Monster Hunter Rise PC Review
Summary: Monster Hunter Rise is a great game with an even better PC port that I believe is the best way to enjoy the game especially if you're a hardcore fan of the series that prefers to hunt monsters in the most optimal way possible.
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Monster Mayhem
Monster Hunter Rise is Capcom’s latest installment in its flagship Monster Hunter franchise. The game was released last year to massive acclaim and success, so it was of no surprise to me that Capcom announced a PC version later the same year. While I never had the opportunity to play the game on the Switch, I will say that playing the title on a much more powerful platform that is the PC has been incredibly satisfying and rewarding.
Like most Monster Hunter titles, the game starts you off by having you create your overly detailed character and an opening cutscene introducing some characters and the overarching story. Players are then given a set of hub quests to complete, which feature the traditional monster hunting quests done out in the field, and Village quests; which have players do various tasks from gathering materials to hunting more monsters for different reasons.
The first thing I appreciated about the game is its unique feudal Japan aesthetic that’s both vibrant and highly detailed. Compared to Monster Hunter World, which has significantly fewer Japanese influences in its environments and character designs, playing Rise was a breath of fresh air as each environment and character looked vastly different from the last especially with the 4K supported resolution. However, I will say that the overall graphics are less impressive compared to Monster Hunter World even while playing on full graphic settings on a new GPU. Nevertheless, being able to increase the FPS to however high you can on your PC provides an infinitely better experience for both monster hunts and overall mobility. And thankfully, I didn’t encounter any issues with the frame rate, nor did I find any other technical issues.
In terms of gameplay, Monster Hunter Rise follows the same mission structure as previous titles but adds a significant amount of original content to make things fresh. After creating your character and familiarizing yourself with Kamura Village, players will be prompted to clear some of the aforementioned Hub Quests (for standard monster hunting) and Village quests that steadily progress the story. Each monster you face for Hub Quests also has its own little narrated cut scene with heavily stylized Japanese art and fonts, which I greatly appreciated.
A great aspect of Monster Hunter Rise is that it has more mobility than the franchise’s previous titles. This is primarily thanks to the new Wirebug, a tool that allows hunters to zip across levels in a flash and greatly helps traverse all manner of terrains. The Wirebug can also be used to execute special moves and combos and can also be used to mount monsters. However, my all-time favorite component of Rise’s mobility are Palamutes (doggos), the hunter’s best friend and loyal companion who you can not only mount to traverse the map faster but will also help you in fights without being a burden as you thankfully don’t have to constantly heal them mid-fights. Palamutes and Wirebugs are perhaps one of the best inclusion in the series and are a great way to alleviate Monster Hunter World’s previous issue of slow mobility.
As for the monsters themselves, I was delighted to find that Monster Hunter Rise has a great collection of old and new monsters. The first set of monsters includes small-scale and lower-level monsters like the new Great Izuchi that usually don’t take too much effort or time to beat, especially if you’re a seasoned Monster Hunter player. Go farther in the game and rank up enough, however, and you’ll be facing new and deadly monsters such as the fearsome Magnamalo and Elder Dragons like the Wind Serpent Ibushi. These monsters provide the game’s true challenge and are usually more fun (and easier) when playing with friends. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the luxury of having friends to play with, as I found literally zero other players in the build I received.
Each monster also has its own unique special moves and attacks. Most of the attacks from the earlier monsters are easy to avoid, while the latter monsters have attacks that can be really irritating if you aren’t paying attention to them.
Then there are Rampage Quests which play out like a pseudo tower defense mission where players will face off against multiple waves of monsters to protect Kamura Village, mostly with high artillery weapons such as the bow gun, a lot of NPC help, and some handy traps. Rampage Quests play unlike any other mode in the series and serve as a nice distraction from the rest of the game, especially as they thankfully aren’t too tedious.
Additionally, the game, believe it or not, also has a main story that’ll take about ten to fifteen hours to beat. While the story isn’t as impressive, nor does it have as much detail as Monster Hunter World, it does have its fair share of brilliant moments. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that the PC version also comes with full controller support (which thankfully works), optimized keyboard and mouse controls, and full ultrawide display support.
Final Thoughts?
Overall, Monster Hunter Rise is a great game with an even better PC port that I believe is the best way to enjoy the game especially if you’re a hardcore fan of the series that prefers to hunt monsters in the most optimal way possible.
About the Author
Abdul Saad Abdul Saad is a seasoned entertainment journalist and critic, and has been writing for five years on multiple gaming sites. When he isn't writing or playing the latest JRPG, he can be found coding games of his own or tinkering with something electrical.
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