Review | Monster Hunter Wilds

A Wild review

Monster Hunter Wilds is a 2025 action role-playing game developed and published by Capcom. A successor to Monster Hunter: World, the game released worldwide for Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S, with support for cross-platform play, on February 28, 2025.

Do you know how long it's been since Monster Hunter: World and Iceborne? Seven years since World and six since Iceborne! Yeah, I know! I really enjoyed Rise and Sunbreak in between (which came out four and three years ago), as well as Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin (check out the review on this site if you're interested). But I was ready for another main title in the series—one that would fully utilize current-gen hardware to bring us the best-looking Monster Hunter game yet. Did it accomplish that? I'd say yes, but the first few days after release came with some issues, and we'll go over them all.

The Monster Hunter series has been going strong for 20 years, with a fanbase that keeps growing. I started with World, fell in love, and now I eagerly await anything with "Monster Hunter" in the title. Wilds is beautiful, but it lacks certain things. Performance-wise, it runs smoothly on PlayStation consoles—especially on the Pro model, where I played it. However, from what I’ve heard, the PC version isn't great. Even on the PS5 Pro, one location has major issues loading high-resolution textures. Overall, though, the gameplay is intact, and that's what matters most.

The game offers several modes to choose from. I played in Balanced mode with ray tracing on, and it maintained a stable 40 FPS most of the time, though there were occasional hiccups. The 60 FPS mode is stable, but I prefer Balanced mode because the graphical improvements outweigh the slight FPS loss. There are plenty of settings to tweak, allowing you to adjust graphics, performance, and various in-game options to your preference.

In short, if the game had a few more months of development, it probably would have been flawless—but it just isn’t. The Oilwell Basin location gave me major issues; I constantly saw low-resolution textures, even on monsters during fights. Later patches seem to have fixed this on the Pro version, but still, it's clear the game wasn’t quite ready at launch.

Your character speaks! I love the new handler and the blacksmith. The game starts strong and looks good.

Story and the characters

This title has the best overall story compared to other games in the series. A group of explorers, led by former hunter Fabius, discovers a young boy named Nata—unconscious and injured in the wasteland. Nata claims to be from the Forbidden Lands, a harsh, uncharted region of the Old World that has been isolated for over two thousand years and was presumed uninhabited by the Guild. He also insists that he and his people, the Keepers, were attacked by the "White Wraith," a monster long thought to be extinct. What unfolds on this journey is yours to explore, but if you ask me, the story isn’t all that great.

I do appreciate the effort put into the narrative and how the game slowly introduces you to monsters and mechanics. This focus on storytelling might be a reason for many players to give it a shot, as no other Monster Hunter title has invested this much in that aspect. That being said, I find Nata extremely annoying (like the rest of the internet seems to), but post-game Nata is a completely different character—not annoying at all.

The entire story revolves around multiple settlements (not just one, as in previous titles), and that’s where I had some issues. None of the hubs feel authentic; they lack that familiar vibe that, for example, Rise had (which, in my opinion, had one of the best hubs and soundtracks in the series). The game follows our heroes as they explore new lands, hunt monsters, and experience various weather conditions—essentially showcasing how environments evolve over time. I love that aspect; weather changes make areas feel completely different. When it rains in the forest, it’s just beautiful.

Too bad the story isn’t all that compelling. But hey, we’re here for the hunt, aren’t we?

Where to even begin? We have the same old camps, different environment, different weather conditions - but it all falls down to hunting and farming materials so we can craft weapons and armors from animal skin. Spooky vibes.

Game design, exploration

If you loved World and Iceborne, this should be a no-brainer. It feels like an enhanced version in almost every way, but it’s important to highlight what’s different—and what’s not so great. The core gameplay loop remains unchanged: accept a hunt from any hub, eat, hunt, repeat. The flora and fauna are here, side quests are here, and Investigations have returned—but they work much better this time. Monsters now randomly appear in different areas, so you can just open the map and schedule a fight as an Investigation. No more tracking footprints; everything is shown on the map, including some of the rewards for hunts. This speeds things up.

What I really dislike, though, is the auto-pilot mode. We travel on Seikrets, chocobo-like creatures that serve as our main mode of transportation. Once you set a target, simply sitting on the animal activates follow mode, which automatically takes you to your destination. It works for everything, meaning most of your traveling consists of just waiting for the ride to take you where you need to go. I think this takes away too much from exploration—I still don’t know where certain locations are on the maps because I never actually have to navigate them myself. I wouldn’t mind this as an endgame feature, but we should at least be forced to explore on our own first before unlocking auto-pilot. That said, the one upside is that it gives you time to sharpen your weapon while traveling. Unfortunately, the maps themselves lack hidden areas or secrets to discover; it’s all about fast-traveling to get things done. A shame, really—I loved the flora and fauna in previous games, and that aspect feels a bit lacking here.

The rest is mostly positive, with one major downside: the item box and inventory management. What happened here? You have to save your loadout and enter the tent every time to reload it; otherwise, any items you used in your pouch are gone. For example, you can carry one Shock Trap. If you use it in a fight, it disappears from your pouch, and you have to go to the tent, open the item box, and manually transfer a new one into your inventory. What?! I don’t really get this change.

Another issue is the monster rewards—they’re way too easy to get. It feels like the game is trying to remove frustration, but in doing so, it also removes some of the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment.

Still, most of these changes—aside from the item management—are generally considered improvements, and many players will likely appreciate them. Veterans, maybe not so much. I love when a game helps you enjoy the experience, but sometimes, it needs to know where to draw the line.

When the weather conditions kicks in, and the fight gets intense, there is no better feeling than the one from Monster Hunter games.

Combat

I kind of miss the verticality from Rise—remember wirebug swinging? You could reach high areas and fight in different ways, though it did make the game a bit too easy. Here, we can still mount monsters (and it actually feels easier than before—just jump off your Seikret and attack mid-air), and the new additions are the aim mode and wounds. And the best one—you can equip 2 weapons and switch them easily during fights.

Aim mode is simple: hold L1 to target where you strike. I love this—it’s super handy. I was often frustrated with the way my Long Sword swings in previous games, but this completely fixes that "issue".

Wounds, on the other hand, felt cool at first but ended up making hunts way too easy. They work as you’d expect: attack specific monster parts to create a wound, then use L1 to aim and R1 to strike it. This triggers a finisher move that usually staggers the monster or knocks it down. The problem? Wounds appear way too fast, and you’ll often find monsters spending most of the fight on the ground while you just go to town on them. Of c ourse, it all depends on the sharpness and type of the weapon and the monster you fight.

Monsters also seem to have less HP, with hunts lasting anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes—I only had a few that took longer. The monster designs are solid, but the endgame dragons? Disappointing. I love Gore Magala and a couple of others, but overall, the roster is underwhelming. They’ll be adding new monsters in updates, but World and Iceborne handled this much better from the start.

The best part of the game, though, is the weapons and combo system. For example, the Long Sword now has three levels of the combo meter, with the highest one unlocking an ultimate mode. This expands your moveset, speeds up attacks, and lets you do more while keeping the same core combos. I love this. The way you gain flexibility by chaining combos makes combat feel incredibly fluid. Every weapon has been improved while keeping the perfect formula intact.

Honestly, the combat upgrades alone almost make up for all the negatives I mentioned. Having 2 weapons in fights just adds to that. The weather changes adds to the variety, but not much apart from that, they just look cool (when you're covered in sand and the lighting strikes all around you).

See the low-res textures on the snake monster? I have no idea why this happened, but they've fixed it with latest patches. The game looks stunning, especially the forest when it's day and sunny.

Side Content

Don’t you love when you can just walk through an environment and take in everything it has to offer? Even though you’ll constantly get pop-ups about something moving or arriving, the flora and fauna are stunning. It doesn’t have the variety that World had, but it’s still beautiful.

Side content comes in the form of quests from NPCs, where you have to capture a specific animal or fish for a certain species. I love this, but the fishing is broken. It’s frustrating—your Seikret often blocks the camera, you can’t see far ahead, and the controls feel stiff. It’s a disaster. Capturing, on the other hand, is fine. You just need to find an animal and capture it. I do wish there were more rare breeds, but the ones that are here are cool, and they’re way easier to find than in any other Monster Hunter title.

Hunting for large or small monsters is also considered side content, but this time, it’s the easiest it’s ever been. Just use binoculars to check a monster—if it’s big or small, a golden crown appears. Then, open your map, create a quest for that monster, and store it as an Investigation. You can fight it up to three times and even invite friends. This speeds up the crown grind a lot, but honestly, it kind of kills the excitement. Measuring monsters yourself and feeling that adrenaline rush when you think it’s a crown-sized one was part of the fun.

You can also do optional missions, weekly event quests, and SOS (multiplayer, cross-platform) hunts. Everything is here, but it all feels a bit too easy—something that might be a downside for veterans. The last few tempered monsters are no joke, so there is a difficulty factor, but overall, it’s just not enough.

One thing they completely ruined is the cooking system. This time, you use your own grill and get ingredients through NPC trades. Terrible design. I loved the Palico chefs cooking meals and unlocking more ingredients through quests. This system just doesn’t work—it’s not fun, and I always end up cooking the most basic meals without bothering with extra ingredients.

Most of your time will be spent working on equipment, decorations, and all the micromanagement RPG fans love—and that’s still great. However, Artisan weapons completely outclass monster weapons. They should probably nerf them.

Bring back the canteen! And let me kiss Alma, she wants it! Enjoy the game, do not just run through, there is a lot to cherish and soak in.

Conclusion

Monster Hunter Wilds is a stunning evolution of the series, improving combat, weapons, and quality-of-life features while making hunts faster and more accessible. The environments are beautiful, but the lack of exploration depth and overly simplified mechanics—like auto-pilot travel, easier monster rewards, and a weaker endgame roster—hold it back from being truly perfect (end game without hunting for crowns can be a disssapointed, but still, you can get up to 100h without issues). The combat refinements almost make up for these flaws, but some longtime fans might find the game a bit too easy. Still, if you loved World and Iceborne, this is a no-brainer. Just be ready for a few trade-offs along the way. The story is 30-40 hours long, and to get most of what game offers can take up to more than 100.

I have 200 screenshots. They all look nice. Monster Hunter Wilds is a great-looking game