Review of Monster Hunter: World - a hardcore monster hunting game

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The fifth installment of the legendary Monster Hunter series has become more user-friendly, but it remains full of surprises. On the occasion of the release of the game on PC, we figure out why fans love it and why now is the time to join them.

Vladimir 'Aging

Monster Hunter: World is not so much a game as a cultural asset. Half the time you have to spend on the menu, peering at the pictograms invented 15 years ago, and for every mistake you are knocked down by a freight train covered in scales. But criticizing the game for it is like judging a medieval Florentine calcio by the football rules. What is surprising is how Capcom made niche entertainment a truly great experience for a huge range of players.

Game mechanics

Since until recently all Russian-speaking fans of Monster Hunter fit into one Telegram chat, I will explain: Monster Hunter: World is a rethinking of the Hunting and Fishing channel in the format of an action game. It is built around the study of game habits, knowledge of the terrain, selection of ammunition and tackle, and most importantly - ingenuity, which distinguishes a good hunter from a bad one.

Only instead of the Pechora swamps, there are phantasmagoric labyrinths of giant corals or rotting dragon corpses around; instead of a spaniel carrying shot ducks, there is a bipedal cat in a funny suit; and you hunt Godzilla's friends, trying to beat them to death with an electric transforming ax the size of a motorcycle.

The central element of the game is fighting monsters. Huge monsters easily knock you down, stun you with a roar, spew flame, but it becomes much easier to defeat them when you know the scenario of this performance in advance. In the beginning, you just need to understand how to hit "hit" and dodge, but over time the arsenal of maneuvers and combos grows, and the habits of the monsters are remembered. But the monsters with each completed mission become stronger.

You might think that the game is based on grind - monotonous destruction of creatures in the same location in order to gain experience or resources. In fact, it is: you kill one monster to knock out the ingredients for weapons and armor, which are needed to hunt the next, more dangerous monster. But this activity requires ingenuity and total concentration.

For example, hitting combinations is a game within a game. They change depending on the weapon model and contain subtle loopholes like quick bounces or instant reloads. There are fourteen radically different weapons in the game, and each has its own branchy model tree. You can spend half your life studying them, and I won't even try to talk about all of them here. The set of combos for each type of weapon is also different.

There are no experience points or character levels, and the so-called Hunter Rank is more of a sports category, confirmed by your achievements. Hunting and fighting here are a combination of many mechanics, each of which can be noticed, taken into account, tweaked or deceived. Will the roar of the monster stun the character, interrupting the combo? Will the weapon pierce the skin on the side or only on the unprotected belly of the monster? Which blows should you run away from, which ones you can block, and which ones can you simply interrupt? The main secret of the charm of Monster Hunter: World and of all the games in the series is an abyss of details that are surprisingly pleasant to learn and keep in mind.

When a huge lizard soars into the sky and begins to shower everything around with fire, it can be knocked down by blinding it with a flash grenade. You can take only three traps with you on the hunt, but no one bothers to grab more parts for them in order to collect new ones when these are spent. When another hunter jumped onto the monster's back, you can safely sharpen your weapon and reload, because the fight will surely end with the monster falling to the ground, and at this moment you should be ready to inflict maximum damage. Little things like that are the essence of Monster Hunter.

World of Monster Hunter

The central location of the game world is a multi-level city similar to a Disneyland attraction. Scattered across it are sellers and other characters that give access to some of the activities: trading, crafting, choosing missions or finding a team. From the city you can get into one of the game zones, and this can be done not only through a mission, as in the previous parts, but also by going on a so-called expedition: just show up in the game zone without a specific goal and time limit and wander there, collecting ingredients and killing monsters.

Everything about menus, dialogues, item shops, crafting new equipment and cooking really gives away the age of the series. Although the city from where the hero goes on missions is noticeably prettier compared to any of the previous Monster Hunter games, it retains traditional rituals. In NPC monologues, references to other parts of the series slip through, and the ending of the animation insert in the tavern depends on whether the bonuses from the food are "cut off".

All these details are very pleasing to veterans of Monster Hunter, but from habit it is not easy to understand the game. Text monologues fall out on you even before routine actions, and the menu is completely confusing. Every time you create a new thing or eat lunch, you have to watch the obligatory animation scene. For an unprepared viewer, what is happening is a waste of time that in another game he would spend wasting cartridges.

But it seems so only as long as you do not meet really strong opponents who require every last drop to use the capabilities of all existing mechanics. By the middle of the game, you find yourself in love with archaic icons, convoluted modifier tables and almost (but not completely!) The same animation, because now each of these little things helps to win.

A pig walking around the city, if you stroke it between missions, starts digging you coupons for free meals; an immense arsenal of weapons and armor with a vinaigrette of seemingly insignificant bonuses allows you to create killer combinations.

What's new in Monster Hunter: World

Monster Hunter: World, released on PC and latest generation consoles, is arguably the longest evolutionary leap in the series' history. Prior to this, Monster Hunter existed only on handheld consoles - Nintendo 3DS and Sony PSP. It is obvious that World, in comparison with its predecessors, looks luxurious. But the main thing is that the game has successfully survived the move to the new graphics, while retaining the details that players love. The developers re-created the world, and they managed to find a middle ground between realism and a little frivolous, puppet aesthetics of the original games.

Monster Hunter: World's interface is noticeably friendlier than previous games in the series.

• The Hunter is now equipped with a swarm of smart fireflies that fly in front, highlighting monster tracks and gathering ingredients. This is one of the most graceful ways to show a route in the history of video games.
• MHW introduces a radial menu for the first time in the series, where you can decompose items, crafting recipes and gestures into four different “discs”. Switching between them, the desired action can be performed in two clicks, even in the heat of the battle.
• The "sharpness" of weapons is now easier to assess thanks to the updated indicator, and when hitting monsters, numbers showing the amount of damage fly off.
• Most routine crafting activities are now automated. For example, the "healer" Mega Potion is obtained by adding honey to a weaker Potion. If you pick up honey during a mission, and your inventory lacks Mega Potion, it will be crafted from Potion automatically.
• The monsters were redrawn from scratch, and also got more detailed hitboxes and movement sets.

Monster Hunter is not a "sandbox", not an "open world", its simple storyline campaign cannot be compared with the stories of other modern games. Actually, the entire World in Monster Hunter: World is half a dozen separate levels. But at the same time, the game is literally bursting with content.

The main thing that Monster Hunter: World has is the ability to engage the player for a long time, for the sake of which the modern industry giants are releasing many DLC and multiplayer modes for tens of millions of dollars. There are not many levels in Monster Hunter: World, but they are extremely detailed. You know them so well that you feel at home, but you realize that you have not fully explored them. You are ready to hunt and know your prey, but always expect surprises. This is the perfect combination that works just as well in 2018 as it did in 2004.