Monster Hunter Wilds

Monster Hunter, a series that I have come to love over my 7 years of playing, has just released its latest installment – Monster Hunter Wilds. As of now, I have played over 100 hours since launch and it has been a wonderful experience. While Monster Hunter experiences vary drastically based upon weapon choices and group hunting. My weapons of choice are the insect glaive and charge blade. I will be focusing mostly on the story and gameplay aspects I experienced during my journey in the beautiful and wild world.

Let’s start with how it looks – ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. I played this game on medium-high settings and it’s still breathtaking. The environments are gorgeous, the attention to detail on the characters are amazing, the monsters are both terrifying and beautiful, and all around it made for an insane visual experience.

Graphics: Easily a 10/10.

Regarding optimization, this is where I find the game’s weak point. At the time of writing this review, the game’s current optimization is in a poor state. Issues such as graphical errors, crashes, and frame rate drops ran rampant for most of the community upon the game’s launch. However, with a little bit of tweaking, I never ran into many issues. With my adjustments, the game ran at a steady 90fps, and I only experienced one crash. This crash though was caused by my own hand – because let’s be real, ULTRA settings are cool.

Optimization: 6/10

The gameplay itself, being controls and such, has always been interesting with MH. However, in Wilds they made it VERY beginner friendly. The game explains simple mechanicsearly on to the player and keeps combos in the top of your screen for a quick reference. It’s very refreshing to see this since it allows hunters new and old to pop in and experience it easily without being overly confused.

Controls and beginner friendliness: 8/10.

In Wilds, the player finds themselves thrust into the shoes of an unexplained hunter who gets caught up in the chaos of this beautiful world. This trope, in my experience, has been the ongoing thing that just works with the series. However, the thing that makes Wilds special is the bureaucracy of the guild and the need for the hunter’s handler, “Alma”, to give them permission. This is the only thing that holds the player back from going off the rails with their hunting. Wilds is the first installment in the Monster Hunter series that legitimately made you feel like the monsters you hunt are not the real monsters. You, the hunter, are the true monster and in my opinion, this is the best story they’ve ever created.

Story: 9/10

Overall, Monster Hunter Wilds is an amazing journey in a beautifully wild world where players both new and old can tackle some insane monsters both alone and with friends.

Monster Hunter Wilds earns itself a solid 8.5/10.