Monster Hunter Wilds Review – A New Frontier

Monster Hunter Wilds is Capcom's most polished entry in the series so far. It refines the foundation the series has been built on for decades: fight monsters, make gear from monster parts, rinse, repeat. It also tries to bring in new players with some creative swings. This is admirable since the series is notoriously impenetrable to those not already onboard, even with Monster Hunter World finding mainstream success.

While some of these decisions are hit and miss, Monster Hunter Wilds still provides that exciting dopamine rush when tearing through a dragon with some friends.

Monster Hunter Wilds Review – By Order of the Guild

For the longest time, every Monster Hunter story was told in brief, impersonal text on a quest select menu. If you were lucky, there were worldbuilding details peppered in the environment or in supplemental material. That story usually amounted to, “Some monsters are attacking some people, go stop them,” or “Some monsters are acting odd, go deal with it.” Serious storytelling was never this franchise's strong suit; the narrative has always been a vehicle for the next hunt.

I bring this up because Monster Hunter Wilds manages to bring a conventional cinematic narrative into this franchise. The Hunter's Guild has sent your character to investigate the Forbidden Lands. What was believed to be an untamed frontier of monsters is home to a secret tribe of people with ties to the land's ancient roots.

But something has gone wrong in the Forbidden Lands. Monster outbreaks are threatening the populace and the environment is suffering for it. This means your job is to gather research data, hunt what is in your way, and figure out the cause of these monster attacks.

It's a familiar set-up, but the difference with Monster Hunter Wilds is the presentation. Every story mission in this game has extensive cutscenes leading up to the hunt. These cutscenes involve multiple recurring characters, all with unique voices and personalities. In a franchise first, the player character and their palico companion talk. They're characterized as broadly taciturn, but it's something.

This guided narrative approach extends to the game's opening hours. Whenever you start in a new area, you get a guided tour. Rising and falling water levels in a forest. Mysterious ruins that act as lightning rods in the middle of the desert. Caverns with sludgy deposits of flammable oil. The list goes on.

I am of two minds about this new approach. It is a concerted effort by Capcom to bring the worldbuilding of Monster Hunter from the margins into the spotlight. In addition, it puts one of the franchise's greatest strengths center stage: making every monster feel like one part of a living ecosystem.

If you have never played a Monster Hunter game before, Wilds does a great job bringing you in with this cinematic presentation.

Alternatively, if you are a longtime fan like me, this approach has reined the series' sillier side. The tone is less playful and certain parts of the game lack the series' campier elements. 

A good example is cooking a meal. Instead of meals being prepared by a goofy band of palicos at a canteen, complete with the kind of showmanship you'd see at a Benihana, you just cook your meals yourself over a small grill. The presentation of the food still makes your mouth water, but how it is delivered to your table is more forgettable.

Monster Hunter Wilds Review – Sharpening Old Blades

In the gameplay department Monster Hunter Wilds is a refinement across the board. The 14 different weapon types are still here and play exactly as you expect but with some notable quality-of-life improvements. Certain weapons that require charging like the Switch Axe or Charge Blade, will automatically do so the first time you try to use a relevant ability. No more impotently hitting a dragon's flank here.

In addition, the Long Sword and Dual Blades have gotten faster and more acrobatic. Attack animations are packed with fluid spins and twirls, giving you more control over your positioning during a battle. As for Hunting Horn mains, the old support buff system from Monster Hunter World has returned.

A new wrinkle to these monster hunts is the introduction of wounds. If you hit a certain body part enough times, that monster will gain a wound. These are represented as red glowing spots on the monster. Hit this area with a focused attack and you'll deal a bunch of damage, stagger the monster, and get a monster part for your trouble. It is a fantastic addition to the hunt gameplay since it allows you to strategically stagger your target, giving you more control over the battlefield.

Complimenting this are new creative ways the environment is affected as you hunt. Fighting a monster in the desert can lead to sinkholes forming. Vines of jungle trees can be struck down for improvised net traps. Some of these elements were in place in Monster Hunter World, but they feel more fleshed out in Wilds, leading to some stellar setpieces.

These are welcome additions that bring more tactility to the Monster Hunter experience. But the trade-off is a lack of hunt variety. There are no alternate hunt challenges like Monster Hunter Rise's Rampage hunts or any unique weapon stances or abilities to figure out. There is meaty endgame material here as well as some arena hunts, but they are few and far between.

As for the new player experience, Monster Hunter Wilds does its best not to overwhelm. From the start, the game gradually introduces mechanics and systems. It slowly rolls out tutorials for whatever weapon you are using, how to sharpen your weapons, certain item crafting recipes, the importance of honey, etc. The game even has friendly NPC hunters you can call in for help, and their AI behavior is rock solid.

These are welcome concessions, but Capcom's answer to teaching new players still amounts to some text boxes. If you're starting out you will need to intuit some things. Things veteran players take for granted like focusing more on consistent combos than giant kill-shots, navigating the map, using the environment to your advantage, or applying poison or paralysis status effects.

This is not a failing on Capcom's part. Monster Hunter as a whole is a very hands-on experience. You are expected to get your hands dirty, get smacked around, and even fail at your first handful of hunts. In addition, the cadence of the combat is heavier than other action RPGs out there. While this makes the core gameplay experience unique, it is something you click with or not.

As always, the real stars of Monster Hunter Wilds are the monsters. The Forbidden Lands does feature some returning beasts like the Nerscylla and the iconic Rathalos, but the new creatures also make a good impression. Highlights include the Nu Udra, a giant octopus monster covered in flaming oil, and the Rey Dau, the result of someone combining a dragon with a railgun.

Monster Hunter Wilds Review – Grab Your Friends

Monster Hunter Wilds is the first entry in the series to introduce cross-platform play. And on paper, a lot of the endgame content highly encourages you to play with friends.  You will need a crew to get the most bang for your buck.

On the technical side, Monster Hunter Wilds' multiplayer works. When I finally got a group together, it gave me flashbacks to playing Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on my 3DS back in the day. Didn't matter if we were on PC or console, everything worked. Connections were smooth, shenanigans with bombs happened, and good times were had. On a less formal note, getting random help from sending up an SOS Flare never gets old.

What sours the experience a bit is how finding groups or matchmaking is handled. You can't just search for players on your Friends List or jump into a hunt in progress. Instead, there is a cumbersome code system alongside the same confusingly laid-out lobby used in past entries. It isn't as bad as Nintendo's Friend Code system, but it gave me flashbacks.

Monster Hunter Wilds Review | Final Thoughts

Monster Hunter Wilds is a great entry in a beloved series. If you're a longtime fan, the gameplay improvements and new monsters are more than enough to pick this up. Alternatively, if you haven't touched the series before and are willing to get through a steep learning curve, the cinematic narrative presentation and imaginative monster designs will welcome you with open teeth and claws.

Monster Hunter Wilds was reviewed on PlayStation 5 with a code provided by Capcom over the course of 40 hours – all screenshots were taken during the process of review.