Welcome, stranger! Today we’re reviewing one of Capcom‘s masterpieces. The game is what many unwary folks were calling Dark Souls with dinosaurs. But of course the Monster Hunter franchise has much more than dinosaurs (it has dragons and the Kirin) and Souls-like gameplay. Let’s get to the review.
Monster Hunter is a very famous franchise in the land of the rising sun, starting on the Playstation 2 and migrating to several platforms, evolving its mechanics and (slightly) changing its gameplay; today the series arrives on the consoles and PC of the generation with the title WORLD, a new entry that expands the series’ story and universe.
GAMEPLAY
The game is an Action game with RPG elements, how so? You won’t level up, your character doesn’t get stronger, you, the player, get stronger. Every hunt depends on the player’s skill and knowledge: knowing the monsters’ habits, attacks and movement, skills you’ll acquire as time goes by playing.
Your character is a normal human, with no “powers” beyond the courage to face the big shots of this new land; the special abilities come from your equipment and armor, requiring a great deal of planning for your set for the hunts. And a big part of the game is building your preferred/necessary sets.
For newcomers the best way to understand Monster Hunter World is to play online with the veterans; learn by watching, which is one of the fundamental practices for becoming a true hunter. The game has a very steep learning curve. It’s not an easy game, and mastering all its mechanics takes months; as veterans say “The first 100 hours are just the tutorial”, and believe it or not, those 100 hours of tutorial will pass very quickly because the game hooks and motivates you in a scary way.
Let’s focus on the Monsters; the stars of the game and their design, the monsters are very well built, graphics, movement, artificial intelligence, even their ecology is very well thought out. The monsters fight each other, mark territory and occupy well-defined ecological niches. It’s like watching a real ecosystem, like watching (and killing) an Animal Planet show.
The weapons: there are more than 10 weapon styles, all with their advantages and disadvantages, ways to play and characteristics. When playing online you can tell when a player is a beginner with a weapon, or before you know it that other player is doing a beautiful deadly dance with the monster. There is no greater pleasure in this game than mastering a weapon and smashing a Deviljho’s face.
NARRATIVE
The Fifth expedition lands in the new world, and to colonize the place the Hunters and researchers need to tame the new world, and believe me it really is a new world: new ecosystems, monsters, and the guild’s structure is well placed in the story; you understand what it’s like to be a hunter on an expedition, and the NPCs tell their stories and dreams. Even playing offline you feel part of something, you get attached to the NPCs and recognize this vast universe. The series has matured a lot in this regard, and for veteran hunters this is a significant change.
AUDIOVISUAL
The game uses the machines’ potential to the fullest: you see the creatures’ parts cracking and breaking with your blows, and the sounds of the ecosystem and the details were very well polished and made with perfect atmosphere.
Verdict
Capcom hit the mark with this version, took advantage of the power of current platforms and enriched the game’s ecosystem, addressing what many complained about in the series, the lack of a captivating story. A Capcom masterpiece, but still, a Monster Hunter game, so it won’t be easy for newcomers to be accepted into the guild.
SCORE
NARRATIVE: 10
MECHANICS: 10
AUDIOVISUAL: 10
FINAL SCORE: 10
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0l0B7NDTAU]
Max Xavier
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