"Monster Hunter Wilds" Game Review
Monster Hunter continues to evolve, for better and for worse.
Somehow this is the best and most exciting screenshot I have.
Monster Hunter Wilds presents the next evolution of the long-running series and the first mainline title in the ninth generation of consoles. With Wilds, Capcom truly capitalizes on the concepts they explored with the Guiding Lands in Iceborne and refines the gameplay loop accordingly.
After completing the lengthy introductory campaign, players are free to roam the sprawling open zones of the Forbidden Lands and hunt dynamically spawning monsters seamlessly and without interruption. Old frustrations like the need to eat and apply buffs between every single hunt have been smoothed out and now operate on independent timers than only tick down when you're in the field. The end result of all this is that downtime has been reduced and you spend more time doing what is on the tin, hunting monsters.
Combat is at the most fluid and accessible it has ever been. Every weapon features refinements and exciting changes from past iterations, and the new wound system allows you to constantly keep up the aggression and smoothly target your attacks against exciting new opponents as well as old favorites.
Praise aside, there are few areas of Wilds that give me pause. Starting with World, Monster Hunter has attempted to broaden its mainstream appeal by introducing a greater emphasis on cinematic storytelling. This is pushed even further here, featuring the first voiced protagonist in the series as well as a cast of traveling companions and a storyline revolving around returning a lost orphan to his home, while protecting it from the threats (surprise, they're monsters) that face it.
To put it bluntly, none of this is particularly interesting. The characters are mostly a series of simple archetypes without any real development or investment and the broad strokes of the story hint at more interesting themes than this series is capable of meaningfully exploring. It's mostly serviceable, but that begs the question of whether it was worth including at all.
Beyond the narrative purpose, the story functions as an extended tutorial as wider gameplay concepts and tools are drip fed to the player in between extended sections of walking and talking along a set path. As it stands, the story and cinematics continue to serve as an impediment to those looking to jump into multiplayer, a problem that was introduced in World and is frustratingly unaddressed here. Overall the emphasis Wilds places on narrative doesn't seem like it will win over anyone skeptical of the series, and it seems disconnected from the reasons people play these games in the first place. That said, recent statements from Capcom has them attributing much of the games success to it, so it will likely only progress further from here. Twenty hours is a not a great deal of time compared to the hundreds of hours of gameplay Wilds potentially offers, but it is certainly a rough way to start.
In addition to the story, recent titles in the Monster Hunter series (long considered dense and unapproachable to newcomers) have seen a push towards becoming more approachable. In Wilds, this is pushed to such an extent that it feels like every edge this series once had has been sanded off.
I can't help but feel that something has been lost in this transition. The once meditative atmosphere of entering a hunt and tracking down your target has been replaced with a mounted autopilot sprint to the monster which soon lies dead at your feet in a matter of minutes as a result of undertuned difficulty. Encounter design has not kept up with the expanding options afforded to the player. You are given tons of combat techniques but very little reason to master them. You are given tons of tools and an alternate weapon but don't really need to use them. You are given huge maps to explore but no reason to learn them. The element of preparing for hunts no longer exists since the nearest camp is always a stone's throw away where you change your load-out and refill all of your supplies which the game throws at you in piles. In the push towards sanitizing some of the frustrations in Monster Hunter's systems, some of its identity has also been lost.
I've played this series since the original entry in 2004. I adore these games, and firmly believe they fill a singular niche in the gaming landscape. I don't regret firing up Monster Hunter Wilds alongside the other rabid fans on launch day, nor the nearly one-hundred hours I've spent slicing and dicing my way across the Forbidden Lands since. The satisfaction of slaying dragons and using their bones to fight stronger dragons is here and as potent as ever. Yet, for the first time I find myself wishing to return to one of the earlier titles and their slower pace instead of continuing to bash nearly defenseless monster piñatas for more pieces and rewards in the current era. Even recent titles like World or Rise have me looking back with nostalgia.
Some of my thoughts here may seem overly critical, but with experience in this series comes the knowledge that these games start off good, but become something truly special over time with expansions and post-launch support. The first title update has already addressed some of the initial worries present at launch, and I have confidence there will be many more exciting additions and excitement to come, even if I might delay my experiencing of them as I play older titles that are more in line with my personal tastes. At the end of the day, any Monster Hunter is good Monster Hunter, and if you have any interest in the series, you'd be remiss to not try Wilds.
3/5
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