On the Fence About Monster Hunter: World

Since I knew my time with Assassin's Creed:  Syndicate was winding down, I began looking for my next gaming time sink.  Steam has a had a few different sales going on in the past few weeks and I decided to pounce on one non-wishlist and one wishlisted game.  Shadow of the Tomb Raider had been sitting on my wishlist for awhile, and honestly, I'm not a die hard Lara Croft fan, but I just couldn't resist the 67% off price tag (which happens fairly frequently).  My non-wishlisted choice was Monster Hunter:  World which was a bit of an impulse buy.  I've spent some time killing monsters and I'm wavering in my feelings about the game.

Monster Hunter:  World is part of a series of games that were primarily console games.  I decided to give it a whirl because the reviews were very favorable and it looked like the kind of game that I would enjoy--some exploration, some crafting, some monster killing...a nice, meaty game that I could sink my teeth into.  The entire premise of the game is that you are part of a squad of trained monster hunters who are exploring a new landmass that is teeming with an overpopulation of monsters.  Your character is being sent to the "new world" to help establish new bases and also to help reduce the number of potentially dangerous monsters in the area.  There's also a big, bad elder dragon (an enormous, magma spewing monstrosity) that seems to have made its way to the new world.  Part of your job is to figure out why.

My character and Palico.

One of the most daunting tasks is creating your character and trying to decide which of the 14 different weapon types you want to wield.  There are melee weapons--giant two-handed swords and axes, sword and shield, daggers, and several interesting/strange weapons including the gun lance (a lance that can also fire shells) and weapons that can convert into other weapons.  If you're hoping to put some distance between your character and the dangerous monsters roaming the land, you can opt for several ranged weapons--there are rapid firing crossbows, a longer range, rifle-like crossbow, or a more standard bow.  I opted to start off with a rapid firing crossbow.

Creating your character and picking a weapon is step one, but your creation tasks aren't done!  You also get to create a very cute felyne (a race of helpful cat-like creatures) companion called a Palico.  Your Palico fights by your side, has their own weapon and armor sets, and even finds items for you.  I, of course, modeled my Palico after my real-life feline companion.

Once you enter the world you have many options for how you want to spend your time.  You can pursue the main storyline, you can spend time exploring the many zones you discover, or you can pursue various sidequests which can range from gathering certain materials to hunting and/or capturing large monsters.  There is tons of stuff to do.

The Palico cooks make some tasty looking food.

The highlight of the game is, of course, hunting down monsters.  The monsters are huge and come in many varieties--some monsters fly, some breathe fire or spit poison, some are aquatic.  Defeating these monsters is no easy task and requires research so that you can learn their weaknesses.  Once you've engaged them, the fight can be quite long and requires careful attacks to disable weak points, as well as some well-timed dodging.  The fight also consists of several rounds of damaging the monster, having to chase it down as it flees, and then wearing it down until it dies (or you capture it).

So far, I've been on the fence about Monster Hunter:  World.  There are some tutorials in the game but much of the information you will need requires your own research.  I was frustrated because my initial choice of rapid-fire crossbow seemed to do almost no damage to the monsters I was fighting.  Apparently, you aren't meant to just pick one weapon and stick with it, but instead should vary your weapon type on the monster you are fighting.  This means that just as you're getting comfortable with a weapon that you should probably change it up which also means trying to learn a new weapon.  I finally changed to the insect glaive and it worked well for the monster I was trying to take down.  You also will need to tailor your armor choices to the damage type of the monster you are fighting and should invest in multiple sets of armor.  I sort of messed that up by investing all my armor spheres into one set.

The gameplay itself also has moments where it feels a bit sluggish and off.  I had some serious issues with dodging when I had my crossbow equipped and "fainted" several times due to getting smacked down by a giant, T-rex-like monster.  I still haven't quite figured out if the dodging is more of a timing kind of thing or if you should just be mashing the dodge button.

I feel like I've figured a few things out and I'm going to keep playing Monster Hunter.  I'm not totally sold yet and there are still aspects of it that feel very console-centric.