(Credit: Capcom)
Monster Hunter is a beloved series, but it wasn’t until Monster Hunter World that developer Capcom found the right balance between challenging, action-RPG combat and streamlined gameplay systems. The result was a worldwide phenomenon. World's next-gen follow-up, Monster Hunter Wilds, arrives sometime in 2025. Capcom gave us an early look at what's to come courtesy of a hands-on demo.
Call of the Wild
Our brief demo only gave us a taste of Monster Hunter Wilds’ story. You play as a trusted hunter trying to rescue a lost member of your expedition party. The final game will have multiple biomes, but our hunts mostly took place in a vast desert region full of unique wildlife and local culture. Along with your main camp, you can set up additional camps in key locations to provide nearby help.
(Credit: Capcom)The new world is a huge draw. The environments and creatures look fantastic, courtesy of Capcom's powerful RE Engine. My custom character had a Killmonger haircut. Natural weather cycles also dictate how and when monsters roam the open map. During one hunt, my target was struck by a convenient lightning bolt. In the past, Monster Hunter games have chased realism to the point of frustration. Remember having to physically throw a paintball just to track a monster on your map? But Monster Hunter Wilds instead adds elements to make the game more immersive, not more annoying.
Monster Hunter Wilds continues to blend single-player and multiplayer co-op. As a solo player, I explored the land after a quest ended, and harvested monster parts for weapons and armor. Some solo quests dynamically begin once you’ve done enough damage to a nearby beast. But once the fight is on, you can send off an SOS flare to recruit online human hunters or offline CPU hunters to assist in the battle. It’s useful to have a distraction when you try to heal, sharpen your weapon, or avoid getting eaten.
(Credit: Capcom)Focused Fury
Monster Hunter games are like Pokémon in that they usually opt for incremental upgrades rather than huge sweeping changes. I adored Monster Hunter Rise because enough of those small tweaks equaled a meaningful whole. So I quickly fell back into a similar rhythm with Monster Hunter Wilds. Initially, the game didn't feel much different. Still, it's fun, and features new ideas that improve the beast-slaying experience.
All 14 weapons return, including my beloved Hunting Horn. These weapons have so much depth that I didn’t have time to study all the differences, but bashing enemies with a musical instrument while playing songs that buff your stats remains a great time. Your mount can also carry a second weapon if you want more variety. In the middle of battle, I switched over to the speedy Dual Blades, draining my stamina to unleash even more attacks with Demon Mode.
Speaking of mounts, you now ride into battle on giant chickens called Seikrets. These beasts are fast, flexible, and agile. By running across plains, climbing up walls, hopping between cliffs, and gliding through the air, they make it a breeze to fluidly travel through the world. They can automatically take you to a target, although the demo's pathfinding wasn’t always reliable. You still rely on your trusty feline Palico helper, too. However, Monster Hunter Rise's high-flying wirebugs do not make a return.
In case one monster isn’t enough, the demo had us battle an entire herd of fuzzy behemoths called Doshaguma. The secret to success was using the secondary projectile weapon, the Slinger, to launch a stinky dung bomb that scatters the pack so you focus on the alpha. The Slinger also let us take down lesser flying pests with one shot.
The familiar fighting receives a nice perk with the manual focus ability. Like aiming down sights in a shooter, Focus Mode lets you precisely target a monster’s body part or guard from an attack at the right angle. Monster Hunter has always rewarded players for striking weak points, but Focus Mode makes that process more obvious with giant glowing wounds. Like Dragon’s Dogma, Wilds let me sneak up on a target, grab its back, and strike a weak spot while it thrashed around. That’s just plain satisfying.
(Credit: Capcom)The Monster Hunt Continues
I was once the biggest Monster Hunter hater on the block, with Rise being the first game in the series I can tolerate. So the fact that I enjoyed my time with Monster Hunter Wilds is a massive triumph on Capcom's part. It’d be nice if the full game featured even more dramatic changes, but Capcom won’t mess up the formula that’s enthralled the Monster Hunter faithful for years. We’ll find out for sure when Monster Hunter Wilds releases in 2025 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.