Monster Hunter Wilds

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Monster Hunter Wilds
multiplayer

Monster Hunter Wilds is a 2025 action role-playing game developed and published by Capcom. A successor to Monster Hunter: World (2018), the game released worldwide for Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S, with support for cross-platform play, on February 28, 2025.

As with other Monster Hunter games, Wilds has the player control a hunter that is part of a guild assigned to explore the Forbidden Lands, a nearly uninhabitable area with multiple biomes and dangerous storms. During their exploration, the hunters are assigned quests to fight large monsters that threaten their group, either by killing or capturing them. The hunter then can collect resources from their victories, as well as from gathering in the field, to synthesize new weapons and armor with better attributes that allows the hunter to fight stronger monsters. The player has an option of using fourteen different weapon types in combat, each with different combat maneuvers. New to Wilds is the ability to carry up to two weapons into the field using their mounted bird-like Seikrets to swap gear, the ability to set up pop-up camps within the game's open world to create a more seamless hunting experience, and a wound system that allows the player to target weak points on a monster to inflict more damage. The game can be played as a single player experience, or online with up to three additional players during quests. Wilds is the first in the series to support cross-platform play between all versions.

Within three days of release, Wilds sold more than 8 million copies, making it Capcom's fastest-selling game to date. It received generally positive reviews, with praise towards the stronger focus on story and updates to the open world, though the game received some negative opinions regarding technical aspects of the game, especially on Windows.

Gameplay

See also:
Monster Hunter World § Gameplay

Similar to its predecessor, Wilds is an

third-person perspective. In Wilds, players take on the role of a custom hunter character who travels to the "Forbidden Lands", a landmass filled with monsters, in order to locate a missing expedition party.[1]
As with previous games in the series, the player's hunter tracks and fights monsters, either capturing or slaying them, from which they gain rewards in the form of monster parts and other resources. Along with other resources collected in the game world, the player can then craft new armor, weapons, consumables, and other gear, which allow them to fight more difficult monsters.

The game world features several biomes, each of which is a large open world for players to freely explore. In Wilds, players can seamlessly move between the larger world and their hunter village where they can cook food, replenish their supplies, and craft new gear. Quests can also be started whenever players locate their targets in the wilds.[2] The game introduces a type of mount called a Seikret which aids player exploration and directs them towards their current objective, and can also be ridden while in combat.[3][4] The Seikret allows the player character to carry two distinct weapons while hunting monsters, though armor can only be changed in the village.[5]

All 14 types of weapons from World return in Wilds, though new moves and actions have been introduced.[6] The Slinger also returns in Wilds with new features added, allowing players to grab items from afar and trigger environmental hazards.[7] The game features a "focus mode", enabling players to launch targeted attacks against specific body parts of a monster. Wounds on a monster can be further exploited to deal extra damage.[8] Monsters in the game will interact with each other, with predators hunting prey and certain monsters exhibiting herd behaviors to better protect themselves. Environmental factors such as weather and time of day influence monster behavior, with certain species appearing only under specific conditions.[9]

The game supports four-player cooperative multiplayer, though players who prefer to play solo can enlist the help of three support hunters controlled by artificial intelligence to aid them.[10] As with World, a player can launch an SOS flare to bring either these live or computer-controlled allies to aid in the middle of a hunt.[4] In a first for the series, the game supports

cross platform play between the console and computer versions, allowing players on disparate gaming system to hunt together.[11] The game includes an option for players with arachnophobia by replacing models of spider-like creatures with amorphous blobs, though this does not apply to large monsters, such as Nerscylla.[12][13]

Plot

A group of explorers led by former hunter Fabius finds a young boy named Nata in the wasteland. Nata claims to hail from the Forbidden Lands, a harsh, uncharted region of the Old World that has been isolated for over two thousand years and was presumed to be uninhabited. Nata also claims that he and his people, the Keepers, were attacked by the "White Wraith", a monster previously thought to be

extinct
. Fabius summons a recently promoted hunter and their palico companion to escort Nata back to his home, despite there being no information about the Keepers, as well as to investigate the White Wraith. The hunter, palico, and Nata are joined by Alma, a guild handler, and Gemma, a skilled blacksmith, forming the Avis Unit. Also on the expedition are the Astrum Unit: Olivia, a veteran hunter, Athos, Olivia’s palico, Erik, a botanist, and Werner, a guild engineer.

The Guild gradually explores the Forbidden Lands, finding and assisting small settlements and people within from aggressive monsters,

apex predators
, and abnormal weather conditions. Along their travels, they have several encounters with White Wraith, revealed to be an albino wyvern with chain-like appendages that is killing apex predators by absorbing their life energy.

The Guild eventually discovers that the lands are connected by a mysterious structure called the Landspine, damaged in many places and leaking a white crystalline substance known as wyvern milk or "wylk", all of which appears tied to the weather conditions in each biome. The Landspine leads them to the ruins of Wyveria, the former capital of an ancient civilization, where Nata is reunited with the Keepers. There, they learn that Wyveria created the Dragontorch, a powerful source of infinite energy which was distributed across the lands via the Landspine, and the Guardian Monsters,

artificial
monsters meant to defend Wyveria. The White Wraith, known as Arkveld, is also a Guardian, but has become out of control due to absorbing the traits of other monsters, and is now attacking local fauna and threatening the ecosystem's balance. The hunter is forced to put down Guardian Arkveld. The group eventually locates the Dragontorch in the ruins, but discovers another Guardian feeding directly from the torch, Zoh Shia, a dragonic Guardian. Zoh Shia was the secret weapon of Wyveria, created to defend the empire against an unknown threat, but turned on them after it was too powerful to control, causing the fall of the civilization.

After consulting the Keepers and the Allharken, a Wyverian sage, Avis Unit confronts Zoh Shia, knowing it will bring calamity to the ecosystem and possibly the world, with the hunter ultimately slaying it. Afterwards, Nata becomes an apprentice hunter in the Guild to understand monsters, with the Avis Unit later discovering an Arkveld egg, showing that the species has been reborn through Guardian Arkveld.

As Avis Unit continues to hunt monsters and protect the tribes in the Forbidden Lands, they soon discover that Gore Magala, a monster that carries the Frenzy virus (introduced in Monster Hunter 4) has arrived in the lands, spreading the virus to other monsters, which causes them to become more hostile and dangerous. Avis Unit is tasked with trying to stem the spread of the Frenzy virus alongside the other monsters in the area. Gore Magala is also able to infect the Dragontorch, showing that the artifact is actually a living being. The virus brings chaos to the entire land, changing the climate and making the apex predators of all biomes go mad. The hunter helps Fabius kill Gore Magala. Werner and Erik are able to treat the Dragontorch, but they are too late to stop the new Arkveld from being infected from exposure to corrupted energy. After seeing Arkveld slaughter multiple monsters, Nata begs the hunter to put it out of its misery, possibly making the species go extinct again.

In the end, the hunter explains to Nata that nature always finds a way, and suggests the new Arkveld may have the time to lay an egg before dying. With newfound enthusiasm, Nata asks the hunter if he can travel with them to look for it, which they accept.

Development

Wilds was developed by Capcom, using their internal RE Engine. Following the large influx of players from Monster Hunter World, the developers spent more time on research and development to determine what features they wanted to include to meet the wider range of players anticipated for Wilds, according to art director Kaname Fujioka. By 2024, Wilds had been in development for at least five to six years.[14]

The team strove to create a realistic ecosystem and simulate a natural environment in the game. According to Yuya Tokuda, the game's director, players can observe the life forms in the game as they live out their life cycles, and watch how monsters interact with each other. Monsters do not stay in a single location on the map and will instead move around freely. Predators follow prey, and the state of the world is persistent. Players can use the changing environment to their advantage, but the effects of their actions cannot be undone even if they quit the game or return to the settlement.[2] The team also decided to move away from the "excursion" model of previous games and introduce a larger, more seamless world to encourage players to interact with the game's various gameplay systems.[15] To further increase immersion, the player-controlled character, as well as their feline companions (known as a palico) are fully voiced.[9][16] The team listened to feedback from players of World and Rise, and decided to make exploration more accessible for players through the introduction of mounts that automatically guide players to their target.[17]

Monster Hunter Wilds was announced in December 2023 at

Xbox Series S and Series X on February 28, 2025, and was the first game in the series to see simultaneous release on all launch platforms.[18][19] The game was made available for public demonstration at the 2024 Gamescom show, where it won four show awards selected by attendees, including Most Epic, Most Entertaining, Best PlayStation Game, and Best Trailer.[20]

Downloadable content is planned for the title, though according to Tsujimoto, these will remain as only cosmetic items such as layered armor gear, and will not be "pay-to-win items".[21] Free content updates, referred to as 'Title Updates' are planned to be released free of charge in the future, as with previous Monster Hunter games, with the first releasing in April 2025, with further updates planned in the future.[22] These updates add new monsters with associated gear to craft, new quests and events, and expand the game, such as the addition of a multiplayer Grand Hub to interact with other hunters online, and challenge arena quests.[23]

The open beta for Monster Hunter Wilds, which began on October 26, 2024, attracted over 460,000 concurrent players on Steam, highlighting significant player interest despite some reported technical issues.[24] The game was nominated for Most Anticipated Game at the Game Awards in November 2024.[25]

Reception

Critical response

Monster Hunter Wilds received very positive reviews from critics. According to review aggregator Metacritic, the PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Windows versions of the game received "generally favourable", based off 103 and 43 critic reviews, respectively, whilst the Xbox Series X version received "universal acclaim", based off 14 critic reviews.[26][27][28] OpenCritic determined that 95% of critics recommended the game.[29] The game received mixed reviews from users on Steam, with players reporting numerous technical issues affecting Wilds' performance, graphics, and frame-rate, even on high-end PCs.[43][44]

Many reviewers positively noted Wilds' as having a greater focus on it's story and narrative; Destructoid's Kristina Ebanez (who gave the game 9.5 out of 10) referred to Nata's story as "captivating",[30] whilst Game Informer's Charles Harte (who rated the game 8.75 out of 10) was "pleasantly surprised" and said the story "kept me invested throughout the campaign."[32]

Sales

Monster Hunter Wilds had sold over eight million units in the three days since the game's launch according to Capcom, making it the fastest selling game in Capcom's history. Capcom claimed that the success was due to advertising the game to a broad worldwide audience and holding online

beta tests prior to the launch of the game.[45] By the end of March 2025, it had reached ten million sales.[46]

In Japan, Wilds set the record for the largest physical sales launch of any Play Station 5 title, selling 1.5 million copies in its first week. This was in spite of physical sales representing a lower percentage of sales compared to previous Monster Hunter titles, attributed to the rise in digital versions since the release of its predecessors.[47][48]

On the day of release, over 1.3 million concurrent users had played Wilds on Steam, the highest concurrent Steam player count for any Capcom game, and the sixth-highest for any game on Steam to date.[49][50] The following day, the game reached over 1.38 million concurrent players on Steam, which established it as the fifth highest game by this metric.[51]

References

  1. ^ Cope, Alexander (August 21, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds' *WILD* new gameplay trailer reveals a range of new monsters". Windows Central. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  2. ^ a b Fenlon, Wes (June 12, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds looks like exactly the evolution of World I hoped for". PC Gamer. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  3. ^ Cryer, Hirun (May 31, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds is trying something brand new for Capcom's series – your mount will automatically find its way around the open world". GamesRadar+. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  4. ^
    PlayStation Blog
    . Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  5. ^ Wood, Austin (June 12, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds interview: The future of the franchise, new tricks for all 14 weapons, and the "seamlessness" that really started with Monster Hunter World". GamesRadar+. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  6. ^ Bailey, Kat (May 31, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds Gets New Trailer While Confirming Several New Monsters - State of Play 2024". IGN. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  7. ^ Denzer, TJ (August 5, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds shows off Seikret mount & new Slinger features". Shacknews. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  8. VG 247
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  9. ^ a b Deferitas, Casey (June 13, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds: The First Preview". IGN. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  10. ^ Fuller, Alex (August 20, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds Introduces New Areas, Monsters, More". RPGamer. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  11. ^ Wood, Austin (June 8, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds confirms crossplay for all platforms in a series first, and quietly reveals what might be its most important monster". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 20 March 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ Nightingale, Ed (October 29, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds' arachnophobia mode turns eight-legged critters into amusing blobs". Eurogamer. Retrieved 20 March 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ Colp, Tyler (March 3, 2025). "Monster Hunter Wilds' arachnophobia mode sucks, so someone fixed it". Polygon. Retrieved 20 March 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ^ Francis, Bryant (August 26, 2024). "Capcom's close communication culture is key to sustainability, say Monster Hunter Wilds devs". Game Developer. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  15. ^ Fillari, Alessandro (June 21, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds' open world leap is thanks to growing global popularity". Game Developer. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  16. PlayStation Blog
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  17. ^ Seipke, Jean-Luc (June 12, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds Will Throw Way More Monsters At You". GameSpot. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  18. ^ Webster, Andrew (December 8, 2023). "Capcom announces Monster Hunter Wilds for 2025". The Verge. Retrieved August 17, 2024.
  19. ^ Park, Morgan (September 24, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds finally has a release date, will mark the first simultaneous PC launch in the series". PC Gamer. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
  20. ^ Gerblick, Jordan (August 23, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds was "the big winner" at this year's Gamescom 2024 Awards, with Supermassive's Little Nightmares 3 following close behind". GamesRadar+. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
  21. ^ Koselke, Anna (August 28, 2024). "Monster Hunter Wilds DLC won't include any "pay-to-win items" but will remain cosmetic only, as "always" in the action RPG series". GamesRadar+. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
  22. ^ Morton, Wes FenlonContributions from Lauren; updated, Mollie Taylor last (2025-02-12). "The Monster Hunter Wilds roadmap includes the first new monster Mizutsune, 'additional updates,' and event quests". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2025-02-27.
  23. ^ Van Allen, Eric (March 25, 2025). "Monster Hunter Wilds Showcase March 2025: Everything Announced for Title Update 1". IGN. Retrieved March 25, 2025.
  24. ^ Obedkov, Evgeny (2024-11-02). "Monster Hunter Wilds beta peaks at over 460k concurrent players on Steam, indicating strong interest in IP". Game World Observer. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
  25. ^ Maas, Jennifer (18 November 2024). "Game Awards Nominations 2024: Astro Bot, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Lead With 7 Nods Each". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on 18 November 2024. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
  26. ^ a b "Monster Hunter Wilds (PlayStation 5 Critic Reviews)". Metacritic. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  27. ^ a b "Monster Hunter Wilds (PC Critic Reviews)". Metacritic. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  28. ^ a b "Monster Hunter Wilds (Xbox Series X Critic Reviews)". Metacritic. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  29. ^ a b "Monster Hunter Wilds Reviews". OpenCritic. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  30. ^ a b Ebanez, Kristina (February 24, 2025). "Review: Monster Hunter Wilds". Destructoid. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  31. ^ Wales, Matt (February 24, 2025). "Monster Hunter Wilds review". Eurogamer. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  32. ^ a b Harte, Charles (March 24, 2025). "Monster Hunter Wilds Review — Happy Hunting Playground". Game Informer. Retrieved March 26, 2025.
  33. ^ Wakeling, Richard (February 24, 2025). "Monster Hunter Wilds Review — New Frontier". GameSpot. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  34. ^ Wood, Austin (February 24, 2025). "Monster Hunter Wilds review: "The new peak of the series and an early contender for game of the year"". GamesRadar+. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  35. ^ Carpenter, Lincoln (February 24, 2025). "Monster Hunter Wilds review". PC Gamer. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  36. ^ Allsop, Ken (February 24, 2025). "After 80 hours with Monster Hunter Wilds, it's everything I wanted from a successor to World". PCGamesN. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
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  39. ^ Lavoy, Bill (February 24, 2025). "Monster Hunter Wilds review: Smashing and slashing". Shacknews. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  40. ^ Green, Jake (February 24, 2025). "Monster Hunter Wilds review: a hyper-evolved offering that's all killer, no filler". TechRadar. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  41. Video Game Chronicle
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  43. ^ Taylor, Mollie (2025-02-28). "'It runs awful. It looks awful': Monster Hunter Wilds performance issues put a dampener on its record-breaking concurrents as it settles into an early Mixed rating on Steam". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2025-03-08.
  44. GamesRadar
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  45. ^ Bonthuys, Darryn (March 4, 2025). "Monster Hunter Wilds Becomes Capcom's Fastest-Selling Game In Just 3 Days". GameSpot. Retrieved March 4, 2025.
  46. ^ Taylor, Mollie (March 31, 2025). "Monster Hunter Wilds shifts over 10 million copies in its first month, which is a third of what World has sold in 7 years". PC Gamer. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  47. ^ Martin, Kayla (2025-03-07). "Monster Hunter Wilds Has Broken Another Record, Dominating PS5 Market". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2025-03-08.
  48. ^ Nightingale, Ed (2025-03-06). "Monster Hunter Wilds has biggest physical launch of any PS5 game in Japan". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2025-03-08.
  49. ^ Carter, Justin (28 February 2025). "Monster Hunter Wilds opens to 1.3 million PC players". Game Developer.
  50. ^ Vatankhah, Matt (28 February 2025). "'Monster Hunter Wilds' Becomes Capcom's First Game to Break One Million Players on Steam Just Hours After Launch". VICE.
  51. ^ Litchfield, Ted; Fenlon, Wes; Randall, Harvey (1 March 2025). "Monster Hunter Wilds claws past Dota 2 and Lost Ark to be Steam's 5th most-played game ever, with a nearly 1.4 million peak player count". PC Gamer.
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