Monster Hunter Rise

Monster Hunter Rise is an incredibly impressive Nintendo Switch exclusive that offers large amounts of content and amazing performance. Create your hunter or huntress and immerse yourself into a unique world full of life, enjoy crafting a vast array of armour sets or hunting a variety of monsters alone or with friends. Prepare to be busy for hours at a time in this combat focused hunting RPG.

Developer: Capcom

Publisher: Capcom

RRP: £39.99

This game is insanely addictive, the main gameplay loop is: hunt and forage for ingredients to create better armour sets and weapons to become more powerful as you take on bigger and more intimidating monsters. Maximising your build is a large part of what makes this game so fun, exploiting a monster's weakness by using a specific load out can take up a surprisingly large amount of time. You can tell a lot of love has gone into creating a new and enjoyable Monster Hunter experience for veteran players and newcomers to the franchise, it might feel a bit intimidating to begin with especially the control layout but with practice comes perfection.

A new mechanic has been added to the franchise in the form of the Wire Bug, it not only helps in combat but also for exploration. Allowing the player to concentrate on exploring the verticality of each area. I really enjoyed climbing to the highest points on the maps to pick up collectibles, I hope this becomes a franchise staple. I almost forgot, being able to mount monsters mid-battle after witnessing a turf war is a very welcome inclusion, mounting feral monsters is a great way to knock materials off and weaken an opposing monster. It’s just as badass as it sounds, move over Godzilla your time is over.

The multiplayer is where this game really shines, the lobby system has been refined a lot for this release making it so much easier for you to enjoy the game with your friends or even strangers you’ve met on the internet. This game has a very large online community that’ll always be more than happy to help you hunt so don’t be afraid to reach out for help. Considering how combat is the meat and bones of this game I’d be a fool not to mention how amazing the companions are in this game, with a choice of a Palico or a rideable Palamute there’s an incredible amount of personalisation available. Don’t forget to treat your little furry friends to new sets of armour and weapons! As with all Monster Hunter games there’s a huge amount of weapons to choose from all with their own unique mechanics and fighting styles, it’ll take time to master each style but in the end you’ll get out what you put in so don’t forget to visit the training range to refine your skills and view the weapon combos.

The story is this game's one weakness, it’s an incredibly thin and forgettable plot with an even more forgettable cast of characters. With that being said, the story is very serviceable to at least give you a purpose for the seemingly endless but incredibly satisfying hunts. I don’t think many people play these games for the story so I don’t think it’ll detract from the experience as a whole, consider it a great way to spend an evening with your friends rather than an expansive tale to lose yourself in.

The performance is flawless running at a capped 30fps, throughout my playtime I barely noticed any dropped frames or stutters. It still amazes me how well they optimised the game to run on the Nintendo Switch using the RE engine. The online is very stable too, I never struggled with lag even when playing with my friends from across the world. So don’t forget to pick up a Nintendo Online subscription because you’re going to need it if you want to play with others online. The soundtrack is nothing amazing but compliments the game very well, adding to the games overall setting.

Conclusion

With so much variety I can’t help but be visually and mechanically impressed by this game. If you’re a fan of Monster Hunter or just want a new game to play with your friends there’s a lot on offer here for almost all types of players. Don’t just take my word for it though, pick up a copy and see for yourself.

2/3

Good game, worth your time and money.

Pros

Addictive gameplay

Good multiplayer

Lots of content

Cons

Bland but serviceable story

Author: Gabriel Sewell