Recent reviews by Delrith

I love Monster Hunter. I have 3000+ hours across the recent titles. I played World/Iceborne on Playstation and then PC over again when the PC versions launched. I did the same for Rise/Sunbreak.

I want to preface that I've finished the main story & beaten every monster the game has to offer.

This game, wholeheartedly, is a downgrade in almost every aspect when compared to the previous titles. It's "OK" - but there's a lot of things that are just... bad decisions. They'll sell "fixes" through an expansion, like they did with Rise, but it's still NOT GOOD in the current state.

We lost SO many quality of life changes.
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Graphical downgrade and terrible optimization. The game looks brown. Everything looks brown. There's filters/settings enabled that just makes it look *bad* - Sometimes, like in the lush forest, it looks incredible when the fog is off... but everywhere else it looks washed out. The FPS is awful (There's a typo in the config file you can fix to add a little more) and you will struggle to get over 60 FPS on average/decent computers.

No idea what happened in testing.

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Multiplayer is terribly implemented. There's lobbies, link parties, environment links, and a billion other things you need to juggle just to play with people. We seriously went from >make lobby >join lobby >post quests and play... to whatever this is. Even if you're IN THE ENVIRONMENT LINK WITH FRIENDS you still get disconnected sometimes after defeating a single monster. It makes no sense.

You're forced into 'cutscene gates' where you can't do things with people until you see certain things.. something that was FIXED in World because it was SO HATED AND ANNOYING. It's back! Playing with friends is ROUGH until you're at the end of the game.

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The game is incredibly theme-parky and ACTIVELY DISCOURAGES exploration. You are tethered to certain areas while doing any story mode missions. World encouraged vertical exploration and players to go around on their own, but on here everything is listed, shown, and auto-pathed to by your mount.

There is no central hub, so it feels like you're constantly jumping around "exhibits" to find NPC's, quests, turn things in, and do whatever. It's very broken up, sparse, and feels incredibly clunky and jarring to navigate compared to the previous two titles (and even older ones). I guess they're adding a central hub eventually but didn't have enough time? Sucks.

It feels like they took Frontiers and mutilated it, trying to have an "MMO FEEL" without any MMO mechanics. I cannot tell you the number of times I've had to look everywhere to find where to turn in quests.

Even things like MAP MARKERS for camps are buried by other markers IN CAMPS and they're really difficult to see/fast travel to. The way the list of camps were shown in World made it *brain dead easy* to find... How did we go to this?

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The story is very bland. I'd even say that it's awful. I won't go into spoilers or specifics, but there's absolutely no "big catastrophe" you're trying to avert or anything major that's being built up to.

Most of the dialogue is patronizing, condescending, or very "life is special" - and it just rings really hokey. There's also not even a dragonator anywhere in the entire game. I'd put it on the same level as "base" Rise's story, which says a lot.

There's very few memorable characters, moments, or anything along those lines. Part of what makes some of the story of the previous titles so good is how extra and over the top some of the characters are. Again, no dragonator moments.

It can also be completed in less than 10 hours without rushing. It just kinda.. ends.

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The experience feels soulless. I dunno how else to put it other than feeling like nothing is inspired, and more like everything was "lets do this again" in Wilds. It feels like there was no vision beyond "Make another World game" and Capcom executives yelling at the developers to do so. The phrase I've heard a LOT of friends using (who are veterans of MH far longer than I am, since the original) is that it feels *incredibly* corporate.

You kinda just get it as a vibe. As you play through, the longer you play through, you'll understand what I mean.

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Monster variety is very limited, and there's nothing really "stand out". Even the flagship monster is uninspired compared to previous title flagship monsters. Going through the entire game, killing every single monster available, I cannot think of a single one that impressed me or made me go "woah" on the same level of things like Vaal Hazak, Velkhana, Malzeno, Xeno'Jiiva, etc had to offer. It feels like you're fighting three archetypes the entire game.

A lot of monsters are repeats from previous games, including the movesets and skeletons (which have been used on a few of the new ones), which is a bit disappointing considering how few actually exist.

I'm actually worried about future content because most of the announced monsters are just filler/mid tier monsters... and the game's already done. The escalation wont be there unless they add things like Alatreon, etc, alongside smaller threats.

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There's no endgame. You farm two or three tempered monsters at the end and that's it. There's no carrot on a stick to pursue and you'll be done as a dedicated player within a few days. I won't go into extreme detail but yeah, nada.

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Decorations are really weird now. Most attack based ones can only be put on weapons (Such as ballistics, etc), which means only 3 slot weapons can fit them. Three slot slots on armor/etc CANNOT wear the same decorations as weapons. This severely limits builds. Most armor sets also are just *incredibly* lackluster when it comes to skills provided.

I get this limits player power but.. it just feels really clunky on how they did it.

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The entire new wound system is just clutch claw from Iceborne but way more auto-pilot. You do huge amounts of damage while wounding, get free materials, and CONSTANTLY KNOCK DOWN MONSTERS from applying wounds. There's fights you're going to do later once you're geared where monsters cannot get up off of the ground.

People complained about the clutch-claw gameplay and this is just the exact thing.. but WAY more overtuned and broken. Even the hardest monsters the game has to offer kinda get destroyed by any sort of wound mechanic.

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The food system is a downgrade. I get what they were going for but in simplifying it they've made it kinda awful. Getting materials sucks, the stores that sell/offer ingredients only seem to give you rations, and the bonuses from food are lackluster. We went from having major defense up, attack up, ammo conservation, and all these other awesome things to just basic buffs.

NOT TO MENTION THERE'S NO PALICO CUTSCENES FOR FOOD COOKING. RIP Grandma food cat.

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The camera is awful. Monsters are bigger than your screen and tracking is bad. Can't count the number of times later that bigger monsters are just 95% of your screen and you can't see what they're doing fast enough. Even at max zoom/focus it's a downgrade from World.

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I *want* this game to be better than it is and I know they'll make it better in the future, but man, I wouldn't be surprised if I see lots of people going back to play World/Iceborne after a couple of weeks of Wilds.

Monster Hunter fans will still find enjoyment in the game but the entire way through you'll probably be thinking "I miss this" or "This is clunky" or "This was done better" - and that's just sad to me.

I don't feel it's worth it right now. It feels extremely lackluster for the price point.

I did a review on Shadowkeep and gave it a 6/10 at launch on the AJS - it was widely accepted by people as a "very shallow" expansion but it was excused by the Activision split.

SK was very lackluster without a lot of content (<5 hours of unique stuff at launch) and had you going through the same motions you always have. Grind soft cap - do same old strikes, etc - repeat. It got old fast.

Beyond Light could've been so much better if they had focused *hard* on innovating - but I genuinely feel like I'm playing through Shadowkeep again with ice instead of the moon. I've completed all the quest lines and I'm currently pushing to "hard cap" before pinnacles - and it's boggling how "samey" it feels.

You get a new strike - a few lost sectors - copy pasted (for the most part) public events from previous planets.. and that's about it. Sure there's a raid coming in two weeks or so but that's always been the case.

This is exceptionally awful because they REMOVED far more content than was added and really crippled the non-expansion players.

The new subclasses don't drastically change the game with most of the features for them planned for later in the expansion. Neat concept but poor execution.

All in all it just feels stagnant. It doesn't seem like the game moved forward in any sense of the word - just laterally. I want to love Destiny 2 but if this is the *best* Bungie can do on their own then I don't know anymore. It's a far cry from what Forsaken was, for example, and I don't see it adding anything super appealing in the next few months to keep very many people around. It feels like a "chore" simulator now rather than a unique experience to play through.

I'm just so tired of doing bounties & grinding with the story ending so quickly every expansion and every season reset.

5/10

Even with the server problems aside there are still a lot of major bugs and issues that currently make the game a bit miserable to play through.

Things like

-Stash deletion
-Character deletion
-Hitbox problems/issues
-Audio and memory leak problems (Audio just cuts out completely)
-Crashes
-Quest bugs (Doors don't open)

Random other assorted stuff happened too - but the primary take away is that a lot of these issues were reported 6+ months ago and were not addressed.

You can still find instances of people having stashes deleted on the forums from 7 months ago. That's crazy.

Probably should've waited another month or.. twelve.. before releasing.

Looking for some hot helicopter dating action?

LOOK NO FURTHER

This game is sure to scratch all of those freakish perversions you have related to helicopter-based-fantasies rattling around in your brain.

I'm not sure if it was through some sort of subliminal messaging throughout my play but in the end I started to think that some helicopters were kinda attractive.

If you're into helicopters or not into helicopters in any way shape or form I can still recommend that you play this game because honestly Democracy is great. So. Much. Democracy. Everywhere.

2/10

Not enough rolling.

It's the same game from the first mission to the final mission.

They couldn't be bothered to design custom missions for most of the maps.

This game actually hurt to finish.

I wish I could refund. I do not suggest you buy this, save yourself from the brain damage.

Quick and short review.

Game looks absolutely stunning on ultra.
Game runs well most of the time on most PC's.
Game has a good progression system and interesting mechanics.
Game is stable without a lot of crashes.
Game provides an extremely fun environment for friends on private/hosted servers.
Developers are applying quite a few patches and making major changes to important things people have issues with.

It's got a few minor problems but the developers seem to be fixing them and listening to feedback. The vast majority of negative reviews seem to be focused around the official servers clearing things after a few days.

Seems entirely reasonable for them to do that. There's something like 10,000 unofficial servers for people to use if they're wanting a different experience.

Personally I think it's fantastic for 30 dollars. Far better than a lot of other things out lately. I'd buy it if you enjoyed ARK but want decent FPS and a fantasy setting.

First off I'd like to state that I was given a press copy and have played this game *extensively* - About 20ish hours in the first playthrough of NG. I've also got a LOT of experience with 'Soulslike' games and have even done things like SL1 runs in DS and NG+7 on Bloodborne.



I'm straight out listing this game as a 4/10 before I start. I do not suggest buying it in the current state it is in.



I've already done a full 'spoken' review of the game after streaming it from start to finish. You can find that here if you'd prefer a verbal review. - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/144223702


I'm going to do this with bullet points listing pros and cons. We're going to start with the positives of the game.

PROS
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-The game is visually appealing and retains high graphical quality. The character especially looks fantastic when you're plowing through in power armor. A lot of the weapons are also extremely attractive to look at.

-It has a great concept. The idea of 'futurey sci-fi Darksouls' is an appealing one. The idea of it involving exosuits is even cooler.

-It appeals to anyone who particularly enjoys grinding for long periods of time without progression. It's an extremely grindy game.

-It has SOME BASIC concepts of combat that are enjoyable for a little while. The game feels good for about three hours.

-SOME of the story/lore objects are interesting to listen to and establish a 'basic' understanding of the universe. I liked what little I got.


That's where the positives end. The negatives are staggering so bare with me.


CONS
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-The combat is extremely clunky. Combos have 'queue' systems which results in you doing things you didn't intend to do. You cannot cancel combo chains. Anything heavy takes quite some time to use/swing and it results in you doing quite a few 'single strike' attacks. Multiple enemies are not limited to the same clunky mechanics. A lot of them have almost instantaneous-instadeath attacks.

-Enemies have hyper armor. Most enemies can straight up ignore any assault you're delivering to them due to a game mechanic called "impact". This mechanic makes most light and quick weapons useless as you CANNOT trade with enemies effectively. Even the most powerful weapons in the game do not stagger throughout combos and results in you being struck repeatedly. Enemies, even weaker ones, will power through your attacks and royally kick your butt. This applies to EVERY enemy.

-Deaths feel cheated due to 'cheesy' mechanics. A lot of the time you die you'll feel as if it was cheaty. A lot of enemy 'downtimes' are bugged right now which results in them IMMEDIATELY recovering from a stagger or attack. This 'hyperarmor' results in you dying a lot more than you should and makes you feel underpowered in almost every situation early on. A lot of the enemy types have lunges which TRACK MID AIR and deal 120+ damage which results in an almost instantaneous death at any point. These enemies are common throughout the entire game.

-The game has no real 'story' or objectives. There's no guidance. There's no cutscenes. There's no waypoint system. You will spend a LOT of time wandering around wondering what is going on. You will never have the answers to who you are or why you're in the facility. You will never see ANY sort of change in the main game based on helping people out or doing bonus side quests. A lot of time will be spent running back and forth trying to find an unlisted objective you need to progress. The ending is not satisfying at all.

-Leveling up virtually does nothing. It's almost impossible to 'power up' in an area you're having issues with. If you're having issues fighting in an area you CANNOT increase your power through means of leveling. Upgrading your power core does not increase your strength, stats, health, or damage. This results in a 'hitting a wall' feeling in some areas and forces you to skip large packs of enemies. Gear progression is gated. This also means you CANNOT specialize in one type of weapon to make it better with stats.

-There is only really one 'viable' way to fight each enemy. Trying to do combos or trading blows will result in your death. The majority of my entire playthrough (Through sheer death) was nothing but dash-attacks then dodging out as getting hit was bad. I couldn't use any of the neat combos that a lot of the weapons had simply because you were punished FAAAAR too hard for doing so.

-The grind is not justified. It is not worth it. There's not much to say here. You get tier 6 things in NG+ if you play it so everything is invalidated. You'll spend hours killing one set of mobs for specific things only to find out that the bonus is garbage and the set is not that good.

-Level design is EXTREMELY repetitive. There are only six real levels throughout the entire game. SIX LEVELS WITH BACKTRACKING. Same hallways. Same corridors. Same walls. Same enemies. Same pretty much everything (until the end, it's kinda cool)

-There is a LOT of backtracking and running. You will be running back from death a LOT. There is no fast travel mechanic. There is no homeward bone. Tech scrap (souls) have a preset timer you have to beat to get back to them or they vanish. You will spend literal hours by the end of the game simply running back after deaths. Shortcuts help but it is still an immense flaw in the game's design. It's not fun. There are also containers at the BEGINNING OF THE GAME which require absurd power core levels to open that you will have to travel back to later. Again, more backtracking.

-The 'bonfire' system is flawed. There is only one per level and there is no way to immediately travel back and store your 'souls'. This is an immense annoyance throughout the game. You never really get a 'checkpoint' through levels that take quite some time to go through. Dark Souls got it right with pacing and a lot of the time you had moments of rest when needed.. this gives no such relief.

-There are only five bosses in the entire game. Five. Bosses. One of them is pretty much a repeat of another one. Their last game LORDS OF THE FALLEN had 11, I believe? This is a complete step backwards. Also, none of them are particularly unique or interesting.

-The boss weapon mechanic is awful and there are no savefiles to remedy a screwup. Bosses drop a specific unique weapon when they die. This weapon can be awful if you don't do a 'specific' challenge during the fight to power it up. There's no way to re-do this to get the better weapon unless you start a new game. There are no save files. You cannot repeat bosses if you make a mistake. Most players will not know that this is even the case.. and you will not want to do NG+ in most cases.

-Weapon proficiency hurts the game. It's similar to an MMO mechanic which serves no purpose. This stat invalidates most of the weapons the player can use from being useful. You have to spend hours killing enemies to 'level up' a proficiency (staves, single rigged, dual rigged, one handed, heavy weapon) to make them viable. If you get a great weapon from a boss but you haven't used that 'type' the entire game: it will be garbage. Later on grinding proficiency is terrible as enemies have a LOT of armor and unleveled proficiencies cannot hurt or damage them enough. It's an MMO mechanic that was not good for this game at all.


.... Honestly I could nitpick and explain a lot more in detail but I don't really see the need.

This was a step backwards in my opinion from Lords of the Fallen. I believe a lot of 'reviews' and 'impressions' have only seen the first few hours of the game. It takes a nosedive after the first few hours straight into the ground.

It tries far too hard to copy Dark Souls in some ways and the game suffers because of it.

Again, 4/10 - do not buy full price. Go play Lords of the Fallen by this company for 10 bucks.

Don't be fooled by the reviews and scores, this game is not worth the 22 dollars that you will pay for it.

The actual content lasted less than two hours and the 'endless mode' is sort of a joke for the money you pay.

Although innovative and an interesting concept, this falls extremely short of what 25 dollars should get you in this day and age.

Actually, I think I saw Witcher 3 for 25 dollars a few days ago, go buy that instead on GMG

It's AT MOST only worth about 15 dollars for what currently is in it.

Pulsar Lost Colony has a strong foundation but is generally empty and shallow compared to what they're claiming should be in the game at this point.

Now don't get wrong, it's not a terrible game - but it's definitely at this point not worth the 25.00 you pay for it.

The AI is completely broken still, you're incapable of capturing multiple ships and there's a LOT of bugs with creatures/npc's/stations/bases.

As well the game is extremely repetitive and the majority of planets you visit are copy pasted. In the three hours I played I visited 4 desert planets and 3 frozen planets - all of which with repeated terrain and base layouts.

The combat is also the same each and every fight - you circle your opponent and shoot them until one of you dies.

Boarding is pointless - since you cant have multiple ships there's really no point to ever going onto the enemy ship. Upgrades are fairly easy to get within the first hour of the game, so that is also an issue.

Overall it's not a great game - I'd give it a 5 - as of right now it needs a lot of work and I would not suggest buying it for 25 dollars.

Sorry!