is it ever truly finished or better question do I ever want it to be over?
Why do my friends refuse to play the greatest game of all time with me?
theres a grappling hook in this one (its bad)
Super fun with friends.
I still have a lot of things to do even after almost 400 hours. 😼👍
I still have a lot of things to do even after almost 400 hours. 😼👍
Another forever game. Don't get me started on World. This game was my life for a solid year, the only thing holding it back is the godawful servers that render online play nearly unplayable.
My first review on Backloggd, figured I'd start with my favorite game. Anyway, the base game of MHW and its add-on Iceborne are just, immense. With the amount of content and fun I've had with this package, I'd easily pay over $100. You've just got it all in terms of action, gameplay loop, visuals, music, and more (definitely not the story, but come on lay off).
In terms of action, the balance between style, environmental tactics, pattern recognition, and knowledge of your weapon's move set is easily the most impressive mix of gameplay attributes I've seen in any game. At any given moment, a player makes so many decisions on the fly without even recognizing it. Okay Tigrex charged forward so I know if I stay close enough I'll have the chance to trigger its tail whip which leaves it open for me to try to stun it, and from there I can climb to that ledge to get mounting damage, or grab the ammo that it dropped, or shoot my slinger at the rock above, or try to weaken it with my clutch claw attack. And it helps that these weapons do some really cool shit, like you can be an attack helicopter with some weapons in this game god damn. I found the difficulty to be perfect, and was a great challenge for me throughout. I had never played a game this hard before, and had my ass completely handed to me during the first 20 hours, but I felt like a genius once things started to click (and once I switched to hammer). While the game gets significantly easier once you're fully acquainted with your weapon, the creativity and intelligence the game allows the player to have with the environmental factors and move sets of the weapons and monsters always ensures the fact that this game is just fun.
Even while not in action, the gameplay loop that occurs outside of combat is what really keeps your gamer brain hooked and juiced up. To begin with, the footprints, scratchings, and other various traces of a monster informing the Hunter's notes is a genius method of collecting research on these creatures, and I was really disappointed it wasn't brought back in Rise. Collecting this data and using it to find a monster's weaknesses and materials informs the player of how to go about a fight before even initiating it with the monster, as opposed to simply going in blind. These little DNA samples being scattered across the map maintains that the player always has mini rewards throughout a hunt, and it just feels cool to be a monster researcher! What's more is the gameplay loop of constantly gaining new armor and weapons, which, like the combat, look cool as shit. Along with the research data, the crafting and refining of your loadouts makes preparing for a fight often times nearly as fun as the fight itself. It's like a little project every time there's a new monster! This game is so good man. Okay last thing about the gameplay loop, the design of each level is amazing, I keep finding new things in each map, even after 3 years of playing the game. Swinging from vines with the clutch claw, jumping off of huge mountains for a mounting attack, the amount of small caverns, this map design is so full of life. I could go on, but know that even though I'd consider the combat a 10/10, I think the game outside of that is somehow better.
The visuals, geez... GEEZ. This game is GORGEOUS, and the amount of detail in the locations, monsters, and weapon/armor is astounding. Every single map in the game is brimming with beautiful set pieces and imaginative creatures that make for an immersive experience like you wouldn't believe. Lets talk about those creatures. People kind of shit on the monster selection because its a bunch of big lizards, but shut up big lizards are awesome. Especially when they climb trees like a flying squirrel and have storm powers and have a flame sword tail and are also just a moose. The returning and new monsters are so varied and lovingly crafted, real shame that you're going to kill most of them that you meet. Beyond the monsters, the smaller endemic life, plants, and scenery in each map reaches the point of almost being superfluous, there's something to look at everywhere and its all PRETTY.
Lastly, the music in this game is just as varied and lovingly composed as the creatures in the game, with a bunch of different tracks. The main theme with the booming brass section gets you ready to kick some major ass and is filled with the same triumphant cheesiness that the characters in the game are. The battle themes, unique to each area and sometimes to monsters never, ever got old to me, and always aided in my immersion of each fight. The Guilding Lands batle theme??? Come on. The more ambient music of finishing a quest or sifting through menus in the hub world, this game nails the pieces in composition and in where they're used. There's never too much of a soundtrack, never too little. I'm getting tired so point is: music really good.
Sure, the story sucks, I feel bad when Anjanath starts limping, I wanted to rage quit for the first 20 hours, and the amount of THINGS in this game is a little overwhelming, but this game is very close to perfection in my eyes. There's so much I didn't mention regarding the great hub world, variety in weapon move sets, multiplayer, and more, but there's an astounding amount of things to love in this game. This was my first monster hunter, is not my last, and may always be my favorite.
Favorite weapon: Hammer gang
Favorite monster: Glavenus
In terms of action, the balance between style, environmental tactics, pattern recognition, and knowledge of your weapon's move set is easily the most impressive mix of gameplay attributes I've seen in any game. At any given moment, a player makes so many decisions on the fly without even recognizing it. Okay Tigrex charged forward so I know if I stay close enough I'll have the chance to trigger its tail whip which leaves it open for me to try to stun it, and from there I can climb to that ledge to get mounting damage, or grab the ammo that it dropped, or shoot my slinger at the rock above, or try to weaken it with my clutch claw attack. And it helps that these weapons do some really cool shit, like you can be an attack helicopter with some weapons in this game god damn. I found the difficulty to be perfect, and was a great challenge for me throughout. I had never played a game this hard before, and had my ass completely handed to me during the first 20 hours, but I felt like a genius once things started to click (and once I switched to hammer). While the game gets significantly easier once you're fully acquainted with your weapon, the creativity and intelligence the game allows the player to have with the environmental factors and move sets of the weapons and monsters always ensures the fact that this game is just fun.
Even while not in action, the gameplay loop that occurs outside of combat is what really keeps your gamer brain hooked and juiced up. To begin with, the footprints, scratchings, and other various traces of a monster informing the Hunter's notes is a genius method of collecting research on these creatures, and I was really disappointed it wasn't brought back in Rise. Collecting this data and using it to find a monster's weaknesses and materials informs the player of how to go about a fight before even initiating it with the monster, as opposed to simply going in blind. These little DNA samples being scattered across the map maintains that the player always has mini rewards throughout a hunt, and it just feels cool to be a monster researcher! What's more is the gameplay loop of constantly gaining new armor and weapons, which, like the combat, look cool as shit. Along with the research data, the crafting and refining of your loadouts makes preparing for a fight often times nearly as fun as the fight itself. It's like a little project every time there's a new monster! This game is so good man. Okay last thing about the gameplay loop, the design of each level is amazing, I keep finding new things in each map, even after 3 years of playing the game. Swinging from vines with the clutch claw, jumping off of huge mountains for a mounting attack, the amount of small caverns, this map design is so full of life. I could go on, but know that even though I'd consider the combat a 10/10, I think the game outside of that is somehow better.
The visuals, geez... GEEZ. This game is GORGEOUS, and the amount of detail in the locations, monsters, and weapon/armor is astounding. Every single map in the game is brimming with beautiful set pieces and imaginative creatures that make for an immersive experience like you wouldn't believe. Lets talk about those creatures. People kind of shit on the monster selection because its a bunch of big lizards, but shut up big lizards are awesome. Especially when they climb trees like a flying squirrel and have storm powers and have a flame sword tail and are also just a moose. The returning and new monsters are so varied and lovingly crafted, real shame that you're going to kill most of them that you meet. Beyond the monsters, the smaller endemic life, plants, and scenery in each map reaches the point of almost being superfluous, there's something to look at everywhere and its all PRETTY.
Lastly, the music in this game is just as varied and lovingly composed as the creatures in the game, with a bunch of different tracks. The main theme with the booming brass section gets you ready to kick some major ass and is filled with the same triumphant cheesiness that the characters in the game are. The battle themes, unique to each area and sometimes to monsters never, ever got old to me, and always aided in my immersion of each fight. The Guilding Lands batle theme??? Come on. The more ambient music of finishing a quest or sifting through menus in the hub world, this game nails the pieces in composition and in where they're used. There's never too much of a soundtrack, never too little. I'm getting tired so point is: music really good.
Sure, the story sucks, I feel bad when Anjanath starts limping, I wanted to rage quit for the first 20 hours, and the amount of THINGS in this game is a little overwhelming, but this game is very close to perfection in my eyes. There's so much I didn't mention regarding the great hub world, variety in weapon move sets, multiplayer, and more, but there's an astounding amount of things to love in this game. This was my first monster hunter, is not my last, and may always be my favorite.
Favorite weapon: Hammer gang
Favorite monster: Glavenus
Conteudo foda, mas gameplay merda com gancho
A little difficult to stick to when playing in single player, but I can see the greatness here nonetheless. Requires the player to get over a bit of a wall.
Tenderizing ruined my life
unbelievably cool game
Essa dlc é o melhor investimento que eu fiz na vida... Simplesmente o meu jogo favorito, caçar o Fatalis é surreal.
Fixes a lot of issues with base world, and then replaces them with the clutch claw. I’m really torn on the very last bosses, fatalis and alatreon being so one-shotty and having mean dps checks I dont like and dont feel right for monster hunter, but when those fights go well, not much feels better.
A minha review de do jogo base ja inclui a dlc, mas que jogo incrível meus amigos
This review contains spoilers
A beautiful, beautiful game and a real artistic achievement, Monster Hunter World & its massive expansion, Iceborne, feel like the perfect evolution of the monster hunter series that both make worthwhile changes across the board (though some would not say that of the clutch claw lmao).
I started getting into monster hunter on the recommendation of a friend who was a long time fan. Rather than delving right into the latest games, that being World and Rise, I went straight into Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate for the 3DS, which came out in 2015 in the EU. I seem to recall a friend playing 4 on their 3DS at college and I have vague, distant memories of an early ps2 monster hunter game being played by a friend and that was about as far as my recollection for the series went.
While MH4U is still a really good game and one of the deepest and prettiest on the platform, I found the games' length really grind on me as well as how it had aged. While only being 6 years old at the time that I played it, the lack of quality of life adjustments and tedium involved in the game mechanics and gameplay loop left me feeling a bit unfulfilled - especially towards the 'ultimate' expanded content which sees a massive spike in difficulty and a need to grind hard and take on previous quests as well as hub quests over and over again. While I can absolutely see this as being part of the fun and feel this strongly with World & Rise, MH4, as i've recently discovered after researching and learning about the series, sticks very true to the series' roots and its gameplay mechanics, notably, being quite methodical as an action game. You spend almost as much time fighting monsters as you do on 'housework' - gathering materials, crafting new materials, micromanaging things like inventory, weapon gauges, ammunition (for some weapons), preparing for fights, tracking monsters and running around maps trying to find them for 10-15 minutes per quest, managing stamina & status effects, keeping your weapon sharp, there is so much STUFF in monster hunter 4 ultimate. Not to mention there being rng to craft the materials you want and needing to grind 30-40 minute long quests for better gear, as well as needing to paintball monsters etc. Plus, this is a long ass game, really really long, like 80+ hours to finish just the main quests, the amount of content is staggering which is a good thing but it meant that all of the aforementioned, rather unintuitive housework became a slog and getting to the 'good stuff' felt like a chore, even if it is really fucking good when you get to said stuff.
Monster Hunter World & Iceborne however, looks at this and realises what needs to change. Almost all of the ‘stuff’ is still there and in plain sight, but its honed, polished and streamlined with care and understanding. World lets you run while using items, monsters are always shown on the map so you no longer need to track them down, gathering items is fast and efficient and you can do it on the fly while exploring the vast, open maps, the UI is intuitive and polished and micromanaging your inventory and gear has never been easier thanks to massive quality of life changes like the 'radial wheel' - now, granted some of MH4's unintuitiveness comes down to the limitations of its platform, I love the 3DS to bits but MH4 is highly ambitious for the console and trying to control it during fights literally hurt my hands at times. Regardless, World is such a transformation for the series but not at its expense. I'm very glad I started with 4 because it allowed me to see just how massive World's developments are in terms of what it sets out to achieve but also how good it feels to play and take in, this is a game that could drop today, over 4 years later, and not need to change a thing. 4 also gave me insight into what to expect and seeing returning monsters and other elements in stunning full hd and at this scale made it feel that much more impactful.
The moment I first swung my switch axe (my favourite weapon, i'm a total loyalist) in the training area, I could just FEEL how good it would be to fight with, its attacks felt familiar but deeper, incorporating more combo options and flashy techniques that were always satisfying to execute, like the switch axe 'latch' with its element discharge, something I still never tire of after 170+ hours of playing world & rise. Then there's the locales (maps), they're simply beautiful. The maps in World are all these wide open areas teeming with meticulous detail, inhabited by endemic life and large monsters that roam, graze and generally act like real creatures. The level of environmental detail and the range of locations that World pumps out made me want to just roam around and explore for ages before I even went to fight a monster since they're so intoxicating to look at. The maps also have really well thought out elevation & levels, shortcuts, secret areas and sections, complete with monsters that just really feel like they belong in their environment. Monsters also behave quite naturally, some are not even hostile on sight unlike previous games, which imo gives them a lot of personality - not even just the weaker monsters like Kulu Ya Ku either, even Teostra, the massive fire breathing lion elder dragon isn't hostile on sight. I once watched him prance proudly through the dunes of the wildspire wastes looking all smug and kinglike and I caught a few pics of him and its like he posed - fucking love that.
Anyway once you start fighting in World, they just feel fantastic. True to the series' nature the fighting is still quite methodical and many weapons have large animation cooldowns, you need to watch your stamina and manage aspects of your build but it never felt tedious or grating since everything just works in unison so well and the quality of life changes are all to the games' benefit. Even simply moving around feels great in World, with rolling and dodging no longer feeling stiff and a bit clunky, but smooth and natural. You transition from running to sliding to jumping to attacking states so smoothly and seamlessly that it feels unnoticeable. All of this combined allowed me to focus almost all of my attention on my attacks as well as the monsters' patterns, telegraphed moves and openings - creating an exciting 'dance' between myself and the monster even with the weaker large monsters in the game. Landing a perfect combo, breaking a monster part, executing a powerful attack like the element discharge, knocking the monster down and riding it make fights even more dynamic and satisfying too. Instead of just hammering away at a moving damage sponge, the monsters once again feel alive, threatening and at times even intelligent with some really quite clever ai. The 'downtime' sections between fight segments where the monster runs off and you need to chase it down and/or manage your gear were not my favourite parts of MH4U, but in World I often embrace them. They provide substantial breathing time between lengthy and often intense battle segments and give meaningful purpose to the games' sprawling, expansive map layouts - such as climbing and navigating to a maps' highest or lowest point to finish the fight. MH4U did do the same thing to be fair but I just generally found it to be slower and more tedious to the point that i’d sigh when the monster would run off, especially if i’d forgotten to paintball it and have to search aimlessly to find it again.
Then there's the range of monsters themselves in World. One of the main complaints of base World is a lack of different monster types, with there being too many 'lizards' / dragon type monsters. This is true to an extent - several of them are returning monsters, but it does add a lot of dragonlike monsters that much is true, but its not like they're all the same, not even remotely. Even in the games' early game there's such creativity and intrigue to the large monster designs, like Pukei Pukei, a very unique chameleon, frog and dragon hybrid monster with vivid colours, feather-like scales and identifiable characteristics like its long, elastic tongue that can lash out at its enemies, as well as its tail that can bulge out and shoot poisonous gas - so many interesting qualities for an early game monster and this trend continues beyond just simply the elder dragons and late game monsters. The early game also has Kulu Ya Ku & Anjanath, both great monsters with more unique, non-dragon skeletons. There's thought and passion put into World's artistic direction for its monsters (both large and small) at every turn, and the way their attacks are animated are simply fantastic, always furthering their personality and uniqueness. Sometimes its hard to really appreciate a monster while fighting it but once you take a step back and appreciate them from a distance or take a closer look outside of said fights, its easy to find newfound admiration for the time and creativity put into just about every new monster in World. There's also some absolute beasts that made me fear for my life, Nergigante still makes me shiver a little.
Iceborne takes World's monster designs to the next level and gets even more creative with a variety of new and returning monsters that really pack a punch, standouts being:
• Banbaro, a new, non-lizard monster! A massive, fur-covered elk-like monster built for the cold that charges you with its massive curled horns and has a habit of launching boulders and tree trunks at you, really good shit and a great way to introduce iceborne and the new locale.
• Namielle, a deep-sea esque elder dragon resembling several undersea creatures, most notably a manta ray and jellyfish. There really is no monster like Namielle, it is ridiculously detailed and a visual spectacle, with pooling water visible inside of it and rainbow luminescence that pulses across its entire body, resembling the bizarre but fascinatingly beautiful 'lobed comb jelly' fish. Namielle's attacks also utilise pools of water spread throughout the environment to create potential hazards - as the pools of water allow it to spread electricity, dealing high damage. Namielle is a masterfully concocted monster with so much cool shit going on and it is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful boss fights that I have ever seen.
• Velkhana, the flagship elder dragon of the Iceborne expansion and the first ice element elder dragon to enter the series. While Velkhana looks and behaves somewhat how you might expect of a legendary ice dragon capable of disrupting a whole ecosystem - the sheer beauty of the thing and the scale of the fight with it are really something to behold.
• Shara-Ishvalda, just a tremendous monster and among my top 10 in the series. As the true final boss of iceborne this thing really took me by surprise and came with a twist that just hit its beat perfectly, genuinely making my jaw drop. Ishvalda is a massive, terrifying monster once it breaks free of its stone 'shell' structure. Inside is a lithe, almost skeletal creature capable of creating huge pools of quicksand and using literal vibration to attack you with powerful beams from its sharp, finger-like wings. It also has terrifying eyes that are programmed to stare directly at the player, its a freakish monster with a dope armour set and setpiece to end such a great game on.
On top of these Iceborne adds a bunch of subspieces both new and old, including my all time favourite Stygian Zinogre, which also happens to be my favourite fight in the game, I was seriously fighting for my life but felt in control the whole time. Subspecies can be a bit hit or miss though and Iceborne is no exception since you get really unique and worthwhile variants like Seething Bazelgeuse, Coral Pukei Pukei and Blackveil Vaal Hazak, but then substandard and familiar subspecies like Shrieking Legiana and Acidic Glavenus that don’t do too much for me, but this is just nitpicking.
Finally, Iceborne gifts us probably the most homely location of any game - Seliana. Coming back home to Seliana after an intense fight, chilling out to the soft, blissful music and making any preparations between its cozy little cottages gave me such a feeling of comfort and safety. The gathering hub and your own room evoke a sense of warm, snuggly snowy cabins in the mountains of Canada or the Himalayas and offer purrfect reprieve and refreshing tranquility before the next adventure. Astera, the hub of base MH:World is great and feels like a real military base of operations complete with awesome verticality and treehouse-like architecture, but it still can’t lay a finger on Seliana. Sometimes less is more, especially when laced into a game as deep, detailed and expansive as Monster Hunter World + Iceborne.
World allowed for me to make so many memories and ‘moments’. Strictly speaking Rise is more fun to play but thats owing to its arcadey, fast paced action focus and hugely streamlined flow of actions. World is a different sort of action rpg than rise even though it heavily influenced the latter technically, because World is a slower, more methodical and atmospheric experience in my opinion. Even the writing in world is more detailed and the sheer range of monsters and locations blows rise out of the water, but Rise is also technically a spin off developed by a separate, smaller team, so there’s not much point comparing them. In any case even if the moment to moment gameplay in Rise is more of an adrenaline fix - the actual ‘moments’ themselves, the memories, the impactful setpieces and first time monster sightings in World hit with such force and are much more of a dopamine rush than Rise. My first time fighting Teostra is one of these, its such a phenomenal feeling fight that I grinded Teostra a dozen more times for his armour & weapon and still didn’t get bored of it. Its a fair yet still somewhat challenging visual spectacle of a fight complete with an insane final phase exclusive to the Elder’s Recess - in which you fight him in the heart of the volcanic biome, with massive lava geysers shooting from all directions and Teostra himself going ham on your ass. Fucking brilliant. That fight is something me and the friend who recommended me this series will never forget, but there’s one thing we’ll remember even more fondly - my experience with Blackveil Vaal Hazak, which i’ll round off this review by recalling.
Blackveil Vaal Hazak is a subspecies of the effluvium ridden elder dragon Vaal Hazak, a creepy, rotting husk of a monster. Effluvium is a toxic gas caused by bacteria that rots dead tissue, pretty gnarly. But what’s even gnarlier is that they take it even further with Blackveil. Blackveil’s difference is its moss-like pustules that enshroud its entire body, including its face, rendering it blind, meaning, like the monster Khezu, it works out where you are exclusively by sound and touch (unless you break the fungus on its face covering its eyes). The moss like effluvium covering its body like a fungus is disgusting enough, but even grosser when you realise that it spreads it via spores that float in the air and just being near the thing reduces your hp due to said spores. Apparently the devs wanted to give the player reason to use effluvium reducing gear effects as they were largely obsolete in base MH:World and boy did they go hard on it. The only way to remove the hp reducing effect is via nulberries but its incredibly easy to be reinfected with the effect afterwards, meaning that without preparing with effluvium resisting gear, the fight is made dramatically harder. Blackveil is not an easy monster to fight as it is.
Anyway I was down to 1 cart (life) and had 0 nulberries left, including none left in my item box since i’d used so many. The fight had gone on for a solid 40-45 minutes meaning I only had about 5 minutes left to kill the thing. I didn’t want to try and finish it in its final phase with half of my usual hp so started scrambling about the ancient forest for nulberries, breaking out the map to find them and rushing as fast as I could to get to them. Only, Blackveil was right on my heels, and it literally chased me across the entire map which is unheard of. I was firing dung pods and flash pods at it to get it off my ass but it did not let up and myself and my friend were laughing and screaming every time i’d turn around and see its ugly fungus covered face chasing me down. Finally I went to finish it off and was desperate for it to die, this thing had put me through 45 minutes of hell fighting for my life. That’s when it killed me and I thought that was it, it was over. I put my hands in my face and groaned heavily, defeated. The prospect of having to redo that fight all over again loomed on me. That’s when my friend told me to look up and I realised that it wasn’t over, I had, without knowing, activated a special meal effect that allowed me one extra cart. But I only had a few minutes left and had to get back to the monster which would take at least a minute or so. Reinvigorated, I hurried to Blackveil determined to kill it and exact revenge. Once I reached it, in one hit it died, and we both screamed. One. Hit. It was one hit from dying when I thought it was over.
Its rare that games can generate moments like that, moments that feel like powerful and personal memories. At the time all I could feel was joy and relief at never having to fight that thing again and I hated it. A few days later, I realised just how brilliant it really is. A game as deep and masterfully crafted as MH: World just lends itself to moments like this. Moments and stories like these can come from a lot of games, but only the best games where the mechanics work so strongly and allow for such variety in experiences and approaches to different scenarios allow them to shine in my opinion. Everyone’s experience will have been different but for me, that encounter really meant something and without all of the game’s core gameplay elements and facets working together, it wouldn’t have happened like it did. I hope this makes some kind of sense lol.
Anyway, what a game, it made for so many great moments and memories and I still fantasise about the games’ art direction, combat, music, setpieces & personal moments. On top of all the praise i’ve lumped on it this game is also really cute and charming a lot of the time, I fucking love the palicoes and seeing my custom character and palico in cutscenes and fighting alongside my cat pal. Even some of the npc characters have charm even if the story is pretty average - below average (one of only things I think could do with improving is having more dramatic storytelling and interesting narratives, maybe kill off some characters or create situations that actually feel threatening because at the moment its definitely not something to highlight). Even though this is capcom’s best selling game (which was actually quite surprising to find out!) I feel like not enough people talk about this game or bring it up as much as it deserves, it really is one of the best games of its console generation and a spectacular artistic marvel. Here’s to a game that will age like fine wine! Thank you Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, and goodnight xoxo
I started getting into monster hunter on the recommendation of a friend who was a long time fan. Rather than delving right into the latest games, that being World and Rise, I went straight into Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate for the 3DS, which came out in 2015 in the EU. I seem to recall a friend playing 4 on their 3DS at college and I have vague, distant memories of an early ps2 monster hunter game being played by a friend and that was about as far as my recollection for the series went.
While MH4U is still a really good game and one of the deepest and prettiest on the platform, I found the games' length really grind on me as well as how it had aged. While only being 6 years old at the time that I played it, the lack of quality of life adjustments and tedium involved in the game mechanics and gameplay loop left me feeling a bit unfulfilled - especially towards the 'ultimate' expanded content which sees a massive spike in difficulty and a need to grind hard and take on previous quests as well as hub quests over and over again. While I can absolutely see this as being part of the fun and feel this strongly with World & Rise, MH4, as i've recently discovered after researching and learning about the series, sticks very true to the series' roots and its gameplay mechanics, notably, being quite methodical as an action game. You spend almost as much time fighting monsters as you do on 'housework' - gathering materials, crafting new materials, micromanaging things like inventory, weapon gauges, ammunition (for some weapons), preparing for fights, tracking monsters and running around maps trying to find them for 10-15 minutes per quest, managing stamina & status effects, keeping your weapon sharp, there is so much STUFF in monster hunter 4 ultimate. Not to mention there being rng to craft the materials you want and needing to grind 30-40 minute long quests for better gear, as well as needing to paintball monsters etc. Plus, this is a long ass game, really really long, like 80+ hours to finish just the main quests, the amount of content is staggering which is a good thing but it meant that all of the aforementioned, rather unintuitive housework became a slog and getting to the 'good stuff' felt like a chore, even if it is really fucking good when you get to said stuff.
Monster Hunter World & Iceborne however, looks at this and realises what needs to change. Almost all of the ‘stuff’ is still there and in plain sight, but its honed, polished and streamlined with care and understanding. World lets you run while using items, monsters are always shown on the map so you no longer need to track them down, gathering items is fast and efficient and you can do it on the fly while exploring the vast, open maps, the UI is intuitive and polished and micromanaging your inventory and gear has never been easier thanks to massive quality of life changes like the 'radial wheel' - now, granted some of MH4's unintuitiveness comes down to the limitations of its platform, I love the 3DS to bits but MH4 is highly ambitious for the console and trying to control it during fights literally hurt my hands at times. Regardless, World is such a transformation for the series but not at its expense. I'm very glad I started with 4 because it allowed me to see just how massive World's developments are in terms of what it sets out to achieve but also how good it feels to play and take in, this is a game that could drop today, over 4 years later, and not need to change a thing. 4 also gave me insight into what to expect and seeing returning monsters and other elements in stunning full hd and at this scale made it feel that much more impactful.
The moment I first swung my switch axe (my favourite weapon, i'm a total loyalist) in the training area, I could just FEEL how good it would be to fight with, its attacks felt familiar but deeper, incorporating more combo options and flashy techniques that were always satisfying to execute, like the switch axe 'latch' with its element discharge, something I still never tire of after 170+ hours of playing world & rise. Then there's the locales (maps), they're simply beautiful. The maps in World are all these wide open areas teeming with meticulous detail, inhabited by endemic life and large monsters that roam, graze and generally act like real creatures. The level of environmental detail and the range of locations that World pumps out made me want to just roam around and explore for ages before I even went to fight a monster since they're so intoxicating to look at. The maps also have really well thought out elevation & levels, shortcuts, secret areas and sections, complete with monsters that just really feel like they belong in their environment. Monsters also behave quite naturally, some are not even hostile on sight unlike previous games, which imo gives them a lot of personality - not even just the weaker monsters like Kulu Ya Ku either, even Teostra, the massive fire breathing lion elder dragon isn't hostile on sight. I once watched him prance proudly through the dunes of the wildspire wastes looking all smug and kinglike and I caught a few pics of him and its like he posed - fucking love that.
Anyway once you start fighting in World, they just feel fantastic. True to the series' nature the fighting is still quite methodical and many weapons have large animation cooldowns, you need to watch your stamina and manage aspects of your build but it never felt tedious or grating since everything just works in unison so well and the quality of life changes are all to the games' benefit. Even simply moving around feels great in World, with rolling and dodging no longer feeling stiff and a bit clunky, but smooth and natural. You transition from running to sliding to jumping to attacking states so smoothly and seamlessly that it feels unnoticeable. All of this combined allowed me to focus almost all of my attention on my attacks as well as the monsters' patterns, telegraphed moves and openings - creating an exciting 'dance' between myself and the monster even with the weaker large monsters in the game. Landing a perfect combo, breaking a monster part, executing a powerful attack like the element discharge, knocking the monster down and riding it make fights even more dynamic and satisfying too. Instead of just hammering away at a moving damage sponge, the monsters once again feel alive, threatening and at times even intelligent with some really quite clever ai. The 'downtime' sections between fight segments where the monster runs off and you need to chase it down and/or manage your gear were not my favourite parts of MH4U, but in World I often embrace them. They provide substantial breathing time between lengthy and often intense battle segments and give meaningful purpose to the games' sprawling, expansive map layouts - such as climbing and navigating to a maps' highest or lowest point to finish the fight. MH4U did do the same thing to be fair but I just generally found it to be slower and more tedious to the point that i’d sigh when the monster would run off, especially if i’d forgotten to paintball it and have to search aimlessly to find it again.
Then there's the range of monsters themselves in World. One of the main complaints of base World is a lack of different monster types, with there being too many 'lizards' / dragon type monsters. This is true to an extent - several of them are returning monsters, but it does add a lot of dragonlike monsters that much is true, but its not like they're all the same, not even remotely. Even in the games' early game there's such creativity and intrigue to the large monster designs, like Pukei Pukei, a very unique chameleon, frog and dragon hybrid monster with vivid colours, feather-like scales and identifiable characteristics like its long, elastic tongue that can lash out at its enemies, as well as its tail that can bulge out and shoot poisonous gas - so many interesting qualities for an early game monster and this trend continues beyond just simply the elder dragons and late game monsters. The early game also has Kulu Ya Ku & Anjanath, both great monsters with more unique, non-dragon skeletons. There's thought and passion put into World's artistic direction for its monsters (both large and small) at every turn, and the way their attacks are animated are simply fantastic, always furthering their personality and uniqueness. Sometimes its hard to really appreciate a monster while fighting it but once you take a step back and appreciate them from a distance or take a closer look outside of said fights, its easy to find newfound admiration for the time and creativity put into just about every new monster in World. There's also some absolute beasts that made me fear for my life, Nergigante still makes me shiver a little.
Iceborne takes World's monster designs to the next level and gets even more creative with a variety of new and returning monsters that really pack a punch, standouts being:
• Banbaro, a new, non-lizard monster! A massive, fur-covered elk-like monster built for the cold that charges you with its massive curled horns and has a habit of launching boulders and tree trunks at you, really good shit and a great way to introduce iceborne and the new locale.
• Namielle, a deep-sea esque elder dragon resembling several undersea creatures, most notably a manta ray and jellyfish. There really is no monster like Namielle, it is ridiculously detailed and a visual spectacle, with pooling water visible inside of it and rainbow luminescence that pulses across its entire body, resembling the bizarre but fascinatingly beautiful 'lobed comb jelly' fish. Namielle's attacks also utilise pools of water spread throughout the environment to create potential hazards - as the pools of water allow it to spread electricity, dealing high damage. Namielle is a masterfully concocted monster with so much cool shit going on and it is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful boss fights that I have ever seen.
• Velkhana, the flagship elder dragon of the Iceborne expansion and the first ice element elder dragon to enter the series. While Velkhana looks and behaves somewhat how you might expect of a legendary ice dragon capable of disrupting a whole ecosystem - the sheer beauty of the thing and the scale of the fight with it are really something to behold.
• Shara-Ishvalda, just a tremendous monster and among my top 10 in the series. As the true final boss of iceborne this thing really took me by surprise and came with a twist that just hit its beat perfectly, genuinely making my jaw drop. Ishvalda is a massive, terrifying monster once it breaks free of its stone 'shell' structure. Inside is a lithe, almost skeletal creature capable of creating huge pools of quicksand and using literal vibration to attack you with powerful beams from its sharp, finger-like wings. It also has terrifying eyes that are programmed to stare directly at the player, its a freakish monster with a dope armour set and setpiece to end such a great game on.
On top of these Iceborne adds a bunch of subspieces both new and old, including my all time favourite Stygian Zinogre, which also happens to be my favourite fight in the game, I was seriously fighting for my life but felt in control the whole time. Subspecies can be a bit hit or miss though and Iceborne is no exception since you get really unique and worthwhile variants like Seething Bazelgeuse, Coral Pukei Pukei and Blackveil Vaal Hazak, but then substandard and familiar subspecies like Shrieking Legiana and Acidic Glavenus that don’t do too much for me, but this is just nitpicking.
Finally, Iceborne gifts us probably the most homely location of any game - Seliana. Coming back home to Seliana after an intense fight, chilling out to the soft, blissful music and making any preparations between its cozy little cottages gave me such a feeling of comfort and safety. The gathering hub and your own room evoke a sense of warm, snuggly snowy cabins in the mountains of Canada or the Himalayas and offer purrfect reprieve and refreshing tranquility before the next adventure. Astera, the hub of base MH:World is great and feels like a real military base of operations complete with awesome verticality and treehouse-like architecture, but it still can’t lay a finger on Seliana. Sometimes less is more, especially when laced into a game as deep, detailed and expansive as Monster Hunter World + Iceborne.
World allowed for me to make so many memories and ‘moments’. Strictly speaking Rise is more fun to play but thats owing to its arcadey, fast paced action focus and hugely streamlined flow of actions. World is a different sort of action rpg than rise even though it heavily influenced the latter technically, because World is a slower, more methodical and atmospheric experience in my opinion. Even the writing in world is more detailed and the sheer range of monsters and locations blows rise out of the water, but Rise is also technically a spin off developed by a separate, smaller team, so there’s not much point comparing them. In any case even if the moment to moment gameplay in Rise is more of an adrenaline fix - the actual ‘moments’ themselves, the memories, the impactful setpieces and first time monster sightings in World hit with such force and are much more of a dopamine rush than Rise. My first time fighting Teostra is one of these, its such a phenomenal feeling fight that I grinded Teostra a dozen more times for his armour & weapon and still didn’t get bored of it. Its a fair yet still somewhat challenging visual spectacle of a fight complete with an insane final phase exclusive to the Elder’s Recess - in which you fight him in the heart of the volcanic biome, with massive lava geysers shooting from all directions and Teostra himself going ham on your ass. Fucking brilliant. That fight is something me and the friend who recommended me this series will never forget, but there’s one thing we’ll remember even more fondly - my experience with Blackveil Vaal Hazak, which i’ll round off this review by recalling.
Blackveil Vaal Hazak is a subspecies of the effluvium ridden elder dragon Vaal Hazak, a creepy, rotting husk of a monster. Effluvium is a toxic gas caused by bacteria that rots dead tissue, pretty gnarly. But what’s even gnarlier is that they take it even further with Blackveil. Blackveil’s difference is its moss-like pustules that enshroud its entire body, including its face, rendering it blind, meaning, like the monster Khezu, it works out where you are exclusively by sound and touch (unless you break the fungus on its face covering its eyes). The moss like effluvium covering its body like a fungus is disgusting enough, but even grosser when you realise that it spreads it via spores that float in the air and just being near the thing reduces your hp due to said spores. Apparently the devs wanted to give the player reason to use effluvium reducing gear effects as they were largely obsolete in base MH:World and boy did they go hard on it. The only way to remove the hp reducing effect is via nulberries but its incredibly easy to be reinfected with the effect afterwards, meaning that without preparing with effluvium resisting gear, the fight is made dramatically harder. Blackveil is not an easy monster to fight as it is.
Anyway I was down to 1 cart (life) and had 0 nulberries left, including none left in my item box since i’d used so many. The fight had gone on for a solid 40-45 minutes meaning I only had about 5 minutes left to kill the thing. I didn’t want to try and finish it in its final phase with half of my usual hp so started scrambling about the ancient forest for nulberries, breaking out the map to find them and rushing as fast as I could to get to them. Only, Blackveil was right on my heels, and it literally chased me across the entire map which is unheard of. I was firing dung pods and flash pods at it to get it off my ass but it did not let up and myself and my friend were laughing and screaming every time i’d turn around and see its ugly fungus covered face chasing me down. Finally I went to finish it off and was desperate for it to die, this thing had put me through 45 minutes of hell fighting for my life. That’s when it killed me and I thought that was it, it was over. I put my hands in my face and groaned heavily, defeated. The prospect of having to redo that fight all over again loomed on me. That’s when my friend told me to look up and I realised that it wasn’t over, I had, without knowing, activated a special meal effect that allowed me one extra cart. But I only had a few minutes left and had to get back to the monster which would take at least a minute or so. Reinvigorated, I hurried to Blackveil determined to kill it and exact revenge. Once I reached it, in one hit it died, and we both screamed. One. Hit. It was one hit from dying when I thought it was over.
Its rare that games can generate moments like that, moments that feel like powerful and personal memories. At the time all I could feel was joy and relief at never having to fight that thing again and I hated it. A few days later, I realised just how brilliant it really is. A game as deep and masterfully crafted as MH: World just lends itself to moments like this. Moments and stories like these can come from a lot of games, but only the best games where the mechanics work so strongly and allow for such variety in experiences and approaches to different scenarios allow them to shine in my opinion. Everyone’s experience will have been different but for me, that encounter really meant something and without all of the game’s core gameplay elements and facets working together, it wouldn’t have happened like it did. I hope this makes some kind of sense lol.
Anyway, what a game, it made for so many great moments and memories and I still fantasise about the games’ art direction, combat, music, setpieces & personal moments. On top of all the praise i’ve lumped on it this game is also really cute and charming a lot of the time, I fucking love the palicoes and seeing my custom character and palico in cutscenes and fighting alongside my cat pal. Even some of the npc characters have charm even if the story is pretty average - below average (one of only things I think could do with improving is having more dramatic storytelling and interesting narratives, maybe kill off some characters or create situations that actually feel threatening because at the moment its definitely not something to highlight). Even though this is capcom’s best selling game (which was actually quite surprising to find out!) I feel like not enough people talk about this game or bring it up as much as it deserves, it really is one of the best games of its console generation and a spectacular artistic marvel. Here’s to a game that will age like fine wine! Thank you Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, and goodnight xoxo
This is what got me into monster hunter! Tons of fun with friends to have here! Fatalis pulled this to a 5 Star
piece of shit lizard
Je note juste l'extension, pas le jeu dans son intégralité.
J'ai sûrement jamais vu une extension aussi généreuse en terme de contenu, il y en a autant que pour le jeu de base, voire plus. Les nouveaux monstres sont cools et en voir certains d'anciens jeux de retour fait très plaisir. Le boss final est la définition du mot "épique".
J'ai sûrement jamais vu une extension aussi généreuse en terme de contenu, il y en a autant que pour le jeu de base, voire plus. Les nouveaux monstres sont cools et en voir certains d'anciens jeux de retour fait très plaisir. Le boss final est la définition du mot "épique".
First MH I seriously played, was super fun, played with Bammboo and Frog in 2023 Spring/Summer. Stopped right before Alatreon due mostly to the annoying 2 week rotation of Safi.
Happy hunting!
Da nova geração, é o melhor.
Mecânica, Gráfico, História, Bestiário, Caçadas e Eventos, tudo nesse jogo é bem feito.
Mecânica, Gráfico, História, Bestiário, Caçadas e Eventos, tudo nesse jogo é bem feito.
its cold now
Monster goes bonk.
One of the better Monster Hunters after it fully released. Terrible endgame monsters you can tell were stunted by the pandemic shutting down development (Fatalis and Alatreon are really terribly done fights, especially Fatalis who has weapon matchups that are insanely bad to the point runners will avoid them) but there was a soul and care put into this game not found in most other games. There was finally an actual gameplay loop, albeit way too grindy. The clutch claw and tenderization nerf was atrocious and should be modded out of your game ASAP if you're on PC. It has a few flaws holding it back, but many of them are moddable on PC. The game boasts far, far more pros than cons without a doubt. Great MH game. Aged a bit better than.... some other entries.
One of my favorite games of all time, amazing gameplay, amazing visuals, amazing mechanics. only thing I'd change is the item system, there's almost too much stuff to collect and organize.
This DLC made the base game WAY better.
Made my 100+ hour save file skyrocket to a 310+ save file. This game's gameplay loop is borderline addicting.
clutch claw is trash but everything else is fantastic
World was okay, Iceborne was not okay. The balance is way off, the monster AI is way off, and comparing to previous G-Rank expansions this one just falls short on every aspect. It's just not fun to play the endgame missions because it requires way too much minmaxing that takes way too much time (compared to other MHs), and stuff like Clutch Claw spam ruins the fun of half of the fights more than Mount Spam did in 4U.
oh boy, what can I say about this game without writing a 50 page essay... It's a beautiful masterpiece and one of the best experiences one can have if played with friends. It's also great when played alone but the multiplayer aspect enhances the experience sooo much. The game is pretty hard sometimes and you've got to strategize what to do against each monster with their diverse variety of movesets and attributes. The weapon types also make for a really fun and long lasting game without being repetetive. God, I love this game to death and I reccomend this to pretty much anyone, especially Dark Souls fans.
Good when turned off ong