. Since then a new megacorp has moved in, Genefex, and has cleaned up the town and brought jobs. However, for some reason the werewolves have started attacking Genefex shipments and it's your duty to fight them off while finding out what it is they are so interested in. To do this you have your choice of 5 Hunters, each with their own weapons, skills, and personalities.

There isn't much in the way of game balance here-- some of the Hunters are notably easier to fight with than others. When you have a super power that lets you blast multiple baddies into dust into one shot, and every time you use it you gain more experience in it which can improve the range and spread of the kill zone, then there's not much compelling reason to play characters who can only hit one at a time. Those Hunters who excel in melee combat are made an unappealing selection by the poorly thought out combo system. Some combos require manipulating both control sticks while pushing buttons and pulling triggers, and the pay off just isn't worth the effort, especially as some combos can leave your character performing a complex set of movements that you can't cancel or control the direction it's unleashed. Compounding this problem is that sometimes the hit zone doesn't appear to match up with the animation of your character. More than once you will notice your sword swiping through a monster with no damage or reaction at all. Ranged combat is generally weaker than melee combat or using powers, but can end up being more reliable than either one, especially once you start picking up special weapons like machine guns and shotguns.

Adding to the difficulty of aiming is the darkness of the game. While it's based on the table top game of the same name and takes place in the World of Darkness, when the player cannot see their character on the screen you've taken it too far. Add in swarms of monsters crowding into the screen and you can easily lose track of where you are or what direction you are facing, which can lead to you launching a long combo that hits nothing but air. The potential confusion doesn't end there, however. The beginning of each new area gives you a short text message telling you what your goal is, but gives you no clues as to how to accomplish this. While you'll occasionally get special runes marked into the floor to point you in the right direction, there are times where you don't, and you're left wandering around aimlessly.

Many of the flaws in previous Hunter games and in Hunter: The Reckoning: Redeemer can be forgiven on the strength of its multiplayer. It really is a game designed to be played with a friend or three, and the swarms of monsters are less imposing with your posse by your side. To aid in the delivery of swarms of monsters the graphics are less than what you might expect from an Xbox game. They are still functional and the character design is creative and distinctive, but you don't get a lot of detail from them. When the game tries to get too pretty, such as in a Goth club with television sets on the walls and a horde of zombies coming for you, you can encounter frame rate loss, which can make trying to take down those zombies a chore. The game also won't be winning any awards for dialog. It's there, it tells you what is going on, but you also get silliness like a discussion on the literal and metaphorical size difference of the testicles of a bald guy in chaps, a teenage girl, and a werewolf.