Do you enjoy difficult boss fights in video games?
Do you enjoy constantly improving and upgrading your character’s gear?
Do you take pride in the video game grind?
Is there something fundamentally wrong with you?
If you answered yes to any of the above, then Monster Hunter might just be for you! (Except the last one… kinda…)
The Monster Hunter franchise has been around for ages, unofficially touting itself as a hardcore hunting game. When Monster Hunter World launched in 2018, it worked to bridge the gap between hardcore and casual players, adding some guardrails to broaden its appeal.
Monster Hunter Wilds doubles down on smoothing out the franchise’s rougher, more rigid “git gud” edges, while modernizing the Monster Hunting experience. But can seasoned veterans still find a a hunt orth slaying for?
Welcome to Monster Hunter Park!
At its core, Monster Hunter is a game that revolves around killing big monsters, looting their sweet, sweet corpses, upgrading your gear, and repeating the process until you’re blue in the face.
You have access to 14 unique weapons with their own playstyles, abilities, and overall feel. A person who only plays using a Heavy Bowgun will experience the game in a completely different way than someone who uses only a Charge Blade. It’s what gives the franchise its endless replayability.
Players must also traverse sprawling levels to hunt and kill a wide variety of monsters, ranging from grotesque gorillas to towering tarantulas.
The feel of mastering a weapon, besting beasts, and upgrading equipment is extremely addictive if you have the patience to put up with a few of Monster Hunter Wilds quirks.
Monster Hunting, uh, Finds a Way
So what exactly is unique to Monster Hunter combat this time around?
- In Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, you had the Clutch Claw.
- In Monster Hunter Rise, you had Wirebugs to fling you around.
- In Monster Hunter Wilds, you have Focus Mode and the Wound Mechanic.
Focus Mode lets you aim freely with your weapons while highlighting wounded areas on a monster.
When you repeatedly strike a specific part of a monster, it eventually develops a bright red wound (only visible in Focus Mode). Continuing to attack these wounded spots increases your damage output. At a certain point, the wound bursts, dealing additional damage before disappearing.
On top of that, certain weapons have new mechanics to take advantage of wounds. For example, the Great Sword has a new move that stabs into a monster and drags the blade across its body – popping the red wound indicators like bubble wrap and dealing massive damage. The dual blades spawn a really slick acrobatic attack that shows your hunter cascade above the beast, dealing spinning damage throughout the Monster’s body.
There are also new ways to manipulate monsters, ranging from offset attacks to power clash triggers.
However, while this all sounds great, the total package of all these fun new mechanics made combat feel a bit too breezy for this experienced monster hunter.
For example, at one point in the story, the main group encounters a Lala Barina – this massive spider monster. It happens within the first 2-3 hours of the game, and my character wasn’t decked out with any special equipment or weapons….I took that sucker down in three minutes – on my first try.
Instead of feeling accomplished, I felt disappointed that I had absolutely annihilated that thing. I was still getting a feel for the game and hadn’t even upgraded any equipment at that point.
A part of the magic of “Monster Hunting” is overcoming the challenges presented by a monster. Looking to exploit weaknesses, or learn its attack patterns to gain an upper hand. If you’re an experienced Monster Hunter player, prepare to feel quite comfortable throughout 75% of the story. That’s not to say the fighting mechanics weren’t fun – it’s more a statement on the difficulty presented by the story mode.
After you do beat the story (or finish the “low rank” monster hunts), the game sheds its overbearing personality to become the confident and capable game it was meant to be. You’re treated to a much more open, challenging and rewarding gameplay loop. A new batch of monster variants are introduced – frenzied and tempered – which grant you new materials to grind away and further upgrade your equipment.
I want to emphasize, the combat in Monster Hunter Wilds is extremely satisfying. The hits on the monsters feel impactful. As I was trying out the Charge Blade, and wildly bashing the side of a Chatacabra with the massive axe, I could see the muscles jiggle accordingly. So if an easier difficulty level isn’t going to sink your battleship, it’s definitely worth firing on all cylinders for this game. Some players may just reach the endgame faster than others.
Hold on to your Seikrets!
Let me tell you about one of my Seikrets… er, let me tell you about your new trusty steed, the “Seikret.”
With the stylish new levels, you’ll need a stylish new ride. This furry, velociraptor-looking stallion can auto-pilot you to any objective markers you’ve flagged, letting you focus on crafting, sharpening your weapons, or strategizing before jumping back into battle. If you’ve played Monster Hunter Rise, you’ll feel right at home here.
But the Seikrets go much deeper. They give you access to two weapons at once! With the press of a button, your Seikret will rush to your side, letting you swap to a second weapon you’ve brought along.
On paper, it might not seem like a big deal, but for Monster Hunter veterans, this is a game-changer. Not only do you have a new weapon at your disposal, but you also gain an entirely new way to approach the hunt.
Having trouble landing the beefy hits of a Great Sword against a nimble monster and want to switch to the more defensive Gunlance? Now you can!
Want to swap a poison-infused hammer for a thunder-elemental one? Go for it!
The world is your Wyvern.
They do move in herds!
As is tradition, you’ll have an easier time solving a rubix cube than setting up an online session with your friends in Monster Hunter Wilds. In a gaming world where online play is a central part of the experience, it was disappointing to have such a janky invite system almost ruin the fun.
As a welcome new addition, if you’re playing offline, AI Companions come in to the fight if you fire an SOS flair.
Playing with strangers and AI with an SOS flair is easy, but with your friends? Fugghetaboutit.
In all seriousness though, it’s possible to pull off. Just don’t go into it thinking online play is an easy breezy beautiful clever girl.
The creators were so preoccupied with whether or not they COULD, that they didn’t stop to think if it WOULD (run smoothly)
I played the game on a standard PS5, and using remote play. I played with performance mode and did find the odd stuttering. There wasn’t anything game breaking, but the high quality graphics mixed with some odd quirks and not-so-great draw distances occasionally reminded me that maybe it’s not the best optimized.
It never negatively affected my enjoyment of the game, but I could see how some people would be disappointed in what they’re looking at. This is the first legitimate “Next Gen” Monster Hunter game after all. There are optimization settings, but it never fails to load in choppy no matter if you select fidelity or performance modes.
Story?
The story gets in the way of the game. There, we said it.
Want to hunt crazy monsters? Too bad. First, you have to sit through a long cutscene, travel to a distant location at a snail’s pace, chat with your pals at a new camp, and then – yep – watch another cutscene. The pacing is quite uneven. Thankfully the gameplay makes up for it. But it’s a slog to get past unless you’re really jonesing for a Monster Hunter story…
Monster Hunter isn’t a franchise known for its storytelling, and Wilds puts in the effort to flesh out something interesting—but falls short. While a good story is always appreciated, in a game where the main loop is kill monster -> upgrade gear -> repeat, it ends up doing more harm than good.
Cutscenes drag on, especially early on, and the game indulges in everyone’s favorite video game trope—following a slow-walking NPC across half the map while they talk.
It’s a bit like being told, “No dessert (monster hunting) until you’ve finished your vegetables (long-winded exposition).”
I hate to recommend skipping cutscenes, but Wilds has so much bloat that it’s hard not to. The good news is you can re-watch any cutscenes later.
To give you a taste of what’s in store—I once went from a “WE KILLED THE MONSTER, YAY!” cutscene, to “Follow slow-walking NPC to camp,” then to another cutscene telling me to go to a different camp, followed by another slow NPC walk, and yet another camp-introduction cutscene…
A 20-minute stretch of watching the game play itself. Ugh.
All could have been forgiven if the time between story beats felt meaty, but that’s not the case. Every story quest throws in an unnecessary roadblock, forcing you to crawl toward the fun..
There is light at the end of the tunnel, however. Once you beat the low rank story mode (roughly 10-15 hours) MHW takes its foot off your throat and lets you breathe. I’ll say the content of the story is subjective, but being forced into gameplay purgatory for the sake of the story usually backfires.
One Thing History Has Taught Us, Monster Hunting Won’t Be Contained
Monster Hunter Wilds all in all has the stuff that makes a great game. With fantastic combat mechanics, an addictive gameplay loop of fighting, upgrading, and jumping right into the hunt, it makes it easy to recommend with a few caveats. If players are diving in for a strong narrative experience, jump elsewhere… That being said that’s probably not the prime reason why players will be grabbing a hold of a Seikret. At the time of this review a patch recently got released to fix stability issues. Hopefully another patch will come to help players get into action even quicker.
Monster Hunter Wilds Review
Summary
Monster Hunter Wilds has some of the most fun gameplay for players to experience, but is held back by uneven pacing. The story, long winded cutscenes, and occasionally static fetch and chat with NPC quests holds this great game back from being an excellent one. That being said, the Monster Hunting is the smoothest it’s ever been in the series.
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