Monster Hunter Wilds review

pcgamer.com:

Monster Hunter Wilds is both a return to meat-and-potatoes monster combat and a dramatic revision of the hunting format. It's a more approachable lizard-slaying sandbox, and it's a tangle of multiplayer quirks that still feels like something out of 2007. It's the cleanest Monster Hunter has ever played, and it's a temperamental piece of software that might crash if you tab back in at the wrong time.

What is it?: An action game about fighting giant lizards and turning them into pants.
Expect to pay: $70 / £60
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Reviewed on: NVIDIA RTX 4070 Super, Intel Core i7 14700KF, 32 GB RAM
Multiplayer: Yes
Link: Steam

More than anything, Wilds is an action game in a class without contenders. It's a new height for haymaker hammer blows and the pounding drumbeat of gunlance blasts—for watching your trio of seeker arrows spear a fleeing wyvern out of the sky, sending it plummeting down to earth as your cheering teammates kick their raptor mounts into a charge. Wilds signals a new era for Monster Hunter, one that pares down anything that stands in the way of diving into battle with creatures 10 times your size. It's an impressive reinvention, but Monster Hunter's carved a bit more of itself away than I'd have liked.

If there's a word for Wilds, it's streamlined. Sword fighting with tyrannosaurs and stitching their bits into belts is no longer chopped up between quest-sized chunks. Following a more straightforward, cinematic story, Wilds gives way to a seamless wilderness of rotating seasons and roaming beasts, where any hunting prep can be done in the moment and on the fly. It can feel like a wonder, but it's not a wonder without a cost. In providing as much monster hunting as possible, Wilds has given up some of Monster Hunter's charm.

But god, it feels good to fight those lizards. Throughout my almost 70 hours with Wilds, I could feel the 20 years of iteration behind its combat design. Hunting, as a rule, is a well fed occupation, but the latest