It's fun, particularly with friends, but leaves some things to be desired. Almost feels like it wants to be a streamlined single player game now that the Defender weapons+ α-Armor make everything super nerf'd and easy to solo- so you can get straight to those tasty Iceborne monsters. As someone who didn't play it early into its release- that does sort of make the start of the game feel monotonous. It either drives you to rush the content and not bother with crafting the cool new gear you might've liked the looks and stat effects of, else you damage your stats for early game content progress, making it either too easy, or unnecessarily lengthy and difficult until you get to late game and it balances out a smidge.. If we have to use the α-armor for the stats I'd have enjoyed to at least be able to craft layered armor versions for some of the base games weapons and armor. As it stands It makes the early gameplay feel fairly hollow.

Pros: Its got great story and gameplay. The voice acting is good, if a little sparse and out of sync from time to time. The weapon movesets are unique and fun to learn and you will spend hours coming up with new solo and group tactics, and the visual graphics and scenery is a feast for the eyes [🤤Especially the Palico cantine food! ].

Cons: There is an irritating multiplayer access wall on many of the missions to where you can't play many new missions with friends unless you/they have already beaten the mission, or started it and launched a flare after the story cutscene, which sort of ruins the flow of multiplayer/gameplay IMO. Other QoS problems and glitches such as multiplay connection issues are frequent, and when you get disconnected you will lose progress and items, and if you selected one it will not return your daily double reward voucher when you d/c. These all seem like simple things to solve so they become all the more irksome as the frequency piles up.

All in all, I do recommend MHW. It's a reasonably good purchase on sale if you have time to kill by yourself, or friends who'd wish to adventure together in a land filled with numerous exploration opportunities.