Overall, really enjoyed the game. It grabbed me pretty quickly from the start and it was fun to crawl my way through the station. It took me 30 hours, which is seems to be on the longer side than most people, but I'm not sure if that's because I was pretty thorough, others have played the base game before, or I sucked. Probably all 3. I played on the standard difficulty for all settings. The fights were challenging, but the AI can feel a little dated - which I expected going in. The puzzles were fun, but also still took me some time.

The graphics were an excellent choice as they are hi-def pixelated. The game also ran great as I had everything maxed and upscaling maxed at 200%. The sound design was solid and while I think some of the voice actors were different than the original game, they all fit well and of course OG VA for SHODAN.

There are definitely some flaws, but it's one of the games I enjoyed the most so far this year. It was cool to see the influences it had on later games, especially Bioshock.

My first adventure into a souls-like game and from the company that more or less started it all.

I racked up 97 hours and the majority of those were good. Even great at times. The late game, however, is weirdly balanced and one-shot mechanics or non-stop combos during boss fights are very annoying. The camera and lock-on system can also be frustrating.

The world that was created is fantastic. There are many times it can look like a painting and the verticality is mesmerizing. Just how much world is packed into this game is insane and can easily be worth the price of admission.

There is definitely a lot on offer here and plenty of weapons, ashes of war, spells, and abilities to warrant another journey or NG+ but even with all that, the world is the real reason I would go back. There are MANY things I didn't see or experience in this first playthrough.

I'm not ashamed to admit I looked up some things. Mostly some build strategies for how build around Faith and Arcane which probably also contributed a lot to my enjoyment of the game.

The lore I did read, or experience was interesting, but still leans heavily on vagueness. A lot of info is still buried in the item descriptions.

I can agree that it's a great game, but I can't agree that it takes the "greatest game of all time" award that seemed to come from other reviewers. If it can smooth out some of the balance and fix the PC performance (which I suffered some of), then maybe it could get there, but until then, a solid 4/5.

Monster Hunter Rise finally comes to the PC and after 80 hours, I can say that it's just what I would want out of a MH game. I'm relatively new to the series having only started playing MH games with Monster Hunter World. I had interest in the games before that, but never ended up buying them on console. Overall it's been a really fun journey. I'm not a master of the game by any means and despite my hours, I would say I would still land in the casual section. I mostly follow build guides for whatever weapon I chose. Starting with Charge Blade and now mostly playing Bow.

Even though every game adds something new to the series, you can tell the developer really has the formula down when it comes to the mechanics. Monster fights are fun, if not frustrating at times. It's a game where I can be really determined to beat a certain monster or one where a few bad defeats can make me close the game early for the day. Of course all of this is made better with friends and going on hunts with those friends is a treat.

It's easier than ever to get in a game with friends. Especially compared to World, which had some weird gating mechanics you would have to clear before your friends could join you. Those were only really apparent going through the story mode with the end game being more open to getting friends involved. This has all changed in Rise. While the server size is now limited to 4 players (down from 16), it does let everyone go about their own business and join up at any moment so there is never really any down time if you don't want it.

The PC port is pretty solid and honestly, the game looked better than I thought it would. The HD textures definitely help, but I was still a little surprised. The controls on KB&M are still a little weird and required some tweaking, it's still an improvement over World.

While there is still more grinding to do and I'll probably play a couple of more times, I plan to shelve it for now after investing heavily in a short amount of time and wait for the expansion that arrives this summer.

A solid MH game and a great addition to MH on PC.