Monster Hunter is, at its core, a co-op game series. Of course, you can also hunt all the monsters solo, but it's often more fun to go out together. On top of that, it's a nice experience to help a hunter in need or to fire an SOS signal yourself and get support within a few minutes. That's why I love the Monster Hunter community!
It actually seems to be a logical evolution of the series, the interaction in the latest offshootto make even easier. Here we are playing together for the first time in online lobbies with up to 100 players, 16 of which are displayed directly in our game world.
However, I don't like the last point at all - the other hunters bother me, especially in the main camp. Here I feel as if I accidentally slipped into an MMO. And that's pretty killer for my personal immersion.
MMO-nster Hunter Wilds?
Anyone who is already inwho liked to hang around in the meeting place, knows the principle: If you join an online server, you can see the other players walking around, eating together and taking on missions.
However, this was completely optional for most of the game - the only exception being the 16-player sieges. If we didn't visit the meeting place, we only met other hunters when we went hunting with them. When we played in a hunting group with friends, we didn't even run into any strange players at all.
And it's exactly this division that I've liked so far: Monster Hunter offers me an immersive world with a complex ecosystem in which I only feel like a small part of a larger whole and in which I want to lose myself. I don't need other players spamming emotes and stickers or going around wildly in circles.
I felt even more uncomfortable in the Monster Hunter Wilds beta over the weekend. Apparently the meeting place no longer exists; instead, dozens of Hunters and their Palico companions are suddenly milling about in “my” camp.
It gets crowded quickly, especially in front of the tent, because we take on new quests there from supervisor Alma. It feels a bit like in MMOs, where crowds of people quickly form in front of quest NPCs. Finding my co-op partner in this hustle and bustle wasn't that easy.
Even my personal tent is obviously not that personal. I see other hunters coming and going there all the time. Inside I'm alone with my Palico, but part of me wonders in which corners the other Hunters are hiding. It's definitely not immersive for me.
If you don't want to see other players, you had to play offline, at least in the beta. Only in solo mode are we really alone in the world. However, since I prefer to play in co-op with friends, there was no satisfactory choice for me.
Monster Hunter Rise shows how it can be done better
So I'm still not happy with the system in Monster Hunter Wilds. And at the same time frustrated, because what I consider to be the perfect division in a Monster Hunter already exists - in the Switch offshoot. Here I can only play in a hunting group with friends, whom I then meet both in the meeting place and in the village.
Unlike other hunters, I'm happy about these encounters because we sometimes even role-play our hunters and I can let myself fall into the game because it creates a nice illusion.
Monster Hunter Wilds also offers hunting groups, but I wasn't alone with them in the beta, but was still thrown into lobbies with up to 100 people. The only advantage of hunting groups is that we can go hunting with a permanent team.
So I can only hope that when Wilds is released, it will reintroduce an option that allows me to only play with my friends. Then I'll be happy to meet her in my village again without having to look for her in the crowd of Hunters. Maybe I'll even let them into my tent voluntarily.
How did you fare in the beta? Were you happy about the busy base camp, or was it too crowded for you?
