For the first time, I got to try Monster Hunter back in 2004 on PS2, and have kept an eye on the series since. After all, it was this series of games that gave me many hours of unique combat mechanics used to hunt giant monsters and epic challenges that were enjoyable to overcome.
However, the majority of games in this series were released mainly on PlayStation of different generations, which made the games not very accessible and or that popular in a number of regions. Fortunately, there were still people in Capcom who paid attention to the PC platform, and not just to PS and Nintendo.
Back in 2018, Monster Hunter: World was released, which won the hearts of many hunters and became a sign that games in this series should be released not only in the home country and only on PlayStation. It was followed by Monster Hunter: Rise, which again managed to capture the interest and love of many players out there. Having received the title of “free time killer of the year” from some journalists, it sold just over 11 million times and earned an honorable place in the libraries of players.
And now, on February 28, 2025, Monster Hunter Wilds was released. On the very first day, the game had more than 1 million players, which is an impressive result in and of itself. What is amazing is that the series itself has a very peculiar concept that requires perseverance and no small amount of patience for grinding from players, the visual style of the games is quite specific, there was too much anime and Japanese for players, which was difficult to perceive, and finally, the console exclusivity of many previous titles.
But, Capcom took all these problems into account and made Monster Hunter Wilds an excellent entry point for new players. True, experienced Hunters immediately had many questions, but alas, it is not so easy to please everyone at once.
Let’s start from the beginning. Monster Hunter Wilds has become a great game for beginners who are ready to overcome some difficulties and immerse themselves in the world of the game. Usually, in the games of the series, the plot is not that important, sometimes it was there just for show, but Wilds became a pleasant exception. I won’t reveal the plot of the game, it’s not that long anyway, but its ending left me a little… annoyed? Surprised? I can’t even find words for the last bits of the plot. But the story itself was a nice portion of spices that added to the main dish for me.
The gameplay process aims to convey the experience of a seasoned hunter of giant and dangerous representatives of the fictional bestiary. Each battle requires careful preparation, checking and double-checking of your equipment and consumables.
In Monster Hunter Wilds, Hunters will have 14 types of weapons at their disposal, both ranged and melee, ranging from a two-handed sword and spear to a bow, glaive and speargun. Your choice of weapon will form your “build”. And no, there are no talents here, just variations of attacks of your weapons. But how many of them are there…
I advise you to try each one at the beginning of the game to understand what you want to play with. And don’t be scared by the number of the available weaponry, you can try each one out very quickly on the training ground.
Next comes armor, it differs in protection parameters and elemental resistances; different armor helps against different monsters. If you have a monster that fills the floor of the combat location with fire, it is advised to put a set on it with fire resistance, and take weapons with water/ice attack. Vice versa, for a water monster it is worth taking something fiery/explosive.
Each armor and weapon has both its own appearance, sometimes really impressive, and unique characteristics. Take a regular bow – average damage, no elemental attack, a small chance of crit, but it is worth improving it with the help of loot from hunting monsters … and you will get a bow with Lightning damage and a chance of stunning enemies, a bow with fire damage, with poison, and so on. The same with armor, after defeating a monster, you will receive its parts, which can then be turned into one of 5 pieces of armor: head, body, arms, legs and boots. Each monster gives parts for a unique set of such armor, in 2 versions – for characters of 2 genders, naturally.
True, in the middle of the game I had a hodgepodge of 3 sets, because I wasn’t always able to get the required loot from the monsters in needed amounts, but by the end of the game, having grinded, I have crafted the sets I needed without too much sweat.
Preparing for a hunt is extremely important: didn’t take an antidote with you, and the enemy can inflict poison? You can and will easily die. Forgot to take special shells – then you will be able to shoot only the standard ones. Left without food, and you are left stuck a buff. In this game, they really paid VERY much attention to food, both in cutscenes and when preparing for a battle. Food gives you both health and damage, as well as useful buffs, but you need to look for the right ingredients. You can cook both in camps and on a camp brazier once you’ve entered the map. Now let’s move on to the main dish: monsters.
For newcomers to the series, they will be more than enough, but old-timers of the series swear that the selection is lacking. There are about a dozen and a half total monsters in the game, which we will definitely kill at least once during the completion of the story. For those who participated directly for the sake of the story – it will be enough to get a couple of armor pieces and weapons from the loot from these bosses. For those who want to continue playing further, there will be enhanced versions of monsters available for hunting, but to be honest, for now they are both too fragile and too easy.
On average, hunting time is given with a nice reserve, usually 50 minutes or so, but even inexperienced players can complete hunts in 10-15 minutes, and that’s if they don’t call for backup and do hunts solo. Once, having called other hunters for a strengthened monster, we didn’t even let it leave the initial hunting zone, it was killed by 4 Hunters in 5 minutes, and we knocked down all its protruding claws and teeth and broke its paws, and finally broke its skull, receiving all the additional resources for this savage hunt.
The monsters here are quite diverse both in appearance and in character. Some attack directly by charging at you horns first, others set the arena and themselves on fire, spinning and attacking everyone around, and the third yet poisons and fly away, constantly attacking with a spiked tail. Each monster will have its own tactics, as well as a set of weapons with armor. The process of preparing for the hunt will always be important for you.
In battles against monsters, you will be using a system for inflicting wounds. Wounds will be displayed on monsters as scars – and when aiming is turned on, they will also be highlighted in red. A blow using focus directly into a wound will perform an enhanced attack, which will also damage the monster’s limb or may even deprive it of one.
And along with the blow, you will also receive additional loot. Knocked off the whisker of a water dragon – here you go, broke the skull – here is your skull as a reward, cut off a dragon’s claw – it will be used for a good weapon in the future. Or you can not pierce these wounds, but simply hit them further. Damage to them increases, but after a certain threshold is broken, the wound “heals”.
The focus system is designed to help inflict wounds and work with them point by point. In this state, you go into a special stance. In it, you move slowly, but you can target specific areas. Moreover, it allows you to change the direction of strikes right during their execution. Thus, you can now avoid missing the “true attack” of the Great Sword, for example. The developers have also created the best hitboxes in the series, which allow you to comfortably use the new systems.
The defensive mechanics have also undergone significant changes. Now monster strikes can be parried, so you will not receive damage and will be able to counterattack. If the parry was successful, but the monster was not stunned (did not pass the limit of the required status effect), you will simply receive damage, but halved and without losing your balance, as if you were hyperarmored. Also, using the block, you can go into a special “force confrontation” mode, where you and the monster will go into a special animation as it tries to break through your shield. Overpower it when prompted, and you will hit it on the head with your free hand.
When it comes to the weapons that can’t block, everything seems to have become much more mobile. Running techniques, the ability to take a step left or right right during a combo, the ability to switch modes right in the middle of a combo. Each weapon has undergone noticeable positive changes that have made everything much more convenient. In my opinion, the only weapon that hasn’t received anything extra, and have even become weaker in some ways compared to others, is the glaive.
The surrounding space can – and should! – be used in battles with monsters, for example, the fireflies. Hit them, and they will blind the monsters around. And that rock over there is very conveniently located above the monster – why not bring it down; the water dragon has rushed away from you – and there in the distance you can bring down a stalactite on him, which will stun him and throw him into the arena back to you.
Not only do you participate in the gameplay by yourself, but you are also accompanied by your 2 permanent partners through the entirety of Monster Hunter Wilds. One of them is a Seikret, a riding lizard that will help you in fast movement, and carry a second weapon. You will be able to change weapons in the middle of the battle only thanks to the Seikrets. And when monsters run away from you or when you are changing your location, you will be able to ride the Seikret and sharpen your weapon (oh yes, weapons REQUIRE sharpening, otherwise you will stop piercing monsters) and drink a healing potion, or change the weapon itself.
From Seikrets you can also make attacks in a jump, and having successfully attacked you can land on the Monster. While on its back you have a way to deliver attacks to inflict a wound. Seikrets also have a kind of an autopilot. The autopilot, by the way, is smart, so you can put a marker on a monster and move away without fear that you will start a fight, because the animal will circle at a distance, out of the enemy’s line of sight.
Monsters have also learned some new tricks and now use the environment much more often, trying to surprise the player. Sometimes, your target’s kin can even come to the rescue! But, unfortunately, this only applies to new creatures, all the old monsters, like Rathalos, have never tried to do something like this. As they say, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Some species have even learned to flock, so it is not uncommon to have to fight two or three identical monsters. Here it makes sense to use good old dung shells, which can now even become a dung bomb and disperse everyone to save you some time and effort.
But the hunter has gotten plenty of new moves. Exploration has never been so enjoyable and fast, the game has learned to value the player’s time. Thanks to the grappling hook, you can remotely collect any items, without even getting off the Seikret! The only exceptions are monster remains, bones and ore, but they now require much less time spent on themselves.
Your second companion is a Palico. This is a representative of the Lenian race, these Palico cats walk on both 2 and 4 legs, helping you in the game world in different aspects, and also chattering your ear off! In the game settings, you can set them to meow or voice, whichever is more convenient for you. Palicos help you in battles, in collecting resources and just chat nicely next to you. In combat, Palicos are able to heal you, relieve you of poisoning, various statuses, and beat monsters, distract them, set traps and help in other ways.
The promised systems for dynamic change of the weather, time of day and even seasons are in place and work properly. Some monsters can actually appear only during a storm, and only after the end of the story can you see how it is formed in real time. The game world is an entire living, breathing ecosystem with its own rules. It changes dynamically, with clouds covering the skies, rain starting to pour, and monsters crawling out when it suits them, which adds to its magic.
While you were running around on an expedition, sunset and even night could come, completely different monsters crawled would then crawl out of their shelters, and the game itself seems to blossom when all these things come into effect. The map was also updated, now it is a scalable 3D hologram, which is very convenient to use even on the move.
The developers also made a system of filters by markers, the ability to mark groups of materials at once. There is simply nothing to complain about here, they tried very hard and the results speak for themselves. In the hunter’s notes – where all the monsters and their drops are indicated, it is extremely convenient to view what you need. Find the ingredient required for crafting, find out the time of the monster’s appearance and conditions. On the maps, you can create / set up temporary camps in which you can sort out items and rest.
Note that such camps have a danger level – and if there is a safe camp, no one will touch it, but a camp in a dangerous place can be demolished by monsters, which will require time to restore it, or you can speed up their restoration for guild points. In large camps, hunters can craft our equipment at the Blacksmith.
The Blacksmith now has the option of hints and a wish list. Now she is always ready to share her opinion on what equipment you should forge. The wish list will help you navigate what you need to get a certain weapon. In the old games, such luxury was not allowed. And besides everything else, the game also has fishing, searching for different animals and insects, hunting for small fauna and collecting resources from the location for reagents and crafting. These small mechanics add to the the hunt, because even trivial fishing is nice in the beautiful world of the game.
The game has a great character editor, it is very flexible and has enough options for those who like to mold their hero. You can create both a brutal chad and a beautiful amazon. You can create a hero to suit any taste, it’s just a pity that if you want to change your hero or Palico (yes, you also edit its appearance and fur color), you will have to give Capcom your hard-earned dollars. After all, they managed to stuff coupons for appearance changes into their microtransactions. Seriously… The barrage of criticism for Dragon’s Dogma 2 apparently did not teach them anything.
A million different accessibility options are present: from font sizes, menu adjustments, and more, absolutely everything can be customized to one degree or another.
However, one thing is too complicated without any reason, and it is getting into a group with other players, both very difficult and not intuitive at all.
You need to add a player to the squad, take a quest, go to it and activate it, your comrade must accept this quest, and you also need to invite him to your world SEPARATELY. Too many actions that you still need to figure out in order to play together.
Unfortunately, you should be prepared for the fact that the game will not teach you important elements of the combat system, jumping or even a simple monster capture. If in some cases the team really tried and made life easier, then here, apparently, the calculation is that you will figure it out yourself.
It is especially difficult to enter the Radial Menus in the game, there are too many of them, and too many need to be used. Although if you sit for 15-20 minutes and customize them all for yourself, it becomes much more convenient to play. The main thing is to remember in which of the radian menus – with their own submenus – you have the emotion-jar-bottle-bomb etc. you need right now.
And here begins the part that Monster Hunter Wilds is simply torn apart for: the technical state. On all platforms we have a visual nightmare. FPS drops, potato graphics, visual defects and other scourges of AAA gaming, Monster Hunter Wilds has it all. I myself have encountered wildly infuriating scenes while playing. Here you have a cutscene, you rush with your partners to a monster, or go through a change of location and… 3 out of 5 of your partners look like potatoes with drawn eyes and hints of equipment.
When crafting, my character’s armor just barely loaded, showing itself as 3-4 triangles at the beginning, and only a little later loading in.
The technical condition of the game is just awful. Players even found typos in the game files. So, a Steam user under the nickname BeepBoop reported the correction of a typo in the configuration files of the game, which works wonders. The player noticed a misspelling of the word Resolution (“Resoltuion” in the files) in the line related to texture streaming. If you want to try it, you need to open the config.ini file from the game files in a text editor and fix the error, then save the file.
And this is not an isolated case. Several commenters on the forum claim that the frame rate has noticeably improved after fixing the typo. Some say that after fixing it, their frame rate has increased by about 20 frames per second.
Players have already started making mods, although Capcom really doesn’t like modders in their games, and I won’t risk using them just yet. You never know, Capcom might just ban players for various mods.
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