INTRODUCTION

Credits

The latest entry in the critically acclaimed 40 million unit selling action RPG series, Monster Hunter: World introduces a living, breathing ecosystem in which players take on the role of a hunter that seeks and slays ferocious beasts in heart-pounding battles. Venture on quests alone or with up to three other hunters. Monster Hunter: World sees players gear up to venture on quests to battle against fearsome monsters, progressively improving their hunting abilities as they play. Loot collected from fallen foes can be used to create new equipment and armour upgrades as players seamlessly move across map areas that comprise the living ecosystems. The landscape and its diverse inhabitants play a critical role as players strategically use the surrounding environment to their advantage. Hunters must use their cunning and technique to survive the intense and evolving fights as they battle to become the ultimate hunter.

It was more than 10 years ago that Capcom introduced us to the Monster Hunter universe and while past entires struggled to make it in the western market - that has since changed with Monster Hunter: World. What did World do different that it managed to swift 7.2 million copies in less than 2 months? Let’s find out.

STORY: 7/10

As the name would suggest, Monster Hunter: World takes place in a whole new area never before traveled by hunters. You are a member of the 5th fleet (4 fleets being sent prior to your fleet) sent in to investigate and collect information about the new world. In this expedition you come across new monsters and landscapes. You were also sent in to investigate an occurrence called the elder crossing. The elder crossing is an event where elder dragons (the strongest monsters in the Monster Hunter universe) crosses from the old world to the new world. This is an event that occurs once ever 100 years. But for some unknown reason, the elder crossings are taking place every 10-20 years.

While the series was never known for having a deep and intercret story, world manages to weave in a story which could help provide those new to the series, a sense of progression from a narrative prospective. But as much as the game tries, the general premise of the story remains the same as past entires.

GAMEPLAY: 9.5/10

Monster Hunter: World, as the name would suggest, introduces us to whole new world, filled with new monsters. The series always treated gameplay as their primary objective with everything else, while still important, acting as a secondary criteria. When you start a new game, you get to create a new character and choose a starting weapon from an arsenal of weaponry ranging from; Great Sword, Long Sword, Lance, Charge Blade, Switch Axe, Insect Glave, Hammer, Bow, Heavy Gun, Light Gun etc. each weapon acts and functions completely different from one another and you have the pleasure of testing each weapon out and choosing one that best works for your play-style.

Each weapon has different variants/models, which not only increases in physical power but also provides additional benefits such as elemental damage. The same goes for armor. To make these weapons and armor, you’ll need monster parts and this is what the Monster Hunter uses to keep you coming back for more. It is really surprising how much addictive it can get, trying to build your perfect weapon and armor set. There are 2 ways to acquire monster parts, those are;

1. Slaying the monster

2. Capturing the monster

Doing the latter yields more parts, so it is recommendable to capture monsters instead of killing them. Before you head out to hunt or capture monsters, you will find yourself in a hub area and this is where you can craft new gear, buy much needed materials such as herbs and traps parts to craft potions, antidotes and monster traps respectively. You can even interact with other players from the hub area and decide if you want to go on hunts as a team or tackle the monster solo. Hunts are provided in the form of assignments and each hunt has a time limit of 50 mins (certain hunts require you to complete a in 15 or 30 mins) if you fail to kill or capture the target monster within the time allotted, you fail the mission. New game elements introduced into Monster Hunter: World are how the missions are divided into Assignments, Optional, Investigations and Events.

Assignments are story based missions where the hunts further extend the story.

Optional quests are the hunts that pop-up as you play the game. They are hunts which you can indulge in if you are trying to farm a particular monster for parts to craft a weapon or armor. The optional hunts can be replayed any number of times.

Investigations are the quests you should keep your eyes on, as these quests let you acquire “decorations” which can be equipped on your gear to give additional status buffs. A few examples for status buffs can be “Attack boost”, “Fire Resistance” etc. How you unlock Investigation Quests is by collecting monster tracks left by monsters in the open-world. Monster tracks can be collected either in the hunting quests or expeditions. (Expeditions are the free-roam option available in the game where you can hunt and gather without a time limit.) Once you’ve collected enough tracks, you will be notified that a Investigation quest is available and you can register the quest via the quest givers at the hunters hub. One thing to note about Investigations is that each quest is limited to a finite number of times and it saves over once you accept the quest, so you can’t cheat the system by reloading the save file if you fail a investigation. So do investigations carefully after giving it some though.

Events are online timed quests that rotate after a few days. While a Ps+ membership is not necessary, You still need to be connected to the internet in order to access these events.

If you feel bored with these modes, you can test your skills at the Arena. Arena’s have pre-set gears for you to choose from and you cannot take your own personal gear into the arena. If you happen to beat the arena, you are awarded coins. These coins can be used to build high level weapons. Special Investigations were introduced with the recent 2.0 update and I am not sure how Capcom plans to use this mode. Our personal opinion is that Capcom might use this mode to introduce new monsters into the game as DLC, as they recently introduced Deviljho via Special Investigations.

Even though I enjoyed playing through the game a lot, it is by no means a easy game. The game to some extent mirror Dark Souls when it comes to fights. Unless you plan out your hunts ahead, Chances are you’ll die fast.

PERFORMANCE AND VISUALS: 8/10

As the game isn’t available on PC yet, so these opinions are purely based on the console versions of the game. The game is designed to utilize the additional power of both, the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. On the standard systems, the game runs at 1080p at 30fps on PS4 and 864p at 30fps Xbox One. I am not sure but the frame-rates feel unlocked because in certain stages, the game feels as if it’s running above on 30fps on standard hardware. This is the most apparent in the combat arenas. I also noticed that monsters in the distance tends to animate at a slower frame-rate, why did Capcom do this? I am not completely sure but, it could be to keep the frame-rate in the foreground from dipping below 30 FPS . Previously, I saw Team Ninja apply the same technique on their PS4 exclusive title “Nioh” (you can read my review of Nioh here).

When talking about the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, Capcom offers the ability to customize the game’s settings in the following ways:-

1. A High frame rate mode. This sets the game to 60fps at the expense of resolution and graphical details.

2. A graphics mode. This mode gives you a overall better graphical fidelity, at the expense of resolution and frame-rates (resolution stays at 1080p at 30fps).

3. A Resolution mode. This pushes the game to close 4K resolution at the expense of high graphical details and high frame-rates.

Both Xbox One X/S and PS4/PS4 Pro support HDR mode on HDR enabled TVs.

While the game does look good for the most part and is certainly an improvement over past titles, it is still lacking when compared to what Capcom’s MT Framework engine managed to do in some of their other titles. One issue with the visuals is the overall lighting where Capcom favored to go with a high white balance which in-turn, reduces in the crispness that the images would have otherwise produced. HDR does not help much in solving the issue either. Facial animations are another issue that the game faces, lip syncing is way off, to the point where its just bad. Now, Monster Hunter does have it’s own form of dialect and I was not sure if the developers’ only worked on animating those facial movements so that lip movements only match the game’s native language and dubbed every other language on top of that animation. But if that isn’t the case, Capcom needs to release a patch to fix it, because as I’ve mentioned before, it looks bad and out of place.

AUDIO: 7/10

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Official soundtrack

While this is the first Monster Hunter title which introduced voice over for the game’s characters, the voice work is only to a certain extent. But, what’s there is done masterfully. Music score, while being good, sounds too familiar to warrant much praise than what it had received in the past. The sound effects also work really well and I enjoyed hearing the general sound effects of changing out items, weapon slash’s etc. but as I’ve mentioned before, the lack of something new is what disappointed me the most and what’s there that’s new is few.

OVERALL SCORE: 32/40

Story 7/10

Gameplay 9.5/10

Performance 8.5/10

Audio 7/10

This game gets a 80% approval.

CONCLUSION

Monster Hunter: World is definitely a right step in the right direction and the game’s comeback to consoles after remaining on portable devices for a good decade was a very successful transition. It scratches the itch for complexity, both in hunt for rare gear and skill with its weapons, but this time it’s a game that no one should be intimidated to get into. It manages to be accessible to those new to the series, while also delivering plenty of challenge to keep veterans on their toes. Capcom has managed to turn something that was not well known outside of Japan to their fastest selling game of all time and I can’t wait to see how Capcom plans on extending the Monster Hunter: World universe going forward.

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Official launch trailer

 Note: All Screenshots of the game were taken during my play session. I review the game when bought and edit the review for steemit. 

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