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Its story wasn’t much thicker, but it did provide a nice sense of discovery and continuity that made it feel like you were actually exploring its new continent. That doesn’t make the fights around those scenes any less exciting, but it’s important to point out that the improvements World made weren’t only mechanical. It’s told through a scant few cutscenes where English voice acting is stutteringly dubbed to match what appear to be unaltered Japanese lip flaps in a way that does neither any favors.
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Story has never been the point of a Monster Hunter game (Capcom has a series literally called Monster Hunter Stories for that), so it’s no surprise that the one in Rise is as thin as tissue paper. This mishmash of old ideas with some compelling new ones of its own makes Rise feel like a huge mechanical step forward compared to Generations Ultimate, but more of a sidestep in the context of World and its Iceborne expansion. Meanwhile, other things like separate Village and Hub questlines for single- and multiplayer and the ability to tweak a weapon’s playstyle a bit return from older Monster Hunter games. For example, much of the streamlining World did has been carried forward, including tweaks like load-free maps, weapon-sharpening whetstones not being consumable, and healing items being usable while walking – all of which feel vital after spending hundreds of hours with them in World. That means there’s a mix of old and new ideas here, some of which are more successful than others.
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(For context, World outsold the previously most popular game in the series by at least 11 million copies, so for a huge chunk of current Monster Hunter fans it’s all they’ve ever known.) That’s relevant here because Rise feels a little more like a follow-up to the most recent Switch entry, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, that benefits from many of World’s impressive evolutions rather than a successor to World itself – which makes some sense, given World never came to Switch and Rise is a Switch exclusive (until it comes to PC next year). The systems that house all that depth have given Monster Hunter a reputation for being daunting to learn, but 2018’s Monster Hunter World shattered that barrier by streamlining many aspects and making the series accessible to a wider audience than ever before. Success relies on a healthy balance of preparation and skill, and it’s kept fresh by the variety of 14 radically different weapons types you can swap between, the strategic puzzle of breaking and severing specific parts of a monster rather than just whacking at it mindlessly, and the everlasting allure of that next piece of sweet gear. Each hunt is essentially an epic boss fight against a specific monster or two, all of which are incredibly diverse in both visual design and behavior a successful hunt earns you materials used to craft better equipment that will, in turn, allow you to take down harder monsters – and so on and so forth. Its scope and progression can feel flatter than that of Monster Hunter World at its launch (including a conspicuous lack of Elder Dragons), making it seem like a foundation waiting to be built upon – but after spending dozens of hours with Rise’s wonderfully enhanced mobility and faster pace, it’s going to be hard to ever go back to the way things were before.įor those new to the series, Monster Hunter Rise is all about killing or capturing giant, spectacular monsters and turning them into pairs of pants (among other pieces of gear), this time with an awesome feudal Japanese theme throughout.
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In a series already known for providing thrilling battles you can’t really get elsewhere, Monster Hunter Rise still manages to surprise and delight. There’s nothing quite like piloting a fire-breathing T-rex like a runaway train through an overflowing volcano before using it to beat the crap out of a dragon.
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