Monster Hunter Wilds Review

I’ll be honest and say that I have played a couple of Monster Hunter titles in the past, but kept deciding they weren’t for me. I think this is simply because I have played them solo and also dipped into ported titles that didn’t bring a polished product to the Xbox console. A lot of my friends are avid Monster Hunter fans and kept convincing me to give it another go. With Monster Hunter Wilds now out in the actual wild, I decided why not join some friends and really give it my full undivided attention.

Catering For The Newcomers

The complexity and overall design of previous titles has driven me away in the first few hours for some reason. Monster Hunter Wilds however, seems to be more streamlined in its approach to cater for new casual gamers. This may not be what some fans of the series want to hear, but I’d imagine it hasn’t strayed too far from what veterans know and love. Starting the game introduces you to the colourful and friendly cast via some impressive introductory cutscenes. Shortly after you’re then led into character customisation.  I was pleasantly surprised at the level of detail you can tinker around with here and after around an hour of fine tuning my hunter, I was ready.

If you decide you’re not happy with how your character appears though, you can change things from base camp at any time. I won’t spoil the fairly shallow storyline, but after playing Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii and having the young boy Noah by my side, it all feels very reminiscent here. You’re trying to curb the monsters in the region and come across a little lad named Nata who is attempting to escape a beast of a monster. Here the game eases you in gently as you become familiar with the gameplay mechanics.

Streamlined Play & Reactive Monsters

Gone is the stop and start nature of previous games gone by when you’d head back to base after each scrap and prepare for the next. Pretty much everything you can do can be handled on the fly as I found out when my character randomly started cooking himself BBQ food in the middle of a monster fight. This encouraged me to dip in for those small pockets of time where I could jump on and do something in half hour without much planning. Some may have appreciated going back to base to gather their thoughts and pre-plan the next move. There are still aspects of planning if you want them and it becomes your choice if you want to head to base at any stage.

What I liked about fighting the vast array of monsters was just how they reacted to being attacked. You felt like you were really hurting them when you targeted specific areas, to the point they would run away and almost shield themselves to prevent further damage. There was a great sense of realism and this is how I would expect huge monsters to react in the heat of battle. It was also exciting when playing with friends to communicate with each other on strategy to take them out and which area of the body to target.

Visuals & Audio

I’ll get the bad bit out of the way first and tell you that the UI is a little bit of mess and takes some learning to get used to. It doesn’t take away from the core gameplay experience, but it does become a little bit of a bugbear until you get used to it. I found myself asking friends how to access certain aspects of the game, so unfortunately I feel it could do with some work. Capcom have done exceptional work with the aesthetics and presentation across the board in Monster Hunter Wilds. 

Cutscenes are well constructed and filled with intensity and adrenaline. Characters are well voiced and I really felt that I could connect with their individual personalities throughout my time with the game. Diverse regions within the map are detailed but exploration isn’t really pushed as you can gather resources directly from your mount. I did feel this kind of discourages you from going around on foot, discovering areas but it does get you from A to B nice and quickly. The actual monsters themselves have spectacular design and reactions to combat with a lot of variance between them. Also, props to the teams who put the music together for the game. It compliments the atmosphere and is really enjoyable to listen to.

Final Thoughts

Monster Hunter Wilds is probably the first game in the popular franchise to really consume me. Whether it was because I played a lot of it with a couple of friends or just didn’t really give the previous games enough chance, I am not entirely sure. What I can be sure of though is that it is a rich and detailed world that feels fantastic to play, both for veterans of the series and newcomers also. I have read various comments from fans stating that it is a little easier than previous experiences. For me though, it was challenging enough without becoming too difficult to drive me away.

The fluidity of combat seems drastically improved on what I have delved into before. Sure there could still be some minor improvements going forwards, most notably the cluttered and untidy UI. But for the most part I had a great time and will continue to do so after 20+ hours with the game. For those solo players out there like myself who tried and didn’t like Monster Hunter, try and grab some mates to enhance the adventure. If not you could try the looking for game feature on Xbox, which I used for the very first time to find others to slay giant monsters with.