Monster Hunter Wilds Review: Food, Physics and Fun

Until Resident Evil 4 Remake, the RE Engine featured eerie zombie-infected landscapes with linear design. However, that changed when it shook things up with its impressive open-world sandbox features and physics in Dragon’s Dogma 2. With Monster Hunter Wilds, Capcom pushes this even further, albeit with a bit of handholding this time.

Monster Hunter Wilds is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Capcom. A successor to Monster Hunter: World, the game was released worldwide for Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and Series S, with support for cross-platform play, on February 28, 2025.

‘Tis not a Story, But a Tutorial

Like World before it, Monster Hunter Wilds features a new story of monsters and humans and their struggles to live in harmony in a world of duality. You play as a Hunter and act based on your Hunter’s Guild orders by tracking and defeating powerful monsters and forging strong new weapons and armor from the materials you harvest from your hunt as you uncover the connection between the people of the Forbidden Lands and the locales they inhabit. 

Unlike the previous installments, Monster Hunter Wilds subtly emphasizes its narrative with quite a stellar cast like Gemma the Smithy, Alma the Handler, and Nata, who would accompany you in your adventures as you take on ferocious monsters one after another. There are many NPCs in Wilds, each deeply ingrained in their habitat. Overall, they add meaningful depth and a great spirit of camaraderie to the game’s campaign. I wish the dev team could add more cutscenes of Gemma forging, as whether it’s an armor or a weapon, the game only shows Gemma hammering and sharpening a knife.

Despite the rich lore and backdrops to previous civilizations, the story of Monster Hunter: Wilds is not its strongest suit. However, it serves as an excellent tutorial that lasts over -50 hours. Unlike World or the recently released Rise, Wild presents players with well-defined objectives and a navigation system that makes tracking monsters effortless. Much of the credit goes to the riding birds, Seikret, that can glide and jump unfathomable distances, with an unparalleled sense of navigation. With such a formidable ride, navigating is rarely a problem. Aside from a couple of side missions and a few objectives, getting lost in Wilds is challenging.

Speaking of campaign, almost every mission involves hunting, repelling, or capturing a monster. However, numerous relaxing sequences and side activities frequently lighten the mood. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed playing the campaign, even more so than Monster Hunter: World and Rise. While the guided, objective-oriented campaign may lack in freedom, this can be adjusted from the menu for a more immersive experience.

The Best Environmental Physics System Yet

One of the primary reasons Monster Hunter is so enjoyable is its RE Engine in-game physics system. Since its debut in Dragon’s Dogma 2 over a year ago, the team at Capcom has done an excellent job of expanding its capabilities. Whether it’s hanging boulders, thorny vines, or a monster’s fur, everything can be utilized during a fight. This is also true for all maps within the game. You have deserts, tropical rainforests, glaciers, and volcanic sites, with each changing based on their seasonal cycle. The sound effects are equally impressive as well; the downpour at the Scarlet Forest was one of the most immersive experiences within the game.

These physics effects also appear in the in-game cutscenes. Remember the steak cooking cutscenes in Dragon’s Dogma 2? When the people labelled Capcom devs ‘lazy’ for putting real steak’s footage instead of creating it within the game, the team took it to heart. In Wilds, they have produced probably the best food cutscenes in any video game. Be it cheese dripping out of a cheese naan or a sizzling steak topped with shrimp, honey, and herbs, it looks so authentic and delicious that it would even make vegans go hungry.

However, the RE engine’s physics in Monster Hunter Wilds do come with a similar performance trade-off as Dragon’s Dogma 2 despite featuring smaller maps. It’s so demanding that the performance mode that runs at 60 fps looks blurry as well when upscaled from 720p using AMD’s FSR 1. The balanced mode looks way better and sharper and retains most of the features from the Quality mode while running at 40 fps. These modes also support 120 Hz, and the fps lock can also be removed, which is great news because this ensures that this title will be one to look out for when the next generation arrives. Still, the low-poly texture assets are something I hope the team at Capcom can fix in their future patches.

Killing Monsters

Monster Hunter is known for its long boss fights and gear crafting that requires you to tweak your weapon and armor based on the Monster you are hunting. Crafting a specific armor part requires a specific monster part as well, like talon and tail, that can only be harvested while the monster is still alive. Thus, to get all the armor parts, you may need to hunt or capture the same monster multiple times. Wilds is different but more simplified, thanks to its improved inventory and forge/upgrade tree system.

Speaking of monsters, Wilds has some of the best monsters ever designed in the series. Be it a giant chicken that spits fire, an ape that has poisonous and explosive farts or a huge mosquito that can shoot poisonous clouds, these monsters in their respective terrain are simply wild. The game also has an improved focus mode that allows you to target specific monster parts and inflict wounds. It makes the combat engaging and gives the player more control over their battle tactics.

However, the best part of these fights is grabbing on to a monster. This is particularly easier with a weapon like the ‘Insect Glaive.’ It’s quite reminiscent of Wukong’s staff in appearance, as it has sharp edges on the ends. The best part is that it allows you to perform aerial combos with magnificent jumps. If you land just right, you might just be able to grapple onto the monster, dealing significant damage and finishing it off with a drill attack, which feels incredibly satisfying due to the stupendous physics.

The online play and the lobby system are equally good as well. The SOS responses and crossplay are good while engaging an overwhelming foe. In addition to previous co-op and lobby modes, there’s also an online single-player mode if you want to play as a lone hunter. This time, the single-player experience has been the best the series has offered. The game also supports keyboard and mouse controls on PS5, which deserves a special mention.

Real Talk

Monster Hunter Wilds is Monster Hunter at its best. With its changing terrains and environmental physics, it pushes the envelope of its unique genre in unprecedented ways. Its campaign makes up for a great tutorial, one that showcases all the in-game mechanics and feels great even while playing single-player mode.

FINAL SCORE : 92/100