Monster Hunter Wilds review: endless monster mashing

Monster Hunter Wilds is one of the best games I’ve played this year, which I know doesn’t mean a lot since we’re only in February, but I’m confident nothing is moving it off that pedestal anytime soon.

Ironically though, it’s my first ever Monster Hunter game;I’ve always wanted to dive into the long-standing Capcom franchise but never really known where to start, so what else could I do but play the newest in the series?

Take a look at the trailer for Monster Hunter Wilds below

Monster Hunter Wilds wastes no time whatsoever in getting you into the action. After creating your character and Palico (your fluffy cat assistant who you can play with later) you’re thrust into the game almost immediately.

For veteran players I’d imagine it feels like business as usual, but for newcomers like myself and many others it can feel quite daunting. Fortunately, the game can be tailored to your prior knowledge of the series, or lack thereof, offering you plenty of helpful tips and tutorials to ensure your first time in the wild feels as intuitive as possible.

This includes how to use the wide array of equipment and weaponry you’ll be wielding to catch and dispatch the local fauna, of which there’s a staggering amount. Hunters have a grappling hook used to interact with the environment (more on this later), collect supplies and propel yourself into the air to get the drop on enemies. They’ll also carry a primary and secondary weapon, ranging from greatswords, hammers, spears, and even bowguns.

Personally I found the Switch-Axe and Heavy Bowgun to best suit my playstyle, but you can play with any combination you like so it’s worth experimenting to see what youprefer. What you see isn’t just what you get though, as you’ll be upgrading your equipment later to deal greater damage, elemental damage, and other advantages for more successful hunts. All of this can be accessed from the blacksmith who can also forge armour and accessories to protect you from the elements.

Don’t worry though;the opening hours of the game do a good job of explaining this to you and will even give you materials to forge your first few weapons/armour/upgrades. Once you’ve forged a weapon or armour piece you can switch back to it at any time, something you’ll likely do quite a bit as you adapt your loadout to the terrain you’re in and the monsters you’re fighting.

My only struggle was inventory management. There’s a lot to keep track of when it comes to consumables, traps, baits and more, and sometimes it feels like just a little too much to manage. The game does offer quick-access to whatever healing items you have as well as some of your tools like the whetstone, but when it came to things like shock traps, explosive barrels, poisoned meat and other toys to play with I’d often find myself getting lost in the inventory. I got the hang of it eventually but for the first few hours it felt like an annoyance.

Capcom

After the game has held your hand for a bit, the training wheels come off, allowing you to depart into the big, bad wildlands and conquer a variety of biomes, most of which unlock when you progress the story. They vary in size and terrain, and of course are home to different species of monster, allowing every location to feel distinct and a new challenge for you to overcome.

Every biome has a main camp where you can speak to the wider cast of characters, visit the blacksmith and manage your equipment, but you can also create pop-up camps out in the world for easier traversal and better respawn points if you perish. These also give you places to cook yourself delicious, stat-boosting meals, which looked diabolically good and had me feeling peckish every time I served one up.

Exploring after a long-fought battle felt like a genuine reward, as I’d often have to take some time to forage for supplies so I could replenish my consumables and gizmos. Sure the open-world looked the part but it also felt like an actual ecosystem. I’d see herds of creatures gathered around pools of water and critters scrambling up cliffs and trees, which you could catch for food and crafting items.

The game first sets you free in a desert biome that makes for a perfect playground to get accustomed to the mechanics. As someone who lacked the knowledge veteran hunters will possess from previous games I found myself experimenting and freestyling my way through encounters, something the game both applauded and rewarded me for.

For example, during one hunt with a Doshaguma I found myself on the high ground, and everything in my Dark Souls-coded brain was telling me: “try to plunge-attack it.” It paid off as I quickly found myself clinging to its back fur, Shadow Of The Colossus style, as it bucked and reared. While on top of the beast I delivered several blows with the axe and clung on for dear life as it tried to shake me off, but my character switched to the blade part of the weapon and sliced an enormous wound into the creature, dealing massive amounts of damage and stunning it for a generous amount of time.

It wasn’t enough to win the fight, but I felt very cool doing it. Spectacle is a big part of this game and nothing confirmed that more than the time I launched off my Seikret mount, reloaded my bowgun midair and fired off an explosive volley of at a dragon amidst a thunderstorm.

Capcom

There’s a real intensity to the battles of Monster Hunter Wilds, almost rhythmic like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but with the venture of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom. There’s even a bit of Bloodborne in its DNA, as with the right positioning and good timing you can break bones and open wounds on a creature, which not only deals a lot of damage but also creates a weak spot to target further. The game will even note down a monster’s weak spots as you find them, adding further depth to the combat as you’re learning the more you fight and experiment.

You could play it safe and treat it like a soulslike by hacking, slashing and dodging till you win but why would you when you can rig a valley or sand dune with traps and dump as much explosive ammo as you can into the target while it’s snared.

At its core that’s what Monster Hunter is about, careful planning and execution. Of course things don’t always go to plan but that’s where the excitement lies, and Monster Hunter Wilds gives you plenty of stuff to play with when things aren’t going your way. For instance you can lure the monster you’re currently engaged with to another monster minding its own business. If you’re lucky the pair will scrap allowing you to heal up, set up traps or get a few sneaky blows in while it’s distracted. If the monster is trying to flee or move to a new area there might be a handy rock formation you can pull down on top of it, preventing its escape and stunning it for a beatdown. Almost every encounter can be as elaborate as you want it to be and it felt like there was a fair and steady progression in difficulty as the story progressed. I also liked how you could rechallenge the monsters through side quests, or just stumbling upon one out in the open-world, purely for fun or to gather more crafting/upgrade resources.

The other thing worth touching on is the multiplayer. The multiplayer works how you’d imagine it to, with you and your friends tacking dangerous missions as a team and sharing the rewards. However when you’re playing by yourself you might bite off a little more than you can chew with an encounter, and instead of leaving and coming back later with a buddy you can instead summon someone in right then and there with the SOS flare. This came in handy on several occasions, and if the game can’t find another player to help you out an AI will fill the role instead, a useful AI too not just deadweight.

It’s one of the major selling points of Monster Hunter Wilds, and I’m eager to go on more expeditions with my friends as the game evolves with special events and challenging monster raids.

Capcom

All in all, I was incredibly impressed with Monster Hunter Wilds. As my first expedition into this world it ticked every box for me, and I especially valued its ability to teach and nurture newcomers like myself, but also allow plenty of opportunity to experiment and make some mistakes, failure is the greatest teacher after all.

Some dodgy UI and inventory management aside it’s a well-made title that packs a lot of content, and spares no time in getting you stuck right into the action. The open-worlds feel like the perfect arenas to slay an near-endless number of monsters, and there’s more than enough to do in between the hunts to keep you occupied and feeling like you’re progressing and improving as a hunter.

Pros: Combat feels satisfying and rewards experimentation, open-world areas feel alive and act as the perfect hub areas/backgrounds for hunts, tutorials will be helpful for new players but can be switched off for those who know what they’re doing, in-depth customisation and equipment management

Cons: UI and inventory management can feel overly-complicated and confusing

For fans of: Monster Hunter, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Bloodborne

9/10: Exceptional

Monster Hunter Wilds will launch on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 (version tested) and PC on 28 February 2025. A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.