New York Comic Con 2017 - Hands-On With Capcom Games

New York Comic Con 2017 brought with it more upcoming game demos than I thought possible. On day two of my expedition, I had the opportunity to try some hands on with two of Capcom’s soon to be released titles: Monster Hunter: World and Resident Evil Revelations 1 and 2 for the Switch.

Monster Hunter: World is the latest entry in the popular Monster Hunter franchise and the first console release since Monster Hunter: Tri, which came out for the Wii in 2010 in North America. Never having played any of the series before, I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but I jumped right in. Participants were grouped into teams of four and played co-op mode for a simple mission—going out there to hunt and kill a monster, as the name implies. There was a variety of weapons to choose from, each with their own advantages and disadvantages to accommodate different play styles. Being completely new at this, I disregarded my advisor’s choice of two short swords and went for the long sword/spear type of weapon because it made me feel like Freya in Final Fantasy IX. Also, my assumption was that the longer the weapon was, the more distance I could put between myself and the monster. This ended up being entirely false.

Tracking the monster was unexpectedly fun and involved following footprints and other clues left behind that you could pick up and later trade for different in-game items. Once we found the monster, it was a fairly simple takedown, though there were a variety of ways we could have done so. For example, players conscious of leveling up in certain ways can purposefully attack different parts of the monster, such as the tail, in order to reap specific rewards. Cooperation and team play is key here, and even though we were able to take down a lower level monster without much strategy, it was also clear that simple hack n’ slash wouldn’t work on higher leveled or, dare I say it, bigger foes. All in all, it was a good demo, though I would also be curious to see how the single player campaign allows you to take down monsters without the assistance of teammates.

Resident Evil Revelations is also being ported to the Switch by Capcom and both Revelations 1 and 2 will be released November 28. It continues a long history of partnership between Capcom and Nintendo, as several of their previous games were released to Nintendo consoles and helps to fill what some see as a void of M rated games on the Switch. The graphics are smooth and it was a fairly straightforward port, though my own clumsiness with the controls did prove a handicap (which button is X again?). Still, it worked well and is a particularly impressive feat for games originally released several years ago for the 3DS.

Revelations prove themselves to be a good choice for the Switch, as they’re both good jumping off points for those who are new to the Resident Evil series or, considering the Switch’s appeal to younger gamers, those who are just getting into the horror genre. The gameplay feels natural on the Switch’s console controller, though I’ll admit I didn’t get to try it out with the joy-cons.

Monster Hunter: World will be released January 26, 2018 for PS4 and Xbox One with a PC release to follow in the west. The game will also be released at the same time in Japan, exclusively for the PS4. Resident Evil Revelations 1 and 2 will both be released for the Switch on November 28, 2107.