Header of the game Monster Hunter Wilds. Credit to CAPCOM Co., Ltd., embedded from Steam.
Header of the game Monster Hunter Wilds.
Credit to CAPCOM Co., Ltd., embedded from Steam.
This article is written in English. Untuk membaca versi Bahasa Indonesia, klik di sini.

TL;DR

For players who might be diving into the Monster Hunter franchise for the very first time, you might feel the same way I did — overwhelmed. Maybe. But over time, the things that initially overwhelmed you will start to feel a lot less daunting.

Notice and Specs


Notice
  • This article aims to review and share information about this game.
  • There is no intention to infringe any copyright.
  • Copyright of any images, videos, or any other media used in this article belongs to their respective owners, whether the developer or publisher of this game, unless stated otherwise.
  • The author is not affiliated with the developer, publisher, or any other parties related to this game. Although I received a key to write this article, I am not affiliated with the developer, publisher, or any other parties related to this game.
  • This article is purely a review from the author's perspective.
  • This article is based on my experience playing this game. Future updates/changes to the game may not be reflected in this article.
  • This article was translated from Indonesian to English by Claude. The quality may not be up to par with human translation.
Click this box to see my PC specs.
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600
  • GPU: Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7600 XT 16GB
  • RAM: Crucial DDR4-3200 2x8GB
  • SSD: TeamGroup MP44L NVMe M2 1TB
  • Monitor: Lenovo L24i-40 100 Hz and Samsung S3 S33GC 100 Hz
  • Gamepad: 8Bitdo Ultimate 2C Peach
  • Mouse: Logitech Signature M650 Rose
  • Keyboard: Logitech K380 Rose

Game Details

Details

Trailer

Go ahead and watch the game's trailer below :)

Monster Hunter Wilds - Launch Trailer

Credit to Monster Hunter channel on YouTube.

Quick Review and Rating

Quick Review

Out of all the titles in the Monster Hunter franchise, this is my very first dive into this world. Up until now, I'd maybe only caught glimpses of people playing it together, or seen the odd clip here and there. So this time, I properly jumped in. To feel it out firsthand — what's the water like in here? Nice? Refreshing?

Several viewers who were watching also said that this is one of the more newbie-friendly entries, and the easiest to enjoy and get into. Is it tho?

Quick Rating

Category & Rating Details Score
1. Mechanics & Gameplay
  • Controls: This game can be played with a controller or with mouse and keyboard. In the first four hours, I was mostly focused on using the controller, and I was... a bit all over the place. But from hours 5–8, I switched to mouse and keyboard and that's when things finally started to click. So personally, I prefer mouse and keyboard over the controller.

    But... there's one thing I didn't quite understand. Sometimes when I was scrolling through items to use, I'd accidentally use something I didn't need. And it turns out... those items can be hidden from your quick pocket 🥲
  • Game Loop: In the early hours... it honestly felt a little boring.

    WAIT-WAIT-WAIT-WAIT. WHY????

    Well, the loop is pretty much the same thing on repeat — explore an area, follow a lengthy story, take down a monster, head back to camp, repeat. Which is... yeah. Boring.

    But but but but.

    Somehow over time — maybe because I started to pay more attention and actually understand what was happening — the game became more and more interesting, and genuinely fun to keep playing.
  • Difficulty: Hmm... Challenging, but still do-able, seriously. If you're struggling and need someone else's help to take down a monster, that's fine — it's your choice. But in my opinion, whether it's hard or not comes down more to picking the right weapon. It took me around 5–6 hours to find "the right weapon" for my playstyle. Before that? I was still experimenting, but I could still beat plenty of enemies and complete a good number of quests.
8
2. Visuals & Aesthetics
  • Art Direction: Screenshot of Monster Hunter Wilds. Credit to CAPCOM Co., Ltd., embedded from Steam.
    The visual style used here is Surreal — so everything looks real, like actual objects whether it's humans, animals, monsters, environments, and so on. An absolute feast for the eyes... but also very demanding if you don't have a capable rig.
  • Optimization: Ugh... This game is "expensive." The developer and publisher are also "well-known."

    So people should have good expectations that the game is supposed to run smoothly? Right?

    Well... Unfortunately, the game doesn't run that smooth. Even with a huge number of settings to tweak, this game still demands a high-end rig to run beautifully and smoothly. My PC — which I'd consider medium-to-high spec — had a really hard time getting a consistently smooth performance. A lot of settings had to be dropped to Medium or Low, and I even had to cap the FPS at 30, then enable FG — Frame Generation — just to stabilize at 60 FPS. Which is... disappointing, for a CAPCOM title. I couldn't even keep Chrome open to monitor stream chat while playing, just to keep the CPU in a safe range.
  • UI/UX: Example UI from Monster Hunter Wilds. From Adli's gameplay video.
    Eurgh... This... Okay, how do I put it. Honestly, at the start I felt massively overwhelmed. New player, so many buttons, an incredibly busy UI, tutorial pop-ups everywhere, tip pop-ups everywhere, some kind of circle bar (?), a huge number of options to choose from, and an absolutely enormous amount of things to read and look at — especially during battle. Like... I'm trying to fight here, but the pop-ups keep blocking what's happening on screen. And different weapons mean a completely different set of button inputs too. Fortunately... over time, maybe just from getting used to it, the UI started to feel a lot less overwhelming...
5.4
3. Story & World
  • Pacing: Speaking of pacing... Thinking about it, it's actually pretty balanced. Not slow, but not fast either. Just right. How quickly you progress seems to be determined entirely by how fast you can take down a particular monster — since, well, that's the quest.
  • Characters: Here, you play the main role — the Hunter — and you can also choose your gender and your pet — the Palico, basically your companion. You'll be completing many quests, like taking down various monsters. You'll also be surrounded by many key characters like Alma, Gemma, Nata, and others.
  • Lore: By the way, this is just my understanding. If I got something wrong, feel free to let me know.

    Nata, a mysterious child who has been separated from his tribe, ends up stranded in an area where no humans should be. The Hunter, along with other key characters, will escort Nata back to his tribe while unraveling the mystery of how he came to be separated from his people in the first place.
  • Writing: Hmm... Honestly... This is a fantasy genre, like, heavily fantasy. So... Even though the story is followable and fairly comfortable to read and understand, it can still be called "dense." There are a lot of things I was still scratching my head over — "Wait, what does that mean exactly?" — but I just kept going anyway.
8.5
4. Audio & Music
  • Sound Design: The sound design is great! The SFX during battle is exciting, the town and civilization feel alive — so in this open world game, exploration genuinely feels like exploring a "real" world, not just a space where characters happen to exist.
  • Music: Hmm... Honestly a bit unsure. My music volume was turned low, and I can't really remember any track being particularly "memorable" — but at the same time, nothing felt distracting either.
    • Turns out there's an OST album on Spotify 👀

    Turns out there's an album of the music used in this game on Spotify. Just the first track alone is booming — and it genuinely sounds "grand" and lavish. Fitting the budget, perhaps...

  • Voice Acting: Fully voice acted! Yeah, I think so. I can't remember a single moment where a character's response was just silence or a simple "Oh.", "Mmhmm", "Ah!", "Yes Yes!" — nope. Everything is voiced. I even found myself confused about when I could squeeze in a reply to viewer chat between all the conversations.
9.3
5. Replayability & Value
  • Price vs Content: The price... is expensive 🥲 Very. 869K IDR (~49 USD) is... a quarter of my monthly expenses 🥲 But honestly, given the quality on offer — minus the chaotic performance 😠 — and all the positives this game has... Yeah. It's expensive, but it could arguably be called worth the price. Playing solo, it's enjoyable. Playing with others, probably even more so. Even though viewers have invited me to play together a few times and I've usually said no, ehehehe. But over roughly 20 hours of solo play, it's been genuinely fun and I've had a good time. So the price, which could be called steep, seems to pay for the experience this game delivers.
  • Post-Completion Content: I haven't finished it. Only about 20 hours in, but... honestly I'm already comfortable with it. Even though early on I kept saying "Meh, it's boring." Over time, I started to genuinely enjoy it. So even if a session is only 20–40 minutes, time just flies by because of how comfortable it's become.
9
TOTAL SCORE xx

Gameplay Video

Want to watch my gameplay video? You can watch it below:

Monster, Survival, Places, Gods, S City, Space, MiniWD, Monument V2, Nippets, House, Phoenix, Valley

Adli's gameplay on Adli_HM's channel on YouTube.

Closing

For a game that costs a quarter of my monthly expenses... one I probably never would have bought with my own money... the experience of playing it — thanks to being pushed by a viewer request — finally gave me a taste of this franchise. At first, I wasn't sure whether I'd want to see it through to the end. Because of the commitment tied to the promise made — if the total request reaches 16 hours, I'm obligated to play it through to completion, as long as I'm comfortable. And in those first two hours, feeling overwhelmed, I kept saying I wasn't sure I'd see it through.

But time forced me to be patient. Patience... somehow brought sweet results. Difficult and deeply confusing at the start, but over time, comfort found its way in.
That's why I wrote in the conclusion that... this game is kind of like the first time I encountered OBS. Completely lost — what's this? What's that? Not user-friendly at all. Given a mountain of options and freedom, which somehow only made the learning curve all the steeper. But... just like OBS, which was a headache at first, Monster Hunter Wilds is the same. Confusing at the start, but over time... it turns out it's not that confusing after all.

That's all!
See you in the next Adli's Quick Games Review :)