The sixth main game in the Monster Hunter series, Wilds is a third-person action game set in the Forgotten Lands, where players hunt and battle gigantic monsters with a variety of weapon styles.
Challenging Play
Great Characters
Great Graphics/Art
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Story & Themes
Monster Hunter Wilds puts a greater emphasis on story than previous games. After customizing their hunter, the player arrives as part of an expedition to the Forgotten Lands, a region teeming with wild monsters and native denizens. The Hunter meets new tribes and factions, always as an earnest, helpful, and respectful ally, while protecting others from gigantic monster threats. The Hunter also forges a friendship bond with Gemma the Smith, and Alma the Guildmaster among several others.
The story centers on returning a lost preteen, Nata, to his people, and investigating a powerful threat that attacked his village.
Monster Hunter World isn't a true open world game, but features large, connected zones with roaming monsters to battle and resources to collect. Players can also take on quests to hunt specific monsters, once encountering them during the main campaign. By crafting gear from defeated monsters, players increase their offensive and defensive capabilities, and make some outlandish fashion statements along the way.
Save Points
Players can save the game while in between hunt quests, or while free roaming. The game also autosaves at specific checkpoints. However, players cannot save while in the middle of a hunt (which can take 10-20 minutes) or during a cutscene of the main campaign.
Difficulty
The Monster Hunter series is known for some obtuse gameplay designs and tedium, though each entry streamlines and improves upon the experience. For example, players can opt to leave button prompts for weapon moves in the upper right corner. First time players will experience a sharp difficulty curve as they learn the nuances of each weapon fighting style, and the cadence of hunting each monster. Series veterans should find Wilds much easier to jump in over previous games.
Heads Up!
Violence Monster Hunter Wilds is all about hunting giant monsters with melee or ranged weapons, with both sides smacking, slicing, electrifying, stunning, and stabbing. The gore is actually minimized however, with only light blood spatter effects. Even severed monster parts (mostly tails) just look like single stumps without blood.
It's more visceral than a PG-13 superhero fight, but not as bloody as an R-rated movie.
Scary Imagery Some large monsters can be a bit frightening. Capcom even acknowledges players with arachnaphobia, by including a special toggle that turns spider enemies into blob monsters. However, it only transforms the smaller spider monsters, not the large ones.
Consumerism Monster Hunter Wilds features several cosmetic DLC packs that players can purchase with real money, such as hairstyles or emotes. These packs have no effect on gameplay, and are not prominently marketed or encouraged in the game.
Online Community
As a purely co-op game, the Monster Hunter online community is generally supportive and positive. Players can play through the entire game solo, or find their friends to form squads, or join random lobbies. During hunts and investigations, a player can send out an SOS flare, encouraging other players to join the hunt and assist, and everyone shares in the rewards.
Conversation Starters
- Have you played any other Monster Hunter games before?
- Which weapon styles do you enjoy playing? Have you found a favorite, and why?
- Which monsters do you find the most challenging, or a pain to fight?
- Do you like grouping up with others, or prefer to hunt alone?
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