The long-awaited “Monster Hunter Wilds” release fell short of the expectations of its long-time playerbase. While there is still plenty to love, players have complaints about gameplay in a game known for its long grind times.
“Monster Hunter Wilds” was released on Feb. 28, about four years after the last major franchise release of “Monster Hunter Rise.” It is the first open-world Monster Hunter game and features 20 new monsters, as well as different changing seasons and environments for the player to explore.
“Monster Hunter Wilds” currently has only three stars on Steam, while both “Monster Hunter Rise” and “Monster Hunter: World” have four and a half stars. Compared to other major Capcom releases such as “Street Fighter 6,” “Dragon’s Dogma 2,” and the 2023 remake of “Resident Evil 4,” “Monster Hunter Wilds” is currently ranking the lowest.
After two weeks of beta testing in February for the pending release, feedback from fans was generally positive and excitement for the game was high, but there were rising concerns about struggles to keep the game running on PC as well as issues with graphics rendering. These issues continue to be a concern for some players even after the full game was released.
There have also been significant complaints regarding the game’s multiplayer functionality. Considered the most new-player-friendly game in the franchise, even veteran players of the Monster Hunter series have found the multiplayer functionality to be cumbersome and convoluted to navigate. With multiple different types of lobbies, squads and links, the system is further complicated with issues on how to add friends to users’ list to start navigating hunting party assembly.
The largest complaint by far from players has been the story. While the Monster Hunter franchise has never been known for its storytelling capabilities, “Monster Hunter Wilds” garners even more complaints from fans on what seems like a backtrack from the previous release. “Monster Hunter Wilds” does not allow cutscenes to be skipped and is unfortunately very cutscene-heavy during the story.
“Monster Hunter Wilds” characters are poorly fleshed out, and their dialogue is flat and uninteresting. The only character long-time players seem to care about is Rove, but given Rove’s many quotable moments, this was an easy win story wise for “Monster Hunter Wilds.”
The game practically handholds the player through the first 12–16 hours of gameplay, in what previously was a franchise known for tossing players into the mess of planning for a hunt and figuring it out for themselves after some information dumping. Players are forced to trail behind other characters at agonizingly slow speeds during the story and are guided toward specific hunts to advance the story, which, for veteran players, only served to stand in the way of getting to what they all love about Monster Hunter: grinding for cooler sets of armor.
Other elements players loved about previous games were also found to be lacking in “Monster Hunter Wilds.” While some mechanics such as temperature management were reintroduced, unique features of the franchise were not seen in the most recent release. Notably, there is no longer the Monster Hunter specific language Wyverian present in the new game.
There were also mixed feelings regarding the level of challenge the game provides. Focus mode is a new mechanic for aiming and targeting monsters during hunts. Some players have found that this makes the game easier, which they appreciate in a notoriously difficult series, but others felt this removed challenge during the hunts. Tracking monsters was also not included in the release, which players, again, felt removed the challenge from the game. Even 40–60 hours in, some players have found that dying during a hunt is not much of a concern.
Players overall found that the game was generally easier not just for hunts but in all aspects compared to other games. Inventory management, gathering supplies, preparing for the hunt, etc. all seem a little too easy compared to previous games.
Despite its issues, “Monster Hunter Wilds” still sold over 8 million copies within the first three days of its release. The open world works well for a Monster Hunter game where the main goal after story completion is to repeatedly kill different monsters to complete quests and build increasingly cooler armor sets. There are also still the ever-loved Palicoes with their expanding wardrobe of adorable outfits. Players were also relieved to see the return of the Poogie, which was not present in the release of “Monster Hunter Rise.”
As the game continues to receive updates, gameplay issues, such as graphics rendering and PC performance, cease. In terms of advancing through the story, it seems players will continue to have to button-mash through dialogue and bear with the fact that it seems Monster Hunter is pivoting towards a more casual playerbase.
