Online gaming has been on the rise for a while now with Coronavirus-19 only helping to further the industry by allowing people more free time in their everyday lives.  One particular game that has gotten a lot of attention as of late is “Monster Hunter: World” which was released January 26, 2018, by Capcom, a well-known Japanese game developer and publisher.  If this is ringing any bells the Monster Hunter franchise (a series of action role-playing games) has been around since March 11, 2004, with “Monster Hunter: World” being the fifth main game produced.

Capcom recently released the next main game of the Monster Hunter series, “Monster Hunter Rise” on January 26 prompting some to consider if playing “Monster Hunter: World” was still worth it.

“Monster Hunter: World,” although not receiving any new content anymore, still has loads of both main and side quests with over 94 different monsters all of whom are fightable and an additional 20 monsters added in the Iceborne expansion.  It even includes small endemic life and variants around the map which you can catch and put in your room back in Astera, the outpost where you start the game.  There are five (six in Iceborne) main expedition areas that have multiple levels, hidden passageways, gathering points, and themes players can explore, and 14 more, smaller areas can be found in specific quests, given you progress far enough.  The types of quests and expeditions also vary greatly throughout the story so it remains entertaining even after hours of playing.  After finishing the main storyline, a number of extra quests remain with unique rewards to earn and bonus story fragments portrayed in special assignments.  As a bonus, “Monster Hunter: World”  supports cross-platform play meaning Xbox 1(and up), Playstation 4/5, and Microsoft Windows PC’s users can game together

Being a rather new game, “Monster Hunter: World” has excellent graphics as far as looks go according to Kayley Hudson, a freshman and beginner player, who said, “I thought it was cool and I liked the graphics … and the character design.”

The game tries to cater to both beginners and veterans.  On one side it has extremely hard end game content that requires hours to build up armor sets with stacking or complementing effects (which every armor piece and set comes with) and separate leveling systems for armor and weapons with multiple ways to add effects or improve each along with an element/ailment system.  On the flip side, it has multiple written tutorials for reference, a training arena to try out different weapons or tonics, an expedition mode where you can free roam and gather resources where deaths don’t decrease rewards or fail quests, and plenty of easy investigations or arena quests that give beginners actual combat experience in quests on an easier difficulty.  Any time it gets too difficult people can team up with three friends or randoms, though the difficulty scales based on the number of people.

It can be overwhelming when first starting because you have to read through a solid five minutes of tutorials to proficiently play the game and continue reading them as you unlock new mechanics later on.  You also have to memorize different combos, techniques for each weapon, and how to fill the gages (optional) all while managing health and stamina with various tonics.  As long as you have some gaming experience prior to playing, preferably with similar games, then you should be fine.

“It’s kinda difficult to heal like at the same time,” said Hudon. “I feel like it’s a bit hard with the controls too.”

To heal or apply certain boons that aid your attacks while in combat potions/consumables are needed which are bought from a vendor (which can be upgraded through progressing in the story for more trades) for relatively low prices or crafted using materials gathered while out and about (material outcrops do not spawn in safe zones).  The way consumables are accessed during combat is slightly inefficient because it takes some time to find what you are looking for and the animations for eating take a bit, are interrupted if hit, and slow movement.  Consumables can also be given as a reward for completing a quest.  When a quest or expedition is completed you get an assortment of monster materials based on what parts you heavily damaged or broken while fighting the monster.  If you capture it alive (if the quest permits) then the rewards are almost doubled but you can not carve its corpse for more materials then which is a cool feature.  The drops, even if certain parts are broken or severed, are mostly randomized which means lots of grinding at later levels to make full sets which are not for everyone.

You can choose from 14 different weapon types (with both melee and projectile weapons) and switch between them throughout the game which has pretty good combat mechanics.  They each have different speeds, damage amounts/types, gauges, and abilities and it is recommended that you learn multiple due to the different attack patterns of the enemies which can be too fast or out of range for a single weapon.  

“I liked the combos but it was hard remembering it … [and] click[ing] the buttons at the same time,” stated Hudson.

As far as the story and overall plot go it’s mostly finding and killing new monsters that are unbalancing the ecosystem in some way or another so not the worst or best plotline yet there are really great cutscenes.  The actual monsters you fight are all beautifully rendered with few bugs for such large models.  They have unique attacks based on their backstory and body type-which change drastically in both size and shape with each monster.  

To get better equipment you need to progress in the story missions which increases your hunter rank (which allows you to take on more difficult quests as it increases) to allow you to kill harder monsters.  The story quests have to be beaten in a certain order and cannot be skipped meaning it may take a ridiculously long time to actually progress through the story at later levels which can be annoying and tedious at times.

Another thing that makes even hardcore fans slightly annoyed are the NPCs (non-player characters), especially the handler.

“Like tone it down a bit,” said Hudson, “she made me feel stupid.”

The NPCs don’t actually help when fighting monsters for the most part but that is what your cat sidekick is for.  Each player gets a pet cat, called a Palico, to assist them on quests with two or less players which comes in handy because it can be equipped with various tools to assist both pros and beginners in combat and draws the monster’s attention if nothing else.  This addition makes it so players can complete the entire game solo if they choose to.

“I like the ship with all the cats up there,” stated Hudson who continued, “I would recommend it to someone who likes medieval games … or memorizing controls or gameplay story stuff.”

“Monster Hunter: World” is certainly worth a try even if players don’t plan on finishing the game.  The official website provided by Capcom with event quest information and beginner assistance can be found here.  Happy hunting!