REVIEW : MONSTER HUNTER RISE (PC)
The settlement of Kamura is under siege by the local megafauna as a result of the Rampage, a bi-centennial occurrence. As a seasoned Hunter, you’ve been dispatched to assist the villagers in understanding the source of the Rampage and how to put an end to it. The plot is basically meaningless, but it serves as a backdrop for all of the hunting, trapping, and slaughter.
Capcom excels at innovating new mechanics while improving existing ones in this series. Of course, the focus remains on the search, but the slog for materials, resources, and currency has been simplified. While there are short tutorials for every facet of the game, Rise expects some familiarity with the franchise and has sped things up to reflect that.
The gameplay loop, thankfully, stays unchanged: you hunt, trap, or carve, and then utilise the materials to build and refine weapons and gear. Because there are so many monsters (over 30 at launch), gear sets, decorations, and skills to find – with more harder variants of each beast and stronger rewards when you achieve High Rank – it has a basic flow that doesn’t get old.
The Wirebug and the Rampage are the two most significant additions to the formula. The Wirebug is a traversal and combat item that allows you to temporarily ride paralysed monsters as well as open up each map vertically. You can utilise the Silkbind technique with special skills associated with each of the fourteen weapon kinds. You can also use them to catapult yourself aloft and examine the environment from overlooks and panoramas.
Hidden collectibles and rare endemic life, such as Trapbugs, which can be deployed in front of a charging monster like caltrops, a Brewhare, which increases the potency of your consumable items, and the Tricktoad, which will hold a monster’s attention for a few precious moments, are all rewards for exploration. Gathering nodes, like in previous games, are strewn about the map, always spawning in the same spot so you can find them when you need them.
Rise appears to be larger than it is due to the combination of these elements. While each location is smaller than others in the World, the vertical and subterranean spaces give them the impression of being more diversified and extensive. Certain monsters spawn in specific maps, resulting in some stunning Turf Wars, special animations in which two monsters go toe-to-toe right in front of your eyes.
While the hunts are Monster Hunter Rise PC’s bread and butter, the Rampage events introduce significant and polarising alterations to the fundamental gameplay. You must create traps, deploy defenders and gun placements, and use your abilities and resources to repel big hordes of monsters in these missions, which are more akin to tower defence. They are frequently led by an Apex, a powerful, aggressive subspecies of multiple subspecies.
Rampage events are more enjoyable in a group, and they reward you with unique tickets that may be used to construct strong weapons and talismans. The latter are trinkets that come with skills that you’ll have to craft at the Kamura store, and they’re great for filling in the gaps in a build. In High Rank tasks and endgame grinding, having the right gear, weapon, and skill composition is crucial, so expect to be praying to the gods of RNG a lot.
In Monster Hunter Rise PC, your friends play an important role as well. At any given time, each Hunter can have two pals with them, either feline Palicoes or canine Palamutes. The former can help you acquire resources while the latter can be ridden to speed up your travels. Both will battle with you, but if you’re playing multiplayer, you’ll have to choose one. It can make a big difference in your effectiveness if you provide them with the correct tools and abilities.
While I’ve only played a few hunts with friends, I’ve spent a lot of time online with the Switch version. While joining a friend’s hunt or simply dropping into a random one is still a little too difficult, the most crucial change on PC is audio chat. It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes to be able to just chat to your squad without the use of third-party apps or software. Monster Hunter Rise is a welcome and well-balanced solo challenge.
You’ll find a new filter system hidden away in the Advanced Graphics options, which adds classic photo style filters to your quests. While you have an in-game camera, using it during hunts is extremely dangerous, so you’ll frequently resort to using the screenshot key on your PC instead. With these filters already turned on, it goes a long way toward compensating for the lack of a dedicated photo mode. It’s just a bad they’re not more readily available when needed.
Coming from Rise on the Switch, which was already a terrific game, finding flaws in the PC port is challenging. Better load times make entering and exiting quests much smoother, and improved textures improve the graphics – though not to the extent you’d expect. Each hunt seems more dynamic and fluid with a higher, continuous framerate. If you’re playing on a less powered machine, you can down the graphic settings.
This is the best version in every manner possible. Obviously, you can’t play in handheld mode, though the SteamDeck, which was released earlier this year, may solve that problem for some gamers. There are several hundred hours of content available at launch, with more to come later this year with the release of the Sunbreak expansion. It’s a little more difficult to sell if you’ve already spent a year on the Switch version. If you haven’t seen it yet, this is a wonderful version of an already fantastic game.
I’ve been playing Monster Hunter for a while now. Since its inception, when it was a small community and a very niche form of game that few people were aware of (at least in North America), it has grown significantly (Monster Hunter Freedom) Following MHF2, Freedom Unite, Portable 3rd, and 4 Ultimate on the PSP, I’ve even gone as far as downloading the Japanese-only exclusives that were eventually renamed/released in the west (Hacked PSP). Yes, I’ve completed all of them. To my great chagrin, Monster Hunter World is the only exception (CAPCOMS BIGGEST SUCCESS THUS FAR). These were the original stepping stones, and they laid the groundwork for the game we know today by gradually improving each game to make it the best it can be. So I believe I have some solid grounds on which to comment and write a review for anyone who like to listen to my viewpoint, as I have spent endless hours on these games, more than I can recall to be honest. I must confess that, contrary to what I previously stated, I never played World, although I did play practically every other title before to World. And this game is simply a different species that has evolved and overcome every hurdle and limitation that has previously existed. To say the least, the game is a work of beauty. The online multiplayer experience is very solid and extremely accessible, compared to previous games where there were constant connectivity issues, poor inaccessibility to play the game with other people, and you either had to be next to someone to play the game (ADHOC) or purchase a device and connect your computer to the PSP in order to be able to find a lobby of hunters mostly in other countries scattered around the globe, primarily in Japan. It was expected that the game would evolve and improve significantly with time in terms of the whole multiplayer experience, but I must admit that, based on previous games, I am still impressed.
REVIEW : Jetpack Vacation (PC)
