Monster Hunter Wilds Is Just As Good As It Looks- Gamescom 2024

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This was probably one of the most anticipated appointments I had at Gamescom. After seeing a hands-off demo at Summer Game Fest, I was finally going to have a chance to try out Monster Hunter Wilds for myself. I was so curious how the open-ended nature of the game’s new hunting systems would work and if it felt as good as it looked. Well, I can now say that, yes, the game is absolutely as good as it looks, and I hate that I can’t play more now.

In my demo, there were two parts that I got to play. The first was the prologue, where I learned about the backstory behind the team, which is where they are now and a part of the game where I am able to run around freely. I wasn’t expecting to be intrigued by the story since I mainly play the games to hunt gigantic beasts, but I was intrigued. I like the angle of going to a new world that has a possible newly discovered civilization, and I was curious about what was going on and what would happen next.

I learned about how to play the game and some of the new features during the prologue, and it was pretty standard, but I want to spend the bulk of this article talking about the open gameplay, because that’s where all the magic happened.

I started off with an assigned hunt to take down a specific beast, but the quest itself didn’t start until finding them and attacking. So, I got on my mount and started dashing out into the desert. I did get a sense of astonishment coming out into the world. I expected it to be big and gorgeous, but seeing it while controlling the game was something else. I found where the monster was and went on my way to attack and take them down.

Over the course of my battle, I fought against the monster and a herd of others around them followed the monster into a different desert area where another giant monster fought them, continued fighting the monster directly, weather changed with lightning and sandstorms were coming down (and damaging both of us), another giant monster joins the fight, my target runs away, but triggers a giant pothole and we fall into a cave, we continue fighting, I use the environment to deal massive damage, and as the target starts to run away out of the cave, I land the final blow. And every single second of the battle was intense and engaging.

It feels just like Monster Hunter, but with some nice improvements that make the experience feel elevated. It brought the best features of the last two entries, World and Rise while adding a few new ones of its own. Wilds allows you to bring two weapons is awesome and a nice way to change up how you’re fighting, and the new injury system is just wonderful. I like that I can bring both a melee and ranged weapon to maximize the damage I am doing at any given time and swap my strategy on the fly, while the injury system gave me something new to focus on and aim for to try bringing the beast down to deal even more damage. Being able to ride the mount and utilize the environment on top of that made the long 20-25 minute fights feel like less of a time drain and more engaging.

Each weapon has new combos and mechanics as well, though it wasn’t all perfect. I am an Insect Glaive user, and unfortunately, one of my favorite techniques was removed. One of my favorite moves was boosting myself into the air and attacking the monster. Doing this with all 3 boosts propelled me into the air again, so I could constantly chain air combos without having to touch the ground. This has sadly been removed. I like that my Kinsect can now hold two boosts, but I do miss flying around without having to touch the ground.

With the stunning-looking world and great new mechanics, it’s hard to see Monster Hunter Wilds not being a huge success for Capcom. I was blown away by it in my 90-minute demo and extremely sad when I had to leave. I really liked both World and Rise, and I had always wished that we saw more Rise mechanics in an open-world format with environmental actions. Wilds is exactly that. I don't usually pre-order games for many reasons, but I have full confidence that this will be amazing when it releases.

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