I've spent about six hours with this game nonstop ever since I got it. I know that's not an exceptionally long time, but I just wanted to give you a pretty solid idea of where I am with this game and why my review may not be as in-depth as what you may be looking for. Basically, what I'm hoping to give you here is a kind of idiots guide to Monster Hunter World with a splash of first impressions.
I want to start out by saying that I'm not a really big Monster Hunter fan. At least, not before this game. Not that I haven't played any of them, I did. I've bought several. The original, Tri, Four...uh, Generations...But none of them really clicked to me. This is a series I always wanted to get into but I found the grind to be very real and maybe at the points in my life in which I purchased this game I just wasn't the person who had the patience and understanding to know what the game was asking of me in order to really enjoy my time with it.
World kinda fixed that for me.
Not entirely. It's not a perfect game (Though I did rate it five-stars based on sheer fun factor that has held me in for six hours straight with no real signs of letting go, making me really glad this game came out on a Friday) but I find this to be the most accessible title in the series so far. Don't get me wrong, it's still very much a Monster Hunter title. There's lots of grinding, the bigger dinosaurs don't really seem phased much by your hits until you really put the hurt on them and you see them limp away, and you're gonna spend a lot of time going between quest areas to hub world, but it's honestly a great time. I don't mind any of this as much as it used to bother me in past titles. The small quests are things you can take to complete while you do bigger quests, such as collecting a few mushrooms while you're hunting down a big boss. It really feels much better than it used to.
The gameworld has also changed from little areas with loading screens between them to one big, open, beautiful area you're free to roam around in. It's amazing. It's seriously a lot of fun to ignore the missions for awhile and go on "Expeditions", a free-roaming experience where there's no time limit and you're encountering NPCs with little quests around the area. Doing small quests gets you points and upgrade runes for your armor, too, so there's a lot of reasons to do them alongside the story. The main storyline itself seems lighthearted enough, too. Not really doom and gloom so far, and not really in your face either.
Graphically the game is impressive. The open world I mentioned before is big but manageable, and the lack of loading screens is a huuuuuge plus for me. The armor and weapons are all so distinct and different that I really want to collect them all. You can even get armor for your Palico, a cute little cat that acts as your companion and helps you in battle and picks stuff up for you while exploring, too. In a weird way, the Palico reminds me a lot of Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite. They'll toss health and stuff your way when you need it, and they're never in the way. As an added bonus, this constant companion helps the game not feel so lonely if you don't ever plan on playing online.
Online is...strange. It's drop-in, drop-out. You'll get tossed into a hub world with other people playing, send and receive some "Guild Cards" (Though what this accomplishes I absolutely don't know. I could and should look it up.) but I've never seen anyone in my hub world itself, and maybe that's not even part of it. You can pick to put quests on a board for people to join you, which is nice, but I haven't had anyone join my quests so far, other than to answer my SOS Beacon, a menu option that you can select during tough fights that will drop other players in to help you if they go to the quest giver and pick to be dropped into one (You can either be dropped into a random SOS request or a specific one, depending on your needs or wants for monster parts, etc.) and this seems to be the best way to get matched with people as far as I can tell. For solo players I'd say everything I've encountered so far is absolutely soloable, especially since having 2-4 players on a quest raises the difficulty for the monster, but as I'm so early in the game it's hard to tell if the entire game is like this too.
Anyway, the game is pretty fantastic. World of Warcraft this game is not, so if you're after a more social experience to slaughter dinosaurs with friends or to have the social aspect be of any importance whatsoever, I'd say this game isn't for you. A few other things that may turn you off from this game are enemies that take awhile to kill with no real indication (at least early on in the game) of how much health is left as you hit them for 15hp each hit, killing the same enemies over and over, no RPG leveling system so only your gear gets better instead of your damage as a player, and a sort of Destiny-esque online system with good matchmaking but no real emphasis on online play.
But if you like:
- Dinosaurs (Or hate them, since you'll be killing a lot of them)
- A lot of armor choices with very distinct looks and abilities
- An honestly solid character creator
- Killing large enemies with a pretty good array of upgradable weapons that change look based on the upgrade path you pick
- Games that are fun with other people playing but aren't joyless without them
- Boss hunting games
- The Witcher contracts that had you slaying large enemies like the gryphon
- The big enemies in Dragons Dogma
- A cat as a best friend
Then I fully recommend Monster Hunter World to you. As someone who always wanted to get into this series and now finally can, I can say I'm honestly very excited with where the franchise could possibly head in the future if World is the first step in that direction.
Have fun!
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From the manufacturer
Overview
Battle gigantic monsters in epic locales.
As a hunter, you will take on quests to hunt monsters in a variety of habitats.
Take down these monsters and receive materials that you can use to create stronger weapons and armor in order to hunt even more dangerous monsters.
In Monster Hunter: World, the installment in the series, you can enjoy the ultimate hunting experience, using everything at your disposal to hunt monsters in a world teeming with surprises and excitement.
Setting
Once every decade, elder dragons trek across the sea to travel to the land known as the New World in a migration referred to as the Elder Crossing.
To get to the bottom of this mysterious phenomenon, the Guild has formed the Research Commission, dispatching them in large fleets to the World.
As the Commission sends its Fifth Fleet in pursuit of the colossal elder dragon known as Zorah Magdaros, one hunter is about to embark on a journey grander than anything they could have imagined.
Customer Questions & Answers
Customer reviews
Monster Hunter World and ps4 load times.
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2019
Peace to you. I have been playing MHW for a least a year now and my only real complain is the load times. The loads are lengthy going into game, going into a hunt, leaving out of a hunt, going into your house and back and forth from the gathering hub. But wait, there is hope! On a whim while watching a Twitch streamer play this today on his pc I was noticing his load times. They were fast naturally on pc of course with over 60 fps; but then I remembered that I had a small 250 SSD that I bought on a whim from Amazon to test game load times on pc. Long story-short, I installed that SSD in my base PS4 slim and the load times are a breath of fresh air now. I would go as far as to say that these loads are now at least 50% shorter (at still 30fps of course but that goes without saying)! The main thing I noticed was when I was doing an SOS quest, that starting at the bottom shops, running to the canteen to eat, now I'm already loaded in the quest and ready to depart before I sit down at the counter. Maybe now, I'm experiencing the performance that others have long know about! I can only imagine that the SSD will improve my other games load times as well.So if you are interested in this title and you have a spare SSD lying about or thinking of buying one, I'm here to let you know that these two really work well together! Peace out ppl. That is all.
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2019
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Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2018
Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2018
Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Sin
Received a PAL version
Reviewed in Canada on May 6, 2019Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Ely
Un juego estupendo
Reviewed in Mexico on June 26, 2018Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Catiger3331
Second Time Buyer
Reviewed in Canada on February 3, 2019Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Gabriel del Valle
Muy bueno
Reviewed in Mexico on November 8, 2019Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Anonymous
Very clunky game that I wanted to like, but didn't.
Reviewed in Canada on July 31, 2019Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
