One Long Play Session Later

Monster Hunter: Wilds positions itself as one of the most accessible entries into the series while not sacrificing any of the uniqueness series regulars would be accustomed to. It brings plenty of new ideas to the table and refines some older ones while boldly reasserting that gameplay trumps all.

As of writing this, I have around 30+ hours in Wilds and wanted to share my impressions of the game so far before any big updates or content drops are released.

The Green House

Monster Hunter: Wilds is the first Monster Hunter that I am playing when the game initially launches.  I played Monster Hunter: Worlds a few years ago for only a handful of hours and never clicked with the game.  I didn’t understand the uniqueness that is the Monster Hunter series and the game just didn’t feel like it was for me. 

A few years later, I played Monster Hunter: Rise when it eventually made its way to Steam after launching as a Nintendo Switch exclusive.  With more insight into what MH was and a few friends to play with, I connected with Rise in a way I didn’t know I could based on my previous experience with Worlds.

And now for Wilds, I can’t put the hunting filled cup down. Most of my recent free time has been dedicated to hunting monsters, carving carcasses, crafting new armor, and of course repeating.

At its core, Monster Hunter is about chasing down larger-than-life monsters and either killing or capturing them.  How you do so is different from game to game and player to player, but that is Monster Hunter in a nutshell.

The Capcom-produced series has slowly grown over time from a cult-followed game to now a Steam chart-topper. I believe the main reason is that Monster Hunter is a series about player freedom and creativity expressed in a way that doesn’t take advantage of its fanbase, with Monster Hunter: Wilds being a perfect example of that.

In Bloom

In addition to obviously hunting monsters, the series is known for allowing its players to freely express themselves through combat and character customization, which is the first thing you do in Wilds. The character creator is robust and thorough offering players the ability to make a hunter nearly identical to themselves, a celebrity, or like I did, a diehard New York Mets Super Fan.

After creating your Hunter, it’s all about the monsters from there. In Wilds, almost every monster offers a unique armor set and weapon to make for your hunter. Of the 10 series staple weapons, each have their own move sets and special abilities and for some ammo. In Wilds, you are able to have two weapons equipped that can be swapped between mid hunt. What weapons you choose to use all come down to preference and play into player freedom I mentioned earlier.

I believe there is at least one weapon for everyone in Wilds. If you like quick action and being mobile the dual blades will be your bread and butter. If you want to stay at range and tack on constant damage one of the guns or bow will be the perfect choice for you. But if you are like me and want to land crushing blows with each swing and knock monsters 3-4x the size of your character on their ass, the hammer never gets old and has a easy to learn easy to master curve.

If you want more of a challenge or unique experience hunting, there is options for you also. The hunting horn uses the power of music to buff allies and lay strong blows at the same time. The insect glaive is a also a fun choice for those who want to harness the power of bugs and mix it with high flying action to overwhelm each monster.

Combine the uniqueness of each weapon with the constant collection of different monster parts used to make new armor and weapons based on the monster they came from, almost no two hunters will look the same or play the same. While hunting up to 3 other hunters, either AI or real players, can join you and the variety each hunter brings keeps the game fresh, fun, and at times hilarious. The more you use a weapon or fine craft your build the more you learn you can do and show off in front of players you’ll most likely never see again but had a similar goal of killing that same specific monster you were hunting.

When fine crafting a build there is a lot that can go into it. Something that will overwhelm new players is the amount of buffs, stasis effects, and perks that can be active at one time. This is one of those things that really sets Monster Hunter apart. Being able to fine tune each perk that is equipped and build something that specifically compliments a hunters play-style is what I love about the game. For me I value the ability “Ear Plugs”. “Ear Plugs” limits the reaction your hunter has from when a monster screams. Typically, when a monster screams it will interrupt what your hunter is doing so they can cover their ears, but depending on the level of ear plugs you have through armor pieces, gems equipped to armor, or in game buffs, you hunter will power right through even the loudest shrieks as if they didn’t even happen.

“Ear Plugs” is one of those perks that compliments my play style allowing me to rattle off long hammer combos but may be irrelevant to other hunters depending on what they deem valuable to have during a hunt. One thing that I think most hunters will agree has become valuable to every hunt and is new to Monster Hunter is the Seikret.

This ridable bird is one of the most valuable tools used on every hunt. In Monster Hunter Rise, you had to choose between bringing your Palico on each hunt or your Palamute. The Palico make it’s return in Wilds and is with you for every mission unless you summon AI or online help. The Palamute has been reworked into the Seikret and is with you for every mission. In Rise the Palamute was useful as a mount and allowed you to quickly follow the monster around in battle but you traded off the damage and utility the Palico brought. For Wilds, the Seikret joins you ever mission and while it doesn’t attack, it can be summoned with a whistle to carry you to or out of battle with no penalty.

While riding the Seikret, you can auto track the monster so it will take the fastest path towards your enemy allowing you to collect materials, sharpen blades, or applies buffs before or in between combat. This is one my favorite additions to the series and somehow already feels like a staple mechanic it would be hard to live without. Anytime a monster relocates mid battle a chorus of whistles can be heard from other hunters mounting up looking to continue the battle and taking in the brief moment of reprieve to refocus on themselves via healing or buffing before continuing the, at times, frenetic action of Monster Hunter: Wilds.

Apart from a few monster that follow a loose script in each battle, most hunts will be unique and unpredictable at times. Of course you can learn how a monster attacks and the rhythm that it dance in battle to. But every environment feels alive and that is thanks in part to how the monsters roam about them. They will fly, climb, or fight each other at any point in a battle. In the Monster Hunter series, its not uncommon to fight the same monster multiple times in a row to look for a specific part to drop off them. To keep these repeated engagements fun, the fights have to be different each time you look to tango.

For the time I have spent playing so far, I have not felt any resistance to wanting to fight the same fight over and over again. In addition to the monsters unpredictability, changing weapons, difficulty tiers, or fighting with different hunters, all have kept Monster Hunter: Wilds addicting through the first 30 odd hours I have played.

Even in another 30 hours, I think there will be a ton of fun to be had just trying out different weapons and how they interact with each monster. The action present in Wilds is so enjoyable that the time it takes to learn a new weapon is never boring or not worth the effort. The moment to moment gameplay of Wilds is what does all the heavy lifting here. You can ignore many aspects of the game like story or build-crafting and still enjoy one of the best action games out right now. The attention to detail and cinematic moments each weapon offers is enough to ignore some of the rougher looking details present in the game and get completely lost in trying to nail one long string combo after another.

Out Of Season

While there is so much to love about Wilds, there are two main issues I currently have. For me, the story and performance of Monster Hunter: Wilds are the only two things that have negatively impacted my experience.

In terms of performance, this game is not friendly towards older hardware. There are ways to get more juice out of the settings and maximize what you do have, but the overall consensus has been that the optimization for Wilds could have been better.

Running an Intel Core I9-9900K and Nvidia Geforce RTX 3070 TI, I found myself steadily around 50-70 frames depending on the amount of action and things happening at one time. I have the settings at a point where it is definitely closer looking to a PlayStation 2 game rather than a modern day entry.

It is hard to tell what is a graphics optimization issue and what is a creative design issue in some spots as well. While I love Capcoms design choices in some areas, the game does have a washed out feel to it that could be to cover up some of the spots where the visuals aren’t as strong. Thanks to some early mods, this can be alleviated for the most part.

While the past Monster Hunter entries have all had some story beats to follow throughout each game, Wilds takes the next step into developing a more cohesive narrative to follow as you hunt. In previous games the loose plot line of “Big monster is attacking please kill it” was the norm. But with Wilds, your hunter is part of a larger story that will have you investigating Monsters and Environments while forming connections with a wide range of NPC’s. Your mileage may vary on whether you feel those connections with any of those characters.

Monster Hunter: Wilds is broken up into different chapters with the first few chapters taking you to new locations (Low Rank Quests) and the following chapters having you dive deeper into each area as you increase your Hunter Rank (High Rank Quests). The structure for each chapter has you doing a few trailing missions to take in the environment with a few hunts sprinkled in. The end of each chapter wraps up with a hunt of a stronger than normal monster. While I wasn’t a huge fan of the actual narrative of the game, I do like the structure of being shown each area for a few missions and then really diving deep into them later at my own pace.

The story beats Capcom created to tie together all the hunts wore me down extremely fast. While I like the idea of the Monster Hunter Guild expanding their reach and working to protect more areas by deploying their strongest hunters, the communities and cast of characters you support throughout the game all felt bloated and grating to play alongside.

There are far too many characters to care for and the story struggles to flesh them all out enough apart from Alma the quest giver and Gemma the smithy. These two characters work the most for me because I was able to interact with them at my own pace and when the timing made sense compared to who the narrative will force you to meet people and expect you to care about them with no prior reasoning.

Most of the story will be investigating what the monsters are doing and why, but the handholding the game does through follow quests and annoying characters was enough for me to skip most cutscenes and dialogues. I struggled to connect with reuniting Nata to his family or why the game felt like we needed to bring him and so many non-hunters to combat missions. I struggled to connect to yet another story about a village with an elder that for some reason was immune to monster attacks until we showed up. I especially struggled to care about Wyvern Milk or why it was so important for monsters to drink or not drink it.

While its easy to arm-chair game dev, I would have loved to see the story of Monster Hunter: Wilds to focus in on the Monster Hunter Guild itself more and its motivations while working to build up its name and scale back on the amount of characters thrown in at every moment. A quote that gets said a lot when starting a hunt is: “The Guild Authorizes You To Hunt”. Every time I hear Alma say that I actually feel a connection to “The Guild” and actually feel like I’m using the knowledge I have learned as a hunter to help eradicate monsters from each area.

The Stem

Monster Hunter: Wilds is a serious contender for Game Of The Year thanks to the addicting power fantasy fueling gameplay and I recommend Monster Hunter: Wilds For Most.

If Monster Hunter is a series you have previously connected with or wanted to connect with, Wilds is perfect for you.

If you are looking for a game purely built on high stakes moment to moment action with a heavy focus on build crafting, Wilds is perfect for you.

If a story focused experience is something you are looking for in between intense action moments, this game may leave you looking for more.