Hunting In A World of Monsters - Monster Hunter: World Review

Player(s): 1-4 Online
Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, PC (Fall 2018)

With an untamed new world to explore, hunters and researchers set off in fleets to investigate a new land and the creatures that inhabit it. You are a part of the A-List Hunters of the Fifth Fleet. Can you uncover the mysteries that the new world holds? Let's find out!

Capcom brings forth another title in the Monster Hunter series and it proved to be a huge hit with gamers everywhere. In the first three weeks of it being released worldwide it destroyed sales expectations and sold more than six million units by the end of January 2018 far outselling any other game in the series. It would seem this game, released on a new series of consoles, will be an ongoing success and the makers of the Monster Hunter series are probably feeling very good right now. Hopefully. So, let’s dive in and see what made this highly anticipated game fly off the shelves.

Monster Hunter: Worlds no longer has the hindered graphics and memory due to being released on portable devices. Nor does it have the lack of people to play with due to ever-evolving internet and global communications. Due to this, the developers have created an outstanding environment to hunt in. Not only does the weather change while you’re hunting on a map, but you’re also subject to day and night cycles. Playing it on a PS4, one can see just how everything pops out and how smoothly the environment continues to coexist around your character. Not only are there small and large monsters to fight, but you also get to witness average animals live in the map you’re hunting on. Be it the geckos of the Ancient Jungle or the flying jellyfish in the Coral Highlands. There is always something to look at in these worlds.

But most people have already seen the graphics of the game or have even played it, so let’s move onto the gameplay. No new weapons to introduce, so for you expert hunters you don’t have to worry about learning about some new abilities. Instead, the weapons are refined to match the unfamiliar environment itself, bringing a new strategy for hunting with the weapon you’ve grown to love over the years.

The game introduces new mechanics that appeal to both newcomers and seasoned hunters alike. The first thing being the difference in the items you carry and pick up. Item management has always been a huge part of the Monster Hunter series. Before setting off on a quest, you must dig through your item box and plan out what you were going to bring and what was needed for the hunt. Usually you needed items to help you gather like picks, whetstones for sharping weapons, paintballs to mark what you were hunting, etc. This game has reduced the stress of that. Items like picks, whetstones, and the bbq pit are now in a fixed item slot and you no longer have to worry about them running low or taking up space. However, it is a bit strange that you only keep consumable items that you pick up in the field. It makes a hunter lazy should they want to do that themselves. Luckily, you can go into the settings and fiddle around with how much you want the game to handle your items over yourself. So you still get the option the play to your style.

Yes. It’s time to talk about the biggest change to Monster Hunter. The Scout Flies. These are the games form of navigation, but there’s more to it. Instead of paintballs, you must track the monsters you’re hunting. With the use of Footprints, scales or other body parts, claws in the ground or on objects, you start gathering info on where the monster might be and could be going. The scout flies lead you to the monster when you get enough info. That’s not all what they do though. They also highlight tracks, telling you what they are and highlight resources telling you what they are also. Basically they highlight anything and everything you can interact with. This is where the game gets a bit too heavy with the handholding. You no longer have to remember where the monster is going to be as the Scoutflies can tell you where it is and where it’s going to move to next. It removes the thrill of the hunt and the element of getting surprised by the monster if you slip up. Once you see a monster you will always know where the it is.

And another new introduction to the game series is the Slinger. This is by far the best thing to happen to the game, adding new elements to it. While it isn’t very impressive if you’re a range user, to the melee classes it was a significant improvement to the hunts. Slings allow you to use Flash, Scream, and Dung pods with an improvement. You can also use natural slinger ammo found in the environment. It also comes with a grappling hook that has a suitable number of purposes, including being able to take shortcuts when needed to get to a higher ground and a quick escape from monsters. It is also a good bug swatter, but you need to remember to load it beforehand.

Let’s talk about the newly done maps. All the veteran hunters know when you go into different sections of the maps, there was a fade in and out screen and some load time. This has been well known throughout the years of the series. Now that is no longer the case. When you pick a quest, the entire map loads. While there are still number sections of the map, it is no longer cut up where monsters stay in sections. Hunters can now run through the entire map with no fadeouts or load times. In addition, this means while fighting a monster, there are no issues of getting knocked into a different map section or running out of it by accident. However, the only issue with this is, the monsters can use the entire map too. When you enrage a monster, it will try to run you down in any part of the map until you faint, hide, or go through an impassible area. Better yet, just bring some farcasters if you find yourself in a bit of a pickle.

There is plenty to talk about in the game, but that’s for the reader to discover on their own should they get the game. Instead, lets go over the pinnacle of all the Monster Hunter games; The flagship monster. All Monster Hunter games had a goal where there was a certain monster that would be the main cause of trouble or at least in the eye of the storyline. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate had the Gore Magala, which was an Ancient Elder Dragon. The story that revolved around that monster brought in a series of gameplay and a transformation to the other monsters too. It was a slick and neat design. Does the Monster Hunter: Worlds flagship monster hold a candle to the Gore Magala? Not even close.

This devilish looking creature is an Elder Dragon known as Nergigante. Those that played the Beta demo know just how much trouble this creature was to defeat in less than 30 minutes. But for the other past hunters we know how underwhelming the creature truly is. A lot of people can usually compare monsters to other monsters, by way of their move sets or how they react to abnormal status and elements. It is common talk that the Nergigante is, in some ways, on par with the Astalos. The design is middle of the road; It's not too special, but not bad.

While the Nergigante can bring forth spines that grow on its body, the only things that makes it tough are the awkward hitboxes, the cheap shots, and its strange speed. Like an Elder Dragon it can’t be captured, but other than that it feels like fighting any other new large monster. There is another Elder Dragon that you meet as the final boss, which is believed to have been a better Flagship monster. At least it is was fun to fight.

Another area of disappointment is the underwhelming number of monsters. There are 35 total large monsters in the game. Compared to Monster Hunter 4 which had 75. Even Monster Hunter: Generations had 73 large monsters. 

Another new feature that the game adds is there is no longer a single player and a multiplayer section. For those new to the series, there was always the campaign section in which the monsters were made for the Hunter and Palicos. The single player was short, and the Multiplayer is where you went through the hunter ranks. In World they are both together. While it is nice to no longer worry about catching up to your friends, this means you are always online. The problem with this is that even if you’re playing by yourself there is no way to pause the game while you are hunting monsters.

Complaining aside, it’s still a game that challenged the older games to bring in new hunters, and the sales prove how successful this new one has become. Be it solo or with a squad, if you like hunting monsters, collecting weapons, items and armor, then this is a game for you. Get some friends together and hunt! Sharpen those Hammers! Immerse yourselves into the world of Monster Hunting!
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-MCV Driver

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Story: B+
Graphics: A++
Sound: A+
Value: A++

OVERALL: A+

Pros:
+Beautiful Map Design
+New Game Mechanics
+Made for New and Experienced to the series

Cons:
-Silly Storyline
-Very few monster variety
-Disappointing Flagship Monster

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Sources:
http://www.monsterhunterworld.com/us/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Hunter:_World
http://www.ign.com/games/monster-hunter-world
http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Monster_Hunter:_World