'Monster Hunter World' Overview/Review

Monster Hunter World was officially released to the public in January of 2018. It was originally only available on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but as of August 2018, it is now available to PC as well. Monster Hunter World was very popularly advertised and discussed on all platforms of social media. In the months leading up to the release, many trailers and teasers were uploaded to YouTube, and there were countless posts, discussions and debates on all things ranging from Facebook to Twitter. It completely took over the internet from December of 2017 to about March of 2018, and even now it is still extremely popular among the gaming community.

Monster Hunter World is an Action Role Playing game that features many different game modes. You can play individually (online or offline) and do any of the given quests. You can also play online with your own friends as a party. As long as all members in your party are either at the same spot in the storyline as you, or ahead of you, they can join your assigned quests and help you along the way. Finally, you are able to play with complete strangers. You can meet with other players in your online session in the Gathering Hub, where you can edit your squad sessions, accept quests, and participate in arena quests. Also inside the Gathering Hub you are able to make your character display animations like drinking, dancing, expressing emotions and many more.

The storyline of Monster Hunter is very unique, in that it includes the process of gaining your peers’ respect and trust. Most of the game revolved the process of hunting; which includes exploring, researching, fighting, capturing and killing monsters and creatures. When you start the game, you begin on a ship that is sailing to the New World. You are accompanied by many other hunters that are all different ranking from the fifth fleet. You are a particularly are an A-List hunter. Two young adults approach you, introduce themselves, express their excitement for the new world, and then ask about you. This is where you will enter the character customization screen. Here, you will edit your character however you please. You will also be able to edit your Palico; which is highly intelligent cat that will aid you on quests. After your customization, the scene cuts to one of the characters that approaches you, giving his thoughts on the New World, and why the group of hunters is settling there. Then, after the questions and theories, someone sitting at another table stands up and looks out of the window, seeming to observe the waves. After introducing herself to you, the ship begins to rumble and tip over, causing some hunters to fall on the ground. You and this woman rush outside to find a massive creature rising from the water, bringing you and the ship with it. As the ship begins to tilt up in the air, you and this mysterious hunter fall to the ground. From here, I won’t spoil anything else. You will have to experience it for yourself.

Monster Hunter World has many pros and cons. It’s a very in depth game that you can dedicate yourself to, as well as many different mechanics that can satisfy all different types of players. The weapon range is large, which can incorporate close range fighters, medium range, heavy, long range, and everything in between. It even includes a weapon that some could say has some magical properties to it. The game is extremely unique compared to all other games we have ever seen. It incorporates all different gaming styles. There is a 3rd person shooter aspect, as well as a RPG aspect, which all Monster Hunter players can appreciate. The game itself draws players in by leaving you with irritating cliffhangers, and the general curiosity after investigating interesting monsters leave players always wanting more.

As much as the game is great, it also has some downfalls. It will take up a lot of your time if you ever sit down to play it. It’s not a game you can sit and play for 30 minutes. Each quest typically has a 50 minute time limit. As you can probably infer, each quest takes some time. The average time a player spends playing this game is 2-3 hours. If you are the kind of person to really envelope themselves in a game, this is the game to do it with. Also, though the game pleases many gamer’s aesthetics, of course it won't be for everyone. It can be decently repetitive, in the usual process of discovering new monsters. The repetition might not be for everybody. Finally, the weapon range could seem unfair to some players. I personally have taken the time to see which weapons work best to defeat each creature, and there are definitely some that just don’t work. Most people who play RPG games like this find a particular weapon type and stick with it, or close to it throughout the entire storyline. Some weapons are lacking in the actual fight, while some are lacking in abilities.

When it comes to my personal opinion, I think Monster Hunter World is a game changer. Now that this one has come out, and the other Monster Hunter games that have come before it, I think there should be a lot more like it. The online multiplayer hunting game with shooter game factors is really outstanding and impressive. Monster Hunter World is almost like an advanced and perfected hunting simulator. The monsters are all extremely unique in their own ways, it’s almost impossible to describe them without giving any spoilers away. Though, a few of the creatures are different variations of the same one (For example, the Rathian/ Pink Rathian and the Rathalos/ Blue Rathalos) Finally of course, the graphics in the game are absolutely phenomenal. The detail put into things like textures, colors and animations are spectacular. When it comes to the game graphics I have absolutely no complaints.

There are a few things about the game that I don’t particularly like. For example, the story line is very flat. Its expected. The details within the storyline are very well thought out but the storyline itself does not have much of a climax or resolution. Honestly, after a specific point, the story just drops off and there's nothing left to do. There is no huge creatures to fight, and no life-altering monster to defend the Headquarters from. The leveling system is also kind of janky and unbalanced. After climbing up your rank from 0 to about 14, it jumps up about 8 levels. For no particular reason. This happens twice. Both after big bosses, but that’s no excuse to jump levels so dramatically. In my personal opinion, I think the developers had a bit of a “brain fart” and couldn’t think of a way to expand those levels through more quests. Finally, the upgrading process is flawed. Once you level up your weapon to the highest it can go in the weapon tree, you can use armor spheres to upgrade them that way. After you’ve done that, you can augment your weapon to have one specific advantage. The materials needed to upgrade your weapon in the tree are very easy to gather. You can get everything you need at any level simply by farming the animal (or replaying the quest many times to get more resources) With this system, a player at Hunter Rank (HR) 16 can have a weapon as strong as someone HR 100+.

Monster Hunter World is an amazing game that anyone can play. All kinds of gamers from all over the world, that play all different kinds of genres can find something about it to appreciate. The game is unique, different and brings a whole new aspect to gaming that the world needed to see. If the developers were to bring a major update, I would like for them to fix these flaws. With a little bit of work and testing, Monster Hunter World could be a little bit more fair to all players, of all ranks. It would be really cool for there to be more quests similar to the Final Fantasy Crossover with the Behemoth. The Behemoth features a MMORPG raid-style quest, where each hunter plays a very specific role that benefits the team as a whole. Many people that have completed the story line wonder if CAPCOM is in the process of making another game, to advance the story of Monster Hunter World. Due to the sudden drop off in the story, it would be totally reasonable to assume that the creators and developers are in the process of making a new game, that finishes the story, brings new characters, and maybe even brings some more raid-style quests to the game. Us hunters will just have to wait and see what happens!