Seeing as this game was nominated for Game of the Year and won Best RPG, and after 300 hours of playtime, I figured it was time to give it a long overdue review.

For the tl;dr people: yeah, the game is good, but it's not for everyone. Just like anything else.

Is the game fun?

Yeah. Sometimes. The first, maybe, 30 hours is the real experience; immersive, beautiful, fun, and it's evoked a feeling in me about games I haven't felt since MGSV. With each new area and each new monster, you really feel like you're exploring and learning about the new world. It wasn't until hour 100, where I felt like the game was a chore. To sum up endgame, it's deco grinding, build optimizing, pet hunting, and fashion hunter. Although, through long sessions of grinding I get bored at times, I've yet to be burnt out on the game, so take away that this game may click with some people and won't for others. However, I will say that each new content update keeps me coming back and I play regularly (with friends and solo) so that should speak to its replayability. Combat feels fleshed out, mechanics are balanced (so long as you care to learn them), and there's great music to pair with every setting. Won't go into detail about gameplay since you'll get more mileage for that out of watching actual gameplay than me sitting here, explaining it to you.

Anything bad?

Main talking points for this question are lack of content, bugs, and Denuvo. Now, personally, I never minded the initial lack of content in comparison to the console port (even though PC took 9 months longer), as I really sympathize with the developers (even though it's Capcom). However, Capcom has really pulled through these last few months and has given us many pleasant surprises with this December packing some of the most anticipated content updates (*cough cough* Behemoth *cough cough*), and seemingly by March of next year, we'll be fully caught up to the console port (with hints to newer content on the way; game awards, they said they had something big planned ^.^). So, in its current build, this game is absolutely worth it to pick up in terms of content, especially since Christmas is around the corner. Nothing bad to note here, and I can only say that for all the people who screamed at Capcom to push out more content like it was their first born child, I hope you're happy.

Now, the game has had its faults with poor optimization, graphical errors, save file deletions, and the notorious connection drops, all of which, I've been a victim of except save data loss (I backup my saves). Sure, in the first 3 seconds that I experience these bugs I get pretty upset, but the game's just too damn great to stop playing over these inconveniences and as of late, they've mostly hashed out all the problems (at least in my case; there's still some connection drop issues from time to time, but I can attribute that to bad internet most of the time). They optimized the control scheme, such as the ranged weapon controls for keyboard and mouse, which I'm very grateful for. Hell, they even plan on adding Ultra Wide support for the game for the people who asked for it, so they're actually listening to their playerbase and addressing issues one step at a time.

And lastly, Denuvo. Not much I can argue for in favor of MHW here. Denuvo is straight trash, and even to this day, it comes up as reason to give this game a bad review (I can see why, but at the same time I don't). Capcom has removed Denuvo from games before, but not anything recent to my knowledge, so even though MHW has recently been cracked, I don't see it going away anytime soon. However, this still doesn't deter me from playing it. Yeah, it would play better without Denuvo, but the benefits and my enjoyment far outweigh the cost of Denuvo so I couldn't care less.

Returning MonHun fan?

Personally, I haven't played much of the previous iterations of MonHun except a very short stint with Generations, so take this with a grain of salt.

The game is different. Some things are good like no more loading times when traveling from section to section in maps during a hunt, but then there are other things that people will argue as either hand-holding or good game design. These things are like the fact that you can fast travel back to camp instead of running all the way back, or the fact that you can sometimes spawn away from camp in high rank instead of always. In some ways, yes the game does hold your hand a lot, but at the same time, it also makes the game more fluid in terms of its gameplay so take that for what you will. Other changes could be in features and meta; there's no more charm tables and instead it's deco farming, GS meta is TCS now and it works differently, new LS mechanics, etc. But, all I can say is, don't be a meta slave and don't be a baby. The game is balanced enough to where pretty much anything is viable (I main capture net). But, if you can't get over these changes because you're too attached to the old MonHun, then I'm very sorry for you, but this probably isn't your game so do the research before buying.

Happy hunting!

Seeing as this game was nominated for Game of the Year and won Best RPG, and after 300 hours of playtime, I figured it was time to give it a long overdue review. For the tl;dr people: yeah, the game is good, but it's not for everyone. Just like anything else. Is the game fun? Yeah. Sometimes. The first, maybe, 30 hours is the real experience; immersive, beautiful, fun, and it's evoked a feeling in me about games I haven't felt since MGSV. With each new area and each new monster, you really feel like you're exploring and learning about the new world. It wasn't until hour 100, where I felt like the game was a chore. To sum up endgame, it's deco grinding, build optimizing, pet hunting, and fashion hunter. Although, through long sessions of grinding I get bored at times, I've yet to be burnt out on the game, so take away that this game may click with some people and won't for others. However, I will say that each new content update keeps me coming back and I play regularly (with friends and solo) so that should speak to its replayability. Combat feels fleshed out, mechanics are balanced (so long as you care to learn them), and there's great music to pair with every setting. Won't go into detail about gameplay since you'll get more mileage for that out of watching actual gameplay than me sitting here, explaining it to you. Anything bad? Main talking points for this question are lack of content, bugs, and Denuvo. Now, personally, I never minded the initial lack of content in comparison to the console port (even though PC took 9 months longer), as I really sympathize with the developers (even though it's Capcom). However, Capcom has really pulled through these last few months and has given us many pleasant surprises with this December packing some of the most anticipated content updates (*cough cough* Behemoth *cough cough*), and seemingly by March of next year, we'll be fully caught up to the console port (with hints to newer content on the way; game awards, they said they had something big planned ^.^). So, in its current build, this game is absolutely worth it to pick up in terms of content, especially since Christmas is around the corner. Nothing bad to note here, and I can only say that for all the people who screamed at Capcom to push out more content like it was their first born child, I hope you're happy. Now, the game has had its faults with poor optimization, graphical errors, save file deletions, and the notorious connection drops, all of which, I've been a victim of except save data loss (I backup my saves). Sure, in the first 3 seconds that I experience these bugs I get pretty upset, but the game's just too damn great to stop playing over these inconveniences and as of late, they've mostly hashed out all the problems (at least in my case; there's still some connection drop issues from time to time, but I can attribute that to bad internet most of the time). They optimized the control scheme, such as the ranged weapon controls for keyboard and mouse, which I'm very grateful for. Hell, they even plan on adding Ultra Wide support for the game for the people who asked for it, so they're actually listening to their playerbase and addressing issues one step at a time. And lastly, Denuvo. Not much I can argue for in favor of MHW here. Denuvo is straight trash, and even to this day, it comes up as reason to give this game a bad review (I can see why, but at the same time I don't). Capcom has removed Denuvo from games before, but not anything recent to my knowledge, so even though MHW has recently been cracked, I don't see it going away anytime soon. However, this still doesn't deter me from playing it. Yeah, it would play better without Denuvo, but the benefits and my enjoyment far outweigh the cost of Denuvo so I couldn't care less. Returning MonHun fan? Personally, I haven't played much of the previous iterations of MonHun except a very short stint with Generations, so take this with a grain of salt. The game is different. Some things are good like no more loading times when traveling from section to section in maps during a hunt, but then there are other things that people will argue as either hand-holding or good game design. These things are like the fact that you can fast travel back to camp instead of running all the way back, or the fact that you can sometimes spawn away from camp in high rank instead of always. In some ways, yes the game does hold your hand a lot, but at the same time, it also makes the game more fluid in terms of its gameplay so take that for what you will. Other changes could be in features and meta; there's no more charm tables and instead it's deco farming, GS meta is TCS now and it works differently, new LS mechanics, etc. But, all I can say is, don't be a meta slave and don't be a baby. The game is balanced enough to where pretty much anything is viable (I main capture net). But, if you can't get over these changes because you're too attached to the old MonHun, then I'm very sorry for you, but this probably isn't your game so do the research before buying. Happy hunting!