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Playing theMonster Hunter Wilds betafeels like previewing my entire 2025.
This is it, folks.
This is where I will spend several hundred hours next year.
It’s more Monster Hunter, shiny and new.
Still, it is good bread.
Four new monsters and 14 revamped weapons?
Yeah, that’ll kill another dozen hours once the beta is on all platforms.
The world after World
First impressions, then.
Vine traps, falling boulders, healing bugs and plants, resources galore you know the drill.
Seikret, take me to this Chatacabra, on the double.
The ink-spitting leviathan Balahara is my pick for the most frustrating monster in the beta.
It’s a shame the quest itself is such a hassle.
It also makes tons of attacks easier to land, from lance counters to charge blade axe swings.
I guess it is a web connection test, after all.
That said, the seamlessness of these freeform expeditions is nice.
The UI is a bit messy altogether, which is one of my biggest problems so far.
It is never ugly, but it is often less than gorgeous.
We’ll see how the PC beta looks and runs.
I am not feeling optimistic given theridiculoussystem requirements.
But in all my setting scouring, I haven’t found a way to make the UI less unwieldy.
I’m hungry to try greatsword, which got an honest-to-goodness parry, and longsword, the perennial favorite.
All of the ranged weapons seem absurdly imbalanced, as is Monster Hunter tradition.
Sword and shield feels mostly unchanged from World, and strictly better if anything.
Dual blades do be blading dually.
Switch axe I probably know the least about, but everything I’ve seen is encouraging.
), apply stun value for decent KOs, and allow for ripostes.
Capcom, if you’re listening, you better roughly quadruple the motion value on this thing.
Just a straight-up 300% damage buff, and I’m not kidding.
I am, however, delighted to report that Wilds might have the best hammer ever.
Stuns come pretty easy and every last bonk feels fantastic and probably has more follow-up options.
Finally, the bad news: I don’t like the new insect glaive at all.
It’s still early days, but the gameplay loop that I loved in Rise is just gone.
I don’t play the famously nimble insect glaive to use stationary charged attacks.
But it’s by design too limited to really blow me away.
It is Monster Hunter this in and of itself is great news.
Capcom would have to go out of its way to ruin the series' ironclad formula.
Instead, Wilds looks to have meaningfully added to it.
It just needs some breaking in.
