Monster Hunter Wilds Gameplay Preview: A Bigger, Deadlier World
One of the joys of being a Monster Hunter fan is seeing how much the games change from one entry to the next. Most long-running series evolve slowly, content to offer more of the same year after year, but Monster Hunter constantly reinvents itself in both major and minor ways.
The core monster-hunting gameplay stays the same, but each entry brings improvements to the formula and introduces big, game-changing systems that make each one feel unique. After watching a behind-closed-doors gameplay demonstration during Summer Games Fest last weekend, it’s clear Monster Hunter Wilds is continuing that tradition and moving the series forward in big ways.
Director Yuya Tokuda demoed a hunt for a group of journalists to show off one of Wilds’ new maps, the Windward Plains, as well as a few of the monsters featured in the two most recent trailers. While there’s been some speculation that Wilds is Monster Hunter’s first open-world game, the demo confirms that each biome will still be separated into different maps. However, Windward Plains, the desert-themed map, is twice the size of a normal Monster Hunter World map, and though it won’t have a single interconnected world, one of Capcom’s big focuses for Wilds is creating a more seamless experience than anything we’ve seen in the series before.
The trailer featured in the Summer Game Fest showcase emphasizes this new focus, with cutscenes that flow straight into gameplay without any cuts or loading screens. The SGF demo revealed that the Windward Plains map has a village where you can do everything you’d normally do between hunts back in the hub town, without ever leaving the world. You can do your crafting, cooking, and all of the other pre-hunt rituals here, the walk out of town directly into the wilds to start hunting, no loading screens needed.
Note: You’ll still be able to build base camps in designated areas around each map where you can change equipment and refill your inventory without having to go all the way back to town.
Wilds’ emphasis on seamless gameplay extends to the hunts too. There are a lot of new mechanics related to Wilds’ new mount, the Seikret, that help make navigating the world smoother. You can use your clutch claw-like grapple hook to collect items from the environment at range while mounted, or activate environmental traps like falling rocks or vines that entangle and incapacitate the monster.
You can also use your weapons while mounted, and if you’ve tracked the monster, your Seikret will automatically take you to them. Just as World removed a lot of the friction that made aspects of Monster Hunter tedious and frustrating, a lot of Wilds’ new features are meant to get you into the action faster and keep momentum up throughout.
And while World explored ideas about endemic life and the specific natural behaviors of each monster, Wilds brings that same attention to detail to the environment. Biomes will experience weather events that change how you approach a hunt and inform how monsters will behave. The Windward Plains features a lightning storm phase that turns the sky black and creates dangerous lightning strikes all over the battlefield. During this time, swarms of Thunder bugs appear, creating opportunities to stun monsters. The flying, electrified monster featured in the trailer also appears during these storms, which can be beneficial if it leads to a turf war, or detrimental when it one-shots you with its railgun-like lightning attack – which is what happened to Tokuda during the demo.
One of the biggest changes from past games is the introduction of monster herds. In our demo, Tokuda needed to hunt an Alpha Doshaguma – the bear-like fanged beast featured in the Sony State of Play trailer – but before he could do so, he needed to isolate it from the rest of its herd.
He started by attacking the Alpha to get their attention, then mounted his Seikret and led them on a chase. Dragging the smaller monsters through bramble can be one effective way to shake them off, but Tokuda wasn’t able to isolate the Alpha until he led the pack into a sand trap created by the serpent-like Balahara. The entire herd fell into the trap, but only the Alpha was strong enough to climb out of it. Whether the rest of them died or fell into a cavern below was unclear.
Once the lightning storm ends, the next weather phase begins, called the Plenty. During this phase, Wilds’ equivalent of the Vigorwasp appears frequently and vegetation grows rapidly. At one point Tokuda uses his grappling hook to pull down a net of vines growing on a tree to create a trap for the monster.
Before the hunt ended, Tokuda opened the menu and called an S.O.S., which summoned three NPC hunters to help finish off the injured Alpha Doshaguma. Just like World, the S.O.S. can be used to call for help from other players, but if there aren’t any available, it seems you can have bots fill in when needed.
Note: Some stray observations from the demonstration:
– There’s a new wound system that creates weak points in different places on the monsters. Attacking wounds will deal bonus damage, but the wound will be destroyed.
– Tokuda pointed out a bird’s nest in a tree and explained that you can watch the birds gather worms to feed the chicks, and if you watch long enough you’ll see the chicks grow into adults.
– You can climb on top of monsters after hunting them to carve them.
– We didn’t see Tokuda use the grapple hook to mount the monster, but he did jump off his Seikret to mount the monster.
– The map is 3D now, making it easy to see how different areas of the map are connected.
I left the demo impressed, but with a lot of questions. With its new focus on seamless gameplay and cutscenes, I’m curious what that means for multiplayer progression, which traditionally forces each player to start a hunt solo and continue until seeing a cutscene, then abandon the hunt and restart the mission together. I’m also skeptical about weapon swapping in Wilds. It was cool to watch Tokuda swap back and forth between the Long Sword and Dual Blades during the hunt, but I don’t know which weapon his armor and skills were built for, and whether or not there’s a way to automatically change your loadout when swapping weapons.
I anticipate a lot more will be revealed at Gamescom this August, where Wilds will be playable for the first time. This first look gives a good sense of where Capcom’s priorities lie with Wilds, and while I didn’t need any convincing to be excited for more Monster Hunter, now I’m certain that it’s going to be yet another meaningful evolution for the series.
