Summary
- Monster Hunter Wilds innovates with an open world, unscripted monster AI, and improved accessibility.
- The game maintains the core monster-hunting loop while offering a seamless open world experience.
- Monster Hunter Wilds balances tradition with innovation, expanding its potential without alienating core fans.
When any game in a longstanding franchise attempts to innovate, it presents itself with the challenge of introducing those innovations without compromising the tradition the franchise is built on. In a series with a dedicated fan base, like Monster Hunter, this balance is even more delicate, but once a franchise has gone on for so long, it needs innovation if it hopes to survive. Prior to Monster Hunter: World, the series largely played it safe, choosing to iterate rather than innovate. However, even Monster Hunter: World didn't reinvent the formula in the same way that Monster Hunter Wilds has, but it has also managed to find the balance between innovation and tradition more than any entry before it.
Since its reveal, Monster Hunter Wilds has been recognized for its willingness to push the boundaries of Monster Hunter tradition and deliver an original experience. With new innovations in its open world, monster AI, and accessibility, Monster Hunter Wilds is one of the most ambitious titles in the series to date. Despite that ambition, though, it hasn't forgotten who and what it is, effectively bridging the gap between Monster Hunter's past and the impending future that Monster Hunter Wilds has now paved the way for.
Monster Hunter Wilds' Combat System Feels More Cinematic Than Ever
Monster Hunter Wilds pulls out all the stops to ensure its gameplay isn't only engaging, but also achieves a level of unprecedented spectacle.
How Monster Hunter Wilds Balances the New With the Old
Monster Hunter Wilds' Open World Is Seamless Without Compromising the Hunt
The core element of Monster Hunter has always been its gameplay — in particular, hunting monsters. Without emphasizing its narrative, characters, and lore, Monster Hunter has effectively gripped fans with its rewarding progression loop and larger-than-life battles. To accomplish this, with the exception of more recent entries, Monster Hunter has consistently featured linear worlds meant to streamline the experience and get players into the action as quickly as possible. Monster Hunter Wilds, on the other hand, puts players in the middle of a massive, seamless open world, though it does so without compromising the hunt.
With new innovations in its open world, monster AI, and accessibility, Monster Hunter Wilds is one of the most ambitious titles in the series to date.
It is possible to venture off the beaten path in Monster Hunter Wilds and simply take in the surrounding world, but the story and the gameplay overall still manages to maintain the series' iconic structured monster-hunting loop. This is primarily accomplished through Monster Hunter Wilds' Seikret mount, which is designed to take players directly to their target, thereby doubling as the game's monster tracking system.
Monster Hunter Wilds' Monsters Are Unscripted and Yet Can Still Be Learned
Monster Hunter Wilds has also advanced its monster AI by designing them to behave in unscripted ways. This might have been a rather significant departure for Monster Hunter Wilds, as each game's combat has been designed to be predictable after a while and therefore learnable. However, Monster Hunter Wilds strikes a balance here by featuring monsters that walk the line between unpredictable and predictable, having unscripted behavior that even adapts to the player's actions and yet somehow still being predictable enough for fights to feel familiar after a while.
Monster Hunter Wilds Is More Accessible But Still Requires Preparation
Finally, it's no secret that Monster Hunter Wilds may be the most accessible entry in the franchise yet, offering players what feels like a much less challenging experience than any entry has before it. With its new Seikret mount, the new Focus Mode and Wound system, and monster fights that often don't go longer than 15 minutes, Monster Hunter Wilds is highly accessible, offering the series potential to grow beyond even where Monster Hunter: World took it. At the same time, Monster Hunter Wilds still requires players to adequately prepare for hunts by keeping their gear up to date, eating meals before they depart, and using helpful consumables to boost their odds of victory.
In the end, Monster Hunter Wilds proves that innovation doesn't have to come at the cost of tradition. By refining its mechanics, enhancing its world, and making smart adjustments to difficulty and accessibility, it expands the series' potential without alienating its core audience. Rather than reinventing Monster Hunter, it takes it to new heights, showing that even a series with such a well-established formula can still surprise players.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 89 /100 Critics Rec: 95%
WHERE TO PLAY
The unbridled force of nature runs wild and relentless, with environments transforming drastically from one moment to the next. This is a story of monsters and humans and their struggles to live in harmony in a world of duality.
Fulfill your duty as a Hunter by tracking and defeating powerful monsters and forging strong new weapons and armor from the materials you harvest from your hunt as you uncover the connection between the people of the Forbidden Lands and the locales they inhabit.
The ultimate hunting experience awaits you in Monster Hunter Wilds.
- Engine
- RE Engine
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- Yes, all platforms
- Cross Save
- No
- Franchise
- Monster Hunter
- Number of Players
- 1
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unknown
- PC Release Date
- February 28, 2025
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- February 28, 2025
- PS5 Release Date
- February 28, 2025
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
