Monster Hunter Wilds is the newest installment in the ever-growing franchise of hunting massive creatures and digital dress-up. For over 20 years Capcom has been putting this IP out endlessly. It stands to be one of the most consistent and most celebrated franchises in the modern multiplayer community not only on console but also on PC, boasting at the writing of this review, over 1 million concurrent players.
New monsters, new features, new music, and a new story are the bare minimum pledge each new unique Monster Hunter title promises. The hunt is on as we dive deeply into the island of the most dangerous game. How much more did they add, and how wild did they go with this highly acclaimed entry? Find out in our Monster Hunter Wilds review!
This is a review coupled with a supplemental video review. You can watch the video review or read the full review of the below:
Monster Hunter Wilds
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Platforms: Windows PC (reviewed), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: February 28, 2025
Price: $69.99
Monster Hunter titles are usually not known for their story and narrative. While the narrative and setting themselves aren’t inherently lacking, they certainly won’t be the main focus of what the player will value the most.
To summarize the story without too many spoilers, the ecosystem is disrupted by the existence of certain environmental irregularities causing ancient more than-average monsters to attack and move closer to sentient settlements. The hunter’s guild makes their coin after these situations by sending out hunters to deal with these monsters.
Taking charge as a player-designed hunter, your mission is to join the hunt to investigate these larger terrors and discover the threat that lies behind these unusual conditions. Missions can be tackled alone, along with a customizable feline companion known as a Palico who can also be geared and equipped to a much lesser extent.
Most importantly, multiplayer is a crucial asset to hunts as the more, the merrier, with the only trade-off being slightly increased monster health pools. This can easily abuse the game’s difficulty however if a higher skilled, far more geared hunter joins you, assailing large monsters with much less effort, while still allowing you to reap all the rewards.
Monster Hunter has never been more rewarding and satisfying. All weapon types have gotten upgrades and new features adding a lot more skill ceiling to the combat for players to master. For this review, I went deep into the use of the Bow, which has always been my personal favorite, next to the great sword.
A very important new mechanic, the “wound” system, adds additional weak spots that will appear on large monsters depending on where they get hit often. Destroying these marks will not only forcefully flinch the monster but also reward monster parts and a large chunk of extra damage.
Using the bow, I was able to absolutely decimate wounds from a safe distance using the new target aim feature they received.
Once each wound was slowly marked by aiming at them, several homing arrows would chase the wounds, destroying them all at once on most occasions, completely overpowering the beast. These are crucial to unleashing a lot of the more important newly added weapon features.
Music, while not a disappointment, certainly does not compare one bit to the incredible scores of Monster Hunter: World. On the other hand, in a different aesthetic department, the monsters and armor designs in this monster entry might have to be the best I have seen since Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate back on the Nintendo 3DS.
The return of the Gore Magala had me jumping up and down in my computer chair as I’ve waited over a decade to see this monster return, as the great sword made from his parts looks so freaking awesome.
A newly added feature known as the Secret, a rideable mount that streamlines all travel around the environments of Monster Hunter Wilds, may be one of the most convenient features to ever be added in the series. The controls at first feel somewhat unruly, but after getting a better understanding, you will be auto-traveling to large monsters you desire to hunt in no time at all.
This also can be seen as a fun minigame as while it takes you to your target, you can use your grappling hook to grab various flora, wildlife, and other important necessities from Earth’s bounty. However, this welcomed feature does have an unfortunate side effect of disengaging the player from the environment.
Fishing and smaller monster net-catching are some fun distractions if players want more immersion, but ultimately, they are completely pointless. These side-activities reward the player absolutely nothing, which really disappointed me, as I took the time to complete all of their respective questlines.
Monster Hunter Wilds is a fantastic entry for the series, and I’ll play it with my wife as the free updates roll in. I can’t help but feel the developers played this one too safe. The new features, while great, didn’t make me scream utter excitement as a longtime fan of the series.
I look forward to continuing experiencing Monster Hunter Wilds, as there’s always something that’s in need of farming and the game keeps getting new updates. More armor sets, more weapons, and even new friendships to be made with other hunters.
Monster Hunter Wilds was reviewed on PC using a code purchased by Niche Gamer. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Monster Hunter Wilds is now available for PC (via Steam), Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
