The newest installment in the Monster Hunter franchise is Capcom’s greatest hit yet, selling more than 10 million units following the title’s launch on the PC platform. However, ever since its inception and first showcase, die-hard fans of the series have judged the game’s new features with a grain of salt out of fear that the new mechanics would “taint” the purity and soul of their beloved franchise. Nevertheless, regardless of whether the game did or didn’t break the mold, its resounding financial success definitely proved that the formula works and that new games in the same vein could be a feasible endeavor for Capcom to pursue in future releases.

However, does Monster Hunter World truly live up to the legacy of its forefathers? Is it really the resounding success that the game’s sales would otherwise make you think? Let’s dive in and see!

Before getting on with the review, I feel it necessary to disclaim that I’m by no means a hardcore veteran of the series. I’ve known about Monster Hunter ever since its alleged glory days on the PSP. Furthermore, I played it for a bit on the Wii during Monster Hunter Tri’s apex.

At the time, I was, admittedly, a two-bit scrub. I remember my first encounter with the Great Jaggi vividly. I recall telling myself in awe: “Wow, this AI is amazing” as the smaller Jaggis circled around their alpha male and my hunter, forming a makeshift arena where we would square down for the following 40 or so minutes (did I mention I was a scrub?). However, I’ve since honed my hunting/gathering skills after acquiring Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on the 3DS, and then Monster Hunter Generations on the same console. I must’ve put in about 400 to 500 hours on both titles combined which, while it could be considered a sizeable amount of time, it’s actually not that much compared to the vets that put in thousands of hours in the game, and know it like the back of their hands.

Nevertheless, I feel knowledgeable and confident enough to put pen to paper, so to speak, and give my honest, and hopefully objective opinion on the latest installment in this amazing franchise.

What is it?

In a few words; Monster Hunter World is a stellar game. If you’re a fan of the series, you are definitely missing out if you haven’t given this title a spin.

However, for those of you who are not familiar with the game, or don’t conform to my crude ways of abruptly shilling it, then please read on.

Monster Hunter World first released on January 26, 2018, on the PS4 and Xbox One to the joy of many fans, and the dismay of those who loved the series, yet only owned a gaming PC. I acquired it on launch since I got a decent $20 discount on a digital version of the game even though I knew in my heart of hearts that I would purchase it again when it came out on PC.

August 9th marked the release day of the game on PC which, of course, I picked up day one and have been playing it religiously to this day. I’ve played around 300 hours between my PS4 and PC versions which, again, is really not that much, but it is more than enough to get through all of the game’s short content (more on that later). I have around 180 hours on PC, and have completed several endgame sets for several weapons, decorations included. I am still missing several augments, but it’s only a matter of time until I get there.

With that being said, let’s begin with the game’s stronger points.

The Good

At first impression, the game is groundbreaking in both world design and combat mechanics. The feeling of immersing myself in the lush greeneries of the Ancient Forest was akin to taking a December family vacation to another town only to find out that the people there don’t celebrate Christmas but in a good way. “Is this my Monster Hunter?” I thought. “But why does it feel so smooth?” “Why does it (sometimes) run at 60 FPS?” If this was the future of Monster Hunter, then I was completely on board. However, the good aspects of the game definitely don’t end there, so let’s dig in.

The Weapons

While most of the 14 weapons types retain the majority of the moves that we’ve become familiar with over the past iterations, some of them feature changes both small and large. Furthermore, while some of these changes are subtle enough to go under the radar, others completely change the meta for their current weapon. Bows, for example, changed from being a sniping weapon designed to charge its shots and exploit every of the monster’s weak points with each projectile, to a veritable Gatling gun of arrows. This is due to the addition of a new feature where each subsequent bow shot would charge one stage higher than the previous when shot in quick succession. In this sense, the new bow meta revolves around spamming R2/RT to unleash a literal one-two-three combo on the foe.

Changes like this one exist for most weapon types and, while some of them are more intuitive and easier to get used to than others, they are, for the most part, a step up from the gameplay mechanics of previous titles.

As a charge blade, bow, and greatsword user myself, I found vast enjoyment in learning the nuances of my favorite weapon types. It’s so refreshing to go from a game with amazing combat mechanics in previous iterations to another with even better mechanics on top of better controls and a smoother gameplay experience. This improved control scheme also made want to learn new weapons, such as the lance, which I’ve become increasingly proficient with.

However, if your previous gameplay experience with this franchise before picking up World was with Generations, like mine, then these changes might feel somewhat bittersweet. The weapons control better than ever, true, but the removal of hunting styles could, for some, feel like a downgrade from the previous game.

In this regard, you will find tons of conflicting information and opinions, as well as community infighting about whether these additions were good or bad. While some hated Generations due to its hunting styles and welcomed the changes that World brought, for others the opposite was true. Furthermore, there are some who are against everything this new wave of Monster Hunter games have spawned, and would rather zealously continue to sink thousands of hours into Freedom Unite or whatever classic MonHun game they’re into. For this reason, if you’re even slightly interested in World, I’d suggest you disregard the community shenanigans and try it for yourself to make your own opinion.

While the game does have its flaws in terms of monster designs and weapon balancing, this in no way detracts from the overall experience of getting good with your favorite weapon and taking your quarry on a one-way trip to pound town.

The World

While the maps of past Monster Hunter games were little more than arenas or staging grounds for your showdowns against all manner of wildlife, Monster Hunter World lives up to its namesake by providing a setting that actually feels like a world in itself. And we’re not talking about graphics — that’s just the icing on this sweet, sweet cake. This game takes you to lush forests, arid wastelands, a rocky valley that bears a striking resemblance to an underwater landscape, a rotting and festering system of caverns where old beasties go to die and where only the most putrid monsters live, and a mysterious volcanic cave lined with energy-infused crystals.

It’s immediately clear from the very beginning that, when it comes to maps, this game went all-in for quality instead of quantity. The zones are incredibly detailed, down to every single rock, branch, tree; you name it. It definitely feels like the developers hand placed every asset on their maps to create true-to-life environments, which is somewhat of a breakaway from the ones in other Monster Hunter games.

This series has always been known for its whimsical locations that, while definitely plausible to find in our real world, still manage to maintain a hint of that Japanese fantasy that we all know and love. In contrast, World strove for a more realistic approach to their maps. In fact, you could say that the entire game has a different look to it, which goes far beyond the improved graphics that current-gen consoles and PC can render. From the color palette to the overall design and aesthetics of the areas, it’s quite evident that this game was designed for a wider audience. If I had to describe this phenomenon with one word, I’d go with “Westernized.”

This obviously doesn’t detract from the absolute amazing job the guys at Capcom did with their zone design. In fact, this is arguably one of the game’s best features, which goes hand in hand with the new movement mechanics implemented into this game. But more on that later.

Back then, each map was divided into several numbered areas, all of which were divided by a loading screen. Monster Hunter World does away with all of this and created entire seamless maps for each area, all of which can be traversed by foot or wingdrake. In previous installments, you could even use the loading screens between areas to flee from monsters and get a quick heal in before heading back to battle. This is all but impossible this time around as there is no zoning whatsoever.

Furthermore, instead of a single camp area where the player would spawn at the beginning of missions or expeditions like in past titles, you can find several potential campsites in each map in World, which can be then permanently unlocked by handing in some supplies and research points in the resource center. In order to facilitate travel and get around these huge maps, you may also fast travel between these camps. In this sense, discovering and unlocking them will quickly become one of your main priorities to speed up your subsequent hunts.

Each map comes with its own sets of unique hazards and conditions, for which you’ll have to prepare beforehand. The Rotten Vale, for example, is plagued with a toxic effluvium, which slowly chips away at your health and can sometimes build up to the point of afflicting your hunter with a debuff that cuts his maximum HP in half. Luckily, there are many ways to deal with this debuff, and even to prevent it entirely. For instance, the condition is easily removed by eating a nulberry. Furthermore, you may prevent it from setting in by wearing a mantle (since they cover your mouth and nose), by using torch pods on the ground to burn away the toxic fumes in the immediate area, or by equipping appropriate armor skills. Nevertheless, while these conditions definitely make this map a slog to handle for many, it definitely has its unique charm.

In fact, all of the maps in the game have their own unique features that make them stand out in their own right. The Ancient Forest is marred with branching paths, vine traps, wedge beetles that you can latch onto with your slinger to cover more ground, and myriad critters roaming about doing their own thing. On the other hand, the Coral Highlands, while not as impressive in terms of the mobility options it offers, looks absolutely surreal. The first time I stepped foot in it, I genuinely thought I was underwater; even the sky looks as if you were looking at it from beneath the waves of a vast ocean. This one is definitely a nod to the whimsical landscapes of previous Monster Hunter titles, which makes it one of my absolute favorite places to kick some monster butt in.

Monster Hunter Generations has a total of 20 maps, including arenas. Meanwhile, World only has 5 main maps and a handful of arenas. Nevertheless, even with the small number of maps, World definitely manages to create a feeling of cohesion between all its zones, which contributes towards the overall charm of the game.

The Gameplay

The gameplay changes that Monster Hunter World brought to the table, while few, are the perfect addition to complement the game’s new map design. Weapon changes aside, the single largest gameplay mechanic introduced this time around is the Slinger.

This device, which is meant to be worn on the left arm, is standard issue for every hunter of the new world. The slinger is a multipurpose tool, used mainly as a grappling hook. This device can also fit all types of ammo such as stones, torch pods, and water pellets, among others, all of which you can pick up from the ground or some plants. You can then launch these pods at monsters, or some environmental objects to cause different effects. For example, if you launch any type of projectile to the rocks which are precariously hanging in one part of the Ancient Forest, you can make them fall down. Should a monster be under them when they fall, you can cause considerable damage on top of possibly knocking your foe to the ground for some easy pickings.

Additionally, your standard flash bombs and dung bombs have been replaced by flash pods and dung pods, respectively. In this game, you launch these vital tools from your slinger, instead of chucking them by hand.

Another useful addition to the series are is the concept of mantles, which are pieces of clothing similar to full cloaks that your hunter can wear at any time to enjoy various effects. The ghillie mantle, which is the first type of mantle you unlock, allows you to slip by any monster unseen, even while sprinting. You can effectively use this tool to conceal yourself in the middle of combat to flee or to heal yourself and sharpen your weapon.

Other useful mantles include the vitality mantle, which effectively grants you a full extra health bar as it serves as armor; the bandit mantle, which makes large monsters drop some valuable trade items with every few hits; the rocksteady mantle, which nullifies all knockback from a monster so you can unleash those charged hits with your greatsword without fear of interruption, and so on. There are many other mantles that you can choose from in this game, all of which serve a different purpose. While some of them, like the ones I just mentioned, are for general purposes, there are others that could help you out of tight spots. Unfortunately, you can only equip one mantle at the beginning, and two after completing certain events in the story, so there’s always a degree of strategy and preparation involved.

Other than the big mechanics mentioned above, Monster Hunter World also brings several much-needed quality of life improvements. Pickaxes, bug nets, and fishing rods are a thing of the past as you don’t need to waste valuable inventory space on these tools. Instead, your hunter permanently carries these items on their person at all times. However, in the case of bug nets, they aren’t even in the game as your hunter simply picks up the bugs from the ground; the absolute madman!

Whetstones are also permanently added to your inventory if you’re wearing a melee weapon, so you never need to farm for these precious grinding stones ever again in World.

Gathering is faster than ever in this game as your hunter no longer needs to hunch down to pick up stuff from the ground. In this regard, looting herbs, berries, monster drops, and other items from the environment is as easy as pressing the button and watching your hunter quickly pick it up. The only things that still require some time to gather are bone piles and some unique plants. Carving felled monsters takes time as well, so you need to be quick to loot your quarry before the timer runs out after completing your mission.

The main hub this time around is as useful as ever. Though Generations definitely spoiled us with many hubs, your base of operations in World, Astera, has all the tools that you’ll ever need. Like in other games, you can find your canteen in Astera, as well as a merchant, a workshop, the melder and The Handler who manages your assignments and investigations.

Some new additions here are the resource center and the ecology researcher. The former gives out repeatable assignments that you can complete for some decent loot, as well as the weekly tasks that grants some pretty nice prizes on completion. You can also turn in several special assignments here to receive special rewards and upgrade many of the town’s facilities. Meanwhile, the latter analyzes all the tracks and samples from various monsters that you pick up in the world, and rewards you with information that you can view in your Hunter’s Notes at any time.

This last one is pretty cool as it allows you to consult the weak spots of every single monster, the parts that can be broken off, the drops that you can expect for both their low rank and high rank versions, and their elemental and physical weaknesses in every part of their body. In this sense, you no longer have to consult an external wiki or resource to find out how best to prepare against the toughest foes that the game has to offer.

One cool addition in this World is the hunter’s room, which you can upgrade two times throughout your adventures. In your room, you can speak with your Palico butler to consult the status of your Tailriders, which are your Palico mercenaries that you send on expeditions, as well as to decorate your quarters with the various animals you can capture throughout the world with your capture net. This last feature helps to add purpose and depth to your interactions with the local fauna of the world and drives you to capture more specimens to add to your room.

Last but not least, you have the concept of seamless missions. After completing each assignment, you have the choice to return to Astera or to return to the campsite so you can go on other quests, or simply head out on a free hunt to gather some materials. You don’t ever need to go back to Astera, not even for switching weapons as you can easily do so from the tents in any campsite. Heck, you can even switch weapons while on missions! Having trouble with a weapon you haven’t quite mastered yet? Just switch to your faithful fallback choice and keep practicing at a later time!

Hunting is easier than ever in World. In this sense, you can focus more on the game itself, and less on returning to base, micromanaging menus, and so on. This is even further improved by the auto-crafting feature, which allows you to toggle certain items so that, whenever you pick up the ingredients required to craft them, the game will do it for you automatically and add them to your pouch. In this manner, you can easily craft mega potions, antidotes, herbal medicine, flash pods, dung pods, and all the other essential items without even having to open your menu.

The Bad

“So,” you may be thinking, “if it’s so good, then why does that title of this article say ‘Doomed to Succeed’”?

Monster Hunter World is more akin to a diamond in the rough than a true masterpiece. Sure, it has arguably the best gameplay out of all the games in the series, but it also marred with bugs as well as questionable design decisions that, depending on who you are and the moment when you first got into the series, could seriously detract from the overall experience.

Let’s take a look at World’s greatest issues and drawbacks.

Connectivity

First and foremost: the Monster Hunter World PC launch was a disaster. There’s no other way to say it. Though it’s expected that such a high-profile game, especially in such an important occasion for the series (the first ever mainline Monster Hunter game on PC), would encounter some issues with their servers, these problems went beyond that.

Right from the very beginning, players were having issues with random disconnects every few minutes, even in the middle of quests. This was particularly aggravating since every time this happened, you were stuck fighting a multiplayer version of the monster by yourself. While this definitely was not a problem for veterans, it was still an issue that affected the newcomers. Furthermore, regardless of your skill level, these multiplayer monsters would take significantly more time to die, turning some hunts into a veritable chore early on. Furthermore, some features, such as invite-only private sessions didn’t work (and still don’t at the time of writing). Through this feature, you would allegedly be able to invite players to your private sessions through Steam’s friend system. However, every time you try this, it says that the player is in a private session and that you can’t join unless invited.

The only way that you can play with a friend at the moment is to create a public session and have them join it through the online session menu. Otherwise, if you don’t want strangers joining in, you can create a private session and give your friends the session ID with which they can easily join. Although a bit of a hassle, this is still the only way to play with your friends in a private session. Up until a few weeks ago, however, this was barely a good solution as you would get randomly disconnected.

Fortunately, these connectivity issues have, for the most part, been fixed. Nevertheless, there are still some issues such as the aforementioned problem with friends being unable to join your private session despite the game saying otherwise, as well as being unable to connect with your friends at all, among others minor nuisances with connectivity, like being unable to rejoin quests with your friends if you get disconnected.

Performance

Fair warning; my PC is severely dated. It’s in the limbo where it can run most recent games just fine, while also still severely lacking in some departments such as RAM so it chugs along when multitasking. I tested World on my i5 3570 @3.4 GHz CPU, GTX 1070 6GB GPU, 8GB DDR3 RAM, and an old 250GB Samsung EVO SSD.

For the most part, the game ran at sub-40 FPS in most areas. However, a little digging helped me to pinpoint the cause; the latest Nvidia GPU drivers (which were allegedly optimized for MHW) didn’t take full advantage of my GPU’s processing power and dumped most of the work on my aged CPU. The result was performance dips into the low 20s, and even below 10 FPS in certain areas.

After downgrading my drivers, the game ran beautifully, almost always at 50 to 60 FPS at max settings. However, despite the awesome performance in relation to the PS4 version, my CPU was always maxed out at 90-100% usage, which made alt-tabbing all but impossible. This is because the game apparently has a problem with threading where it creates way too many threads for old CPUs to handle. Luckily, there are some mods out there that can help with this without affecting the graphical fidelity. Nevertheless, it’s still an issue that has yet to be resolved by Capcom.

This problem was present in all the CPUs I’ve tested the game on, including an overclocked i5 4690k running at 4.5GHz. Granted, the performance was somewhat better than on my PC, but the usage issue persisted.

You probably won’t notice any issues with this if you have a beast PC, though. If this is the case, then all the better for you!

Variety

Arguably one of the biggest flaws of this game.

In a series known for being able to hunt nearly a hundred different types of monsters (more than a hundred, in the case of Generations), World is severely lacking in the variety department. There are around 34 large monsters and 18 small monsters in the game, excluding the tempered varieties. As an enthusiast of the series, this is simply unacceptable to me, mainly because, since the endgame always tends to boil down to hunting monsters over and over, this really kills the longevity this entry.

I’ve played around 180 hours of World, which is just enough time to go through all the content and completing several armor sets for my favorite weapons. You could say that 180 hours is pretty good for a game in this generation. However, keep in mind that, in my Generations save, I have around 280 hours, and I still haven’t even completed all the multiplayer quests.

I guess my biggest complaint here is that I can only hunt the same 3 or 4 tempered monsters over and over again until I get bored. At least with other games, I could go wild with the variety.

Design Choices

The other big flaw that plagues this game.

I already went over the questionable design choices that Capcom made to appeal to the Western audience. However, these decisions seemed to seep into the weapon designs, as well.

In previous games, Monster Hunter was known for its over-the-top, and sometimes downright goofy weapon designs. You could even beat monsters up with a fork and knife as a pair of dual blades, or a giant chunk of ham as a hammer. In World, however, they went for the realistic route and made most of their weapons look bland and boring. Each weapon type has 3 or 4 models and, when you go to upgrade them, all that changes is that small chunks of monster bits get glued to it. In some cases, the weapon doesn’t even change when you upgrade. This departure from the fantasy designs of the weapons in other games seems so out of place in a game where you hunt monsters with huge, oversized weapons made from chunks of their kin.

Overall, Monster Hunter World is not a bad game; it’s a terrific entry to the series in terms of setting, world design, and gameplay. However, the lack of monster variety and focus on the world itself this time around make this title feel more like a spinoff than another mainline entry in the series. Furthermore, the myriad quality of life improvements that they added this time, while very significant and refreshing, are dragged down by the questionable design choices, which make the game feel more like a tech demo designed to test these new gameplay improvements.

However, the game sold like crazy. Since launch, it has sold more than 10 million copies, which makes it the highest-selling entry in the entire series. While I am happy with this turn of events, I fear that Capcom may decide to work with the same formula in future titles, where we’re treated to an amazing world, but with little variety of monsters to hunt in it. Furthermore, the conservative weapon designs are definitely a far cry from what we’re used to.

This game is an awesome title plagued with many flaws that severely detract from its overall quality. Nevertheless, it is the best-selling title in the series. In this sense, Monster Hunter World is doomed to succeed.

Recommended For

This game is perfect for players who love to dive in and learn the basic mechanics and master them in order to take on progressively bigger and badder challenges. It has a certain grind to it, which is offset by the fact that every hunt is completely different from each other, which helps to pad out the fatigue from repetitive gameplay. If you love taking up certain playstyles, mastering them, and taking them to the next level, then this game is definitely right up your alley.

Not Recommended For

Monster Hunter World is one of those games where you really need to buckle up and get hunting. And by this, we mean that you often need to hunt a single monster 10 to 20 times — sometimes even more — to get that specific item you needed to upgrade your weapon. If you’re not a fan of the grind, then you might want to skip this title. In fact, you could actually go ahead and skip the entire series since this is exactly what the game has been about since its inception.

Written by Juan Lopez
Gamer, Freelance Writer living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.