GSY REVIEW | PC, PS4, Xbox One Tuesday, August 7, 2018 | 10:00 PM

We reviewed Monster Hunter: World

As far as we're concerned, we've been hoping for a new Monster Hunter for 8 years. After completing the Tri episode on the Nintendo Wii, we waited for the European release of Frontier Online on Xbox 360 but to no avail. With the arrival of a new generations of consoles in 2013, we kept our fingers crossed but we had to wait until E3 2017 to finally see the announcement of a new episode on PS4, Xbox One and PC. For console players, the wait is finally over, and believe us, it was worth it. Monster Hunter: World is fantastic, as proven by our verdict inside.

PC version update:

When Capcom announced the system requirements for Monster Hunter: World, there were good reasons to worry. In the end, the game is indeed demanding, but a bit less than what we expected. That being said, playing in 4K above 30 fps won't be possible with a single GTX 1080 Ti and even in 1440p minor drops can still occur when the game is maxed out. Thankfully, there are enough graphics options to meddle with to adjust the game's visuals while taking the frame rate into consideration. Playing with a keyboard and mouse is functional, though we chose to stick to our good old gamepad. All in all, the wait was worth it for PC owners as they can now enjoy the game with improved visuals and higher frame rates.

---

Note: Most of the full review (in French) is based on our experience on the PS4 Pro version of the game, but Driftwood (who is a newcomer to the franchise) captured some (unpatched) Xbox One X footage during the 15 hours he has been able to play the game so far. The footage which is not available in 4K was recorded with the mode that prioritizes graphics. Aprt from the side by side footage, only one video was captured with the Framerate mode on (the analysis one). Screenshots are from the PS4 Pro version.

Verdict

The year has just begun and we already have found a potential GOTY for 2018. No need to beat about the bush, we just love Monster Hunter: World. Back when it was announced at E3 2017, we were thrilled, but then we started to worry about what Capcom would do with this episode to appeal to a wider audience. In our worst nightmares, we imagined it would become a Free 2 Play or that it would at least become a lot more casual. Thankfully, we were wrong. Gameplay is just as excellent and demanding as in the past, with a pretty impressive number of different mechanics, more open environments and mindblowing content. Monster Hunter has managed to evolve without forgetting what it originally was, the best monster hunt title ever released.

On the plus side

+ Monster Hunter at its best
+ Addictive and exciting gameplay
+ Epic fights, alone or with friends
+ Great learning curve
+ Top-notch OST, again
+ Fantastic game world, lively and and entertaining
+ Looks pretty good for the genre
+ Choice of voices and subtitles
+ So much content you won't see all of it before long
+ No more loading screens during hunts or expeditions
+ 5 beautiful open maps
+ Traversal is smooth and fast outside of combat
+ Many improvements over previous episodes & some new features
+ Online is well-integrated to the single-player mode
+ Monsters fighting each other, always impressive
+ No microtransactions and free content to come

On the downside

- Never totally smooth, neither on PS4 or XB1X
- A few technical issues
- Camera angles aren't always good
- No pause, just like in Dark Souls (but some will love it)
- The Scout flies can be a tad capricious at times

System specs

i7 6700K @ 4.5 GHz
16 Go RAM (DDR4)
Windows 10
INNO3D iChiLL GeForce GTX 1080 Ti X3 Ultra

Trying various settings in 4K

4K performance during combat in the ancient forest

Performcances in 4K during the day

Performances in 1440p

Homemade screenshots (PS4 Pro)

Hunt Part 1 (XB1X)

We reviewed Monster Hunter: World

All comments