The latest build for Monster Hunter World is at New York Comic-Con 2017 -- the one that was present at Tokyo Game Show -- and I had some hands-on time with the latest to play the new hunting game from Capcom.
The move to console makes the game look amazing. There’s lush environments, and detailed character and monster models that definitely makes this feel like a next generation of Monster Hunter.
But Capcom told me at their NYCC booth that the biggest improvements are the ones that aren’t as noticeable and make playing the game smoother and easier to handle. These “quality of life” fixes are what makes this game a ton of fun to play and for someone like me, who doesn’t have a lot of experience in the franchise, a way to get better as fast as possible.
Here are the five things I’ve noticed while going through two hunts in Monster Hunter World .
5. Picking Up Items as You Run
If you’ve never played Monster Hunter before you may be confused. Wouldn’t hunters grab items while they run and walk around the different environments?
Surprisingly, that’s not the case but in Monster Hunter World players can actually pick up stones, vegetation and other items while moving, which saves a lot of time. And since many of these quests have time limits, this makes it infinitely better.
4. Popping Items In Mid-Battle
One of the more frustrating aspects of Monster Hunter was how your character will stop whatever they are doing to use potions and elixirs, especially in battle.
In Monster Hunter World, you can take a potion as you walk away. You’ll still want to run away from the monster to take it because while you’re not at a complete stop, players will still have their movements hampered.
Using the whetstone to sharpen your weapons still forces your character to stop what they are doing, which I wish was faster but it would be very dangerous if you could sharpen your weapon while you walk.
3. Search Flies
Some of the quest maps in Monster Hunter can be large and it can be difficult to find certain items and even the monsters from time to time but Monster Hunter World tries to help players along by implementing the Search Flies, these group of green insects that will guide your hunting party to actually find certain items or footprints or mucus to locate the monster you’re looking for.
You can get turned around easily while you’re exploring and it’s hard to see green flies against lush green forests. But that’s normally when you’re not looking for them, if you’re actively searching for the flies you’ll catch them and they can really help you get to your main objective.
Monster Hunter purists may feel it’s making the game too easy -- and I can’t say if it does or not without more time with the title -- but it’s a great way to get new players in.
2. Maps
Another new feature to Monster Hunter World is the ability to open up the map on your screen. Usually you’ll just check your small map on one corner of your screen but now you can blow it up and see where you are and how large the stage is.
There’s also a function to pin a point on the map so that it’s easier to navigate when you put the map away. I’ve pinned a monster when the hunting party found it but I’m sure you can use it for other purposes.
1. Battling
The actual battling and hunting of monsters in Monster Hunter changes slightly from game to game and in MHW, it feels relatively the same but that’s not a bad thing.
The weapons in Monster Hunter World consist of new and old. And while I didn’t get a chance to try out some of the newer weapons, the Shield and Sword, which is a weapon I chose to learn the game, felt the same and it was great to jump back in.
Coming from the 3DS to the PS4 can be daunting especially with the added buttons but MHW does a great job of keeping the control schemes relatively the same so when it was time to jump into battle with my trusted Shield and Sword, I was taking on some of the most ferocious monsters we can find with relative ease.
Monster Hunter World will release in 2018.
