Ever since I picked up a copy of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for the Wii U in a desperate attempt to get a game for the system that didn't suck, I've been hooked on the series. This is a franchise that, historically, will take you on an adventure, obfuscate a ton of things that are probably vital information, and, most importantly, ask you to take down giant monsters with comically-oversized weapons so you can make armor and more weapons from their corpses. It turns out that the name is a bit on the nose, you could say. And then comes World, the black sheep of the family and the most polarizing member of the whole shebang. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

In Monster Hunter, the player's job is to... hunt monsters. Big surprise there. Choosing from an arsenal of 14 different weapons, each with their own crafting trees to explore, the job has a few core tenants. First, scouting the area is important, both to find your quarry and see what parts of the environment you can use to your advantage later. On top of that, natural resources are important for your continued progression, and should be harvested when possible. Next comes the actual hunting part, as you go toe to toe with a motley assortment of beasts ranging from "somewhat oversized iguana" to "a veritable mountain that threatens to eradicate all life in the world". Yeah. Power creep's pretty high, but the game starts you out small and makes you scale up slowly (sometimes a bit too slowly, honestly). Rarely will you feel out of your depth, even if you might have to look for some guidance every now and then.

The biggest selling point of World, in my opinion, is the improved combat system. Monster Hunter has always felt a bit... clunky. And while that was its signature style, going to World just feels like such a breath of fresh air. There's a freedom of movement that feels so liberating, like you're an actual person and not an entity locked into place while performing a variety of actions. The addition of the Slinger and grappling capability have made delivering payloads like incapacitating Flash Bombs more streamlined, but now the monsters are a bit smarter about things and eventually learn to close their eyes (or something) at higher tiers. Damage numbers are a nice quality of life feature, even if I turned them off once I got more comfortable with the weapons' rebalancing, and so many tactics that you used to just have to know ("Hit Rathian in the face") feel less like hidden stratagems and more like things you can learn through natural experimentation. Most importantly, though, with a mouse and keyboard, using a ranged weapon no longer feels like hot garbage (although it's still a little clunky).

Capcom's MonHun team have also been hard at work adding more value to this game ever since it launched. Much like on the console versions, it feels like every single month adds something new, whether it's a monster, new sets of armor, a limited-time festival, or all of the above. This all comes completely free of cost to all owners, allowing everybody to stay on the same playing field, and makes it sting a little less when it was announced that the "G rank" equivalent (effectively a ton more content, and traditionally a seperate game entirely for this series) would be a paid DLC this time around not too far back. This has given it a lot of additional mileage in my book, and I keep coming back to World to check out the new content despite being technically "done" with it in record time for a game in the series.

No game is without flaw, however, and World has one or two, especially if you're a returning fan. It's incredibly obvious that the series moving to an entirely new engine meant that all work had to be thrown out and done from scratch, and so a lot of fan-favorite monsters didn't make it back, at least not yet (but despite this, we have enough room for 4 variants on the same skeleton in the form of Rathian, Rathalos, and their variants...). Each of World's existing monsters stands out on their own decently, but without classics like Nargacuga, Tigrex, or Zinogre, the game feels like it's missing some important icons that would look amazing in "true" HD. Furthermore, there are several points where the game is clearly just throwing busy work at you to pad it out, whether it be needing to grind Hunter Rank to get the "real" end-game quests unlocked (more egregiously than the series usually resorts to, at least), a multitude of quests which seem to exist just to show off a monster you'll have to fight on the next one, or (and this one is the most egregious) a point where you have to goof around doing other quests for a while while marking tracks for unknown monsters in order to unlock the last few you'll need to complete the game by fighting the ultimate big bad.

If this giant wall of text has scared you, here's my summary: Monster Hunter World is the perfect way to get into Monster Hunter as a series, especially if you've been turned off in the past by how esoteric it is. While it makes me somewhat anxious that Capcom may simplify the formula down more further down the line, World effectively acts like a much-needed booster shot of modernization, a teaspoon of bitter medicine that many fans may just need to swallow. It's become one of my go-to "Do you have this yet?" games to suggest for co-op, and the only reason I don't have more hours is because the back half of the year had so many excellent releases I needed to play as well.

Plus, you know, there's still Generations Ultimate on the Switch if you like the old formula more.

Ever since I picked up a copy of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for the Wii U in a desperate attempt to get a game for the system that didn't suck, I've been hooked on the series. This is a franchise that, historically, will take you on an adventure, obfuscate a ton of things that are probably vital information, and, most importantly, ask you to take down giant monsters with comically-oversized weapons so you can make armor and more weapons from their corpses. It turns out that the name is a bit on the nose, you could say. And then comes World, the black sheep of the family and the most polarizing member of the whole shebang. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. In Monster Hunter, the player's job is to... hunt monsters. Big surprise there. Choosing from an arsenal of 14 different weapons, each with their own crafting trees to explore, the job has a few core tenants. First, scouting the area is important, both to find your quarry and see what parts of the environment you can use to your advantage later. On top of that, natural resources are important for your continued progression, and should be harvested when possible. Next comes the actual [i]hunting[/i] part, as you go toe to toe with a motley assortment of beasts ranging from "somewhat oversized iguana" to "a veritable mountain that threatens to eradicate all life in the world". Yeah. Power creep's pretty high, but the game starts you out small and makes you scale up slowly (sometimes a bit too slowly, honestly). Rarely will you feel out of your depth, even if you might have to look for some guidance every now and then. The biggest selling point of World, in my opinion, is the improved combat system. Monster Hunter has always felt a bit... clunky. And while that was its signature style, going to World just feels like such a breath of fresh air. There's a freedom of movement that feels so liberating, like you're an actual person and not an entity locked into place while performing a variety of actions. The addition of the Slinger and grappling capability have made delivering payloads like incapacitating Flash Bombs more streamlined, but now the monsters are a bit smarter about things and eventually learn to close their eyes (or something) at higher tiers. Damage numbers are a nice quality of life feature, even if I turned them off once I got more comfortable with the weapons' rebalancing, and so many tactics that you used to just have to know ("Hit Rathian in the face") feel less like hidden stratagems and more like things you can learn through natural experimentation. Most importantly, though, with a mouse and keyboard, using a ranged weapon no longer feels like hot garbage (although it's still a little clunky). Capcom's MonHun team have also been hard at work adding more value to this game ever since it launched. Much like on the console versions, it feels like every single month adds something new, whether it's a monster, new sets of armor, a limited-time festival, or all of the above. This all comes completely free of cost to all owners, allowing everybody to stay on the same playing field, and makes it sting a little less when it was announced that the "G rank" equivalent (effectively a ton more content, and traditionally a seperate game entirely for this series) would be a paid DLC this time around not too far back. This has given it a lot of additional mileage in my book, and I keep coming back to World to check out the new content despite being technically "done" with it in record time for a game in the series. No game is without flaw, however, and World has one or two, especially if you're a returning fan. It's incredibly obvious that the series moving to an entirely new engine meant that all work had to be thrown out and done from scratch, and so a lot of fan-favorite monsters didn't make it back, at least not yet (but despite this, we have enough room for 4 variants on the same skeleton in the form of Rathian, Rathalos, and their variants...). Each of World's existing monsters stands out on their own decently, but without classics like Nargacuga, Tigrex, or Zinogre, the game feels like it's missing some important icons that would look amazing in "true" HD. Furthermore, there are several points where the game is clearly just throwing busy work at you to pad it out, whether it be needing to grind Hunter Rank to get the "real" end-game quests unlocked (more egregiously than the series usually resorts to, at least), a multitude of quests which seem to exist just to show off a monster you'll have to fight on the next one, or (and this one is the most egregious) a point where you have to goof around doing other quests for a while while marking tracks for unknown monsters in order to unlock the last few you'll need to complete the game by fighting the ultimate big bad. If this giant wall of text has scared you, here's my summary: Monster Hunter World is the perfect way to get into Monster Hunter as a series, especially if you've been turned off in the past by how esoteric it is. While it makes me somewhat anxious that Capcom may simplify the formula down more further down the line, World effectively acts like a much-needed booster shot of modernization, a teaspoon of bitter medicine that many fans may just need to swallow. It's become one of my go-to "Do you have this yet?" games to suggest for co-op, and the only reason I don't have more hours is because the back half of the year had so many excellent releases I needed to play as well. Plus, you know, there's still Generations Ultimate on the Switch if you like the old formula more.