Monster Hunter: World
Discussion
Anyone playing this? I fancied a new game and it was going to be either this or Secret of Mana. I went for Monster Hunter primarily because Horizon Zero Dawn was amazing and i was hoping for more of the same. So far (and when I say that I'd point out i'm still right at the start of the campaign) it seems to be worse than Zero Dawn in every way. Some issues that come to mind are:
- The graphics are worse, with some notable square edges and poor lip sync that looks a generation or two old;
- You can only carry one weapon at a time, so if you have a bow and arrow you have no melee attacks available, which makes combat frustrating;
- When you're talking to other characters, sometimes all the dialogue is said aloud, sometimes only the first sentence is said aloud then you have to read the subtitles. I've no problem with reading subtitles, but as it stands it just feels like they couldn't be bothered to record all the dialogue properly or there's a bug in the game.
- The character you play doesn't have any dialogue at all, so they just stand about like a weird mute during conversations and are completely unrelatable as a result.
Given that all of these issues became apparent within 5mins of playing the game it was going to be the first game i've ever returned in about 25 years of gaming. But evidently the PlayStation Store return rules are far stricter than i knew. As soon as you download it, you can't return it.
So i still have it and am willing to persevere. I had a look online and the game seems to be very highly rated as i thought it was, so I feel like i'm missing something. I just don't know what. Has anyone played both Horizon Zero Dawn and this? What am i missing?
- The graphics are worse, with some notable square edges and poor lip sync that looks a generation or two old;
- You can only carry one weapon at a time, so if you have a bow and arrow you have no melee attacks available, which makes combat frustrating;
- When you're talking to other characters, sometimes all the dialogue is said aloud, sometimes only the first sentence is said aloud then you have to read the subtitles. I've no problem with reading subtitles, but as it stands it just feels like they couldn't be bothered to record all the dialogue properly or there's a bug in the game.
- The character you play doesn't have any dialogue at all, so they just stand about like a weird mute during conversations and are completely unrelatable as a result.
Given that all of these issues became apparent within 5mins of playing the game it was going to be the first game i've ever returned in about 25 years of gaming. But evidently the PlayStation Store return rules are far stricter than i knew. As soon as you download it, you can't return it.
So i still have it and am willing to persevere. I had a look online and the game seems to be very highly rated as i thought it was, so I feel like i'm missing something. I just don't know what. Has anyone played both Horizon Zero Dawn and this? What am i missing?
Edited by Snubs on Tuesday 20th February 12:15
I had similar thoughts to you when I first started playing, having just finished a Horizon playthrough myself. It's a totally different game to that though and the similarities between the two are minimal.
Weapon-wise I'd suggest picking something and playing around with it for a while, I've gone with the Longsword. Worth checking out a few YouTube videos from a guy called Arekkz who has some beginner guides, as well as guides on how to get the best out of each weapon.
I'm 40+ hours into it now and absolutely loving it, reminds me in many ways of World of Warcraft with all the crafting and resource gathering mechanics, crossed with the combat from Dark Souls.
It's not an immediate gratification game, but a slow-burner that draws you in gradually, once you've got through the first few hours things will start to click and you'll find yourself planning what to do with your time, "I need to hunt this monster a few more times to get the material I need for that new sword, then there's a quest to go and get that which I can do with that new sword, which will let me craft that cool new armour".
I too felt like returning it after the first few hours, but persevere and there's a truly brilliant game there under all the complex systems.
Weapon-wise I'd suggest picking something and playing around with it for a while, I've gone with the Longsword. Worth checking out a few YouTube videos from a guy called Arekkz who has some beginner guides, as well as guides on how to get the best out of each weapon.
I'm 40+ hours into it now and absolutely loving it, reminds me in many ways of World of Warcraft with all the crafting and resource gathering mechanics, crossed with the combat from Dark Souls.
It's not an immediate gratification game, but a slow-burner that draws you in gradually, once you've got through the first few hours things will start to click and you'll find yourself planning what to do with your time, "I need to hunt this monster a few more times to get the material I need for that new sword, then there's a quest to go and get that which I can do with that new sword, which will let me craft that cool new armour".
I too felt like returning it after the first few hours, but persevere and there's a truly brilliant game there under all the complex systems.
Give this a watch if you get a chance, teaches you how to get the best out of the longsword, for what it's worth, I don't do the counter move and I've done the story part of the game and am into the meat of the end-game getting high level equipment. May well decide to learn how to do it later, but I'm more than getting by without 'mastering' the weapon. Much like I went through all of Dark Souls without parrying anything, it's there if you want to learn how to do it, but don't feel you have to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e86lHq-03H4
Few other tips I can offer:
1. Always go to the canteen and eat before going out to do anything, there's a canteen at each of the camps out in the world too. Bear in mind that if you faint during a mission you'll lose your eating buff and you need to wait 10 minutes or so to eat again. You'll also lose the buff once you finish the mission or quit it. I just get into a routine of going and eating first so I can improve my attack or defence and make the job a little easier.
2. Make sure to keep your weapon sharpened, every so often the monster will run off, either to a different area, or to its nest to sleep/eat. When it does this, take that chance to heal and get out the whetstone to sharpen your weapon. If you don't keep it sharp then you'll find that your attacks start to bounce off the enemy and you'll have a tougher time landing hits. There's a bar under your health shaped like a knife, if it's green that's good and it's nice and sharp, but as it drops through yellow, orange and red you'll start to notice.
3. If you find the enemy in its nest sleeping, the first attack you do will do lots of extra damage, so it's a good idea to line up a hit on its head rather than waste it with a wild-flail. Sleeping won't grant the enemy any extra health, but will replenish its stamina, that's why sometimes you'll notice the enemies just stand there doing not very much, they've got no stamina left, so that's a perfect time to wail on them.
4. There isn't a health bar on them, but they will start to show signs of visible damage as you whittle them down, they'll also start limping when they're near death, hobbling off to rest and recuperate.
5. Don't worry about buffs or abilities on armour sets to start with, just craft what you can, concentrate on getting as high a defence stat as you can, this will mean you can fight tougher monsters and in turn craft better gear. You only really need to start worrying about buffs on the armour once you get to a high level and want to start crafting stuff to match your play style.
6. Always make sure you've got bounties to do, these are usually quite simple things like mining for ore, hunting x number of enemies or picking up plants. You'll start to memorise where things are located and when you run through the map you'll know you can mine there, pickup Honey from there etc. When you hand these bounties in you get armour orbs that you can feed into your armour sets to increase their defence stats, which all helps as you start to hunt tougher things. Don't worry too much about holding onto these orbs early on, as the bounties come thick and fast and you'll always have them to hand.
7. When you're hunting, always try and focus on an enemies weak points, make sure you go and speak to the researcher guy in the main hub area, he's sat in what looks like a giant pile of books. You can then look up the monster guide in your notes (press options, then move two to the right and select hunter notes). This guide tells you what the enemy weak points are and what elements its susceptible to. Once you've got the options of a couple of swords, try to pick one that the enemy is weaker to (more stars means they are weaker to that element). When you're hitting their weak point, the numbers will be orange rather than white and you'll do a lot more damage, to the extent that you can chop the tail off some creatures and disable their wings or certain attacks by targeting specific parts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e86lHq-03H4
Few other tips I can offer:
1. Always go to the canteen and eat before going out to do anything, there's a canteen at each of the camps out in the world too. Bear in mind that if you faint during a mission you'll lose your eating buff and you need to wait 10 minutes or so to eat again. You'll also lose the buff once you finish the mission or quit it. I just get into a routine of going and eating first so I can improve my attack or defence and make the job a little easier.
2. Make sure to keep your weapon sharpened, every so often the monster will run off, either to a different area, or to its nest to sleep/eat. When it does this, take that chance to heal and get out the whetstone to sharpen your weapon. If you don't keep it sharp then you'll find that your attacks start to bounce off the enemy and you'll have a tougher time landing hits. There's a bar under your health shaped like a knife, if it's green that's good and it's nice and sharp, but as it drops through yellow, orange and red you'll start to notice.
3. If you find the enemy in its nest sleeping, the first attack you do will do lots of extra damage, so it's a good idea to line up a hit on its head rather than waste it with a wild-flail. Sleeping won't grant the enemy any extra health, but will replenish its stamina, that's why sometimes you'll notice the enemies just stand there doing not very much, they've got no stamina left, so that's a perfect time to wail on them.
4. There isn't a health bar on them, but they will start to show signs of visible damage as you whittle them down, they'll also start limping when they're near death, hobbling off to rest and recuperate.
5. Don't worry about buffs or abilities on armour sets to start with, just craft what you can, concentrate on getting as high a defence stat as you can, this will mean you can fight tougher monsters and in turn craft better gear. You only really need to start worrying about buffs on the armour once you get to a high level and want to start crafting stuff to match your play style.
6. Always make sure you've got bounties to do, these are usually quite simple things like mining for ore, hunting x number of enemies or picking up plants. You'll start to memorise where things are located and when you run through the map you'll know you can mine there, pickup Honey from there etc. When you hand these bounties in you get armour orbs that you can feed into your armour sets to increase their defence stats, which all helps as you start to hunt tougher things. Don't worry too much about holding onto these orbs early on, as the bounties come thick and fast and you'll always have them to hand.
7. When you're hunting, always try and focus on an enemies weak points, make sure you go and speak to the researcher guy in the main hub area, he's sat in what looks like a giant pile of books. You can then look up the monster guide in your notes (press options, then move two to the right and select hunter notes). This guide tells you what the enemy weak points are and what elements its susceptible to. Once you've got the options of a couple of swords, try to pick one that the enemy is weaker to (more stars means they are weaker to that element). When you're hitting their weak point, the numbers will be orange rather than white and you'll do a lot more damage, to the extent that you can chop the tail off some creatures and disable their wings or certain attacks by targeting specific parts.
Not sure why you thought this would even remotely comparable to Horizon: Zero Dawn, Monster Hunter is a well-established IP.
Either way, I’ve been hammering this, finished the story, crafted a load of weapons and armour and now I’m hunting the tempered end game monsters. I recently switched from great sword to the lance and I’m now a lance primary player.
The gameplay punishes nooby play, if you get too greedy for damage it will smack you down. Get some hits and move away, anticipate and dodge attacks and sneak a few more hits in. Unless you’re using the lance, then just block and counter attack everything. If you haven’t played something like Dark Souls or Bloodborne you’ll probably find there is a bit of a learning curve.
I think it’s the best game in years, it’s got incredible depth in the RPG elements and the combat feels so satisfying. The environments look great too but the real stars are the incredible monster designs.
Either way, I’ve been hammering this, finished the story, crafted a load of weapons and armour and now I’m hunting the tempered end game monsters. I recently switched from great sword to the lance and I’m now a lance primary player.
The gameplay punishes nooby play, if you get too greedy for damage it will smack you down. Get some hits and move away, anticipate and dodge attacks and sneak a few more hits in. Unless you’re using the lance, then just block and counter attack everything. If you haven’t played something like Dark Souls or Bloodborne you’ll probably find there is a bit of a learning curve.
I think it’s the best game in years, it’s got incredible depth in the RPG elements and the combat feels so satisfying. The environments look great too but the real stars are the incredible monster designs.
Mastodon2 said:
Not sure why you thought this would even remotely comparable to Horizon: Zero Dawn, Monster Hunter is a well-established IP.
Well, the simple answer to that is that i had no idea that there was the established IP behind it. It was only when i was looking up some reviews earlier that i realised it was a part of a series of games. Whilst I've always been a gamer, i'm an FPS guy first and foremost and don't do much to keep abreast of the huge amount of games released, so i tend to just hear about the big ones like Fortnite and so on. I assumed comparability with Horizon: Zero Dawn as they both looked like 3rd person games in which the objective is to brass up some some dinosaurs, be them mechanical or organic. Simple as that.Nonetheless, i'm glad to hear you liked it. I'll put the effort in to learn the game properly and hopefully end up feeling the same way
Edited by Snubs on Monday 19th February 16:55
I absolutely love it and it will probably end up being my favourite game of the year. Monster Hunter has been a very popular niche title for years. Indeed, it was probably one of, if not the most successful cult title going. It's now seeing huge success on a global scale, deservedly so. Capcom have took it to the next level with MHW.
The core gameplay is very technical and there are many, many systems to get to grips with, a lot of which the game leaves you to figure out on your own. Running bounties, crafting items, when and what to eat, at which range your weapon does max damage, how to track and trap, which investigations to take and when...there is a lot to learn and enjoy. Also, it's supposed to be tough. So don't worry if you get knocked about a bit.
The core gameplay is very technical and there are many, many systems to get to grips with, a lot of which the game leaves you to figure out on your own. Running bounties, crafting items, when and what to eat, at which range your weapon does max damage, how to track and trap, which investigations to take and when...there is a lot to learn and enjoy. Also, it's supposed to be tough. So don't worry if you get knocked about a bit.
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