In thisMonster Hunter Wilds Review, we’ll take an in-depth look at Capcom’s latest release of their flagshipAction-RPGand answer whether it’s worth your time and money. If you were a fan ofMonster Hunter Worldor MHRise, and want to know how Wilds stacks up, or if you’re a new player to the series and want to know if this game is for you: read on to find out.
Monster Hunter Wilds Review
Genre: Action-RPG
Developed by: Capcom
Published by: Capcom
Release date: February 28th 2025
Platforms: PC (review platform, code provided by Capcom), PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Price at the time of review:$69.99 (regular) $89.99 (deluxe)
MHWilds Review: Story & Setting
Monster Hunter Wildshas the Hunter Commission explore a new distant region with a thriving ecosystem that is as interesting as it is perilous but still rewarding enough for many human tribes to settle. Incentivized by the search for a specific monster and the remains of a long-forgotten people, you delve deeper and deeper into the secrets of the land and its forgotten dangers.
The story element has never been the main attraction of Monster Hunter games. While the overall universe of the series has interesting lore and engaging monster and species details, the average player will likely skip past the dialogue as quick as they can and won’t overthink the story. In Monster Hunter Wilds, Capcom has attempted to create strong motivation for the player to push forward and to highlight some emotional situations via someNPCs. Unfortunately most players seem to not be on board with that from the beta feedback already, and the actual full game execution of that questline was not any better than any previous Monster Hunter game.
While an effort was made to give background, nuance and character to villagers and situations, the whole story feels over the top and filled with tropes, as is expected for the series, except it also features an overly emotional cast that frankly got on my nerves now and then with their remarks.
Despite this, I watched every single possible cutscene and initiated every optional dialogue, and I was able to get information and details on the world and its inhabitants that I would have missed out on. This is always a plus for those who, like me, appreciate worldbuilding, but when I got to my second character for the PS5 review version, I skipped all cutscenes and dialogue as quickly as I could and did not miss it at all. So, in short, this is the Monster Hunter story experience with some extra drama, don’t expect better or worse.
MH Wilds Review: Gameplay
As with all MH titles, Wilds is focused on gameplay, and is particularly all about the streamlining and improvement of game systems to enhance accessibility and welcome new hunters into the fold. Improving outdated systems is always a difficult task, but particularly so when those systems are well-known and well-loved by fans, as we discussed on my “Monster Hunter is the Best Game Ever Made” video. Wilds has once again taken on this task, with good but not perfect results.
The New Map, Environment and Seasons
When I first played the MHWilds demos before release,the map blew me away. The interactivity and details of the real-time open world map, coupled with the public lobby system made the game instantly different than previous entries. As I played most of the review period solo offline, I then got to experience those large vast maps and their cyclical seasons in a different way and at a different pace. The new map system is one of the strongest new additions to the game as it gives variety and fun, but I also had constant “FOMO” since monsters were spawning, camps were being destroyed and upsurges were spawning even when idling in town.
In a strange way, I found myself missing the old isolated hubs that allowed me to disconnect from the environments I was in and sort out weapons, armor, items and such before setting off on aquest. While advancing the main quest and during the small grinding gaps inbetween to get armor or weapon materials, the notifications of those events gave me the constant feeling that I should be checking the map to see what had updated. I got tired of seeing notifications of my camp being destroyed and special account items spawning, which pressured me into pointlessly hunting down special account items I didn’t need anymore simply because there was a little update saying there was an upsurge. There was also the small annoyance of having trouble remembering which camps are where or active, and porting to them mid-hunts to speed things up was confusing at first.
Of course, the counter to this is that the lobby and hub are excellent for multiplayer, as is the realtime map, so its likely that most people will not have the same issues I had as they will be immediately set to go for multiplayer quests. The overall map navigation is fun, exploration is rewarding, and hunting down endemic life in the new cyclical environments led to some exciting discoveries as I felt I had found something fresh and new.
The season system can be manipulated via rest in your tent at the expense of account points, so you can tailor your hunts and explorations to what you like. Overall the new map is an excellent and fun addition that I think is likely to become the norm for the series moving forward, but that’s just a prediction in this Monster Hunter Wild Review.
The Seikret’s Weapon Holder
Mounts are here to stay in Monster Hunter and theSeikretis the evolution of thePalamute- they no longer join you as combatants but they now come with a weapon holder so you can use a backup weapon while out in the field (you access it while riding by pressing right on the d-pad, very easy to swap back and forth). If I am completely honest, I made zero use of this feature as I’m rather obsessed withLong Swordand I never found myself in a situation where I felt I had to have a secondary element on the hunt, so despite setting it up I almost never swapped.
As part of our Monster Hunter Wild Review, I have spent a lot of time talking with other players who participated in the beta, however, and I know that most people really enjoy this feature as it gives them variety, so more power to them. It would also be useful when doing many successive field hunts during multiplayer so you can opt for a different element. However, I was much more excited about the new skill management (weapon skills and armor skills) and the quick loadout saves (that you can share!). So let’s discuss the quality of life enhancements in Monster Hunter Wilds.
QOL & Accessibility
The Monster Hunter Series was revolutionized with World when it proved that the hardcore and niche hunting game could streamline a bit and become very attractive to millions of new players. Wilds has learned those lessons well and seems to be aiming at polishing the offering to become as accessible as possible while still maintaining as much of the charm as possible.
The Seikret’s auto-run to objectives is one example, but there are many more, such as an abundance of environmental clues and both human and endemic helpers that make your life easier in the form of bugs with effect of chill drinks, or the smithy having recommended armor for your build and level, or the quick cooking from rations. Above it all sits the loadout menu that allows you 140 different quick swaps, can be shared online with others. You could thus set up entire hunting sets and save them up and prep the perfect skills for each specific monster and simply swap to it with one easy click. The item pouch allows for 80 loadouts just for items, so the customization options are indeed unprecedented for the game. You will also love the radial menu and keyboard shortcut options, that are improved from other games by adding a smart healing quickslot that will default to the cure for whatever your ailment is.
Another accessibility feature is moderated difficulty. The game isn’t inherently difficult and monsters feel a lot less “spongy” than they did in the past. There is a difficulty ramp-up as you progress and a need to improve your gear, but as a returning player I was very comfortable to complete all content, including the highest difficulty quests andmonstermashups always under 20 minutes and many times within 10 even for a double hunt. This was with one armor / weapon and static traditional longsword decorations, as I didn’t spend time farming for optimized decorations for this Monster Hunter Wild Review, just unlockingcontent for wiki. I also somehow got every monster material within 60ish hours - and the only thing I am missing 130 hours later is a ticket from a vendor that simply won’t appear (i even save scummed 100,000 account points changing the weather and no luck), and a couple of other tickets that must be event-bound or fishing that I didn’t do much of.
It’s possible the difficulty “nerf” from previous titles is thanks to NPC hunters that will respond to your SOS when playing offline. While these are by no means comparable to the efficacy of other players, they are actually quite powerful and will fill the gaps for new players so they don’t have to take on hunts alone. Your AI companions will heal you, set traps, warn you about incoming attacks, take aggro from you and even wait on your decision to slay or capture when the monster is about done - giving the solo experience a much needed boost. I found myself using them often despite my love of my palico simply because it really helps to have the endgame monsters have someone else to focus on other than you!
Being a cat lover is almost a pre-requisite for Monster Huntering, and your Wildspalicois the smartest and most powerful it has ever been. I would advise you spare yourself the horrible experience of giving them human words and chipmunk voices, but other than that I found my Dante was the best of allies and came in clutch with heals, traps and the most hilarious contraptions as we took on giant monsters.
I do however have to note that you can only have one palico, and you cannot send it on any mission or expedition, and it simply levels up alongside you whether it comes or not. The palico gadget quests were extremely simple and I had no option to customize my wants or tools, so no setting up a plunderblade palico, just have to hope it uses it when it wants. Of course there is palico armor and its as adorable as always, I took screenshots of all of them and you can find a beautiful gallery of allpalico equipment on the wikiat launch.
While on the topic of felynes in this Monster Hunter Wild Review, I should mention that I was heartbroken to find that there is no felyne cooks - in fact the meal system has now changed so if you don’t cook for yourself, you are dependent on villages inviting you to eat. Those meals have powerful and very worthy effects and last an entire hour vs your 30 minute rations, but I found the lack of cat cookery disappointing. Also I felt like I would get 3 invitations at once and be able to take only one, then be waiting for 6 hours for another invitation. This is something I am hoping is addressed with events or patches that are surely coming.
Combat & Wounds
The new feature of Monster Hunter Wilds are in-combat wounds. When you hit an enemy many times in the same place, their hide will start to show scratches until it becomes an open wound. This open wound makes them take more damage, and you can use a “Focus strike” (L2 + R1) to destroy the wound - this slows and then flinches the monster, gives you areward material, increases your gauge if you’re using a Long Sword and may even be enough to trip the monster.
As a Long Sword user that has partbreaker as a core skill, the wound system fit right into my playstyle and allowed me to manage my gauge generation in a different way than normal. Of course it will be different when playing with other people, as they may destroy the wounds instead of you, but for solo play they created a very satisfying rhythm to my combat.
Besides the Monster Hunter Wild Review we have a series on the Fextralife channel going through theweaponsone by one so I won’t go into it for the review, but in general the weapons have improved. Your character has fluid motions that match enemy movements when sidestepping and dodging, and as a whole the combat system feels less clunky than it did in previous titles with smoother controls. There are new movesets and the “focus mode” that allows you to re-center on the monster helped keep me swinging in the right direction most of the time.
Combat has other new nuances and tidbits that you will enjoy to discover, such as the fact you can jump attack from your seikret directly into a mounted attack, or the new ways in which NPC companions assist as hunter helpers in the landscape, or the fact that small monsters will swarm and attack even the meanest of predators when you have them pinned down. I really love how combat works out in this title and the environmental interactions, turf wars and weather changes feel smooth and add to the new and improved monster movesets and AI.
The systems that we are all used to have been slightly revamped and tinkered with to provide a more efficient but still satisfying progression experience. You can craft talismans and upgrade them, you can craft decorations, you can create many sets ofarmorand the expectedly large weapon trees.
Your loot loop is quite simple, as it’s very easy to find out what you need for your hunts and the in-game logs are very detailed. Monster wounds give you lots of materials and there is villager trade that allows you to get items and even some rare crafting materials by swapping your account items. I didn’t struggle to complete my very modest wishlist, and didn’t feel I was getting cheated out of rare items at all. In fact I’m sitting on something like 6 “rare” gems from a high level monster hunt I did 8 times.
There are more systems to uncover but unfortunately we are not allowed to talk about them in this review, so you will have to wait until launch for more details on this - of course themhwilds wiki will have all armor, weapons and equipmentready alongside every single monster and their weaknesses and materials.
The Monsters
On the topic of Monsters for this Monster Hunter Wild Review, the game launches with29 unique large monstersfor you to hunt, and it’s my expectation that number will increase significantly via event quests - much like Monster Hunter World did. Many of these monsters have already been revealed in trailers and in the official website, but we are only allowed to show you a few of them so I won’t go into much detail except to say: I was surprised that there were only 29 large monsters (MHRise had way more). I was expecting them to buff that a little bit from World, that launched with 30. I assume they are adding more in the next few months with free events, and there’s likely an expansion already in development with another 20 monsters, but Rise really spoiled me. For enemy design, theNergiganteequivalent is a fantastic hunt, and there were a couple of very interesting monsters that prompted “WTF are you playing now” from others coming by my monitor, but I did not get the epic feel ofXeno’Jiiva,Safi’JiivaorNarwafrom any of them.
I do want to point out that the monster movesets are improved in many ways, and I particularly appreciated that monsters now “limp” a bit more before running off somewhere else, giving you a chance to interrupt their escape and shorten the hunt. That is a very valuable QOL addition that most people will appreciate.
Monster Hunter Wilds Review - Replayability, Multiplayer & Endgame
Monster HunterWilds is a game built formultiplayer and an endgame of endlessexploration. I completed all the content and reached HR 100 during review period solo, so you should not be put off if you feel you won’t have others to play with, as there wasn’t a “multiplayer wall” per se.
You will likely finish the main story at around 30 hours, but you’re looking at 70+ to complete other content and many, many more if you want to unlock all endemic life, fishing and secrets of the game. Without the events and time-limited investigations, endgame became rather lonely and boring as it’s quite clear the game is meant to continue in other ways, but I expect everyone playing at launch with all features will be able to get a great amount of gametime out of this. Some of your time will likely be spent tracking down the rare endemic life, which is cute and rewarding, fishing and obtaining trophies or participating in group activities and event quests.
Once I got to that “boring” solo point, I tried multiplayer lobbies, squad lobbies, random quest SOS, private SOS and I found everything working as expected, with no lag or stutters even when playing cross-platform. The online system is a lot more forgiving than world, adapting participant party if someone drops, and with quick matchmaking even across different story points and HR points. I had fun playing with other Fextra members and already made us a clan so feel free to look up and join the Fextralife clan ingame so we can hunt together.
Monster Hunter Wilds Review - Design, Audio & Visual
The design of Monster Hunter Wilds is extremely well realized, with vast environments full of detail, thriving with life, and with coherent ecologies to explore and discover. It is actually quite satisfying to explore and even dive into some underwater areas to gather account items or do some sneaky net-fishing to find out more about the fish without spending time on the fishing minigame.
In regards to visuals and performance for this Monster Hunter Wild Review, the game looks quite gorgeous if a bit “filtered” by the many particles, but I am happy to report I experienced no crashes or performance issues on PC. Be warned I have a pretty decent PC, running a 4090 graphics card with a Ryzen 7950 processor, and I even had a recent BIOS update when trying to troubleshoot Avowed. I had a framerate of 80-100 even when the climate changed, including severe rainfall and the sandstorms in the plains. I had about 80-90 FPS running around bad climate landscape on mount, and 90-100 during monster fights that you are more static. I also spent time playing the game on Playstation 5 Pro, and put it on performance mode. I felt there were some performance issues and some stutters but they weren’t during the fights and nowhere near as bad as what I had experienced with the first beta. I did not do Fidelity mode as it’s locked at 30FPS and that’s just not great for me after being spoiled by PC. I’m not sure how other systems will handle the game ofc so your mileage may vary.
The audio track is as good as all other MH titles. I enjoy the main theme and it’s always fun to fight to the monster music. The voice acting was quite good, except for some reason I didn’t test my own female voice properly and I ended up with something I really quite disliked and no way to change it without a remake voucher which I couldn’t even buy pre-launch. That’s not the game’s fault but a warning to be thorough in your character creation cause you are pretty stuck afterwards!
MHW Review: Final Thoughts
I was incredibly excited to play Monster Hunter Wilds after the revelation that I felt with the open world map. The story portion was not the smoothest progress due to my “hunt everything” OCD kicking in on these ever-refreshing environments, but I enjoyed my time with the game immensely.
With cleaner menus and tips for newcomers, quickslots and shortcuts, an improved monster journal that tells you exactly what to attack with and what will drop, smoother controls and monster movements, and an overall over-abundance of help and notifications, Monster Hunter Wilds is an excellent entry point for newcomers to the series.
Veteran players will probably find themselves reaching endgame rather quickly, but they will surely be entertained by the increased challenge that should come with endgame monsters and activities, and can rejoice in the fact that the lobbies will be absolutely packed with players seeking help.
So:Should you buy Monster Hunter Wilds?My answer is a firm “Yes”. The addictive formula has now polished some rough edges to be more welcoming to newer players, but retains its trademark gameplay loop that keeps you coming back for more. With hundreds or thousands of hours of gameplay and free updates in the horizon, the price is also easily justifiable and a good day 1 purchase.
Monster Hunter Wildsreleases February 28th on all platforms.
Monster Hunter Wilds is a beautiful and addictive entry into the series that brings along polish and clears up some oldschool clutter. An excellent entry point for newcomers to the franchise, its superb gameplay and multiplayer experience will keep veterans entertained for many months to come
