Monster Hunter Wilds is like a typical Godzilla film. You’re here to see monsters fighting, not humans talking. No, this isn’t Minus One. If you can get past the foot-dragging, on-rails, “20-hour tutorial” that funnels you through hand-holding sequences of fluff dialogue uttered by tropes that look like they just left drama class at a So-Cal community college, you’ll find a seamless Monster Hunter where the real game starts after the credits roll. Less bullet-spongy than World, not quite as mobile as Rise, and less mission-oriented than MHGU, Monster Hunter Wilds may have gone too far with streamlining, too preoccupied with whether they could that nobody stopped to ask if they should.
The odd speed bump exists such as being kicked offline or struggling to find a single setting in a sea of settings, even sweating over being unable to locate the menus required to co-op or figure out the difference between a Link Party and an Environment Link. However, once things have been set up properly, it’s never been easier to waltz out of tent town, armed to the teeth with two, I said TWO weapons, mounted on a Seikret, ready to roll. Missions can now be begun and completed without having to return to town just by exploring the natural environment. The handler follows the hunter around so you’re never far from the quest board, either. Still, it’s not all a walk in the Jurassic park.
Although hunting is smoother than ever, some details have been lost like one big AI upscale. Meticulous monster tracking, weapon gimmicks like vials or buying coatings, having to read enemy behavior, forgetting hot drinks before entering the tundra, becoming accustomed to a single headquarters rather than a dozen of them… these are things of Monster Hunter past, replaced by auto-tracking, auto-running, auto-wounding (if you’re playing Bow), and warping between Ubisoft icons on a mini-map in lush, evolving, seasonal biomes. Monster Hunter has begun to evolve, but will its new traits lose veteran players who got on board with World, not to mention those who have been on even earlier? The weapons are still fun to play and the physics and fearsome predators are still there. For now.
Does the future envisioned by Capcom mean less emphasis on realistic albeit inconvenient gameplay in exchange for lengthy cutscenes? In the words of the film Wilds so desperately wants to thematically emulate: “Life ah life uh finds a way”… unless you’re on PC.
Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves amid a gaming culture that’d rather talk about anything but. Pick out his feathered cap @thewellredmage or @thewellredmage.bsky.social.
