176.3 hours played
Written 2 days ago
I suspect that alot of people looking at this are either avoiding Wilds because of the review bombing or are looking to to try other games in the series out.
The TL;DR - Worlds is a great game and more likely to resonate with those who started playing the later titles (Rise/Subreak/Wilds) - Just make sure you get Iceborne and just play through the game blind (as in avoid trawling old forums and 5+ year old youtubes) for the proper experience. You should largely have a good time, though you'll certainly notice the missing quality of life features from other titles, as well as a clunkier combat system and the difficulty spike of some monsters in IB compared to contemporary titles.
Long Essay Review -
I played 3U and 4U but never really "got" MH games until a couple of years ago. Worlds was my third attempt to get into Monster Hunter but as a casual fan I joined it quite late only playing it on and off for 100 or so hours - and even then with Rise having already been released and getting its Sunbreak expansion I was basically playing solo. Wilds therefore is my first "from day 1" MH title but like many I'm not enjoying the current lack of content so I've jumped back to my old save in Worlds/IB until it fills up, at time of writing the TU2 showcase is scheduled to occur - here's hoping.
Good Bits of Worlds:
Worlds (with Iceborne) is a very rich game in terms of variety, grind, exploration and gameplay loops. Visually it still stands up pretty well (though I recommend using Reshade settings, sharpening, toning down volumetric fog and use widescreen mods) and it runs quite well (in terms of FPS and stability) as time has allowed the game to be optimised and hardware get faster since initial release. The roster of monsters is significant if you include variants as being unique specimens rather than re-skin clones. Mean-whilst the story is...there I suppose but that's not really what people come here for. It's voice acted to a reasonable level, is dubious in its moral message, and it has characters but really you won't find yourself caring too much about them as they don't ever help you out on missions anyway. At least nearly every mission is a new monster, and with a roster of 71 of them it's not like you're short of options or things to do. The world itself does feel quite large, and there's some fun to be had running around and exploring the maps to find new locations or the different hunter-helpers.
Worlds also has a boatload of side content too; investigations, capturing monsters to then fight them in an arena, side missions, a slot machine minigame (steam works) and a long ass end game grind for "Best" everything from mantle/flare upgrades (through investigations) to faction reputation (for trailriders), to weaponry (Safi'jiiva - if you find other people to do it with) and decorations (largely RNG). It also has some absolute top-quality collaboration content with Final Fantasy and The Witcher, which, if you can get people to do it with (FFXIV) is top notch imo.
It is for all lack of descriptors "A good game" and "Fun." Doubly so if you can get cheap in a sale.
Worlds vs Wilds:
If you've only really played Wilds you may find things to be "the same but different" here. First off think along the lines of playing older souls-bourne titles compared to Elden Ring and you get the picture - little changes and tweaks make later games feel and play different though the overall core DNA is still there. So coming into this title things like combat and upgrade paths may seem stiffer or artificially inflated/difficult/pointless because of limits of the game design. Initially things should largely play the same - base Worlds is on par with Wilds in term of difficulty as the game gives you starter armour and weapons to get through fights alot easier; allowing you to get away with multiple errors and sloppy game-play or just getting used to not having focus mode.
However this all shifts noticeably once you get into Iceborne - here the game really sort of "begins" and you're going to find you're going to have to change up your approach more often than not. Instead of just running around in a single set of gear you'll be having to target hunt monsters for loot and kit yourself out tactically to deal with the next new threat. You'll need to actually start thinking (and grinding) skills and builds to make fights smoother until you can out-gear them again. You are likely to start to fail quests and get carted more than you're used to; and overall it feels like two different games - with the core one being effectively a insanely long tutorial and Iceborne the "well now go get good" part of the game. On the plus side this does lead to some good thrills - for example scraping a "first time" Barioth with literal seconds to spare has been one of the more satisfying moments to me the past weeks in one fight than the whole final quarter of what Wilds currently offers.
The indifferent and bad bits:
A culture shock for many is that they may find the game challenges you. In the sense that you can't just have one approach to all monsters and actually have to get better at fights and even think/observe/prepare for some. There's also several self-destructive mechanics or one offs that grow annoying over time. There's going to be alot of running around at first collecting goop and footprints to track down monsters, this is fun at first as you feel like you're tracking monsters and learning where they roam/live on a map and then becomes irritating later on. On the other-hand fights like Alatreon and Fatalis will/may force you to change in your approach (i.e. use Elemental Damage) to deal with them and largely this change comes out of no-where - no real prompting or explaining as to why just that you need to do so to overcome their BS.
Next there's a nagging feeling that until you get to end-game alot of effort is just for efforts sake as you're constantly teased with new weapons and upgrades which basically says "do the main questline to unlock all this stuff". However you can find yourself against a difficulty-wall until you put some time into the grind. Also you will find that some of the content was designed for multiplayer (e.g. the Behemoth fight from the FFXIV collab) and can't really be done solo until you're in true final-game gear. The next most obvious thing to be aware of is a lack of QOL features - rewards come at a steady if slightly sluggish pace compared to later games - as in you won't notice huge upgrades, each one instead being a baby step up the ladder. You need to sheathe your weapon to put on a mantle, until you get Speed Eating consumables just leave you wide open to being attacked and it can get irritating that you lose all the life you just healed back. Furthermore monsters start losing some identity later on - in the sense that every new monster simply becomes more aggressive, attacks at high speed/damage and gets ever increasingly tighter attack/punish windows for you to work with.
Furthermore decorations (used mainly to create character skill builds) are largely RNG based so you may or may not luck out on a random hunt. You are also going to be footslogging it everywhere, need to do quests to unlock fast travel points, and at some point you'll just have to bite the bullet and do some farming expeditions to top up your resources as certain things (like max potions, traps etc) and areas (like the Hoarfrost Reach and Elder Recess) require you to either use skills or items to make them less irritating and you will need to farm up materials to make/meld large quantities of them. Alot of rare items like Gems are also RNG based from carving so expect to repeat quests several times until they drop.
None of this is really "bad" per-se but those hours you'll be giving to this will add up over time and its understandable how with other (newer) titles out there this may put people off. Especially those just coming from Wilds.
