Monster Hunter: Wilds Is Even Better Playing With Friends - Tokyo Game Show 2024

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Monster Hunter is quite possibly one of the best multiplayer games in existence. It is extremely fun to play alone or with friends, but the amount of planning to hunt gigantic monsters makes this an essential co-op game to enjoy with your friends. While I have loved the past iterations of the series, Monster Hunter: Wilds is shaping up to be the best of the best. I was able to play the game first at Gamescom, and I was blown away, but at the Tokyo Game Show, I got to try it in multiplayer with 3 other hunters, and it just made me fall more in love with the game.

The demo at the Tokyo Game Show was largely similar to the demo at Gamescom. I was hunting the same alpha beast in the same desert, but instead of doing it alone, I was hunting with three others. If you’ve played Monster Hunter with friends before, you’ll probably have a good idea of what the experience will be like, but Wilds adds in some more chaotic elements that make multiplayer a blast.

For those new to the series, the game's goal is to slay gigantic monsters. You have different weapons you can bring, from gigantic swords to huge guns, and you will roam around an open area to hunt while also using tools to set up traps. This can all be done in multiplayer co-op, which is great because taking down these beasts can take upwards of 30 minutes as they are extremely strong. Throughout the fights, you can break off or cut parts of your prey, and afterward, you can use those parts to craft newer and more powerful weapons and armor. This gameplay loop still exists in Wilds, but a few key differences make this experience feel much more unique than previous entries.

One of the biggest changes in Wilds is that the entire world is now open to run around in. This means there’s no loading screens when going to a different area, you can run from camp into the world without any stops. This also means you can run across the camps and land without losing sight of your friends, which is quite nice. And with the game’s new open quest system, you can just start a random quest together out in the world without the rest of your squad needing to unlock specific quests at a certain hunter rank.

While this is all great, the real meat of the differences and the source of the new chaos is how you and the world can affect the environment and monsters you face. Monster Hunter: World started to bring about ways you can interact with the environment to really hurt monsters, like making rocks fall on them or using vines to trap them in place, or even having two giant monsters get territorial and fight each other. Wilds takes it to the next level, adding in weather, like lightning strikes, and more ways the environment can be affected.

This makes playing extremely chaotic in all the right ways. It was a blast playing with my team and chasing after the giant monster with my ragtag group of hunters. Part of the joy was watching as my wife, with her giant gun, helped me and the other hunters take down this beast, me with my insect glaive, and the other two with giant swords. This was her first time playing, so it was quite a good time seeing her try to follow us and figure out how to fight alongside us. Not only did she get the hang of it, but she ended up going after the monsters even before I could. I had a blast just trying to keep up, and in the end, we had to avoid lightning strikes, the ground caving in, and territory battles. But we came out on top and crushed the alpha beast!

Thanks to Wilds new features, playing Monster Hunter with a crew felt even better than ever. Having to manage not only the monster but also all the chaos around is great, and I love that we can just start random quests together without worrying about hunter rank and going from camp to the desert to fight together. All this demo has done was solidify just how great this game will be, and as far as I can tell, it will easily be the definitive way to experience Monster Hunter. I look forward to getting multiple copies to experience it with my wife and our friends.

Monster Hunter: Wilds can be pre-purchased for $69.99 before its February 28th release. This will be a tough one to run on Steam Deck, but it’ll be one worth trying to get running!

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