Explaining Monster Hunter Wilds is rather redundant. You have it right there — the name couldn’t have been more clear. You hunt monsters, most of which are in wild forbidden lands. Wilds is the latest game in the series, and the visuals are as spectacular as ever. The series itself has been around for 20 years, so this review is for those of you that have kept yourself shielded from all of it for this long.
One elaborate character creation menu later, the game jumps right into it. An unexplored piece of land with ancient tribes is disturbed by a mysterious earth shattering event. A little child escapes, and is saved by futuristic adventurers. He turns up to his saviours and begs: “You must save my people, you must help me find my village”! You are one of those saviours. A monster hunter. A killer of those disgusting creatures that haunt the lands and eat the food of hardworking people. Destroyers of those evil beasts that rattle the very core of the earth and attempt to break it apart.
While the role of the Monster Hunter is very serious and very important, it is often hard to be solemn while executing your assigned task. Especially if one of the monsters that you have to fight to kill is a “Congalala”: a baboon that shoots noxious fart fumes. Many such creatures exist, and some of these are a little more beautiful, and a bit more smarter and nuanced than others.
The combat is something I really enjoy in Monster Hunter Wilds. The visuals are stunning. I have never felt such joy in the game as when I smash in a perfect combo attack. I’d recommend playing the game with a controller with built-in haptic feedback, because it provides subtle cues on when your blows don’t land, and when they do. There’s also a satisfying smash vibration when the weapon manages to penetrate the monster’s shields. It’s just one of those things that cannot translate to a keyboard and mouse set up. I also like that combat isn’t very skill sensitive — you could easily fumble your way into killing a monster with ease, even with a bad weapon. Atleast, that is the case early in the game. Alternatively, if you’re struggling with finishing it off, you can always use the SOS flare option to ring in reinforcements that can help you fight them off. Which brings me to the multiplayer mode.
Unlocked early in the game, the mode allows you to go into a server, where you can join quests with other players. You can also potentially play with a specific party, if you are so lucky as to have friends who also play Monster Hunter. Coupled with Crossplay — I think this is quite a neat addition to the game series that is twenty years old.
All of this good stuff makes me doubly more annoyed that they still have some basic things that they haven’t yet figured out — like menus. I was completely lost in trying to figure out what my weapon upgrades did, and ended up wasting resources upgrading the same items — because there was no way for me to understand that I already owned it. I never figured out the way to sort through my “box” and “carried” inventory, and I didn’t know where my precious “reward” items went. The map option felt over-engineered, to a fault. It has contours, and 3D movements, but no “legend” option that would allow me to hide unnecessary markers listed on the map.
Discussing maps also reminds me of the second most annoying feature of the game - fast travel, and automatic routing. There are infinite ways to make your way to the next location of a battle, and almost no proper incentive to explore the vast open world map that the game offers. I’m sure there’s a simple fix for all of this, and I hope they implement it over the next few months of more gamers playing this now very popular game.
Till such a point, at the risk of offending so many fans of the franchise, I say this — Monster Hunter is just not for me. I prefer my in-game monsters to be cute and portable. So I’ll stick to Pokemon for now. That’s not to say that this game isn’t good — if you’re looking for a nice change from playing Destiny, Diablo, or any other Hack and Slash MMO with friends, Monster Hunter Wilds is definitely a worthwhile alternate. The game is available for the Windows, PlayStation, and Xbox, and supports cross-play.