Monster Hunter Wilds review: thrilling action RPG is shockingly chill

digitaltrends.com:

Monster Hunter Wilds MSRP $70.00 Score Details Pros

• Richly detailed biomes
• Excellent monster designs
• More strategic combat
• Spectacular production value
• Deep endgame

• Limp story
• Poor onboarding

Mother nature’s fury is raging. Lightning strikes down around me as I clash with an enormous monster, one roaring at a decibel level that can’t be good for my little Palico companion. I leap into the sky with my insect glaive and propel myself onto the beast’s back. It thrashes violently as I jab my blade between its wings. After a few hits, I crack its thick hide. I jab my weapon into its open wound and spin it like a drill. I don’t know what’s louder: the pained screams of a dying monster or my steel ripping into its flesh.

All I do know is that I hardly have a care in the world at this moment.

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I don’t think anyone could classify Monster Hunter Wilds as a “cozy game” with a straight face, but games that aim to relax players rarely offer moments of Zen like this. The latest entry in Capcom’s hack-and-slash action RPG once again tasks players with cutting down hulking monsters and turning their body parts into silly little hats. It should be the recipe for a relentless blockbuster full of tense clashes and edge-of-your-seat thrills. While it does deliver those moments, there’s an indescribable tranquility to it all that’s only achieved once you become one with its lush world. The screeching, the storms, the larger-than-life battles — it’s just the natural order, and you are but a modest insect living your life from the comfort of a tree branch.

Once it gets its claws in, it’s hard to escape Monster Hunter Wilds’ grasp. It balances high-octane spectacle with the kind of meditative RPG progression