Monster Hunter Wildsis in dire straits. Released in February tolargely positive critical reviews, its public perception has rapidly declined in the months since. Performance issues, a lack of content, and frustrating events - it’s yet to live up to previous entries in the series, and without a lot of change (and soon) it’ll likely continue lagging behind.
MH Wildshas now officially dropped to an Overwhelmingly Negative consensusamid recent reviews on Steam. Players are deeply frustrated with it on multiple fronts, and it doesn’t show signs of improving - but that doesn’t mean it’s too late. Addressing these ten common areas of criticism would helpMonster Hunter Wildsstart to recoup its negative perception, but it’ll have to show some real growth soon to improve its rating.
1Monster Hunter Wilds Needs Better Optimization On All Platforms
But Especially On PC
If you scroll through the Steam reviews forMonster Hunter Wilds,one of the most common complaints you’ll notice is that the game runs poorly. Frame rate dips are a near-constant struggle, strange glitches turn NPCs into low-poly nightmares, and many players report having lowered their settings or upgraded their GPUs only to see no marked improvement.
This issue has existed since the game launched, and has onlygotten worse with each successive update.Monster Hunter Wildslooks great, but it’s not the most graphically impressive game to have come out in the last few years -if it’s going to keep up, it needs a sweeping performance update. Ideally, this should encompass all platforms, but PC is especially in need of a fix.
2Monster Hunter Wilds Needs To Stop Crashing
A PC-Exclusive Issue
Crashes may be somewhat less common forMonster Hunter Wildsplayers, but they’re still an ever-present issue.Many players report the game crashing almost constantly, every few minutes with only a little bit of exaggeration. It also has a tendency to crash at pivotal moments, like after accepting a new quest or crafting a new weapon. This can obviously be frustrating, especially if you’re playing with friends and have to go through the motions of reconnecting to the server after your game goes down.
This has yet to be addressed in any ofWilds' updates thus far - at least one player suggestedthe issue was unfixable, likely because of some inherent issue in the RE Engine. Either way,Capcom needs to continue its efforts to prevent crashes and improve performance.
3Monster Hunter Wilds Needs To Let The FOMO Go
Arch-Tempered Monsters Need To Be Permanent
Some players have expressed frustration withMonster Hunter Wilds' event structure,accusing it of stoking FOMO(“fear of missing out”) by adding certain creatures to the game for limited amounts of time. These complaints are generally focused on Arch-tempered monsters, special variants that reward extra streamstones and vouchers for gamma gear. They’re an important part of the endgame, but that doesn’t work when you have limited time to hunt them.
Capcom has begun to address this complaint, making two Arch-tempered monsters permanent (Uth Duna andRey Dau, so far). It’s also considering making future Arch-tempered monsters permanent fixtures in the game after special event quests. That’s a great start, but this trend needs to continue to sustainMonster Hunter Wilds' endgame in the long term.
4Monster Hunter Wilds Needs Bigger Non-FOMO Events
The Funnel Effect
Don’t get me wrong -Monster Hunter Wildshas events pretty much constantly. But these are mostly limited to a few quests, which refresh every couple of weeks. These are perfectly fine - some of them are fun enough, and they often grant interesting rewards with plenty of time to earn them.
But I’d encourageMH Wildsto get, well, wilder with its event quests. Big, unique concepts that materially change the game for all players as long as they stick around would be a great way to sustain interest in the game, potentially helping bolster its currently lacking endgame. Just as long as they don’t rely on FOMO to get players in the door, they can go in almost any creative direction.
5Monster Hunter Wilds Needs More Large Monsters
Expand The Roster
Monster Hunter Wildshas 29 large monsters. That’s by no means a small number, but when we consider just how much biodiversity the previous entry incorporated,it starts to pale in comparison. There are 46 different large monster species inMonster Hunter Rise, and 71 inWorld(including theIceborneDLC).
TheMonster Huntergame with the most large monster types isGenerations Ultimate, with 93 different species to hunt.
Again, this is something Capcom’s been working on; it’s added a handful of new large monsters in updates since launch. That said,this will need to be a sustained effortin order to makeWilds' roster comparable to things likeWorldandRise- and it’d be nice if most of the new monsters were added for free instead of paid DLC.
6Monster Hunter Wilds Needs To Be Harder Overall
Story Monsters Should Pose A Bigger Challenge
Monster Hunter Wildsneeds a big balance fix in general, tipping the scales in the monsters' favor.Monster Hunteras a series has historically been known for its difficulty; its combat was a major inspiration for From Software in the development of its crushingly difficultDark Soulsseries. More recent games have curbed that characteristic difficulty a bit in order to rope in new players, and there’s value in that.
ButWildsis way too easy, right up until the moment it’s not. The story monsters go down too quickly, and you’re basically forced to blow right past them to enjoy the endgame challenge. I’d like to see a little more friction inserted into the main story, so that you’re not blindsided by the difficulty once you finish it.
7Monster Hunter Wilds Needs More Out-Of-Combat Friction
A Survival Game Through & Through
But it goes beyond sheer combat difficulty:Wildsalso oversimplifies way too many ofMonster Hunter’s core gameplay mechanics, which has a tendency to make it boring. Seikrets run you automatically towards your target, sharpening is fast enough that you can do it in combat, and item drop rates are generally way too high.
Ultimately,I’d like to seeMonster Hunter Wildsembrace the survival aspects of the series a little moreby making gameplay aspects like these slower and more difficult. As the title implies, we’re stuck in unfamiliar, wild terrain - it’d only make sense if it were occasionally a little harder to get by. This would make the actual exploration and hunting of it all a little more engaging, although I doubt it’ll be implemented any time soon.
8Monster Hunter Wilds Needs A Skill Shake-Up
Limited Function & Weapon Integration
Monster Hunter Wildsrepresents a pretty massive change to how skills work in the series. Now, skills are more closely tied to weapons than to armor, and most weapons have intrinsic skills that can’t be changed or removed. In general, there’s less variety among skills, too, and you have fewer skill slots to work with as a result of the new system.
Unfortunately, this takes a lot of the customization out ofWilds. Your options for character builds are severely limited, leaving you locked into a single playstyle that depends entirely on your chosen weapon.Wildsneeds a huge change to how skills work, perhaps changing how decoration slots work, or adding new options for customization to expand the number of viable builds for each weapon.
9Monster Hunter Wilds Needs To De-Emphasize Focus Mode
Focus & Wounds Are Boring
Monster Hunter Wildsintroduces Focus mode, a new combat function thatallows you to target specific parts of a monster’s body. This has various effects: repeatedly strike the same part of the monster, and you’ll create a Wound, which, once destroyed, deals massive damage. This also makes it easier to target specific parts for destruction, or to exploit a weakness.
This is an interesting system, butit’s ultimately detrimental toWilds' gameplay. It makes combat too simple, and weakens weapons that don’t specialize in accuracy. Certain iconic moves are locked behind it, too, which makes them annoying to relearn and frustrating to use. I’d like to see future monsters counter or complicate Focus mode in new and unique ways.
10Monster Hunter Wilds Needs More Transparency
What’s Next?
Now, I’ve listed a whole host of different updates here. But I’m mostly just parroting what I, as a longtimeMonster Hunterplayer, want to see inWilds, and what I’ve heard from other players. Capcom has already started addressing many of these concerns, but not all of them - some of them, it’ll probably never take action on. And that’s okay. That said,I hope for continued transparency about what’s next forWildsin the future.
Capcom is already heading down that path, having responded directly to the player request for permanent Arch-tempered monsters with an affirmation and a timeline. I hope to see more of that type of direct communication in the future - knowing when a fix is coming will make players more patient with the game’s flaws. AsMonster Hunter Wildsgradually takes steps towards improvement, I hope Capcom keeps us posted on each and every one of them.
