Monster Hunter Wilds hands-on in an exciting ecosystem

As Capcom’s Monster Hunter sequence has grown in scope and recognition over the previous 20 years, so too have the sport’s worlds. They’ve gone from discrete zones to huge open-world environments populated with smarter, extra plausible creatures. Monster Hunter Wilds continues that evolution, with an emphasis on its ecosystem, an ever-changing local weather, and wildlife that feels extra sensible than ever earlier than.

I bought to pattern a small slice of what Monster Hunter Wilds has to supply throughout a hands-on occasion in August, and some new parts stood out as doubtlessly having a huge effect on how gamers expertise this world.

That begins with the brand new mount, a dinosaur-like creature referred to as a Seikret. I bought my palms on a Seikret from the earliest moments of the sport, which act as a type of tutorial for learn how to journey and command one. Due to this speedy new mount, it’s simpler than ever to maintain tempo along with your prey in Monster Hunter Wilds. The Seikret opens up new fight techniques, too: You may retailer a back-up weapon in your Seikret you can swap to whereas using it — very useful if you happen to want a ranged possibility on the go.

However it was throughout my battle to search out a Doshaguma — a brand new bear-like monster — the place the ecosystem of Monster Hunter Wilds began to indicate its potential. In an early mission, I used to be tasked with slaying the alpha Doshaguma in a pack of the beasts, and was informed that launching a big dung pod at a gaggle of Doshaguma would assist cut up them up. So it did; I launched that shit proper at a charging pack and watched them panic. The chase was on.

Shortly after the pursuit started, the Doshaguma alpha bumped into an space with inclement climate that shortly become a raging thunderstorm. The Doshaguma had foolishly run into the territory of a Rey Dau, a brand new kind of flying wyvern that’s the apex predator of the desert space referred to as Windward Plains. A turf warfare was on. The 2 beasts clashed, and for a second I believed the Rey Dau may simply end the job for me. It zapped the Doshaguma with lightning bolts, draining a whole bunch of hit factors from the beast.

The Doshaguma fled, and located a protected haven in a valley. It was badly wounded, and utilizing my nice sword (and a few assist from summoned AI-controlled allies), shortly dispatched the beast. Utilizing Monster Hunter Wilds’ new Focus Mode assaults, which provided an easier-to-follow digicam angle of the Doshaguma throughout fight, I bested the alpha and carved off my spoils.

After I used to be accomplished with the Doshaguma quest, I realized from a Capcom worker that I had another choice. As an alternative of utilizing the dung pod to sow chaos among the many Doshaguma pack, I may have lured the trio right into a sand pit and drowned them in quicksand. Apparently, solely the alpha Doshaguma of the group would have been sturdy sufficient to struggle its approach out of that sand entice. Clearly I wouldn’t have had the help from the Rey Dau, however the sand entice scheme seems like one other intelligent approach to make use of Monster Hunter Wilds’ dynamic ecosystem to method battles.

I actually solely bought to mess around with Monster Hunter Wilds’ desert setting, however clearly there’s extra to the sport’s ecosystem than simply sand, lightning, and wind. The wetlands and jungle flora of the sport’s Scarlet Forest certainly have some qualities of their very own that may result in completely different gameplay methods. I’m not likely wanting ahead to dealing with the brand new menace there, the arachnoid referred to as Lala Barina, once I get my palms on Wilds subsequent time.

We’ll discover out rather more about Monster Hunter Wilds’ diverse ecosystem and the creatures that inhabit it when the sport launches on PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Sequence X someday in 2025.