Recent reviews by King_H

Currently on release, this game is getting massive negative reviews for two main reasons: Performance & Multiplayer. Before I gush over the game I'm going to quickly address these two.

Pretty much every review will tell you that the performance is terrible. This is true; I myself have a reasonable PC but it's not stupidly high-end either with an RTX 2070 and 8Gb of Vram. I currently play the game on Low graphics settings and consistently get between 20-50fps. For me, this is playable but I understand other people don't feel the same way. What I will say is that when the beta released, I couldn't even run this game, let alone play it. I think people are neglecting to acknowledge how many leaps and bounds CAPCOM have made since the beta just a few months ago - of course I hope they continue to do so but credit where credit is due.

In terms of multiplayer, unfortunately it suffers from the same jank that World had where everyone has to enter a story mission on their own, watch the cutscene and then return from the quest to start it all together again. This hugely breaks the flow and it's valid for people to be upset by it.

Despite these flaws, I still recommend the game. In fact, within the first few hours of playing, it has quickly become one of my favourite games of all time, and I don't say that lightly.

Every. Single. Thing. In. This. Game. Exceeded. My. Expectations.

And I had HIGH expectations. Monster Hunter has often been known to have shallow and laughable stories and characters, but that isn't actually the case anymore. Every character so far has felt unique but not overbearing. The story hasn't forced anything that didn't make sense and you can tell they've really taken the time to up their writing and cinematography. By no means is it the best that's out there, but it is significantly better than it's previous titles.

Of all the monster hunter games, this is the one I have been most easily immersed in. If you decide to play solo, which I have been mostly, the transitions between quests is unbelievable. At a certain point I realised I felt like I was actually part of the world. The fact that I just wanted to keep progressing the main story was a testament to the writing and the immersion I felt. "I have to be quick because something bad might happen" when in reality of course there is no timer for when you should do a quest.

Monster Hunter has always emphasised the fact that you are part of the ecosystem, and that has never been truer than any other time in this franchise's history. In previous titles it often felt that you were at the mercy of the monsters (if you weren't too overpowered hahaha), but in this game, it's not only that but the amount of time and effort they've put into the weather cycle in this game is astonishing. You truly feel you are at the mercy of Gaia herself and I've never felt so small in a monster hunter game before. It's exactly the feeling you want and I'm pretty sure it's the exact feeling that Ryozo Tsujimoto has been chasing this whole time. This is his magnum opus. Aside from the multiplayer, this is the most seemless a monster hunter has ever been and I truly felt lost and awe-inspired playing through this story.

As a final note, I am a veteran to this series and I know my weapons well, so while there hasn't been a fight yet that I've failed, I don't feel the need to complain about the game being too easy. The reason for that is because the weapon and combat changes feel so unique, fresh and comfortable that I have yet to be disappointed. Nothing I do feels like it shouldn't be that strong. If I play well, the monster is squirming on the floor. But it still feels satisfying and it still feels like I have to put in the effort to make a hunt go smoothly. This is of course just my personal opinion but I do think this game is harder than Rise was. I would say it's actually quite difficult to compare it to World because their combat is actually vastly different under the surface. The focus mode completely changes the entire playstyle and while I think there's a good argument to be made that focus mode makes the game too easy, I would say it makes it just easy enough. It does not give you an automatic parry like Rise did, but it is very strong when used correctly. Personally I think it's a fantastic addition to the games combat because it's fluid and fun to use and the monsters were designed with the intention that players use it.

It's unfortunate this game has mixed reviews right now, but if you don't mind playing games below 60fps, you should absolutely try this game. New or old hunters welcome.

This game is outstanding. It has been a long time that I've not only been excited for a new release, but played it on day one and loved it. It has the gameplay of Subnautica but you're driving instead of swimming. It has the lore and environment of the SCP foundation, and it has the best vibe, music and style anyone could hope for.

This game has the incredible ability to make feel an immense sense of dread and then immediately fade it out with the thrill of the drive, music banging through the radio to create this truly awesome experience.

Only playing for a short period of time: Here are my favourite parts so far with a couple spoilers:
The first time I discovered that I could turn on the radio not only in the shop but also in the car absolutely changed the game for me. It seems obvious in hindsight but I didn't realise it until I discovered it for myself.

Another experience I would like to share is that I was seeing Tourists around everywhere (these mannequins) and I thought they were mostly just a set piece, but then I used a flare for the first time just to see what I was doing, turned around and there was an army of them staring at me. Truly a horrifying experience but again, loved that I found that out naturally for myself.

I also want to just point out the lore and story, right at the beginning of the game it's said that your car is a remnant and that people get attached to remnants, eventually pulling them into the instability like a siren. And I loved that because it is the most immersive story it can possibly tell for such a sci-fi setting. You as the player will get more and more attached to your car as you play with it and upgrade it. You will always return to it and you won't leave it too far behind. You're constantly trying to keep it safe and when something happens to it, it's devastating.

I am forming a bond with my car. Just as the lore intended. The only thing now is to give it a name...

This is easily one of my favourite games of all time and an introduction to now one of my favourite franchises of all time. I picked up this game back when it first released and it had a lot of issues with the online multiplayer servers which got fixed within a couple weeks. It's sad but most of the negative reviews for this game are for the initial connectivity issues. But anyway onto the actual review.

Most people read reviews to find out if anything is wrong with a game so after playing for 1,500 hours and earning all the achievements, here is what I believe to be wrong with this game with discussion based around those points.

First and foremost the price is always a hurdle with any of these AAA games. But I will say that despite the big price tag of not only the base game but also the DLC Iceborne, this game delivers with the amount of content it provides. The iceborne DLC is easily one of the biggest game DLCs I have ever found and played effectively doubling if not trippling the content of the base game. It's also worth mentioning that in both the base game and the DLC, after the story has finished there is a huge amount of end-game content to keep you attached for hours fighting new monsters, raids, events, new gear, etc.

No. This is quite possibly the biggest issue with this game and there are a lot of aspects as to why it fails in this area. Let me first talk about the UI. The UI in this game is quite possibly the worse UI in such a successful game. It's incredibly unintuitive and trying to learn how to do anything can take hundreds of hours. People joke that the UI is a harder battle than the monsters in this game and it really is true for new players. You may not even know that loadouts exist for dozens of hours and then when you learn that they exist you won't be able to figure out how to register and use them effectively until another dozen hours. I've seen people say that the UI is designed this way due to it being first released on console and the intended experience being a controller but I don't think that gives it any excuse for it to be as unintuitive as it is. Unfortunately it's the product of a 20 year old franchise that hasn't changed its outdated systems all that much. It works once you know how it works but yeah.

The weapons and combat can be a struggle for new players too, there are some weapons that are more beginner friendly than others, I personally used one of the most complicated weapons (Charge Blade). I also want to clarify that complicated does not necessarily mean hard in this case. The Greatsword is a great- (hehe get it) example of this because its combos are very simple and you really only have 1 or 2 options of what you want to do, however the weapon is still challenging due to its slow mobility and the weapon is all about positioning and timing. Regardless of what weapon you pick, I highly recommend looking up some youtube guides for your weapon or asking a friend who has experience to teach you, else you will be struggling against the monsters without realising that you have a parry for example.

Another point regarding beginner difficulty is general items and consumables. A lot of new players don't quite understand just how important some of these items can be and it's one of those things that you'll only really learn through external feedback. A great example is flashpods which can be used against flying creatures to blind them so they fall out of the sky for a large damage window opportunity. A big thing in this game is capturing monsters which literally lets you finish the hunt when the monster typically only has 30% HP left (in the beginning). I could easily talk about items for a long time but you get the point. This game has tutorials but they're all useless. You will only learn from external sources.

If you're like me, you love to hunt for achievements. This game's achievements are... tedious. Obviously there are your basic ones like going through the story and killing 100 elder dragons or whatever, but the really difficult ones can take hundreds of hours. Monsters in this game don't have a defined size and instead appear on a sort of spectrum. If you're fighting a large version of a monster and you beat it, you'll be rewarded with a crown made from silver or gold depending on it's size. There are big gold crowns and small gold crowns and there are 2 achievements (4 if you count the DLC) which are to acquire every large and small gold crown in the game. Gold crown monsters have between a 3%-6% chance to spawn normally and you can up those rates by doing some event quests but it really is abysmal. But those achievements aren't even the worst ones, and I think that really just sums it up. If you want to achievement hunt this game then by all means do it, I did, but it will take over 1000 hours to do so, so I hope you enjoy your time :P

This is a good question and it really comes down to what your definition of a souls-like is. Personally I don't think so and I'll lay out a few key differences as to why. Leaving behind the obvious gameplay loop differences (things like going back to retrieve your souls and checkpoints), the combat itself has a fair few differences.

First off the lock-on. The lock-on in this game is atrocious and you might be tempted to use it at first but even on controller you are better off just turning your camera to look at the monster. It doesn't have any fluidity like Fromsoftware's carefully craft lock-on camera does, and just keeps the monster dead centre of the screen (If you don't know, Fromsoftware's lock-on camera dynamically moves where the lock on is placed on the screen based on your position in the environment. It also zooms out for larger monsters, etc.)

Let's look at iFrames (invulnerability frames). This game does have iFrames but they are no where close to what Dark Souls' iFrames are. In this game you are encouraged to roll away from an attack, block it, or counter it. You do have iFrames at the very very beginning of your roll and have hundreds of hours you could start to utilise it in some situations but I would never rely on it as a beginner. There is actually a skill called Evade Window which increases this size of this iFrame window so if you want to practice getting better at rolling through things then that would be something to aim for.

As for weapons there are 14 different weapon types including 3 ranged options, as mentioned previously, each of them is difficult in their own right and they all have different combos, abilities and nuances. It very possible to switch between any weapon type on the go so if you want to learn multiple at a time then I encourage it.

I am obviously making this review 6 years after the game was released so there's not much I can say that hasn't already been said. But I think the points I've highlighted above should be a little more niche than your typical performance and graphical posts. Most reviews will tell you to play the game, as does this one. But I won't shy away from telling people that it's hard to learn, especially on your own. Do research. This game is far more enjoyable if you know what you're doing.

Happy Hunting everybody! I look forward to seeing everyone in Wilds!

EDIT: Just to mention DRM briefly. If people don't know, DRM is an anti-cheat software however for CAPCOM's purposes it's mainly used for anti-piracy. This is not a new thing with their games however people are talking about it due to a recent controversy surround street fighter. CAPCOM typically has a more expensive anti-cheat software in their games when they first release and then downgrade to a less expensive one after a few years. It's not something you should be worried about and it's not quite retro-active as people say it is.