Monster Hunter Wilds review for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X

It has been a long, long wait for the next entry in the mainline Monster Hunter series, with World having been released back in 2018. After 7 whole years (it’s been that long already?) Monster Hunter Wilds is upon us. Of course, that’s not to discredit the release of Monster Hunter Rise on Switch, as well as the PC launch and other consoles. Dust off that hunting gear, the Guild requires your assistance once more, Hunter!

Wilds is, as we know by now, building off the foundation set by Monster Hunter World. Bringing back the Scoutflies, high-definition monsters, and more, Wilds aims to be even bigger and better than the record-breaking entry before it. The locales, monsters, and environmental detail are dialed up to 11, and boy does it shine. Monster Hunter Wilds somehow manages to take the already breathtaking areas and fauna from World and use Capcom’s incredible RE Engine to build an absolute masterpiece of exploration and action.

Of course, it would be extremely misleading to say that Wilds is just an improvement on World’s groundwork. It truly does stand on its own, while allowing players that began with World to feel familiar and comfortable while using new features. For instance, the Slinger is now useful for more than just grappling and, well, slinging ammo at monsters. It now functions as a tool to gather materials from a distance while on the move! While being a minor change, over the course of dozens and dozens of hours, it’s such an incredibly nice change. Being on your way to a quest destination and being able to just snatch up materials while you pass by cuts down on so much time and tedium, making it really feel deserving of praise in my experience.

In another modification from World’s (Rise’s too) systems, the camp systems you may be accustomed to is changed. You can discover multiple locations for temporary camps scattered around a locale, enabling you to pick and choose where you want to be able to fast travel to. Granted, the word “temporary” there does play a part. You can disband and rebuild them in any location, so you’re not locked into placements once you make them. Additionally, there’s varying danger levels for said camps, so be mindful of those indicators. Higher danger levels means you’re more likely to have monsters coming up and destroying your camp, or just generally being close to it at any given time.

And as for travel, the Seikret are pretty neat to have. Similar to that of Palamutes in Rise, they offer a speedy option to navigate terrain and get to your target post haste. Naturally though, they’re a step above Palamutes in two huge ways. Seikrets allow you to swap between two equipped weapons with the push of a button, enabling you to seamlessly swap from something like your heavy Greatsword to something light and fast like Dual Blades or Sword and Shield. In addition to allowing you to bring two weapons to every hunt or expedition, they act like mobile item storage and are how you acquire your quest resources like previous entries at the start-of-quest item boxes with rations and first-aid meds. You’ll also hear the occasional dialogue about your Seikret pouch being filled with more resources from the guild, so in case you run out, you’ll still get more resources.

Now, on the subject of weapons, there’s some very fun new additions to movesets. Capcom’s introduced the new “Focus Mode” to everything, enabling a new Focus attack, dubbed “Focus Strikes”. When you wound a monster, you’ll be able to hold the associated “Focus” button to enter Focus Mode and see if you’ve wounded a monster. Marked by a glowing orange spot, you can use a Focus attack on it to break the wound, causing massive damage and get some extra monster parts for your efforts. There’s also Offset Attacks, occurring during some specific attacks you perform, Power Clash, which occurs when you guard a monster’s attack(s), and Sneak Attacks, useful for dealing big damage to an unsuspecting monster. At first I was mildly skeptical how this would modify the flow of combat, but it blends together exceptionally well. Breaking wounds for big damage, smoothly dodging an attack and striking hard in retaliation, and finding yourself in a clash with a monster all blend and blow well, leading to fights that feel even more adrenaline pumping than ever before.

Multiplayer has always been a big part of enjoying Monster Hunter if you find there’s quests you struggle with or you just love playing with your friends, and Wilds makes it better than ever. You’re not even limited to online help either, because offline single player hunts can still benefit from SOS Flares. If you fire one off in a single player world, you’ll be joined by NPC hunters to assist you. For the online multiplayer, you still have the SOS Flare system as before, but with an even larger player pool. You may wonder what that means, and don’t worry, because the answer is simple and amazing: crossplay. Monster Hunter Wilds is bringing crossplay into its online systems, meaning you can group up with friends and strangers alike from all platforms! Now no matter what platform people are playing on, nobody gets left out from hunts.

Capcom and the Monster Hunter team have truly outdone themselves with Wilds, and I cannot express how exciting it was to experience the next generation of the series. All of the weapons feel meaty and hard hitting, the story was strong enough to keep me interested (albeit some characters fall a little flat), and the music is incredible as always. And yes, the gameplay is as excellent as always, but beta players knew that already. The performance is a little choppy on my hardware over here on PC, but I am well aware my hardware’s aging out a little bit here. That said, I was able to get very smooth frame rates on High settings with AMD’S FSR3 on Balanced settings with Frame Gen on. It is also worth mentioning that this was without the day 1 patch, so expect your version of Wilds to run better than previous builds we’ve seen or played by this point in time.

Are you a superfan that loves their endgame content in the Monster Hunter franchise? Don’t worry, they’ve got you covered in Wilds. Tempered monsters make their return, granting you even better loot and significantly more challenging hunts. These will truly test your mettle as a Hunter, so gear up and put your Zenny where your Materials are. Artian weapons will be available for you to craft with their materials obtained from Tempered monster quests. You may also upgrade these weapons even further using materials you’ll find. Decorations are here, so keep an eye out once you get to high rank and beyond! You’ll want to make sure you make good use of them to really bolster your build and improve those damage numbers.

Some other very new announcements (courtesy of PlayStation Play!Play!Play!) include the reveal of the “Wounded Hollow” area. Think of this as Wilds’ answer to the Arena from Monster Hunter World. Assumedly, we can expect to see limited time event quest hunts appear here, as well as challenge hunts. Alongside this, Investigations are back, enabling you to find a monster on the map and have it automatically recorded as a quest to come back and hunt at a later time. As an extra special bonus, “Frenzied” monsters have been spotted. Only time will tell what these beastly monsters will be like.

All in all, Monster Hunter Wilds is nothing short of perfection, all wrapped up in one truly stellar package. Between being a stellar entry point for new players to the Monster Hunter series and an unbelievably excellent entry for veteran players, I wholeheartedly think that Monster Hunter Wilds is one of those games that we’ll see everywhere online for a long time to come. The exhilaration, adrenaline, and enjoyment that Monster Hunter Wilds brings to the table is limitless, and with upcoming title updates, this will absolutely be the best entry to date.

Wilds is an absolute must play, and I won’t hesitate to say you’re missing out if you don’t at least give it a shot. Nothing but absolute praise for Capcom, the Monster Hunter team, and everyone involved in production.

Note: Capcom provided us with a Monster Hunter Wilds code for review purposes.