Monster Hunter Wilds Review – It’s a Wild World

Monster Hunter has carved its way into the hearts of many since its humble beginnings in the early aughts. Since its inception, the franchise has gone on to drastically broaden its audience, an achievement that largely came about as a result of 2018’s Monster Hunter World. Several years on since that transformative installment and Capcom has finally given us a proper follow-up with Monster Hunter Wilds. The developer’s latest effort represents a further refinement of the series’ unrivaled formula while also making it approachable for long-time holdouts, even if the rougher edges of the RE Engine crop up to disrupt the otherwise addictive hunting loop.

Monster Hunter Wilds whisks Hunters off to the Forbidden Lands, for a whole new round of cutting, bonking and perforating indigenous monstrosities. This uncharted region is home to a whole host of formidable beasts. There 29 large monsters to be felled, with more than half being all-new to the series. Sure, this falls below the base count of World (and well below Monster Hunter Rise), but Wilds makes up for the slight decrease in other areas. The tale being spun at the heart of this behemoth-ridden adventure sees our Hunter join an expedition with the Guild to investigate alarming reports of the White Wraith, a once believed to be extinct horror, attacking a village of people known as the Keepers. It may not be an award-winning story, but the addition of a fully-voiced player character regularly interacting with the charming cast makes the journey all the more personal and enjoyable.

The core of the narrative as it trends towards the showdown with the game’s flagship monster primarily plays out across Low Rank; although any Monster Hunter veteran will tell you the true experience does not begin until High Rank rolls around—here, High Rank takes on a seamless, free-form structure that breaks down the barriers between setting off on consecutive hunts. The Low Rank component spans roughly 15 hours before the tougher battles open up to test the resiliency of your chosen gear. Those early hours were surprisingly forgiving, with barely an instance of being carted back to camp. Perhaps the seeming lack of challenge stems from the enhanced mechanics that allow for greater mobility and expanded creature-toppling maneuvers, all of which imbues this iteration’s Hunters with greater capability than ever before when striking down their inhuman foes.

Worlds + Rise = Wilds

Monster Hunter Wilds may be the next mainline entry that evolves the offerings of World , but it looks to the even more recent Rise to blend in other quality of life changes to make the newest release the most accessible the games have ever been. Much like riding your Palamute to chase down a retreating monster, quickly remove yourself from a dire situation, sharpen your weapons on-the-go and so on, Wilds mirrors this faster pace of Rise by giving Hunters their own chocobo-like Seikrets to ride around on as they explore the vast landscape. And the varied environments are given added visual flair thanks to the implementation of changing seasons.

The core combat remains the industry leader, bar none. None of the limited clones that have cropped up over the years have gotten close to the bar set by Monster Hunter, and Wilds raises that bar further. All 14 weapons feel impactful and are a thrill to wield. Mainstays like the Hammer have even been given extra flexibility when it comes to movement speed and more generous mid-combo pivoting. And the Hammer’s new spin-up Mighty Charge makes for an immensely satisfying, bone-crunching blow. The Lance also saw a glow-up, allowing for continuous guarding during the Charge Counter move to elevate that power fantasy of tanking monstrous hits for your team.

Ranged weapons are among the most notable change-ups, garnering quite a bit of love from the dev team. No longer is ammunition (Power, Pierce, Spread, etc.) a limited consumable that must be restocked at camp; these ammo types have unlimited use during hunts as long as the resource bar has enough charge to initiate the replenishment. The result is the most gratifying Bow gameplay the series has boasted yet. It’s hard to choose a “wrong” weapon, as they all excel in their own ways. The Dual Blades transform Hunters into human Beyblades, allowing them to rip down the spines of unfortunate targets; the Charge Blade can become a pinwheel from Hell, shredding a mark to bits; and the Longsword expertly toes the line between lumbering blade and nimble samurai.

Augmenting the suite of weapons are a handful of new mechanics, primarily Focus Mode and the wounds system. Focus Mode essentially takes the aiming mechanic once associated solely with ranged weapons and extends the courtesy to melee weapons. Given how important it is to nail those attacks, being able to aim those crucial Greatsword swings makes a huge difference. It heightens the intent behind each blow and improves the tactical nature of the hunt. The Focus Mode bleeds into the new wound system, which sees Hunters progressively whittling away at the exterior resiliency of a monster. Wounds, designated as glowing red spots, can be opened up throughout a battle. If targeted via Focus Mode, a unique move can be executed that results in creates being set off balance or stunned.

In Wilds‘ current state, wound are fairly easy to generate, meaning there’s an all-new way to keep the pressure on during a fight. Between proccing extremely strong paralysis effects with the right weapons, consistently interrupting monsters through the wounds system, countering incoming strikes with Offset Attacks, as well as the swiftness stemming from rideable Seikrets, Capcom has given Hunters their most devastating toolset to date. There’s a pervading sense of “easiness” compared to previous entries, but I imagine this will be remedied through future balance patches and the inevitable arrival of G-Rank.

Even with the lower difficulty factored in, the hunts remain an absolute joy. Learning each monster’s attack patterns is as engaging as it is rewarding. Recognizing what form their assault is about to take, and proactively responding to the impending contact with a well-timed dodge or effective counter attack, never fails to satisfy. Whether fighting the spider-like Lala Barina, the overly-flatulent ape Congalala, theTremors-adjacent Balahara or the iconic Rathalos, there’s plenty of fights to master as Hunters literally carve their way through the opposition to feed the need for better (and more importantly, fashionable) armor and weapons.

RE-peat Offender

It’s not all adrenaline and dopamine, however. While Monster Hunter Wilds raises the bar in several respects, it falls short in a couple notable areas. The most striking misstep is tied to Capcom’s use of the RE Engine. While a great fit for Resident Evil‘s tighter, intimate corridors, the engine seems to struggle in the seamless environments tied to Monster Hunter Wilds. This isn’t a surprise. Disregarding the early warning signs from beta performance, the RE Engine showed the exact same pitfalls in Capcom’s release of Dragon’s Dogma 2 last year. Performance woes and high CPU usage are likely to test many players’ PCs, but this isn’t a “Can it run Crysis?” moment. It’s not because Monster Hunter Wilds is a technical marvel. Rather, it’s that the RE Engine needs more of its kinks resolved, especially when its used beyond Capcom’s zombie-slaying franchise. Over the course of my review, Wilds crashed multiple times and suffered hefty FPS drops whenever ray tracing was enabled; apparently a 4080 was not enough for such a minor uplift in visuals. Admittedly, early tests on a PS5 copy reveal a more even experience on console.

The only other area wherein Wilds could use some love is in its cumbersome co-op system. Joining a friend for a hunt may be slightly easier thanks to the Link Party option, allowing players to connect for hunts even if their characters don’t occupy the same server, but it still needs work. Whereas I was forced to disband when cutscenes arose in World, the Link Party keeps players tied together through these cutscenes. Once the cutscene ends and a hunt begins, an invite will be sent to all players tied to the Link Party so they can rejoin each other. It sounds great on paper, but the problem is that two or more people progressing through the game together will often find this connection process interrupted. On numerous occasions, my co-op partner wrapped up their cutscene at the same time as I, but they struggled to join the session because the hunt was also starting on their side and any monster attack immediately cancels the attempt to connect to the posted quest. This is an issue largely tied to the narrative-heavy moments of Low Rank, but everything about the co-op systems feels unnecessarily rigid and unintuitive.

Still, the high points of Monster Hunter Wilds are enough to keep the rougher edges from creating a net negative experience, though the PC performance issues require immediate attention. The hunts have never been bolder and the added systems give Hunters new ways to tackle fights in flashy fashion. It all comes together as the most streamlined and accessible Monster Hunter game we have ever played. While those descriptors may be of concern to long-time fans, I can assure you the soul of the series is very much intact (even if we’re left to cook meals on our own without the Meowscular Chef).

Monster Hunter Wilds Review Verdict

[Editor’s Note: Monster Hunter Wilds was reviewed on PC, and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.]