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While we haven’t experienced a shortage of Monster Hunter games, World and Wilds are the talk of the moment due to their similarities and differences. Yes, there was Rise in between them, but that’s the odd sheep of the family. World and Wilds bring the “true” Monster Hunter experience, with monster-tracking, a better world structure, environmental traps, and others. While they have many things in common, there are a few key differences that might make one much better than the other.
1. Combat and Weapon Mechanics
Many fans will tell you that combat hasn’t changed between Monster Hunter titles, but that’s not true. Fighting has improved a lot in every entry, with Wilds being one that has brought a lot of new additions. For starters, the new Focus Mode. This mechanic lets you aim with precision at monster parts and lets you destroy wounds to do a lot of damage. But beyond that, almost all weapons got new things under their sleeves.
For instance, Sword and Shield attacks are more responsive regarding their directional inputs. Longsword has a new combo that you can spam for ridiculous amounts of damage. The bow adds new tracer shots that make all your arrows home in one location. I could go on and on about every single weapon change, but in short, combat has never looked or felt better. Even if some miss the additions that Rise brought, the combat in Wilds is, by far, the best in the franchise.
2. The World and Mission Structure
For the unaware, Monster Hunter games have always had a hub structure where players post quests and then deploy into a zone to hunt a monster. This isn’t bad at all, especially because it makes sense in terms of the story and whatnot. However, Wilds is changing the formula considerably by adding a semi-open-world structure to its quests and game progression.
Now, you can start quests from the field and leave the hub at any time without loading screens. If you don’t want to post a quest, you can find a monster and start the quest after engaging it. It may not seem like a big deal, but fans of the series will love this smooth transition without having to spend a lot of time watching loading screens. Furthermore, you can continue exploring the zone after a hunt ends. You can even explore the area without needing to start a mission of sorts. This makes Monster Hunter Wilds one of the most refreshing entries regarding its exploration mechanics.
3. Visuals and Character Customization
Monster Hunter games have always boasted an excellent character customization feature that just gets better with every entry. In Wilds, the character creator menu has received a lot of additions, making it one of the beefiest in the franchise and one of the best Capcom has ever released. There is a new “blend” feature that lets you pick between two face parts to create one and even shape it as you see fit. You can edit almost every part of your character and create the ultimate or hottest hunter.
Also, the visuals have never looked as great, but that feels like a double-edged Great Sword. On the one hand, the new environments look fantastic, with weather changing in real-time and other additions to make the world feel more alive. On the other hand, it’s been taxing for some PC users. If you have a NASA-like computer, you might enjoy the game at its fullest. However, it will take a miracle for those with a potato PC to run this. Still, the environments and visuals in Wilds are much better than anything we saw in World.
4. The Mount System Is the Best Ever
Palamute and Iceborne mounts weren’t bad at all. However, the Seikret has become a fan-favorite ever since it was revealed. Beyond being a bird-like creature with an excellent auto-pilot system, its mobility is great, and even at the fastest speed, controlling it is easy. The great thing about it is that it finally lets you carry another weapon that you can swap on the fly. You just call your Seikret, mount it real quick, and grab your other weapon while your Palico is distracting the monster or getting pummeled by it.
For gatherers, the Seikret is also great. You can grab almost every item while riding it. We’ve seen some Seikret customization options already in trailers, but we’re unsure about how deep this feature goes. Hopefully, it will be as deep as the one for Palicoes because we’d all love to show off our different-looking Seikret when hunting with others.
5. Cross-Platform and Crossplay At Launch
This may be old news for players, but it is something that deserves a mention. In previous games, you could only play with hunters on the same platform. However, Wilds has shown its new crossplay system since the beta period, which players have loved. From what we experienced in the beta, the system has only a few minor issues, but nothing too bad. There’s a delay on the host’s side sometimes, which can lead to some monsters freezing mid-fight. Yet, it is playable enough and, most importantly, quite stable.
So far, players have not reported any major hiccups with the systems, but we’ll have to wait for the game’s full launch to see how deep this feature goes. Also, creating lobbies is still a bit of a frustrating thing, but at least we have cross-platform and crossplay, so that’s more than we could ask for. We’ll call that a win as long as we don’t get disconnected often through a fight.
