Monster Hunter Wilds in the test: The best part of the series so far

Gemma doesn't look bad. Monster Hunter Wilds easily depends on the predecessors and, even after over 100 hours, motivates us to hunt the perfect equipment.

Seven years after, the most successful game of the publisher Capcom, and four years after the rather small, but innovativeNow appears the latest part of the series.

Combines the best features from World and Rise, rightly breaks some traditions and also gives us a few of the best monsters we have ever fought. The new Monster Hunter is really wild and we enjoyed it every second.

If you want to watch the test in video format, you can do this here:

But wait, what is Monster Hunter?

For those of you who have never played a Monster Hunter, the entire game principle can be summarized very quickly:

You are on monster hunt. Not surprisingly when you consider the name of the game. The monsters are still quite small and harmless at first, but over time they are becoming more demanding until their adult dragons are facing. So that you also have a chance against such beasts, you slaughter your hunters and use their scales and claws to make new weapons and armor.

A total of 14 types of weapons are available for this.This includes a huge major sword, in which even Cloud Strife would get back problems, fast double blades or arches, but also crazy weapons such as hunting horns with which your strengthening music plays and distributes damage.

In addition, you collect all kinds of resources of nature. From flash flying, for example, you manufacture glare bombs with which your dragon gets from the sky, the ivy and spider silk fall, fall into the careless monsters or from herbs.

Departure into the wild country

To start hunting, you naturally need a hunter that you create in an extremely extensive editor. Here alone, hours can be spent and any detail can be adapted, such as color gradients of the hair, eyelash length or the nature of scars.

Then of course accompany you a palico, The cute little cat assistants of the Monster Hunter series. You can edit it just as extensively and, for example, recreate your own house tiger.

Then it starts. Together with your wild expert Alma, the Schmiedin Gemma and a second team of hunters and scientists, led by the resolute Olivia, you head into a previously unexplored country. There you are not only looking for a previously unknown monster, but also the home of the young Nata.

The story is the best of the series so far and takes up something different than the usual Monster Hunter games. She will still not win Oscar - but it fulfills its purpose, gives the monsters and biomes context and we haveAbout the approximately 15 to 20 hoursfelt well entertained. This is mainly due to the characters, which this time are a lot more likeable than in previous parts.

So the warm -hearted Alma has grown very dear to us with its concern for the team, but also for the local monsters and their habitat. Gemma trusts us something about her difficult past and that she was not always so confident. Nata even makes a real change across the story and has to decide what kind of person he wants to be.

In addition, the story is accompanied by fantastic cutscenes and some scripted sections that loosen up the hunt. For example, you pursue a horde of doshaguma while devastating a village, or escaping from some sandworms that you keep from your body with special ammunition.

If you have completed the story and thus the low rank, the high rank continues - the endgame of Monster Hunter.

Here you will encounter new and stronger monsters, weapons, armor and decorations with which your skills strengthen. In addition, you regularly increase your hunter rank, with which you can unlock other cutscenes and a short epilogue story.

Here you can spend hundreds of hours until you have the perfect equipment. But more on that later.

The freedom of camping

All of this is likely to appear to every Monster Hunter fan. But Wilds also breaks with some old traditions. In our opinion, a good decision, since this makes the game feel a lot more dynamic.

On the one hand there is the semi-open world.Instead of breaking up from a central camp by quest into an area, you can simply run out of the camp, race to the next monster and after a blow to the nut, the hunt starts directly. Alternatively, you select an opponent on the map and start the mission directly. You can only see loading beams if you set up a different bioma by quick trip.

For special tasks and side missions of NPCs, your Alma, who is on the hunting with you. She is almost your mobile quest switch. You can also do that on camps that you open in the wilderness. Here you also cook something delicious from rations to go to the next fight strengthened. Or you just chill together with your friend in front of the tent and make music on the fire.

There is no longer a central hub.The world is divided into five large areas, each connected to each other via a long, tube path. Each of them has their own base camp, as well as smaller villages, where you can do trade or have forging work by Gemma.

You can have Palicos set up in fixed places. But be careful: you can destroy monsters.

All of this gives us a greater feeling of freedom than ever before. We are organic in the world and constantly on the move, instead of being born between the hub and the next hunting back and forth.

The only problem in open areas is that the graphic quality fluctuates badly. The new weather effects are very cool, but then make the levels look very gray and washed out. No comparison to the living, bright colors when you are on the go in nice weather. We definitely recommend that you set the lighting a little lower in the settings. So the game looks less overexposed.

The rather average graphic is balanced by the many details in the area. Something is constantly moving, small animals scurry through the forest, storms tear on the vegetation. That builds up a lot of atmosphere, so you always feel like you would move through a living, breathing world.

A new friend

Fortunately, you will find new friends in the wilderness that make it easier for you to travel through the big world. Already in the first few minutes you get your own Saikrii, a riding bird that quickly brings you through the huge areas. You can also adjust it by coloring the plumage or selecting different saddle.

They strongly remind you of the Palamutes from Rise, with which you can also quickly swell over the map. The Saikrii cannot fight, but brings many other advantages.

This is how the birds automatically pursue monsters for you. So over are the times when you first have to collect tracks until the spy flies show you a way to the goal. This brings you to the action much faster and fits Wilds' faster gameplay. In any case, we didn't lack the search for traces.

You can also use items during the ride. So you heal yourself during the persecution of a monster or sharpen the weapon. Once you have reached your goal, you can also start some attacks from the back of the Saikrii, including a jump attack with which you can easily get on Monster.

But you can find the best on the saddle of the bird: a bag that makes you take a second weapon with you!

More flexibility is not possible

Having another weapon in his luggage borders on a revolution at Monster Hunter. After all, mastering a single weapon is not that easy and requires a lot of training.

However, it is worthwhile to look into at least two different weapons, because that gives you completely new possibilities in battle. For example, you can use the hammer to break the jaw of a monster that you may need for new armor. Then you switch to the long sword and cut off your tail.

Or the monster tries to flee. Change quickly on the sheet and you get a flightwyver with a targeted shot out of the air.

Absolute purists simply take the same type of weapon twice and take about two major swords to fight. One with poison and one with an element against which a monster is sensitive. First poison and then you switch to the main weapon.

The possibilities are endless, depending on which weapons you have special.

Capcom has also completely revised the decoration system.Armor now have more general skills that are useful for all weapons. With “quick food” you use healing objects faster, for example, with “alternative distance” your alternative role will continue.

Weapons now also have skills and up to three decorative slots in which their offensive bonuses sink. With “offensive defense”, for example, you cause more damage after a perfect block - great for all weapons that use a sign, but completely unnecessary for an arch. Here you prefer to use “ballistics” so that arrows fly further.

For example, weapon combinations that actually rely on completely different skills work, since you still cover all the important skills.