Monster Hunter World is making waves on consoles as being the most accessible version of the game to date. Being too late to review it when I was able to afford the time and money to get a copy, I thought it best to chronicle my comical journey through the game until I complete it or get overwhelmed.
Diving right in my previous experience with Monster Hunter was the 3ds version without the camera stick attachment. It seemed interesting but was too big and too unrewarding to beginners. Getting this on PS4 I at least have trophies to aim for and a decent controller.
First things first the graphics in this game are great. It has a uniquely contradictory style. The monsters are realistic and varied yet the characters have a slight caricature quality to them a bit like Fable. So far so good I am walking in the first-person perspective through the tavern area of the ship and getting surprised at the small cat-like creatures that are serving food. I sit down before two overly enthusiastic hunters. I’d have thought they would be a bit more grizzled than this considering killing huge beasts is their past time.
I get asked my name and then I’m thrust into the character creator. Usually, I spend ages on this section but in the few years, I have had a beard this is much easier. The bottom half of my face takes care of itself now. So I’m nicely generic now and can set off on my journey. But wait I get to design my cat-like companion the Palico, and name him.
Probably about 45 min later my Palico is complete. Copied on Iago from the Alladin Disney films he is red, white and blue with evil eyes and a leather hat. I am regretting not calling him Trump. Iago and I are ready to rock when a cutscene begins and the ship and everything around is thrown into chaos. A huge lava formation rises from the water and lifts the ship into the air. Poor Iago plunges out of sight hopefully to return at a later date. My hunter guide and I run around the lava formation before I am on the beach of the brave new world without weapons. Everyone else seems calm but I have seen the box art and know there are monsters here that will eat me in seconds. It looks to be a basic safari walk around the region but already my HUD is lighting up with shiny ‘scout flies’ to show the way forward. A bigger monster attacks and in another scene I end up inside the base camp. Breathless start and much more engaging than the previous Monster Hunter I tried to play.
Inside the camp, I am hit with a massive dump of information before being reunited with my Palico Iago. Glad he survived after I spent 45 minutes creating him. I’m shown where to eat, where to get quests, the smithy for upgrading and my room where I finally get to pick a weapon to use. For a change, I pick the bow and arrow. Horizon Zero Dawn was one of my favourite games last year so it makes sense to continue the bow action. Last time I went for a generic big sword. So after a bit of strange training shooting barrels I picked up my first quest and set off to kill 5 creatures that turned out to be like raptors. I was being given hints along the way but decided to ignore most until I got to the area they were found in. Here I was expecting one arrow to the head to take one down yet on average each took about 20 arrows. I sense a need to level up. After I eventually killed them I was transported back to camp and was able to upgrade a few bits of my equipment. So far so complicated.
Straight on to the next quest with a better bow and I was feeling overconfident. I hunted males and females of a different kind of dinosaur and was expecting to be transported back when suddenly I had to track a Great Jabba or something like that. It was a giant version of the 5 yellow raptors I killed earlier. It appeared and it is no exaggeration to say it took 20 minutes of constant arrows and pursuit to take down. I almost missed the start of my work shift as there is no way to save during a quest and there was a 50 min time limit so I couldn’t just pause it as I can’t seem to find a pause button.
I’m back to camp and have even more loot that I don’t know what to do with. Taking down the great beast was exhilarating but there is much still to learn in Monster Hunter World Single Player.
Stay tuned for the next entry when I get a chance.
you can get your copy here
Monster Hunter World (PS4)
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