Monster Hunter is back in Monster Hunter World. Having been a predominantly Nintendo franchise for the last few years outside of a couple of PSP games, Monster Hunter returns to Playstation home consoles for the first time since the Japan only MMO. This would also mark the series’ second game on Xbox. In Monster Hunter World you are ‘The Hunter’ accompanied by your ‘Handler’ and feline humanoid Palico, you travel massive areas in search of beasts to clear out from new areas created by the monstrous Zorah Magdaros.

Monster Hunter World is a 2018 action-adventure game, it is developed and published by Capcom. It is available on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and soon PC.

Killing monsters while looting their corpses, huntin’ round the world!

Monster Hunter is back on console in Monster Hunter: World. For those familiar to the 3DS entries (which are more modern) they’ll feel right at home in ‘World’ as a lot of it is much of the same mechanics from those titles, but for the more than likely unfamiliar masses, they’re in for an experience like none other. With a number pseudo-open world like maps full of monsters in the ground and in the air Monster Hunter: World is special kind of game that is best experienced first-hand as words can’t quite do it justice.

Weapons, costumes. and content galore.

THE GOOD: In Monster Hunter: World you play as a Hunter who’s assisted by their Handler. You can customize your Hunter as much as possible from their looks and weapons and as time goes on with rarer monsters defeated and skinned you can get even more powerful weapons than the decent sized amount from the start of the game, a grand total of fourteen. Quests range from timed to investigations to fetch jobs for certain monster skins to further upgrade already obtained weapons and gear or to obtain new, more powerful weapons and gear.

Monster Hunter: World will put players against seemingly impossible situations and it can be an absolute blast trying to work around them or take them head on.

There are a total of six regions to explore in the New World with the main hub being Astera. Each region contains numbered joins and are connected with no load screens. Camps are used for fast travel and to change out gear and weaponry if need be. When a player encounters a monster they can either opt to kill it or trap and capture it. However, traps are only really effective once a monster has been weakened to a certain degree. One of the most exhilarating things about Monster Hunter: World is it’s insane monster combat. When you begin a quest in search of the designated beasts there’s so many different ways things can go that there’s really no right way to go about tackling them. For example, if you require a smaller monster there’s a possibility that a pact will interfere and aide the monster in battle.

Food gives you short term advantages in battle and health.

Larger scaled monsters can also interfere during quests and even get into a battle with your target monster. Beast behavior unpredictability is perhaps ‘World’s’ greatest gameplay mechanic. Due to the seemingly unscripted, wild behaviors of the monsters it keeps most quests from never feeling like too much of the same thing. Story is also intertwined with quests. In previous games these story quests were previously available in High Rank level quests, however in Monster Hunter: World story missions can be done in Low Rank quests to advance the story. Special “Bounty” quests can be done alongside regular missions as well. Online gameplay is also present with a team of up to four players. if there are only one or two players they will be replaced with the in-game Palico companion.

Monster Hunter: World’s biggest issue is a lack of friendliness to new players.

THE BAD: This game definitely won’t be for everyone especially due to the fact that it doesn’t really hold any hands. There’s a huge learning curve and it’ll have a great effect on players sticking around. However, there are communities online specifically made for helping out new players with quests and general advice. Adopt-A-Hunter is the biggest & perhaps most helpful of these communities.

World is the beginning of a new run on consoles for Monster Hunter.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Monster Hunter: World will be a welcomed return for seasoned veterans, but a difficult yet enjoyable start for rookies. With plenty to do both cooperatively and solo players can sink hours of play time into the new entry without even realizing it.