by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $16.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Intro:
… the story is overlong and naff. And, sure, the difficulty lacks the prickly challenge of previous entries at launch. However, Monster Hunter Wilds showcases some of the best combat in the series so far …
The Monster Hunter series is, all told, around 25 games in total. That’s a gargantuan number of titles, particularly when you consider the series only began in 2004! Still, it’s fair to say that up until the release of Monster Hunter: World in 2018, these games have been more niche than mainstream. World changed that forever, and its follow-up Monster Hunter Rise brought even more people to the table. Fiddly mechanics were streamlined, difficulty spikes smoothed, and general quality-of-life improvements added. Now, in 2025, we get the next entry in the series in the form of Monster Hunter Wilds and it’s an expansive, technically impressive crowd-pleaser with a few niggling issues that long-term fans might bemoan.
Monster Hunter Wilds puts you in the creature-skin boots of a user-generated hunter on a mission to the Forbidden Lands. You soon come across Nata, a lost moppet from a mysterious tribe who has fallen afoul of a monster’s attentions and needs to get back home. This inciting incident sparks off a surprisingly detailed (to a fault, frankly) story campaign that acts as both narrative and extra long tutorial. The problem is, the way most of the missions are structured is deeply tedious. You’ll start the mission, go on an endless walk on the back of a Seikret (scaly horse friend) and be forced to listen to the inane dialogue impatiently waiting for the next beast battle. Eventually, said combat will occur, but due to the significant lowering of difficulty in the early game, you’ll probably get through the fight in under ten minutes and then it’s more dialogue, another cut scene and a far-too-slow-walk once more.
The reasons for these changes are obvious. Most previous Monster Hunter games are hard as balls and have stories that could fit on the back of a beer coaster, both of which limits audience potential. So, one certainly doesn’t begrudge Capcom for making the latest title a little more user-friendly. However, the storytelling really is weak (and such a relief to finish) and series veterans will certainly be hoping for more challenging battles in the promised free DLC that’s dropping at the end of the month.
Now, you might be thinking that based on the review so far, this is a bit of a negative take. Not so, friends, fear not. Because, while the story is a drag and the difficulty feels skewed a little too easy, the gameplay itself is as good as it’s ever been. Crunchy, fast-paced, responsive and with near-endless variety, Monster Hunter Wilds plays like a dream. Every weapon (and there’s 14 of them!) has had new moves added and mastering each one will take an age. The hunts themselves are easier to get into, thanks to a brand spanking new map that means you can create or join stab-a-thons on the fly and the gameplay loop is so addictive that you’ll watch your free time melt like a low rank Chatacabra beneath a tier 8 Charge Blade. The addition of the Seikret means that you have the ability to be dragged out of heavy combat where you can heal and even change to an alternate weapon mid-match, which opens all sorts of possibilities. Another huge boon is the monster variety on show here, with far more imaginative creatures than ‘thing that looks like a dinosaur’ and ‘oh look another dragon’. This time around, we have giant spiders, weird octopus creatures and the return of a certain pink farting gorilla that your humble word janitor has some history with…
So, yes, the story is overlong and naff. And, sure, the difficulty lacks the prickly challenge of previous entries at launch. However, Monster Hunter Wilds showcases some of the best combat in the series so far, and when you’re plunging your longsword into a braying, toothy maw or lopping the tail off some red-eyed nightmare, you won’t care about such niggles and instead be wondering how you can slow time down to fit in just one more hunt before bedtime.
