Rounding a corner in Monster Hunter Wilds always exciting — you may come face to face with the biggest, baddest ball of teeth you’ve ever seen, or you might find a cosy new spot to camp and cook up some grub. When you get back from a hunt you’ll find new weapons and gear to craft, new stories to share with your fellow hunters and new challenges over every horizon.
That sense of wonder started from the moment I booted the game up and stayed with me until the very end.
This is easily the best Monster Hunter has ever been, and whether you’re a returning player or a brand new hunter — I think everyone should strap on their hunting gear and dive in.
The Sharpest Tool In The Shed
Unlike many other action RPGs, where regular enemies fill the gaps between boss fights, Monster Hunter Wilds treats every encounter like an epic boss battle. Each monster has unique movesets and different elemental features — some are quick and agile, while others are massive brutes, and you have to learn the difference to be successful. Going hunting, you’ll need to study the creature you’re hunting, learn its weaknesses and prepare your gear to set yourself up for success. That means cooking food, sharpening your tools, building traps and crafting items — and of course, creating huge weapons to fight these grizzly beasties with.
Monster Hunter Wilds deepens the in-universe rules of the Hunter’s Guild, adding more structure to the world. For example, Hunters operate under the authority of Handlers, who approve and oversee hunts —this ensures the work is being done to the benefit of the natural world. They also make a point that the Hunter’s weapons are specifically designed to hunt monsters and never to be used on people.
You’re not just a lone hunter — you’re part of a larger ecosystem. Explorers and researchers will task you with studying specific monsters or gathering samples, reinforcing the sense that every hunt contributes to something bigger. Joining you on the journey is your Palico (adorable cat buddy) and Seikret (a new mount with an arsenal of tools to make hunts easier). Then, of course, you have blacksmiths, shopkeepers, chefs and librarians who make the job of a hunter feel like even more of a team effort.
READ MORE: Misitzune and more coming to Monster Hunter Wilds post-launch
Never Hunt Alone
Far and beyond, the biggest innovation for me in Monster Hunter Wilds is the Support Hunters, and how they have been woven into every aspect of the game.
To give you some background on that comment — I play Hunting Horn as my primary weapon. Hunting Horn is one of 14 weapon types and is the closest thing Monster Hunter Wilds has to a support weapon. It’s essentially a giant musical instrument that you play songs with while wailing on the enemy like a giant harmonic club. It doesn’t have as high damage numbers as Great Sword or Hammer, but each horn comes with songs that may increase damage, heal, increase status resistance and more.
In practical terms, that means a Hunting Horn player is best when playing in a party with other hunters as all of those songs improve everyone hunting with you.
For me, diving in and playing my favourite weapon, having a squad of skilled teammates to jump straight into hunts with from the get-go was an absolute joy. If you’re on a hunt and fire an SOS Flare — which opens your game to anyone and everyone online — the three additional slots in your party will be filled with AI Support Hunters until real humans join to take their place.
Monster Hunting Is Better With Mates
As has always been the case, Monster Hunter is made for players to work together — and Wilds has made that easier than ever before. The core missions and exploration can be played in co-op, and any hunt can be opened to friends or other online Hunters.
Fellow Quest Daily Monster Hunter veteran Tom Greer joined me on my journey. Simply the voice chat only helped elevate the experience.
We immediately felt like two grizzled Hunters, swapping old war stories about the “last time I hunted a Quematrice this big”, planning out our gear and picking armour that complimented our builds.
Playing co-op is as simple as firing an SOS flare on any hunt for allies to come find you — and there is crossplay built-in. Come launch day, the servers should be teeming with Hunters willing to bash some monster skulls with you.
So if you’ve got friends ready to join a hunt —gear up! If you don’t, get out and make some; respond to an SOS and help someone out. You never know who you’ll meet on a hunt.
But Playing Alone Doesn’t Mean Hunting Alone
The Support Hunters who join you are actual characters from the story — which I loved. You get to know them very well over your journey; Olivia is a brash, confident hunter who fights with a Hammer, while Rosso is a quippy Heavy Bowgun user. There are only three Support Hunters currently, covering Hammer, Heavy Bowgun and Lance, but there’s potential to add others post-launch.
The AI of these Support Hunters is robust, and you never really feel like you have to baby them. They use all their abilities, they keep their health topped up, they ride their Seikret when they need to cross the map, and they’ll also put down traps when the monster is capturable. There’s a great addition when you drop Barrel Bombs in front of a sleeping monster (the first hit does double damage), they place bombs as well — they even carve the monster once you’ve defeated it. I don’t know what they’re doing with the materials, but it’s cool to see.
The Pointy End Of Fashion
One of the most satisfying moments in Monster Hunter is returning from a hunt and heading straight to the blacksmith to see what kind of armour and weapons can be forged from your latest trophy. And boy howdy, have the design team been busy on Monster Hunter Wilds.
There are so many incredible designs; you can look like a walking tank decked out in heavy plate armour, a sneaky ninja, a strange wetsuit-wearing plague doctor — just to name a few. Early on I found the spectacular Three-Musketeers-style fencing hat with a huge feather — a trophy from the fire chicken, Quematrice. Suffice to say, I sacrificed my own safety, foregoing better head armour to maintain my style points with that hat. Only later did I realise you can change the appearance of gear — transmogrification — in your tent without affecting the stats… *sigh*.
Similarly, weapon designs are on point. Though I spent almost all of my time with Hunting Horn, scrolling through the weapon designs really made me want to venture out. From a giant corkscrew grinder Hammer to a pair of fuzzy pink Dual Blades maracas — the options were wild and endless.
My standard backup weapon has always been Longsword, which lets you live out your best anime samurai fantasies. There are some incredible designs; the Lala Barina longsword is this beautiful flowing montante-style longsword that made me want to run into the hills like a gallant knight — incredible.
READ MORE: Monster Hunter Wilds: What’s In Store For New Players
First Time Here? We Got You
Monster Hunter was a divisive series for newcomers. Fans like me love its meticulous attention to detail, but getting friends into the series has always been a challenge. The initial hurdles — like having to sheathe your weapon before drinking a potion or remembering to eat a meal before every hunt — have often been sticking points for first-time players.
Now, I can safely say that Monster Hunter Wilds is far and beyond the most accessible the series has ever been.
The biggest ticket item for me is the option to take two weapons on any hunt. So for those of you who jump back and forth between weapon types, you’ll be covered. And newcomers can happily try out Sword and Shield and Gunlance in the same hunt. Swapping weapons is incredibly simple; press right on your controller’s the d-pad, your Seikret runs up to you, and you jump on and swap weapons in an instant. It became so second nature to me that I could run away from the monster, call the Seikret, swap weapons, charge back in and hit a dismounting attack before the monster could reach me.
At first, I’d thought that I would use two weapon types for some variety, I played around with Longsword or Bow as my backup options for some extra damage or ranged capabilities. However, when I realised that I could take two different elemental Hunting Horns, fire and paralysis damage for example Then I’d have double the songs available, and songs stay active when you switch horns! Absolutely wild. I became a one-man-band from that point on.
There are also plenty of little quality-of-life improvements, like each zone being one seamless map and your Seikret automatically guiding you to the monster. So while en route, you can collect materials and crafting items from around the map, or sharpen your weapons while the Seikret runs over to the monster.
Playing on the PS5, load times are practically non-existent. I’d jump into a hunt with another player and be on the ground, weapon in hand, within five seconds. Absolutely gone are the days of fast travelling to a new city in Skyrim and going to grab a drink while it loads. God I love modern technology.
It’s A Wild, Wild World
An astonishing amount of work has gone into making the environments of Monster Hunter Wilds feel more natural.
Firstly, you’ll see this in the AI and activity of all the monsters — they are so much smarter than they used to be. In the Windward Plains, you’ll see herds of herbivores following an Alpha as they wander from watering hole to grazing area and sleeping spots. If you attack one, the herd will scatter realistically and then regroup later in a safe space.
The same is true of the monsters you hunt as well, you’ll often find monsters like Chatacabra or Quematrice moving in pairs, and if you start to fight one you’ll have to fight both. This plays into the story as well, as there are a couple of points where herds of monsters will attack the villages and settlements. In these battles, you’ll work alongside support hunters, using items like Dung Pods to split up the threats. Once separated, the support hunters will take on one monster while you handle the other.
As you progress through the story, you’ll bounce to new environments and meet new local clans. There’s a range of interesting NPCs to engage with, from hunters and gatherers to industrialist blacksmiths. In each environment, you see how these local clans work with the land to survive, and build their own little culture between the nests of raging beasts.
Gather Around, Let Us Tell You A Story
For me, the story has never been a huge part of Monster Hunter titles. The joke has often been made that the campaign is one big tutorial, and you get to the real game during High Rank — after the campaign credits have rolled. That said, it’s not the case at all with Monster Hunter Wilds.
This is easily the best story the Monster Hunter team has ever told, and it goes to great lengths to tie the story of our main characters into the events of the world.
A lot of effort has been made to ensure the characters you interact with aren’t just the NPCs you interact with back at camp. The Support Hunters spend as much time out on hunts and in the environment as you do, and they play key roles in the overall story. Likewise, your handler Alma, who gives you all your quests, is almost always alongside you on her Seikret. You’ll even have your blacksmith out on hunts with you for some of the more pivotal moments.
The story itself, which primarily revolves around a young boy trying to find his hidden village, takes its fair share of twists and turns, and even has a couple of emotional moments that make you question whether hunting monsters is really the best thing for the natural world.
READ MORE: Monster Hunter Wilds: What Long-time Fans Can Look Forward To
All About That Environmental Impact
Monster Hunter has long explored the natural world and the role titanic beasts play within it. In this universe, natural disasters like thunderstorms and earthquakes aren’t just weather events — they’re the direct result of these massive creatures shaping the environment around them. Monster Hunter Wilds places the natural world front and centre of the story.
A big part of the game is the way that the environments change with the seasons — driven by the Apex Predators in each of the game’s regions. The Windward Plains is the first region, which begins dry and barren and slowly evolves, inviting new monsters to the area.
As each season changes through the story, you’ll set out with your handler Alma and other members of the expedition to see how the world has changed. These are utterly gorgeous sequences see you ride slowly through a now flourishing land, spotting new monsters, revived plant life and changes to the map as a whole.
The Apex monster fights are a major highlight and showcase how the monsters and the environments have been built to complement each other. Uth Duna for example as the Apex of the Scarlet Forest causes huge tidal waves as it attacks, meaning you need to hide behind rocks to resist being washed away.
Similarly, Rey Dau, Nu Udra and Jin Dahaad are utterly unique. In my earlier preview, I compared Jin Dahaad to a skeletal dragon, however, fighting it was easily one of the most unique fights in the game. Not to give away that hype, but it uses the overlapping plates on its body like cooling fins to gather moisture and expel it as frost and ice — easily the coolest monster (pun intended).
The Best The Series Has Ever Been
Monster Hunter Wilds takes what makes the series great — hunting monsters — and evolves it in almost every way. The monsters are bigger, smarter, and more varied than ever before. There’s a strong list of returning favourites and plenty of new ones to spice up hunts.
For new players, the game has never been easier to learn, and returning hunters will find lots of new mechanics and tools to sink their teeth into. It’s a wonderful adventure solo, but diving in with friends makes it even better.
Monster Hunter Wilds is the best the series has ever been, and an easy recommendation for anyone wanting to dive into this lauded franchise. So sharpen your blades and gear up, because we’re going hunting.
Quest Daily Scores Monster Hunter Wilds:
10/10
Monster Hunter Wilds releases on the 28th of February and will be available on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
A review copy of Monster Hunter Wilds was provided to Quest Daily for the purpose of this review.
