Monster Hunter Rise marks the second entry in Capcom?s popular franchise, and the first significant follow-up to the series since Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. As such, it does a pretty good job of fine-tuning elements from World, while also coming up with new ideas to help make Rise stand out amongst its long list of predecessors. As a whole, it?s a really, really great Monster Hunter, something that long-time fans will easily pour another 100 hours into.
That said, it won?t take you 100 hours to see end credits on Monster Hunter Rise. The story component here is certainly lighter than what Monster Hunter World featured. The basic gist is that you?re a new hunter in Kamura Village, which will serve as your hub throughout the game. Monster rampages are on the rise, and it?s up to you to fight back against a number of gigantic creatures to defend your village, while at the same time figuring out what has all the beasties so riled up. I won?t go into spoilers, but the story just sort of happens, with the end boss being introduced so quickly that the tail end of the story feels severely rushed. I know DLC will drop that will expand upon the story more, as is always the case with Monster Hunter games, but if you?re at all coming to this game for the story, just keep in mind that Monster Hunter Rise sort of skimps out on that category.
Monster Hunter Rise also introduces a couple of new animal buddies to pal around with while out hunting. The Palamute is a dog companion that will roll into battle with you much like the Palico (which is also in Rise). In addition to performing some limited attacks, you can ride around on your Palamute at any point, giving you a much faster option to explore maps. You can attack while on the Palamute too, or launch off of it into a leaping attack, which is often my preferred mode of initiating battle.
Another addition to gameplay in Monster Hunter Rise is the new tower defense-inspired Rampage mode. This mode pops up a couple of times during the story, and from there becomes its own separate mode with quests that are accessible via your Handler NPC whenever you feel like tackling them. In Rampage mode, you?ll be tasked with defending gates, as monsters try to advance into your village. In order to defend, you?ll have emplacements where you can lay down traps, set up automated turrets, summon special NPC?s to fight, and a few more bells and whistles. As you successfully fend off invaders, you?ll gain more options for emplacements, which will become necessary as each subsequent wave tends to be more challenging.
Online multiplayer still plays a big role with Monster Hunter Rise, which this time separates the multiplayer component out with its own hub location and set of quests that up to four players can tackle at once. So far the online multiplayer experience has been pretty solid for me, just a bit of lag here and there, but nothing that has made any of my match-ups feel unplayable. It?s easy to either start a quest or join one in process, and there?s been plenty of players available day or night if you?re looking to get a gang of random people together.
Note: Capcom provided us with a Monster Hunter Rise Nintendo Switch code for review purposes
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