Monster Hunter Wilds is one of the biggest game launches of this year. It’s a perfect example of a franchise that was once relatively niche in the West but, with the right treatment, exploded into global popularity. The record-breaking launch of Monster Hunter Wilds shows how much care the developers have put into the series since Monster Hunter World and continued through Monster Hunter Rise.
Monster Hunter Wilds is one of the most ambitious entries in the series, and not just because of its visuals or demanding system requirements. While it’s known on PC for pushing even high-end hardware to its limits, it still represents a solid evolution over Monster Hunter World and its more streamlined successor, Monster Hunter Rise. Free from the limitations of older consoles and dated hardware, the developers have fully utilized the new RE Engine to deliver ray-traced visuals and smooth animations. However, this comes at the cost of hefty system requirements, much like Dragon’s Dogma 2. It’s clear by now that while the RE Engine is technically impressive, it struggles to optimize and scale well for open-world games.
Despite these flaws, the gameplay in Monster Hunter Wilds is some of the most complex in the franchise. With a wide variety of weapons to master and a massive arsenal of items and equipment to collect, there’s plenty to keep players engaged. The monsters are as fearsome as ever, animated with a lifelike ferocity that makes them both awe-inspiring and challenging to defeat.
This is definitely not a game to jump into if you’re new to the Monster Hunter franchise. While the developers have included tutorials at every step to explain the basic gameplay mechanics, the combat and the various elements of the progression system can still feel overwhelming for newcomers. The game doesn’t fully open up until you’re several hours into the story. The initial hunts are against standard monsters, but once the game introduces the larger, more fearsome beasts, that’s when the gameplay truly shines.
My first experience with the franchise was Monster Hunter World, as I never played the earlier games on PSP or 3DS. Monster Hunter World was ambitious for its time, but it featured segmented world maps with limited traversal. Monster Hunter Wilds takes things a step further, offering a more expansive and interconnected world map that makes you feel like you’re part of a much larger environment. The story follows familiar genre tropes, with you playing as a hunter tasked with venturing into the Forbidden Lands. This area has been untouched by humans for a long time until a group of hunters, including the main character, stumbles upon a young boy named Nata. He tells them about the Forbidden Lands and a monster called the “White Wraith” that attacked his people. The journey to the Forbidden Lands is supported by a cast of interesting NPCs, like Gemma, the blacksmith, and Anna, a seasoned hunter, who add depth and charm to the adventure. You also have your trusty Palico by your side, assisting not just in hunts but throughout your journey.
The game has a fairly accessible tutorial system, especially considering the 14 different weapons available. Hunters typically start with one main weapon, and a secondary weapon is unlocked after completing the initial quests. The game provides an easy-to-use interface to help you figure out which weapon suits your playstyle best. For me, it was the Gunlance, which offered a great balance of attack and defense, allowing me to get up close to monsters and take them down efficiently.
Each monster in the game is a masterpiece. The developers have put incredible effort into designing these creatures, giving them unique habitats, behaviors, and characteristics. The main story isn’t overly long, taking around 30 to 40 hours to complete if you focus on the main content. It’s not an extremely challenging game, and the developers have ensured that even solo players can summon AI hunters to assist during hunts, making it easier to tackle monsters without needing friends to join. Side activities like crafting, charms, and cooking also help make low-rank hunts more manageable, so the main story rarely feels too difficult.
Monster Hunter Wilds isn’t your typical action game. The weapons feel weighty and require precise strikes on the weak or damaged parts of monsters. The new Focus Mode mechanic makes this process easier by allowing you to target specific areas more effectively. Monsters can now become wounded if you repeatedly hit the same body part, exposing it and making it more vulnerable to further damage.
The story mode is highly cinematic, with plenty of cutscenes that detail every major event. These aren’t short clips either—many are lengthy, action-packed sequences that require minimal player input but keep you engaged. The game’s focus isn’t on fighting large groups of enemies but rather on taking down massive, fearsome beasts that can overwhelm you with a single attack. Quick shortcuts tied to trigger buttons let you summon hunters, use a whetstone, or heal on the fly, keeping the action smooth and intuitive.
The new gameplay additions include the ability to build traps to use against monsters. The environment plays a key role in this mechanic, allowing players to interact with specific parts of the map to set up traps or trigger them from a distance using the Slinger. You can choose to ignore these traps, but some hunts tie optional objectives to using them. Completing high-ranked hunts with these challenges leads to better rewards. Even just exploring the map to survey an area can result in unexpected encounters with wild monsters, some of which are more aggressive and short-tempered than others.
I tested the game on a PC with an RTX 3080, a mid-range CPU, and 32 GB of RAM, but even that setup struggled to maintain a stable 60 FPS. I had to tweak several settings, including turning off ray-tracing, to achieve the performance I wanted. After adjusting, most of my experience was smooth, though I did encounter traversal stutter while exploring the world on my 4K VRR display. That said, it didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the game. The developers are still working on optimizations, so it’s likely that future patches will improve performance further.
Monster Hunter Wilds Game Information
- Price: $69.99
- Publisher: Capcom
- Developer: Capcom
- Platform: PC (Reviewed)
- Disclaimer: A review code was given by the publisher
