Monster Hunter Wilds Review — Expansive, deep, and incredibly fun
Review - Oskar Haugen
Monster Hunter Wilds (2025) is the newest release in Capcom’s long-standing and beloved franchise, ushering in the sixth generation of Monster Hunter. With it comes a surprisingly solid new story to experience, fantastic new monsters to hunt, great additions to the combat sandbox, solid quality of life features, and much more. There are still a few issues that need ironing out, but it is an incredible addition to a franchise that I and many others love.
Key art for Monster Hunter Wilds, showcasing the new flagship monster named Arkveld.
Photo/Copyright: Capcom
Performance Issues
Before I dive into the things that I love about Wilds, I do wanna mention the two main issues I have with the game, those being performance, which is a big issue, and multiplayer, which I and others find to be a little clunky this time around. Since launch on February 28th, it has been pretty evident that the game isn’t greatly optimized, especially on PC, which I play on. Framerates being low or stuttery during certain moments, slow load times on some systems, washed-out textures, and seemingly weird bugs that plague the visual fidelity of the game. I’ve been lucky enough to not experience most of these issues at their worst, but I have run into frame hitches while playing, even on a higher-end rig that should be able to run Wilds pretty well. Nvidia DLSS and its frame generation option has been doing a lot of heavy lifting for how my game runs, as it runs pretty smoothly within the 120-144fps (frames per second) range, but with DLSS turned off, it runs around the 60-80fps range, sometimes dipping as low as 45-50fps.
To put it bluntly: this is pretty bad, and it is the main problem plaguing the game currently. The YouTube channel named Digital Foundry — who does performance tests for new games that launch on PC — has a great video on Wilds that goes a lot deeper into what those issues are. Developer Capcom has mentioned that perfomance is on their radar, and that a patch on performance will come with Title Update 1, which is scheduled for early April. Hopefully this helps fix a lot of the main performance issues, as these issues are something that make an incredible game feel a little sluggish at times.
Multiplayer
Next up is multiplayer. While not as grueling a problem as performance, the main problem with Wilds’ multiplayer is that it is a little clunky. Clunky multiplayer is not a new thing for the franchise, but it does feel somewhat clunkier this time around. I usually play Monster Hunter with friends, which felt weirdly implemented during the main story. It got to a point where we all ended up playing the story on our own, because of how unruly the option to play multiplayer was during the story.
This has been an issue in previous entries, where connection and multiplayer works fine, but for some reason there’s so many weird checks that need to happen before you can experience the story together. To give an example that happened to us, which was something we experienced in Monster Hunter World (2018) too, is that we all had to watch a cutscene separately, to then go back to the main hub to link up, so that we could then go complete the quest together as a team.
Luckily — just like with previous entries — this is mainly a problem of how the the game structures its story, and is resolved once you move past the story. Outside of the story, online lobbies and the new link party system, work pretty well to allow you to play multiplayer with friends, and I haven’t run into any big connection issues in my around 90 hours of playtime. These are the two primary issues I have with the game, and while they do put a small dent in an otherwise amazing game, I think this is an entry I will end up playing a lot through the year.
Screenshot taken during the final cutscene in the story of Monster Hunter Wilds. Characters shown are - from left to right - my hunter, Nata, Alma, and my palico, Milli.
Screenshot: Oskar Haugen. Copyright: Capcom
Journey to the Forbidden Lands
Monster Hunter has never been known for having a great narrative in their games. In most previous games, the story you experience has been serviceable at best, as those narratives were primarily there to introduce you to new monsters and gradually build up your hunter rank while you learned the game. Wilds however, surprised me. It’s nothing spectatular, but when I rolled credits on the main story, I was pleasantly surprised at how solid it was. It has a much clearer direction in where it wants to take the story, and the plot makes sense for what you experience in your time within the “Forbidden Lands”. The main cast is allowed to have some decent character developments, the story allows itself to take a quick breather when introducing you to each new area, and the monsters selected for the main bulk of the story are well placed, especially the new ones. It is also a much shorter story in Wilds. I rolled credits at around 19 hours, which is significantly shorter compared to the story in Monster Hunter World (2018), where I rolled credits after around 50 hours.
Personally, I think this is a great choice, as it allows the game to tell you a way more focused narrative than earlier games without it feeling bloated and very long. The entirety of Wilds’ story is also set within “low rank”, which is the easier difficulty for the monsters you fight. In previous entries like World, you play through both “low rank” and “high rank” during the story, which for me has made the earlier narratives not feel as focused, because the game is trying to tell you a narrative, while also trying to teach you all the extra stuff that comes with being in “high rank”. Capcom deciding to then place the narrative of Wilds purely within “low rank” works to its benefit, since you’re able to experience the story at a good pace, and after you’ve rolled credits, you can move into “high rank” and learn all the extra things that comes with it. And that move into “high rank” and learning the rest of the game is where Monster Hunter is at its best, and Wilds delivers in that aspect.
Image showcasing the 14 different weapons you can use in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Image/Copyright: Capcom
Deep Combat, rewarding Progression and a great Monster Roster
There are three things that always keeps me coming back to play Monster Hunter. Its incredible combat (which I personally think is some of the best in the entire gaming industry), the amazingly designed monsters and their fights, and its phenomenal sense of progression and buildcrafting. And Wilds delivers in all three categories to an incredible degree. I think this is my favorite combat sandbox in the series to date, the monsters they’ve chosen - both new and returning - are excellent and fit in within each biome, and the escalating progression and how you’re rewarded for buildcrafting feels incredible.
When you’re in combat in Monster Hunter, you’re using one of 14 different styles of weapons, all of which are completely different from one another, with unique playstyles within each weapon, and mechanics and moves that reward the time you spend to master said weapon. To name a few; you have the slow, but heavy-hitting Greatsword, the quick and combo-heavy Longsword, the ranged and versatile Bow, and the complicated, but high-damaging and defensive Chargeblade. All of the weapons in Monster Hunter are super unique, so finding the right one for you is an important step of learning the combat, and there is always a weapon for everyone. Personally, I love the Hammer and its potential to stun the monsters when you focus certain parts of the monsters, and how it allows me to be mobile while also doing pretty good damage. Currently I’m on a Chargeblade kick, as it’s been very fun to relearn and understand the new things added to an already complicated weapon that I spent many hours learning in Monster Hunter Rise (2021), and it has felt so rewarding to do that deep-dive to learn a weapon again.
Combat changes
The biggest changes to the combat sandbox in Wilds are additions of “wounds”, “offset attacks”, and “power-clashes”, all of which fit really well into the combat. “Wounds” are, as the name implies, wounds that show up on certain parts of the monsters you fight after doing repeated damage to that area on the monster. For example, focusing your hits on a monsters leg will eventually open a wound on their leg. You can then use those wounds to deal extra damage to the monster by continuing to deal damage to the wound, or you can use your “Focus Strike” to close the wound and deal a quick chunk of damage to the monster, often rewarding with a drop from the monster that you can later use to craft weapons and armor. This fits in really well with the combat, as it gives you the option to continue dealing damage to the wound for bonus damage over time, or, you can immediatly close the wound to deal some quick damage while trying to slow down a monster or knocking it over.
“Offset attacks” and “power-clashes” are two sides of the same coin, as they function as counterattacks against the monster when they strike you. An “offset attack” is a specific offensive move that certain weapons like the Hammer, Greatsword and Switch Axe can use to counter an incoming attack from the monster. If the move is timed correctly, you will counter and offset the monster, creating a small window for you and your team to deal uninterupted damage to said monster. “Power-clashes” effectively work the same way, as they are defensive moves that certain weapons like the Lance, Chargeblade and Sword and Shield can use to engage in a clash with the monster you’re fighting. If you perfectly time that guarding move, you engage in a power-clash with the monster, that just like the “offset attacks” mentioned earlier, gives your teammates a small window to deal uninterupted damage. These new mechanics fit really well into the combat sandbox of Monster Hunter, as they feel right at home within said combat without feeling too flashy or interuptive of the flow of the game while fighting the monsters.
A screenshot showing my current “endgame” hammer build.
Screenshot: Oskar Haugen. Copyright: Capcom
Progression system
As you continue playing the game, increasing your hunter rank and meeting new monsters, you start to unlock new weapons and armor sets for you to craft with parts that you earn from fighting a monster. Each of these weapons come with a slew of perks and skills that help you out during combat. To give some examples, an armor set you craft can come with a skill like “Evade Extender”, which increases the distance you move when dodging, or a weapon you make might have a perk like “Power Prolonger”, which allows certain weapons to stay powered up for a longer period of time.
As you move into “high-rank”, your armor sets and weapons will come with more perks and skills, as well as more powerful skills, and they will also introduce decoration slots to you. Decorations are slots on your armor and weapons where you can place jewels that give you even more perks and skills. This gives you great buildcrafting potential, as you can use a full set of armor for certain perks, or you can mix and match armor pieces to create a build with a lot of moving parts that compliment each other. Most of the later armor sets also have set bonuses, where using two or four pieces of armor from the same set gives you a unique perk that you can only get by combining those armor pieces. An example of this is “Arkveld’s Hunger”, which is a skill that slowly heals you over time as you keep dealing damage to a monster, and you can only gain access to this skill by using two or more pieces from the armor set you can create from the monster named Arkveld.
Buildcrafting and Artian-weapons
The buildcrafting system is incredibly deep, especially the armor sets you gain from the late-game monsters. They’ve also re-introduced the armor variants from Monster Hunter World, where you have an “alpha” set, and a “beta” set, where the first one gives you more skills, but less decoration slots, and the latter gives you less skills, but better decoration slots. So if you want to make your life easier when creating your build, you can create the “alpha” armor with it’s more set perks, but if you’re like me, and prefer having the option to min-max your perks and synergies, you can craft the “beta” armor so that you have more freedom in choosing your perks. This is a system that took me many hours to properly understand when I started with the franchise in Monster Hunter World, but now it’s probably my favorite part of the game. Spending hours looking through armor and weapon skills that fit your playstyle, to then morph that into a complete build with many combinations and moving parts that make you feel really powerful when fighting the monsters in the endgame. It’s such an addicting loop, and I love how I’m able to shape my own build that fits into and strengthens my playstyle.
With Wilds, we’ve been introduced to “Artian” weapons, which is the primary endgame grind. These are weapons you craft and tailor to your build, as you choose if you want to have higher base damage, higher affinity (crit damage), or more elemental damage or status buildup. You can then also spend materials to reinforce said “Artian” weapons five times, and these reinforcements are randomly rolled, either giving you more damage, affinity, elemental or status damage, or better sharpness for you weapons. This is the endgame chase for Wilds, where you spend your time fighting the really difficult monsters for parts to craft your “Artian” weapons, and then spending materials to upgrade/reinforce those weapons while you hope for a good roll on the reinforcements. I’ve been fortunate enough to — after many hours of grinding — finally land a pretty good roll on an “Artian” hammer, where three of my reinforcement slots gave me more pure damage, while the final two increased the damage of my “Blast” (a status effect that adds an extra explosion of damage after enough buildup) status effect. Combining this with the grind for jewels for your decoration slots, getting the rare drops from the monsters to create armor, has created a really engaging and rewarding loop that gives you a lot of replayability while you chase a well-rolled weapon to fit into your build. Continuing to farm these materials also lets you keep engaging with the incredible combat system that Capcom has refined over the years, and you get to spend more time with these fantastic monsters.
Great new monster designs
Those fantastically designed monsters is something I want to highlight, because they are what ties all of these factors together for me. Meeting and fighting a new monster for the first time is always such a dopamine hit, especially when they’re well-designed, and the fight is excecuted well, and the new monsters designed for Wilds delivers. Monsters like the frog-like Chatacabra, which works as a great introductory monster for new players, or the majestic Lala Barina, which does a great job of introducing players to status effects, or the incredible Zoh Shia, the final boss of the story, which now that we can fight it in “high-rank” thanks to “Title Update 1”, is brutally difficult, and will push your combat skills and knowledge to the max.
But the new monsters that I liked the most are the four apex monsters of each region, those being the fiery cephalopod Nu Udra, the massive fish-inspired leviathan Uth Duna, the enormous and ice-cold Jin Dahaad, and finally, what has become one of my favorite monsters of all time, the hard-hitting and electric Rey Dau. Personally, Rey Dau is to me a great showcase of what makes a great monster. It’s visual design is incredibly cool, but it fits really well into it’s theme of electricity, and it uses that electricity when you’re fighting it to unleash attacks that you really need to play around because of how much damage he does. The armor and weapons you gain access to after fighting him are also great, with skills and set bonuses that can empower some really strong builds. Rey Day to me is an incredible monster that really shows off the strengths of Monster Hunter, and I cannot wait to fight the powered-up and difficult “Arch-Tempered” version that we’ll gain access to at the end of April.
Go forth, Hunter!
Monster Hunter Wilds (2025) is an incredible game, that does a fantastic job of highlighting the things I love about this franchise, while adding new monsters that fit incredibly well in the ever-expanding roster of monsters, and expanding on one of my favorite combat systems in the entire videogame industry. I highly recommend the game, both for veterans players of the franchise, and to new players who have been on the fence about trying these games. I can’t wait to continue playing the game, and I’m super excited for further free updates with new monsters, and the inevitable expansion to add in the beloved “master rank”, and continue the story. It is a great addition to the Monster Hunter franchise, and is personally for me an early contender for Game of the Year for 2025.