Azurephile gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale
This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.
Azurephile gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale
This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.
Review
Monsters: There are many monsters in the game. Most monsters are pretty unique, but there are some that are pretty much another variation of another monster. Each has a distinctive look, behavior, elemental and status strengths and weaknesses, and item drops. Before you go on a hunt, you’ll want to prepare. As you progress in the game, you’ll run into tougher monsters. So, you’ll need to equip some gear like weapons, armor, and charms. You can also add decorations to your weapon and armor, if they have slots for them.
There are 14 types of weapons. They range from close range like swords to long range like a bow. Each has unique advantages and disadvantages. Some allow the player to be more mobile, while others are slow, but very powerful.
Armor is divided up into 5 pieces; head, chest, arms, waist, and legs. Each piece may have one or more abilities. Usually, equipping a full set, some times even less (like 3 pieces) will give you an overall ability that each piece contributes to, increasing that ability. There are very many abilities, like Attack, Defense, and much more.
Canteen: Preparing for a hunt also includes visiting the canteen where you can purchase meals using a variety of in game currencies or points. You can also “oven roast” ingredients and get useful items. One good tip is to put raw meat in the oven to roast. When you come back to the canteen after a quest, the raw meat will have turned into rations, which are very useful in increasing your maximum amount of stamina. Having a meal before a hunt can grant you extra health, defense, stamina, or other bonuses. This can be quite essential for some really tough monsters. These bonuses are only temporary, though and are no longer applicable once a quest is complete (or failed). You can eat multiple times in a quest, though. The canteen can offer a wide variety of bonuses, especially when you have collected all of the available ingredients.
There is a multiplayer aspect of this game, in fact it’s pretty much an online multiplayer game. You can of course play alone, but you’re still online. Although, if you don’t have an Internet connection, you can still play in offline mode. When you start the game and after you’ve chosen your saved data, you can then select which type of online mode you want to be in. You can select options such as what kind of players (like “beginners”) and who can join your game (like friends only). When selecting a quest, you can choose to “post a quest” or “join a quest.” If you “post a quest,” you can choose how many players (1-4) can join you. While out on a quest, if you get overwhelmed you can fire an SOS flare. This will open your game up and make it available for others to come help you.
There is a story mode to the game and in the beginning, the game holds your hand for a little bit, telling you how to move and how to do different things. There are small tutorials littered throughout the game, which you can view later. Some of these include videos showing you how to do something. However, the game doesn’t hold your hand very long nor does it tell you everything you might need or want to know. There is much depth to this game and you may want to look online for help about a particular topic, boss fight, or general recommendations. I’ve found two great YouTube channels for this game such as TheGameconomist (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnuZHEmJqsxV4DJtPheYp2g) and Arekkz Gaming (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-zjH-e5XBzMpy_VtwIGRxQ).
Along with story mode “assigned” quests you can also do optional, investigations, and events. Investigations are interesting, in a way, because they are limited. You can only attempt them a certain amount of times, but there are very many of them. I’m not sure that they actually help advance your Hunter Rank, but they do give other resources like money, items, and research points. Investigations are very plentiful and can include a variety of things such as hunting a certain monster, capturing a certain monster, collecting certain items like flora, and a lot more. Some events are available only during a limited time and require a certain hunter rank.
Collaborations:There are also tie ins to other games. For one, there’s a quest related to The Witcher, who appears in the game. There are some items you can get from some of these quests. For instance, to get the Mega Man costume for your Palico, you’ll need to accomplish a certain limited-time event quest.
Research points can spent in the canteen and other places. You get them by completing quests or interacting with monster tracks. Monster tracks allow you to gather more information about a monster and ultimately making it much easier for your Scoutflies to track. Scoutflies are a group of little insects that help lead you to where you want to go. If you’re tracking a monster, you can tell them to do so on the map and they’ll lead you to it while pointing out, along the way, monster tracks and other items you can collect. You can also use your capture net or fishing rod to collect small fauna like insects or go fishing.
There are a variety of items you can find during your hunt, that your Scoutfiles will point out to you. This includes flora, which can be used to craft items such as potions, traps, ammo, and other things. Items stored in your pouch will stay with you, while items in your equipment chest can be accessed in town or camps. During a quest, you can access a chest that will provide you with some useful items, usually potions. Although if you’re doing a capture quest, the box will supply you with what you need such as traps and tranquilizers.
The game has some different little other additions. For one, you are partnered with a cat, which is called a Palico. It can use gear as well including weapons, armor, and another piece of gear that has a variety of functionalities. This item can help you with healing, defense, and other items like traps, which are definitely very helpful on hunts. As these abilities are used, they level up and increase their efficiency, to a max of level 10. Palicos make it so that you’re not alone when you’re hunting. They will fight monsters, too, and can even befriend some monsters, who will join you on your hunt. They can even befriend local tribes of Palicos that will come along with you during your quest. These Palicos can teach your Palico new abilities and give them access to certain items and also allow them to befriend a small monster, which will be a temporary team member.
There’s also a pig in town called a Poogie. You’ll want to increase it’s friendship with you by petting it. While petting, you’ll notice an exclamation mark (!) and that’s when you need to press a button to stop, otherwise it will just knock you over. Once you successfully pet it once, you won’t be able to increase it’s friendship until after your next quest. Once it’s friendly toward you, you can pick it up and carry it around town. It will then hop in your arms, telling you that there’s an item near by that it can dig up. If you’re using a controller with vibration feature, this will trigger when Poogie has spotted one of these areas. It can find different costumes for it, if you put it down in specific places. Sometimes it can also find a Lucky Voucher if you put it down by the Handler. These can be used in the canteen.
There are a few areas in the game. I’m not sure if I’ve discovered them all, although I think I may have. This is slightly disappointing, because I’m enjoying the game and want much more of it. Luckily, there’s plenty to do and a new DLC.
That new DLC is called Iceborne. It takes place in what looks like a tundra area, but it apparently has multiple mini areas like springs and others. Iceborne is already available for the PS4 and Xbox One. However, it will arrive on PC in January and it is definitely a DLC I intend to get at launch, as I’m really loving this game. It contains new weapons, monsters, areas, and new items. One feature allows you to ride Tailraiders, which you can’t control, but they’ll take you where you want to go.
Controller and keyboard and mouse support: I am playing this game with an Xbox 360 controller connected to my PC, but you can also use other controllers. You can also use the keyboard and mouse and it’s incredibly easy to switch between the two. While using the controller, if you hit a key on your keyboard, the game will display keyboard and mouse controls automatically. If you then hit a button on your controller, it will switch to controller controls automatically. I think this is quite impressive.
I think this is a fantastic game, I only wish there was much more of it on the PC, although the series itself has spanned various consoles and handhelds. I really do recommend this game. So far, it has been cheaper on consoles than PC, but you could wait for a good deal. When Iceborne releases for the PC, there will be a version of it that includes the base game, so you might want to wait until then. If you get the game feel free to let me know if you run into anything you need help understanding (you will), I can either explain it or point you towards some great videos. If you need some help on a quest or want to try out multiplayer, let me know, I haven't tried it yet, but I've run into quests that were designed specifically for multiplayer, so I can't complete them on my own.
- Recommended
- Prepare (including crafting), hunt, collect materials, repeat. Simple, but still deep.
- 14 different types of weapons
- Single and multiplayer content
- Controller and keyboard and mouse support
Monsters: There are many monsters in the game. Most monsters are pretty unique, but there are some that are pretty much another variation of another monster. Each has a distinctive look, behavior, elemental and status strengths and weaknesses, and item drops. Before you go on a hunt, you’ll want to prepare. As you progress in the game, you’ll run into tougher monsters. So, you’ll need to equip some gear like weapons, armor, and charms. You can also add decorations to your weapon and armor, if they have slots for them.
There are 14 types of weapons. They range from close range like swords to long range like a bow. Each has unique advantages and disadvantages. Some allow the player to be more mobile, while others are slow, but very powerful.
Armor is divided up into 5 pieces; head, chest, arms, waist, and legs. Each piece may have one or more abilities. Usually, equipping a full set, some times even less (like 3 pieces) will give you an overall ability that each piece contributes to, increasing that ability. There are very many abilities, like Attack, Defense, and much more.
Canteen: Preparing for a hunt also includes visiting the canteen where you can purchase meals using a variety of in game currencies or points. You can also “oven roast” ingredients and get useful items. One good tip is to put raw meat in the oven to roast. When you come back to the canteen after a quest, the raw meat will have turned into rations, which are very useful in increasing your maximum amount of stamina. Having a meal before a hunt can grant you extra health, defense, stamina, or other bonuses. This can be quite essential for some really tough monsters. These bonuses are only temporary, though and are no longer applicable once a quest is complete (or failed). You can eat multiple times in a quest, though. The canteen can offer a wide variety of bonuses, especially when you have collected all of the available ingredients.
There is a multiplayer aspect of this game, in fact it’s pretty much an online multiplayer game. You can of course play alone, but you’re still online. Although, if you don’t have an Internet connection, you can still play in offline mode. When you start the game and after you’ve chosen your saved data, you can then select which type of online mode you want to be in. You can select options such as what kind of players (like “beginners”) and who can join your game (like friends only). When selecting a quest, you can choose to “post a quest” or “join a quest.” If you “post a quest,” you can choose how many players (1-4) can join you. While out on a quest, if you get overwhelmed you can fire an SOS flare. This will open your game up and make it available for others to come help you.
There is a story mode to the game and in the beginning, the game holds your hand for a little bit, telling you how to move and how to do different things. There are small tutorials littered throughout the game, which you can view later. Some of these include videos showing you how to do something. However, the game doesn’t hold your hand very long nor does it tell you everything you might need or want to know. There is much depth to this game and you may want to look online for help about a particular topic, boss fight, or general recommendations. I’ve found two great YouTube channels for this game such as TheGameconomist (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnuZHEmJqsxV4DJtPheYp2g) and Arekkz Gaming (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-zjH-e5XBzMpy_VtwIGRxQ).
Along with story mode “assigned” quests you can also do optional, investigations, and events. Investigations are interesting, in a way, because they are limited. You can only attempt them a certain amount of times, but there are very many of them. I’m not sure that they actually help advance your Hunter Rank, but they do give other resources like money, items, and research points. Investigations are very plentiful and can include a variety of things such as hunting a certain monster, capturing a certain monster, collecting certain items like flora, and a lot more. Some events are available only during a limited time and require a certain hunter rank.
Collaborations:There are also tie ins to other games. For one, there’s a quest related to The Witcher, who appears in the game. There are some items you can get from some of these quests. For instance, to get the Mega Man costume for your Palico, you’ll need to accomplish a certain limited-time event quest.
Research points can spent in the canteen and other places. You get them by completing quests or interacting with monster tracks. Monster tracks allow you to gather more information about a monster and ultimately making it much easier for your Scoutflies to track. Scoutflies are a group of little insects that help lead you to where you want to go. If you’re tracking a monster, you can tell them to do so on the map and they’ll lead you to it while pointing out, along the way, monster tracks and other items you can collect. You can also use your capture net or fishing rod to collect small fauna like insects or go fishing.
There are a variety of items you can find during your hunt, that your Scoutfiles will point out to you. This includes flora, which can be used to craft items such as potions, traps, ammo, and other things. Items stored in your pouch will stay with you, while items in your equipment chest can be accessed in town or camps. During a quest, you can access a chest that will provide you with some useful items, usually potions. Although if you’re doing a capture quest, the box will supply you with what you need such as traps and tranquilizers.
The game has some different little other additions. For one, you are partnered with a cat, which is called a Palico. It can use gear as well including weapons, armor, and another piece of gear that has a variety of functionalities. This item can help you with healing, defense, and other items like traps, which are definitely very helpful on hunts. As these abilities are used, they level up and increase their efficiency, to a max of level 10. Palicos make it so that you’re not alone when you’re hunting. They will fight monsters, too, and can even befriend some monsters, who will join you on your hunt. They can even befriend local tribes of Palicos that will come along with you during your quest. These Palicos can teach your Palico new abilities and give them access to certain items and also allow them to befriend a small monster, which will be a temporary team member.
There’s also a pig in town called a Poogie. You’ll want to increase it’s friendship with you by petting it. While petting, you’ll notice an exclamation mark (!) and that’s when you need to press a button to stop, otherwise it will just knock you over. Once you successfully pet it once, you won’t be able to increase it’s friendship until after your next quest. Once it’s friendly toward you, you can pick it up and carry it around town. It will then hop in your arms, telling you that there’s an item near by that it can dig up. If you’re using a controller with vibration feature, this will trigger when Poogie has spotted one of these areas. It can find different costumes for it, if you put it down in specific places. Sometimes it can also find a Lucky Voucher if you put it down by the Handler. These can be used in the canteen.
There are a few areas in the game. I’m not sure if I’ve discovered them all, although I think I may have. This is slightly disappointing, because I’m enjoying the game and want much more of it. Luckily, there’s plenty to do and a new DLC.
That new DLC is called Iceborne. It takes place in what looks like a tundra area, but it apparently has multiple mini areas like springs and others. Iceborne is already available for the PS4 and Xbox One. However, it will arrive on PC in January and it is definitely a DLC I intend to get at launch, as I’m really loving this game. It contains new weapons, monsters, areas, and new items. One feature allows you to ride Tailraiders, which you can’t control, but they’ll take you where you want to go.
Controller and keyboard and mouse support: I am playing this game with an Xbox 360 controller connected to my PC, but you can also use other controllers. You can also use the keyboard and mouse and it’s incredibly easy to switch between the two. While using the controller, if you hit a key on your keyboard, the game will display keyboard and mouse controls automatically. If you then hit a button on your controller, it will switch to controller controls automatically. I think this is quite impressive.
I think this is a fantastic game, I only wish there was much more of it on the PC, although the series itself has spanned various consoles and handhelds. I really do recommend this game. So far, it has been cheaper on consoles than PC, but you could wait for a good deal. When Iceborne releases for the PC, there will be a version of it that includes the base game, so you might want to wait until then. If you get the game feel free to let me know if you run into anything you need help understanding (you will), I can either explain it or point you towards some great videos. If you need some help on a quest or want to try out multiplayer, let me know, I haven't tried it yet, but I've run into quests that were designed specifically for multiplayer, so I can't complete them on my own.
