Recent reviews by Quamsi

I have played every monster hunter game since Tri at least twice, and I usually play to complete the HR100 or equivalent boss on every save. I also played the older live service games, Monster hunter frontier and Monster hunter online. Here are my thoughts on wilds (HR70/50 hours in game at time of writing):


Positives-

POOGIE IS BACK

Monster hunter wilds is really fun, and anyone familiar with the series will like it a lot. The gameplay loop hasn't changed, and capcom has implemented a ton of quality of life changes that make it more accessible to people who want to hunt more and grind materials less.

The new monsters are all really cool, along with their weapon and armor designs. Capcom does not miss when it comes to aesthetics in these games.

As a veteran hunter, I was worried the combat in this game would not be as enjoyable as previous titles, and while hunts are the easiest they have ever been, the attacks and animations in this game FEEL SO GOOD you basically don't notice. I have not used seikret or mantels during combat to make it more challenging, and used un-upgraded starting armor through LR6, but throughout the whole story (both low and high rank) I only carted [died] about 3 times, and did not fail a single quest. I was planning on avoiding using focus mode and exploiting wounds as well, but honestly they are so fun and satisfying to use I would sacrifice the difficulty for the satisfaction. Despite the lack of difficulty, the gameplay loop and game feel is worth 70$ to me personally.

The story in this game is... an improvement from previous entries. The characters, cutscenes, and storyline are more involved and compelling than previous installments, but to be honest, I don't think many people are playing monster hunter for a compelling story. unga bunga hammer go bonk, and all that

Overall, the game feel is impeccable, and I will probably end up putting at least a couple hundred hours into it before its G/Master rank expansion releases in a couple years. Capcom has already promised half a dozen or more free title updates over the next year that will include new monsters and loads of event quests and other things to do in the game. For me at least, the $70 is worth it to satiate my addiction to this series.


Negatives-

Performance is really bad. I have a Ryzen 9 5950x and a 3090 and I am playing this game at 4k high, raytracing off and getting 45FPS. This is playable for me because I spent a decade playing on a 3ds outdoors at 20 fps, but understandably many people are not willing to play a 70$ game below 60fps or able to afford a PC capable of more than 30fps.

On top of the low framerates, graphical bugs are not uncommon either. I personally have experienced the "black triangle" 3 or 4 times in my 45 hours of gameplay, which causes a flashing black triangle to fill about a quarter of your screen for 20 seconds or so for no apparent reason, which makes the game almost unplayable while its happening.
I have also seen the "PS2 graphics" bug, where some models appear to have about 100 polygons like OG Final Fantasy 7. For me this happened once after fast travelling and it resolved itself after about 3 seconds. I personally have not experienced any game crashes (I'm on the latest version of Windows 11 with the latest graphics drivers).

In classic capcom fashion, the menus in this game are heinous.
in particular, setting up multiplayer is particularly problematic until you figure out the system, so I will explain what you need to do to get it working the way you expect it too:

Basically, you want to have your friends in a lobby AND a link party at the same time.
The lobby is basically how you can see your friends in the overworld, while a link party allows you to go on quests together as a group. you can go on quests together using either one, but for the best experience, you want both.
To set it up:
1. you want one person to create a private lobby after selecting their save data on the home screen.
2. after loading in to the game, that player should get the lobby ID by going to the member list screen (start -> tab 4, labelled "communication" -> member list). The lobby ID will be displayed on the right. This player should send that lobby ID to everyone they want to play with.
3. The other players should select "lobby search" and then "find a lobby based on ID". (finding from in game or steam friends lists seems to have a 30% or less success rate, lobby ID works every time in my experience).
4. After loading in to the lobby, one player should go back to the member list mentioned before, and go to the "lobby" tab, then select and invite the other players to a link party.
5. The other players then need to accept the link party invite, either by holding the plus button on their controller after they receive the notification, or by going to start -> communication -> invites -> received invites.

From here, players will be able to see eachother in the overworld (because they are in the same lobby) and will automatically be able to join quests the other players post (because of the link party). Keep in mind a private lobby can have 16 players but a link party is only 4, so your lobby can have 4 groups of 4. You can also join quests from outside a link party by talking to Alma, so you can do quests with anyone else in the lobby, its just less convenient. You can have a link party between players in different lobbies and a lobby with no link parties, but you probably want both.

lastly, I personally found the music to be a little underwhelming compared to previous entries.

None of the negatives are severe enough to be a deal breaker to me, especially since most of them will (hopefully) be patched out.

EDIT:

After thinking about it a while last night, I realized that what really sets the old world games (everything before Monster hunter world) apart from the more recent ones is the feeling that you are really in an intense fight with a monster. I cant really put my finger on what makes that difference, but it has something to do with the players ability to move more freely in current games. Old world games required a lot more intentionality and commitment to attacks because a poorly timed or spaced attack could cost a cart. I feel like I can get through basically any hunt in Wilds by mashing buttons on my controller while wielding a sword and shield, but I do look WAY cooler doing it in wilds than in any other game.

Part of what I enjoy about monster hunter is the community aspect. Joining a random quest to get materials you need and finding people spamming stickers and gestures and having fun in post game is as relevant as the combat itself to me. Those kinds of interactions aren't as accessible in old world games as they used to be (albiet not impossible to find).

I'm playing with 2 different groups of friends so I am having fun helping them progress through the game while using my own time to do fashion hunting and grind materials for melding armor spheres and artian upgrades. Capcom added event quests and more weekly challenges today. Even if I don't enjoy this game the same way I did old world games, I am still having a lot of fun playing it and it still feels like there is enough for me to do (although I wish there was more).

While it doesn't impact my review of this game at all, I would encourage anyone that enjoys wilds as their first monster hunter to play an old world game like Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate.


Update as of HR100/~60 hours in game:
I was at steam review character limit so I put it on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunter/comments/1j7acuo/

Team Fortress 2 is the greatest game of all time.
"It might be free to play but it's anything but cheap" - Uncle Dane

Edited after completing the game:

This game is really good. Movement feels on point.
Combat is amazing, like a cross between Bayonetta games and Monster Hunter. You get sections of hack-n-slash on hordes of small monsters, as well as epic one on one (more like 4 on one if you count your friends) combat with massive beasts. You can do timed dodges and parry against larger attacks, which feels extremely satisfying. natural recovery is slow, but not to the point its meaningless. Teleporting between enemies and taking them down in a single hit feels amazing. My only complaint about combat in this game is that multicast spells are really strong: you can defeat an entire horde of enemies with one spell because the AOE is so large, or do massive damage to a large beast or boss because multi-hit spells avoid the damage cap.

Another great thing this game does is makes sidequests feel rewarding and relevant to the plot, so if your interested in grinding out 100% it wont feel like a chore. There is a downside to this if you're interested in grinding a bunch of sidequests; sometimes by the time I got to the next major plot point, I had forgotten what was happening and it can make the story hard to follow.

Lastly, the cutscenes and animation are phenomenal.

Overall, I'd give this game an easy 9/10, and I still haven't done any DLC.