If you’re already a few hours into Monster Hunter Wilds, then you probably already know what this is all about. Whether you love the story or not, I think almost everybody agrees that the on-rails walking segments have been nothing but a nuisance, and there’s a lot of them in the game.
Long-time fans of Monster Hunter probably already know that the past entries of the franchise aren’t really known for having a “good” story. This makes me wonder: Why in the bloody heck is Capcom leaning so hard into the narrative this time around?
Call me a whiner or whatever, but I’m a fairly busy individual. I just want to hop in and hunt stuff, but each time I want to do that, I have to go through several minutes of (thankfully skippable) cutscenes and a lot of forced walking. All that for a fight that lasts just barely over the amount of time I spent on my automated stroll.
No, really, it’s completely automated. You literally don’t even have to touch any of the controls to get through the majority of these sections.
“But Frank, you can collect resources along the way!”
Sure, I do love getting a bit of honey or some nuts while I have absolutely zero agency in how I move around. This also ignores the parts where you have to reply to an NPC’s question or they force you to zoom in on something in the distance, both of which completely lock you out from grabbing stuff.
Look, the dialogue just isn’t interesting or good enough to warrant any of this being forced upon the player. I’m incredibly easy to please when it comes to writing in video games, but what we have here is just way too cheesy and juvenile for me to even pay attention to…
“But Frank, this stops being an issue at high rank!”
Cool, so just around 15-20 hours of the entire “Walk -> Fight -> More Walking & Cutscenes” gameplay loop? Why does the game have to feel like such a slog while also somehow rushing you through a railroaded sequence of events?
“Oh, we have to stick together and walk to this place at a very leisurely pace!”
“Whoopsie, there’s a big monster here. You’re authorized to slay it! Good job, hunter, now onwards to our next stroll!”
I, like many others, have to deal with this for half of my already limited playtime. At my pace, it’ll probably take me a few more days to even get a whiff of just pure hunting gameplay. It’s what I play this game for, and unfortunately, I’ll just have to keep chipping away at the (in my opinion) boring story to experience it.
I’m Loving the Actual Gameplay Though
I’m not gonna act like I’m viewing the game through rose-tinted goggles. I started with World and had a ton of fun with Rise, so I’m a relatively new fan to the franchise. The thing is, though, I have friends who have been MH players since the PSP days, and they have the exact same complaints when it comes to the on-rails stuff.
Setting aside the handholdy guided tour of a story, the actual monster hunting gameplay is absolutely a blast, which is the only thing keeping me hooked. I’ve been breezing through the low rank monsters with a hunting horn, and I don’t see myself trying any other weapons for a long time… Okay, maybe I’ll have a hammer as a backup just to keep the “bonk” theme going.
This isn’t really a review but rather a quick rant as I play through the LR content. I’ll probably do a full write-up of my thoughts once I’ve clocked in hours into the HR stuff, but no guarantees. For now though, I do believe that Wilds is a great game, it’s just unfortunate that the real “meat” of it is gated behind such a dull and annoying experience.
EDIT: Well, I found time to no-life it today since I’ve been kinda sick and stuck at home anyway. I finally rolled the credits so I can say that I’m free to finally play the game without any of these slow story-related restrictions. As I’m typing this update, the cutscene that’s playing is setting up the HR stuff, so yay!
Nothing I said up to this point has changed though, but I am glad that all of that is finally behind me. Let’s hope Capcom listens to the feedback and stops with the momentum-killing slow walk segments when the inevitable expansion finally rolls out.
