Finally! How long have I been meaning to do a Monster Hunter Game review? Since at least when I saw the Monster hunter live action film. Anyway, this is Monster Hunter: World
Monster Hunter is a series of games that instead of labeling them one two three, they label them in generations. It's...not something I really get, but World was the first Fifth generation game, and there's way more then five games.
Anyway, Monster Hunter World has a more complicated premise then other games of the series, which is usually "You're the hunter of a small village, go fourth and hunt monsters". Instead, the idea is that some Elder Dragons, massively powerful monsters, are making a migration from the Old World to a new landmass known simply as the New World. The Hunters Guild investigates by following the elder dragons there, and you are part of the Fifth fleet to do this.
The story kinda...stops mattering after that, really. I mean it's still going on in the background, but who plays a Monster Hunter game for the story?
I've been playing Monster Hunter games since Tri Ultimate, which was a third generation game, then played all the world wide released games after that. if you're curious, look up the Monster Hunter wiki and scroll down to releases, but I won't list the games here.
Anyway, you start off, after the amazing opening sequence and small 'tutorial' phase, picking your weapon in a training ground area. There are 14 weapons which are available in World, from your basics such as bow and arrow, dual swords, sword and shield, or Greatsword, to the more extreme and weirder weapons like insect glaive, switch axe, gunlance, and the bowguns. There are three types of basic non elemental damage in Monster hunter, piercing, (made by bullets and arrows), blunt, (hammer like weapons) and slashing(swords and blades). They do different damage to different parts of the monsters. for example, a wing on a monster is susceptible to piercing, but not the other two, a monsters head or crest is hurt extra by blunt damage, or its legs more to slashing. On top of this, you can damage different parts of the monster that affect how they attack or even move sometimes.
Once you pick your weapon, you hunt big monsters. There are usually three on any of the large open roam-able maps in World, and no more then three. It might sound crowded, but these maps are BIG for monster hunter games, the largest at the time, I think they're surpassed by Rises, the newest monster hunter game as of this writing, but they're still big. My only complain is that in World the monsters that roam are usually much higher, we'll go with 'level' or difficulty, then the starting player character. So quick tip, Don't fight anything you haven't fought before or the quest you picked up tells you to fight.
Once you fight a monster, you get its parts as a reward which you can craft into armor at the hub city zone, Astera. You get more cooking ingredients to gain a boost to hunting powers during hunts, unlock places that grow plants or insects so you don't have to constantly harvest things on quests, among other different services, all unlocked as you progress through the story missions.
Monster hunter is split into two or three different levels, in the base game of World, just two, Low rank and High rank. As you might expect, High rank is harder, and unlocked after you finish the story in Low Rank. I might as well add that difficulty wise Monster hunter World was fairly easy for me up until the end boss fight in High Rank.
One thing I almost forgot to mention, you can bring on special hunting partners, who you can equip with gadgets that modify what support behavior or abilities they have! What are these hunting partners? fellow hunters? Don't be so droll, no, they're cats! Palicos! ...yeah get ready for unending cat puns.
I give this game a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars. I'll admit, if I was a new player to Monster Hunter, I would not give this such a high score, since it is a difficult game to get into blind. But since I've been playing for awhile, and it filled in my dream of a PC monster hunter game, I loved it. Compared to monster hunter games in the past, it's a major improvement in almost all areas, even if there weren't a lot of monsters in the base game, but they were all enjoyable to fight, and the maps, including one of my favorite thematic maps in Monster Hunter history, are all great to explore.
I will add that Iceborune, the only expansion to World, is a similar yet also somehow vastly different experience. It adds the Master Rank, an even harder rank for all old monsters and new, which is difficult enough I called on my online friends to help several times. If your not good at monster hunting, like me, then, you really need to up your game by learning all the tricks in this game to damage and survive monsters. But I give Icebourne 4 out of 5 stars. The only reason it doesn't get the base games rating is because I feel like after awhile your gear plateaus while monster skill and strength keeps growing. So, yes, I never finished it...
Anyway, see you all next time.
