Recent reviews by Arjean

Game is amazing, a near perfected formula of the genre however the performance ruins it.
I cannot recommend this game as long as the performance issue continues and no attempt to fix or even acknowledge is made by CAPCOM.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800x3d
Memory: 32GB DDR5 6000mhz
GPU: Nvidia RTX 4080 SUPER


I'll preface this by explaining my experience with the franchise,
I've been playing since I've been in high-school, starting with Monster Hunter 4U on the Nintendo 3DS and Generations Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch, this is my favorite video game franchise, I love the lore, I love the music and most of all I love the gameplay, it's addicting, it's fun and it promotes efficiency which I am a sucker for.

I'm by no means a new player and I am by all means a really good player & a seasoned veteran, going through the game I have only died once by the time of writing this review, I have reached the end of all the content at release and currently I'm just finishing up on side missions and "grinding" for decorations (for new players, it's custom passive buffs).

Now for the actual review

Monster Hunter Wilds is pretty much a standard Monster Hunter sequel, which means that it is a direct improvement on past titles and features better QoL, especially when compared to past titles but also when compared to it's direct predecessor, Monster Hunter World.

The combat is really fun, the new customization changes are amazing and it feels a lot less bloated yet it retains the same effectiveness of build-building, unlike in World where you had an insane amount of things to change in order to maximize your build, the story has some really nice moments (and some really awkward ones / ones that don't make too much sense dialogue wise) as well as insane new pieces of lore for the world of Monster Hunter, overall, it is a very good experience.

The music is incredible, the themes and environments are extremely interesting, I personally dislike their choice of season in the zone during the "prologue" of the game (also known as Low Rank) but even so I must admit the idea makes the map a lot more unique especially as it affects resource abundance and Monster variety and behaviour.

I'm not going to touch on difficulty, as the game was practically a cakewalk for me & my friends so I feel as though giving an input on that would be extremely biased.

Now for the less fun parts,
The game, being made by a Japanese studio, is unsurprisingly horrible at everything related to online-play, matchmaking, story co-op progression and UI elements, the UI can be considered a game by itself with how much time you need to spend to understand where they hid everything, overall, not a great experience if you're not aware of it's track record and how it's going to be the case in basically every instalment

Additionally, and really most important of all, the game launched riddled with issues, including performance & FPS, texture bugs, visual fidelity issues, random stuttering, crashes and random disconnects, which considering the game is a co-op game, makes the experience very annoying, at the time of writing this CAPCOM has made 0 public statements acknowledging this, promising to fix or the likes, and seeing as their last open world game (Dragon's Dogma 2) also launched in a disastrous manner, I'd say not to hold your breath for a fast and easy fix to these problems. Especially considering World and Iceborne (World's expansion) had performance issues themselves at launch.

I myself run the game on 1440p, ultra, full raytracing and while the FPS is mostly stable, I'm still encountering low fidelity textures, lack of shadows and visual bugs very frequently, other people I've played with (who use varying rigs) also have a pleothra of additional issues.

Overall, I know this sounds like a rant, but the game is really good it just needs CAPCOM to fix it a bit more and it'll be worth it, for now however, I do not recommend buying.

The game would be an easy 8/10 to 10/10, depending on how much you like the genre if there were no issues.

Amazing tactical shooter.

Really good.

EDIT #2, 4th of May 2024:

I personally do not mind the new PSN account requirement needed for the game that will be enforced soon (I'm disregarding how frequently PSN servers are hacked because I don't believe they take sensitive info from you, could be wrong though), however it is a disgraceful to change so after launch, while also not giving a refund to players who live in countries where a PSN account cannot be created, which is around 50% of the world as I have seen through picture on the game's discord.
This is essentially stealing isn't it?

I cannot recommend this game in good faith until this issue is solved, one way or another.
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Great game

BUT

Servers are bad and the matchmaking is even worse. There is no excuse for this almost two weeks after launch.
I will change the review after they fix it but for now. I hope their rating goes all the way to negative, maybe then they'll double time it instead of investing their time and money into future plans for the game.

A broken vase, no matter how beautiful, is still broken.


EDIT:

Changed the review to positive as the developers clutched the server issue and fixed it just in time for the weekend. The game is an absolute blast, incredibly fun and with a lot of humor and funny moments.
There are still issues but seeing how the company handles everything surrounding the game, I have no doubt in my mind they will fix these issues as fast as they possibly can, add more content as well and in a few years, this game will be a completely different beast on a completely different level than what we have right now.

Really good.

Rockstar abandoned it but it is still a gem.

Do not bother, Call of Duty has lost it's way and Activision are just pure evil at this point.
From system that exploit players and their damage output based on winstreaks to 1 year support for the game, just don't bother.
Not worth the price.
Not worth the purchase.
Absolutely a scam.

It is good

A little disclaimer:
Got 2 copies of these game, one in GOG with 80 hours (on the Early Access version aka. only Act 1) & another copy in steam (this account) with whatever hours you see I have at the moment you are reading this.
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This game is addicting and incredible in every way, it has very little shortcomings and they are mostly taste / preference rather than straight up objectively bad. (with the only real issue I found so far is that dual wielding is underwhelming & very weak compared to other forms).

It is GOTY material for sure, and in my opinion, the best RPG I have ever played.

It has superb storytelling and immersion and manages to take a niche genre like CRPG and turns it into something anyone and everyone can (and should) enjoy.

I cannot recommend this game enough, 3 years of waiting in early access and it's finally here and Larian studios delivered it so well, like a master craftsman pouring everything he has, every bit of labor & love into his masterpiece and I am so glad Larian Studios get the recognition for it (from apparently the entire gaming community no less).

In short:
It is a masterpiece made from all of Larian Studio's love, hard work and passion, buy it, try it, you will most likely keep it & play until you cannot stay awake just to go to sleep and repeat the process the next day.