Monster Hunter: World Review
Monster Hunter: World is the best ever Monster Hunter. Mechanically, aesthetically, everything. There are a few small things that I do wish it did better but it's making the best possible steps in the right direction. Without losing what made this series so fun.
Monster Hunter: World plays exactly like all the previous titles. It is essentially a series of boss fights against massive mean monsters. You hunt them down in the area, fight them to the death and upon slaying the target you carve up their hides and use those pieces to create new weapons and armor to fight even bigger monsters. Combat is fast heavy hitting deliberate and most importantly satisfying. Every single blow landing on the monster matters as you try to get any amount of damage you possibly can as they are big and threatening.
The more you fight with them the more you learn about their attacks. When to dodge, when to block and where to hit them where it hurts. It's part of where the hunter aspects, comes in Monster Hunter. Learning your target and using that knowledge to your advantage. A new addition to Monster Hunter: World is damage numbers these are incredibly helpful. Not only can it let you know when you do a big hit by showing you exactly how much damage you've done. It gives more feedback than ever before. Orange numbers mean you're hitting them somewhere that's particularly vulnerable, where great numbers mean you're hitting thick and hide or somewhere with a lot of defense. This feedback lets you know that for example, their legs are particularly sturdy but their head and wings or tail or whatever isn't. Before this information was hidden away now it's readily available in front of you and that is excellent. And for mobster hundred purists the damage numbers can be turned off. Even as a longtime player though I found myself preferring to have it on. I think it makes combat more satisfying letting you know when you do a big hit, just how big it was or even getting an idea of what part of the monster is squishy. So that you can potentially damage it or cut off tails or whatever. Plus if you're fighting against a new monster and suddenly feel that your damage isn't as high as it used to be, maybe it's time to switch weapons so that your element isn't the same and you can find out what it's weak to.
Another fantastic addition is the feeling of actually punting and tracking down the monster. With every area now being one large continuous zone. Without any kind of loading screens in between. You find the monsters, by using its tracks. You'll find footprints, claw marks, scales and you can use that to find where it is. Get enough information and your scout flies will lead the way to the monster you're tracking. I know some longtime fans had concerns about the flies giving the exact direction. For me the scout flies are fine and they're helpful.
Even better as you research more and more, you'll learn more about the monster. This will let you see on the mini-map. When it's hungry when it's near death and where it's going on the map. And you can see exactly where it's weak part, what can be damaged and what rewards you can get for this monster. Previously this information was only available in wiki's online that fans put together. Now it's all right there in the game.
The biggest change to Monster Hunter royal compared to the previous entries is the numerous quality of life upgrades for returning players and addressing the ease of accessibility for new players. Gathering has always been a big part of Monster Hunter this meant spending the beginning hours picking up herbs mushrooms and mining ores. This is still done in the world but it's made much more convenient. Gathering is incredibly fast now and you can do it on the run. You can now select specific items to be automatically crafted for you, so just grabbing some herbs means you instantly have two healing potions. Much less time is spent gathering meaning you can get to the fun stuff of hunting monsters much faster. Adding to this convenience is that you now have infinite whetstone's, bug nets and pickaxes. Materials that you gather for weapons and armor have their own inventory spaces. Which do not conflict with all of your healing items and other hunting tools.
Another big thing is having multiple starting camps in each area and being able to return to these camps whenever you need to for a complete loadout change. You can now change out your armor, drop off items completely, change weapons or even get new quests to do all without having to return to town. Meaning there can be much less downtime in between hunts should you choose so.
This also ties into the online mode where 16 people can meet up and up to 4 can go on a quest at once. Now you could join a quest in the middle of it and help out. Or if you're by yourself and having trouble you can shoot out an SOS player and let anyone arrive to help out. Key story quest to unlock the next hunter rank is now achieved by everybody not just whoever posted the quest. Meaning a lot less repetition of the same things over and over again. This ties it to armor too as the skill system has been changed. Previously it was pretty much worthwhile to obtain an entire set of a monster's armor to get all the benefits of the skills provided. Now with each piece automatically causing an effect, it's much easier to mix and match the pieces you want. You don't need to hunt down the same monster over and over again, as you can easily just wear another monster's armor instead. Even better thanks to the updated art style mixing armor pieces can actually look pretty cool and you won't feel like an idiot. There is less repeating the same hunts over and over again to get what you want. You're still going to do that, to some degree but it is significantly reduced compared to other games.
Monster Hunter: World has the fastest and best forward progression that the series has ever had. And this is something that newcomers desperately needed. A lot of gripes people who tried to get into this series have, has also been addressed. For example, you can now roll out of almost any action. Accidentally sharpening or gathering or using an item can now be canceled out avoiding irritating punishment. You no longer stand completely still when eating or using a recovery item as you can run while doing so. This adds so that newfound fluidity of combat as you can now slide down hills and do jump attacks, bow gunners can now move and fire into. Every weapon has been tweaked with improved move sets.
The presentation of this story has also been given a huge overhaul. Cutscenes with voice acting are new for the series and help/ give the player an idea of why they're doing what they're doing. Onscreen notifications also help remind players of controls or how items work, making sure that new players are much more welcome than ever before. The story itself is nothing new it won't dramatically change Monster Hunter or the way you view it. If you're looking for a deep enriching story with developed characters and story arcs, it's not here. This is as it always has been about the gameplay.
This game still has its weaknesses. For as much as this game has addressed most of the archaic mechanic, that scorned newbies to the series. It still doesn't quite do enough to explain everything. There are still a lot of mechanics that are left unexplained, it's much better than ever before but not quite there for true easy accessibility. And even though it's much faster than easier to get to the cool fights. The opening 45 minutes or so of the game is very slow. Doing close to nothing, while a bunch of cutscenes plays out. Then it's finally fun.
While there isn't as much here as previous games, there is still tons to go through and you'll be able to easily sync dozens if not hundreds of hours into this game. Plus they have already said, free content updates are coming in the future with the first one adding in the Deviljho.
Monster Hunter: World has finally brought the franchise to the modern age. It finally fixes so many of its outdated design flaws. Trying to be more accessible to new players with some success and frankly, it's incredible to see it made for a modern console again. Veterans will only find things to love in this new addition.
Monster Hunter: World earns a 9 out of 10. If you're completely new to this series and you're looking to get into it this is easily the best one to do.
9/10
EXCELLENT
EXCELLENT
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