Developer: Capcom
Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Release Date: February 25, 2025
Pre-order: Best Buy
If 2018’s Monster Hunter World showed that Capcom’s intense and thrilling beast-slaying series can take a step into a massive world and thrive, the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds proves the popular series can go even bigger. As the franchise’s first true open-world game, Monster Hunter Wilds brings the series’ craft, track, and hunt loop into a larger space, letting players explore its vast world, adapt to changing battles, and face more significant challenges that tap deeper into the experience of being a hunter surviving the wilds.
The main thrill of playing Monster Hunter is the rush of the chase, and from my time playing Wilds, that aspect felt all the more potent now that the game is set in a more seamless world unburdened by loading screens and towns outside the boundaries of the playfield. Playing with a full squad of hunters, we chased after an Alpha Doshaguma and its pack. As we whittled down the lesser foes, the main beast took some swipes at us and fled further into the nearby desert. Just then, a massive sandstorm took place and cut down visibility. Despite the challenges, our unity and teamwork were never stronger. Eventually we caught up to the fleeing beast, but another monster roaming the area got into a fight with our target, creating an unexpectedly more complex battle for us to contend with. Not long after, a powerful lighting storm kicked in.
I was so impressed with what I played of Wilds, which feels like the dynamic and sprawling experience the series has been slowly building toward over the last two decades. The game’s systems fit so well within the structure of a dynamic open world, and the full-on weather storms barreling down on my squad and me were so cool to see in action, not to mention a bit nerve-wracking.
