If you’ve been following my answers along in our weekly WRUP column, you’ll know that I have been absolutely rabid for the arrival of Monster Hunter Wilds. It’s easily my most anticipated game this year bar none, and I was simply content counting the weeks down for its arrival by waiting on trailers, news, and whatever tidbits others were able to share in the run-up to launch.
So imagine my shock when I was granted a review key for the game by Capcom to try it out a full couple of weeks ahead of its release this Friday, February 28th. And imagine my delight to report to all of you that this game has absolutely met every sky-high expectation I have heaped upon it in my mind. In short, Monster Hunter Wilds is the best iteration of this storied franchise by several country miles.
My instructions for this review were pretty specific; Capcom allowed press to write about content only up to a specific point in the game’s wider story so as to prevent any spoilers for those who are waiting to experience the game first-hand, but that was also more than enough time for me to have made up my mind about the early game, fanboy or not. Two chapters’ worth of several missions in the game’s low-rank portion, a bunch of side hunts, and some open world map exploration is more than enough time to at least formulate a first impression.
On the subject of that story, I’m not going to elaborate much further than what’s been presented in trailers, partially because I don’t want to spoil things more and partially because the whole narrative hadn’t completely unfolded. I got the sense that things were certainly beginning to ramp up though, and what I have seen of the story is more than enough to draw me in, which is saying something considering the not great yarns that World and Rise tried to weave.
I will say that this story is extremely cutscene-heavy, and there are multiple points in the game where you’re left to ride along on the back of the lizard-bird seikret mount and forced to look in certain directions as the camera swings to points of importance. If that annoys you, then fairly warned be ye; this game leans very heavily into that guided experience. But then, the game’s world is gorgeous and I appreciate how frequently the story lets you honestly take in your surroundings, all framed within a lens of appreciation for the natural world and conservation of its beauty. Conservation and study has always been a throughline in the series, but Wilds really drives it home.
As for the visuals, I cannot even begin to describe how gorgeous this game has looked for me on my PC. My only major complaint is that the color palette seems a bit washed out; the biomes are varied, the weather changes across them are impressive, and the lighting does a lot of heavy lifting, but everything still seems to be covered with a thin pale veil.
On the subject of performance I’m pleased to report that my Nvidia RTX 3070, 32GB of RAM, SSD, and Intel i7 were able to run the game at primarily high spec at a nice and silky framerate, albeit with raytracing disengaged, bloom down to low, and motion blur turned off purely as personal choices. I didn’t even notice a change in frames with FSR frame generation enabled beyond some visual jitter with icons and names overhead NPCs.
All of that is fine to report, but what really makes Wilds stand tall the most is, of course, the monsters. I’ve gotten through about seven of the big beasties this game has to offer and each one has been a delight to fight, each with some of the most distinct personalities, movesets, and animations that I’ve ever seen in modern MonHun games. Honestly, some of these fights brought to mind MMO raids in terms of the tells and mechanics that I had to read, which naturally engages my brain as a fan of dungeon and raid bosses.
What’s also really clever is how each of these beasts, at least in low rank, all naturally teach you a lot about the game’s mechanics in a completely ingrained way. Chatacabra teaches you about reading attack tells. Congalala makes sure you learn about proper positioning or else you get hit with a harsh status effect. Lala Barina teaches you to look upward and swiftly around you. Rey Dau teaches you about the importance of elemental resistances.
Another major piece of Wilds success is the combat. Regular veterans aren’t going to be too stunned by the moves of the weapons, but there are also more than enough new abilities and layers to things where you still have new facets to master. But best of all for players of all stripes is focus mode, the signature feature that effectively transforms your strikes into more precisely guided hits while also opening some of those new moves. It’s ingrained in combat in such a way that I have had an extremely hard time going back to older entries in the series – even the modern ones – without the incredible feeling focus mode provides.
Fans might have seen the word “accessible” thrown around pretty frequently in relation to Wilds’ combat and are perhaps concerned that’s shorthand for “easy,” but in my opinion, this really is accessible in the truest sense of the word. Sure, some of the monster fights did strike as simple at the point that I played, but they still had lots of thrills to be had and being in focus mode let me… well, literally focus, reading the tells of a monster and reacting appropriately for rewarding counterplay and combat interaction. I’ve been using a gunlance as my main weapon, and I have never felt more like a shield-bearing badass.
One last vital thing about combat is the opening and exploiting of wounds. On paper, dealing wounds kind of sounds like it makes fights a cakewalk, opening up multiple avenues for tripping monsters up, and while that might be somewhat true for the first couple of hunts, I wasn’t really able to just go full mad dog on my foes later on. Wounds matter more in terms of the number of rewards that you get; carves and mission completion rewards feel a bit more balanced downward, while destroying a wound gets you an extra material, thereby making this even more important when chasing that wanted piece of gear.
If all of this reads as if I played solo during my press playtime time, well, you would be right – and not for a lack of trying. I’ve entered other lobbies and searched for SOS flares to join in on strangers’ hunts and found literally nothing. I also will point out that I do not know how multiplayer will work with regard to the game’s story quests. I was given only one key and didn’t have anyone else to coordinate with to see firsthand how party play in narrative quests goes.
This is where the past few beta tests can offer useful context for how multiplayer works. If you’re looking to do optional quests with friends, you have to form a “link party” to play with them, at which point the party leader readies a quest for everyone to enter. If you want to explore in the same open world map together, those link party members have to be invited to an environment link, which disengages any optional quests but lets everyone ride out into the field together.
It’s all a bit inelegant, but it’s also a major step up in simplicity versus World’s hard SOS flare requirement and Rise’s separation of main story quests and multiplayer hub quests. Whether members of a party get to play the same story missions together after a certain point and all get the same progression is a question I was unable to answer, but I presume it works the same way as optional quests do.
Finally, though I didn’t make it to any of the endgame stuff, Capcom did spill quite a few beans during a livestream over the weekend that were shared with us as well. There will be tempered monsters that are basically battle-hardened monster variants who bear old scars that should be exploited, which drop parts for new high-powered artian weapons as well as multi-skill decorations; an arena area known simply as the Wounded Hollow; and the return of investigations and frenzied monsters.
In the end, all of these layers add up to what feels like the unquestionably single greatest entry in Monster Hunter to date. Capcom has refined its engine, its monsters, its gameplay, and even its story into a perfect combination that makes Wilds the only game this series needs now. That’s right, I would argue that this game has been built so incredibly well that another new entry doesn’t need to be released. Just build on this one forever, frankly. I’ll buy the DLCs and some of the cosmetics. I feel that strongly about the game.
If you’re a long-time fan, you owe it to yourself to see what is easily the apotheosis of Monster Hunter. If you’re new but curious, then I strongly urge you to use this as your arrival point. And if you’re looking for a great if somewhat obtuse multiplayer co-op RPG about whaling on huge monsters, I don’t know that there are any better options. This is the Monster Hunter game, full stop.
