Genre: Action RPG | Score: +++ Highly Recommend

                  ᐁ ᐁ ᐁ full review below ᐁ ᐁ ᐁ

Monster Hunter World has been around for a while now on PC (and even longer on consoles) but with a new incoming expansion (Iceborne) and the price dropping I thought a review might help some people decide if the game was for them.

The player take the role of a hunter recruited by the 5th fleet, and aided by a handler and a trusty Palico assistant (basically a little cat helper). You are tasked by The Research Commission to travel to the New World to study the activities of Elder Dragons (tremendously powerful monsters on a truly massive scale). Character customisation is good with lots of options and you can even customise your Palico.

The game may appear a little complex at first but once you have played for a while the basics will become very familiar. The formula is essentially this:

• - Obtain a quest from the mission board in the Headquarters, these will typically be to either kill or capture a large monster, kill a number of smaller monsters or collect a number of items around the map.
  
  
• - Optionally stock up on items that will aid you on the hunt and have a meal that will boost your stats.
  
  
• - Gather up your party or head off solo to the area on the map the quest is set in.
  
  
• - Use your scout flies to find the monsters tracks and follow them until you find the monster
  
  
• - Batter the monster over the head (or weakspot) with your oversized weapon until they die or run away. If they run away repeat the step above.
  
  
• - Harvest the monster for materials which can be used back at the Forge to make better armour and weapons.

Capturing monsters involves creating traps and tranquillisers, damaging a monster sufficiently (until they are limping and low health), luring the monster into the trap and then using the tranquillisers to knock it unconscious. This can be done on both capture and hunt quests.

Large monsters are pretty varied and will change depending on the area of map your in - Giant lizards (Jagras), Fire breathing T-Rexs (Anjanath), Giant electric squirrels (Tobi-kadachi), Dragons (Rathian), Inflatable Albino bats (Paolumu) to list just a few you will meet at the start (there are many many more). The more you track a monster the more info you will find out about them (information becomes available in your monster field guide), each has its own set of weak spots and each has its own set of resistances and vulnerabilities. To be most effective, hunters should use appropriate equipment for the monster they are going to battle. (for example having armour that is highly resistant to fire and a weapon that deals water damage when facing the fire breathing Anjanath)

Map areas are grouped by biome (Ancient Forest, Desert, a Cora landscape, etc) and each have a very different aesthetic, plants and wildlife. Bugs an smaller creatures can be caught in your net to craft potions or items later, some can even be kept as pets in your room. Mushrooms, seeds and plants can be harvested, you can catch fish with your net or rod and bait, you can explore and find quests, new campsites and hidden areas. Each location is made up of a number of different zones seamlessly connected together and which you can travel between and explore freely. Levels have quite a lot of verticality and complexity and I often times find myself getting turned around or lost (but perhaps that's just me!)

There are 14 main weapon types in the game each with their own style and abilities, each of these types then has many different variants which can be crafted using materials collected and harvested during missions. There is also huge array of different armour (for you and your Palico) which can be crafted at the forge, each has its own set of armour values, elemental resistances and bonuses, as you progress through the game and fight more monsters more of these armour sets and weapons will become available. I would recommend testing out the different weapons in the sparing area until you find one that suites your playstyle (also don't be afraid of swapping around either).

I've given you some of basics but its really only scratching the surface, this game has a massive depth to it which really helps considering a few of its flaws. The Grind, you will in Monster Hunter World need to fight the same type of monsters quite a number of times before you are able to progress onto a stronger monster (especially if solo). This is to increase your hunters level and also to gather the required materials to craft new sets of armour, weapons and items you will need against stronger foes.

Until you learn a monsters attack pattern you may well have a hard time avoiding attacks which can be powerful (rage attacks) with certain monsters and cause you to faint (sometimes in one hit if under geared and under powered). Due to the way this works this can sometimes create something of a progress wall (my first was the Anjanath) where you feel overpowered against the weaker monsters but get utterly trashed by the stronger ones. If you meet one of these either find a good team to support you or upgrade your equipment to best suit the fight and learn the attack pattern, you will get through eventually!

Graphics are good, even better with the free HD texture pack, I would recommend using reshade (guides are available) if colours are a little washed out, that and turning off motion blur. Lip syncing in cut scenes for English is absurd but easily overlooked.

Playing a mission in 4 player coop (max 16 in session, max 4 per mission) is a lot of fun, and I would recommend coop as the way to play the game, however there is an issue with coop and the story campaign. For some reason (best known to themselves) Capcom require players to first play a story mission through until the end of the cut sequences / start of the battle before other players can join them in coop. This often means to play a story mission coop you need all players to start the quest, play until the battle, abandon the quest and then restart in coop mode, its quite absurd but possible to work around.

However story missions are only part of the game and arena quests, optional quests, events and investigations do not have this issue. In addition to quests you can free roam the different biomes in expedition mode, but to do this in coop you first need to complete a quest with your team and all select return to camp.

Well done if you've managed to read this far, honestly there is so much more I haven't covered in this review and more still I have yet to explore in the game but I hope this review has given you a feel for the game and some of the basics. Despite a few flaws this game remains a thoroughly enjoyable experience, particularly for coop play and I would highly recommend it.

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