Since I last played Monster Hunter World on PC, I got rusty and my skills waned. I didn’t want to play Monster Hunter on anything besides PC since the Switch is…doing just fine. Needless to say however, I finally returned to the franchise after what seems like a decade even though it was less than 4 years with the new Monster Hunter Rise PC port.
After releasing on the Nintendo Switch in March 2021, it has finally arrived on PC via Steam. Features you can come to expect, some of which are only capable on PC, are here at long last. So what does this do on your gaming PC over the Switch? How does it fare against other ports of the same kind? Find out more here in our Monster Hunter Rise PC port report.
Monster Hunter Rise
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Windows PC (Previewed)
Release Date: March 26, 2021 (Nintendo Switch), January 12, 2022 (Windows PC)
Players: 1-4
Price: $59.99 USD
You’re probably going to start adjusting things when you finally compile shaders. The Nintendo Switch presents a 1344 x 756 resolution when docked which is at it’s most powerful. On PC, you can choose 4K resolution and an uncapped framerate.
There’s settings that can be changed for graphics like ambient occlusion or motion blur, etc. The PC settings allow you to see your memory usage on your GPU and CPU Load impacts for each setting like image quality. On the side of these specific settings, you’ll get a preview window showing you the changes and how it will look in-game.
Monster Hunter Rise also features HDR settings, adjustable brightness, and Ultrawide support. Most modern day PC ports of console games don’t implement these settings or leave out the others. That being said, this port goes, in what I feel is, above and beyond to make this a good adjustable game.
The game does run at 30 frames per second in cutscenes regardless of what framerate you choose. In-game however, you can play at virtually any frame rate and nothing is ever slow during fights. Particle effects didn’t make my computer budge at all even with the overhead I had.
The same distance animation framerate on other objects like monsters further out carries over. Some foliage and shadows are not textured in the village when you are far enough away, no matter the graphical preset you choose. This doesn’t ultimately matter in the grand scheme since it’s something you most likely won’t notice.
The graphics sometimes change almost completely from cutscene to gameplay and it’s almost not even subtle. It’s something that kinda hit me in the face but didn’t disrupt enjoyment at all. Capcom’s RE Engine is in use in both the Switch and PC and still manages to give about the same presentation thankfully.
There wasn’t really a downside to the game’s performance and look and even from the exploration of different locales, it ran smooth. I played at 3840 x 2160 at a capped 60 Hz for the purpose of testing it a bit harder. With the cap turned off I was getting 90 frames at the same 4K resolution, a good sign that this is able to run on almost anything.
Monster density didn’t make the system drop anything from it’s capped 60, just cutscenes. The greatest thing about this port is that it is customizable from almost every front and better than the previous one I reported on. Some have played Monster Hunter from the beginning and have seen every version to date.
This port gives new life to what could be called the “best looking handheld Monster Hunter game.” In addition, this port contains all post-launch content that took time to release on the Switch. All of these wins on the PC front will make Sunbreak even better to experience.
This port manages to keep everything intact and beyond playable. The uncapped framerate is excellent for Hunters that want the best feeling game for their set up. The downside is that you can’t take this game with you everywhere (until this bad boy comes out).
The review for the Nintendo Switch version is here and you can catch up with it to see the very high highs and slight lows.
The one thing that could be added to the game is cross-play/cross progression, but most games don’t do it by default regardless. Welcomed features that they may be able to work on later but something that is asked for. At the price point of $59.99 USD, this is still one of the best experiences for the franchise to date; I would definitely recommend.
Monster Hunter Rise was previewed on Windows PC using a review code provided by Capcom. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here.
