Monster Hunter: World (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Windows) Review

After eight years of Nintendo exclusivity in the West, which featured games that all still built on the PS2 original’s engine, the Monster Hunter series finally got a full makeover that resembled what one would expect from current generation hardware. This change left Monster Hunter’s previous western audience behind and brought it to the audience of traditional console multiplatform games and eventually Windows gamers seven months later. This review will judge Monster Hunter: World on its own merits.

The gameplay in Monster Hunter: World builds upon the new gameplay style introduced in 2013’s Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. Monster Hunter: World features the same fourteen weapons in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate with mostly the same move set for each weapon. Gunner weapons are particularly different in Monster Hunter: World due to the new Gears of War style shooting controls. The weapons are all different and useful in their own way, allowing for a lot of replay-ability and customization. The monsters are generally well designed and interesting to battle, though there is a disappointing amount of the not particularly engaging or fun moves from monsters from the first generation of Monster Hunter games that are confusingly present given the complete makeover the series received. The gameplay cycle of fighting monsters and using their parts to be able to defeat stronger monsters is still present and as addicting as ever, though it doesn’t exactly promote getting more skilled at the game. There are many different systems and mechanics to learn and master in the game. All of this can be experienced with up to three other friends or strangers online. Monster Hunter: World‘s biggest addition to the Monster Hunter formula is the new World part of the game and, to be frank, it isn’t a particularly good one. Although the new maps are graphically pleasing and no longer have loading screens in between areas, they don’t exactly enhance the gameplay. Players will now have to pick up monster tracks and other evidence of them being present to give their Scoutflies to lead them to the monster. This leads to a lot of time being spent running around the maps to trying to find the target monster, which is not helped by the unnecessarily large maps that are difficult to navigate even with the included in-game map. Capcom does somewhat remedy this by giving the player infinite stamina to run around when not in battles, but the whole feature is simply uninteresting and just feels like padding in a game that absolutely does not need any padding. The designs of the maps also led to many deaths that the reviewer felt were often a result of unintended behaviors of the large maps, which must have been difficult to fully test, causing many of the reviewer’s deaths to feel more like the fault of the game than their own skill. Overall the game feels much more loose than previous entries, with many more bugs and the player feeling much less restricted in their movement, resulting in a game that the reviewer felt was less fair and precisely crafted.

In terms of difficulty Monster Hunter: World is among the easiest, if not the easiest Monster Hunter game yet released, but it will still take some getting used to for players unfamiliar with the series. There are many systems to learn and the combat system features much more commitment to attacks than most modern games do. The reviewer, who has played multiple previous Monster Hunter games to the main story completion and beyond, was able to beat the game alone without getting stuck at any part.

Technically, Monster Hunter: World looks like a game that would release on the next generation of consoles. The environments are impressively detailed and large. There is also a large variety of graphical effects being used too. Unfortunately Monster Hunter: World’s new art style doesn’t look especially great in many areas, but the game is nice to look at in general. However, Monster Hunter: World’s next generation level graphics come at a great cost to the playing experience when being played on the current generation consoles. Loading times are incredibly long, and will take up a large part of the gameplay time in such a long game. Pop in is also obvious in many areas, and textures frequently look like PlayStation 1 textures for a rather long period of time before they load in despite the already excessive load times. The frame rate is also especially poor, running at frame rates that are obviously below 30 FPS a majority of the time on the consoles the reviewer used. The game also often gets stuck on certain frames during graphically intensive situations that result in the game feeling like it is constantly on the verge of crashing, though it never did in the 38 hours the reviewer played of the game. Online functionality is about what one would expect, though it features many annoyances that Capcom has already gotten around on much less capable hardware before, like not allowing multiple hunters in quests with cutscenes in them. One extremely frustrating result of this online functionality is that Capcom does not allow the player to pause the game at any time, even if they are playing offline. This is frustrating because due to the time limit given to hunts, players will be expected to constantly be playing for up to 50 minutes straight before they will be able to be free to put down the controller without any punishment.

Musically Monster Hunter: World does not live up to previous entries in the series, but it does an adequate job. All of the songs are of adequate quality and there is a good variety. Voice acting is also present and it is executed well but it is nothing particularly special.

The plot of Monster Hunter: World is not particularly engaging or important, but it does not exactly matter in this type of game. Unfortunately the main campaign of the game features many unskippable cutscenes and a large amount of text boxes that the player will have to deal with, but these will no longer be a problem for a majority of the play time if the player continues beyond the main campaign. The world surrounding the game is not particularly interesting either, but that is not what the game is about really.

Monster Hunter: World is absolutely worth its base asking price and the surprisingly generous sales that the game received within a year of being released despite its incredible sales numbers. The main campaign alone took the reviewer roughly 30 hours to complete alone, and though this will likely be much longer for players unfamiliar with the Monster Hunter series. Beyond the main campaign players can experiment with the 14 weapon types that are all worth trying, additional hunts against even stronger monsters, craft gear that is even more powerful or perhaps better looking, hunting monsters more quickly, and much more. Capcom also provides Monster Hunter: World with free downloadable content and events that add to the experience over time.

Overall the reviewer would give the game an 8 out of 10.

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