Monster Hunter Wilds is finally here! It’s not a perfect hunt, but it moves the franchise forward in mostly the right ways. As the sixth core entry, Wilds delivers a sprawling, dynamic world, weather systems that genuinely shake up gameplay, and some of the most thrilling monster encounters the franchise has ever seen. But does it strike the right balance for both veterans and newcomers? After spending dozens of hours and earning the platinum trophy, I’d say it’s a strong effort, though it gets held back by a few missed opportunities.
First of all, let’s discuss the main story. Unlike most RPGs, the narrative in the Monster Hunter series has always played second fiddle to the endgame, so it’s important to keep your expectations in check. In this case, I would say the story is slightly more interesting than Monster Hunter: World and Rise, but it’s still nothing to write home about. To be fair, the purpose of the story is to give you a reason to hunt the monsters, and Wilds does a serviceable job here.
My main concern is how short the overall campaign is. Even if you watch all the cutscenes and take on side quests, you can breeze through the entire story in less than a day. In fact, I didn’t even bother upgrading my gear during my playthrough because the boss fights were so quick that upgrades felt unnecessary, and anything I upgraded would’ve been obsolete within an hour anyway. Wilds feels noticeably shorter than either World or Rise, so if story is a big draw for you, it might not feel like enough bang for your buck.
That said, this is a game about hunting monsters, and the encounters themselves are some of the most incredible the series has ever seen. The sheer scale of these creatures is truly staggering—the apex predators stand out as some of the most awe-inspiring designs I’ve encountered in any game, period.
As with any other Monster Hunter game, the gameplay here is fantastic as well. One of the most important aspects for me is balance, and I’m happy to report that all the weapons feel well-tuned here. Throughout my playthrough, I experimented with multiple melee and ranged weapons, and each one felt viable and satisfying to use. The game even encourages loadout diversity by allowing you to equip a primary and secondary weapon. I found that this system encourages you to utilize different weapons for various situations, which makes the game far more engaging.
The new Focus Mode system is brilliant, allowing you to better capitalize on inflicting wounds on monsters. Once you’ve inflicted a wound, you can unleash a Focus Strike to deal massive damage and break the wound. The catch, however, is that you can’t wound the same spot again (except in a few cases) after using this attack.
My favorite new addition is, by far, the enhanced binoculars. In recent Monster Hunter games, monsters of the same species vary in size, so the Monster Field Guide houses information on both the largest and smallest monster of a given species that you encounter. Defeating or capturing a particularly large or small monster earns you a gold crown for your records.
Gold crowns are crucial for titles and other rewards, but they’ve always been a pain to get because some monsters are tricky to measure. Thankfully, Wilds fixes this problem by letting you check a monster’s size with the binoculars. Even better, if a monster is eligible for a crown, you will see a large or small crown next to its icon when you zoom in. This is the most significant quality-of-life change in my opinion, because it turns crown hunting from a chore into something genuinely fun.
Monster Hunter veterans believe that the endgame is what truly matters, and I have mixed feelings on it. Don’t get me wrong, the monsters themselves are as exciting as ever, but the endgame feels like it’s missing both depth and difficulty. I can support having a more approachable story; however, the game should gradually increase in difficulty, especially once you unlock High Rank and start tackling the endgame. Instead, it turned out to be one of the easiest action RPGs I’ve played in years. While this isn’t necessarily a problem, I can see the absence of even one truly challenging boss as disappointing to series fans.
The endgame is also much shorter than I expected. I managed to grab every in-game award and the platinum trophy in a small fraction of the time it would take in Monster Hunter: World and Rise. Granted, it is still an enjoyable experience, but if you expect to sink hundreds of hours in, you’d be hard-pressed to do so at launch. By the time I finished, I felt like I had done everything there is to do in the game.
Part of the reason for this setup is they are adopting a live-service model for Wilds, with new content rolling out through regular updates. This means that even if there are fewer monsters at launch, the Spring update should (hopefully) make up for it. Fortunately, all these updates are free, so there is still much to look forward to in the coming months and years. That said, it does explain why the base game is so lacking in content.
Unfortunately, the game also suffers from performance issues. While the final release performs much better than the beta, it still falls short of expectations for a high-budget title. I tested Wilds on both a PS5 and a PS5 Pro, and it struggles on both consoles unless you lower the settings. To add insult to injury, Performance mode looks like a muddy, pixelated mess, so you have to pick your poison in terms of choosing graphics or performance.
Although I expected some performance issues from playing the beta, I didn’t anticipate the technical issues. In many ways, Wilds is the least polished Monster Hunter game at launch. Most notably, it suffers from some severe pathing issues, both with your mount and the monsters. I’ve had multiple instances where a monster got stuck in foliage and stopped reacting properly. Multiplayer frequently disconnects, and I even encountered a handful of crashes.
If all this sounds critical, it’s because I have incredibly high expectations for this franchise. Wilds has an exceptionally strong foundation to build on, and the updates could make this game the best in the series. For example, you now have a Seikret, a mount that lets you navigate the world faster. You can use it as a simple navigation tool, but it also lets you get ahead of retreating monsters and even dodge attacks from apex predators.
The weather system is also particularly impressive, as monsters react and behave differently under various conditions. For instance, one monster gains armor during heavy rain but loses power as it dries out. These are the features that make Wilds special, and I’m excited to see how future updates expand on this.
Ultimately, I can only review what’s in front of me, and as it stands, this game shows promise that isn’t fully realized yet. Given the strength of its foundation, I’m excited to see where it’s headed in two years. If Capcom delivers, the expansion could very well be the best Monster Hunter yet.
