Savior Gaming

I have a weird history with the Monster Hunter series in the past. I never loved or hated them, which is probably why I played a few. I jumped at the chance to play the Monster Hunter World Beta, but I wasn’t in any real hurry to buy the full release. After playing the beta it was simply another Monster Hunter game for me. It still is by the way, and before anyone jumps on me admittedly it is the best Monster Hunter I have played, Monster Hunter World is still Monster Hunter.

The idea is still the same as always, kill stuff, get new gear, kill more stuff repeat. This isn’t a bad thing, its what the series is. It is why the fan base plays the game and it looks and plays better than it ever has before. The game is stunningly beautiful and the controls are more fluid than they have ever been. Tho seeing creatures disappear inside of rocks and stuff just to smack the hell out of me when the lunge or spin out will always piss me off. Don’t worry tho, its not a bug it’s a feature.  There are some things most reviews I have seen don’t mention, so those are what I will focus on. The game is grind heavy, and I do mean HEAVY. You can spend hours just farming for items to build weapons and armor you need to make equipment you need at the higher level hunts. So if you are easily discouraged or simply hate that sort of thing, this may not be for you.

While there is a story to Monster Hunter World, its very basic and isn’t why most people play the game. If you are looking for a well written in depth story, you probably won’t consider this to be it. It isn’t bad by the way, but its really only about 30 hours or so and doesn’t exactly have a ton of twist and turns. It is almost like a tutorial to introduce you to the mechanics and ease you into why people play the monster hunter series, which is to hunt huge monsters with huge weapons and create characters capable of killing them.

Monster Hunter World is the most approachable game in the series, but it isn’t exactly approachable for casual players. That isn’t to say the game us hard or impossible but it does take some getting used to and practice. You aren’t likely to have success picking random hunts and mashing buttons while picking armor and weapons you think look cool. I have a friend that tries that and keeps asking me to help him kill stuff, then fails the hunt when stuff one shot kill him. He gets a pissed and I tell him why he dies then he doesn’t listen anyway, and it makes me laugh. Anyway, for me the game isn’t worth $60, but the $20 on a sweet sale I found makes it worth it. I know others that spent $60 and never looked back. This game is one of those games that is worth different to different people specifically because of what it is. I won’t say to buy it or not, but if you can rent or play with a friend if you have never experienced the Monster Hunter series before because it is vastly different than what most people have played. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

So me and @torstenvblog have been trying to find a game to play recently, and with Dead by Daylight being free this month on PSN we started there, and well you can read to see how that went. We then said let’s try Planetside 2, which me and Torsten actually have conflicting opinions on. See he hates it and used some, colorful, terms to describe it. Full disclosure he died, a lot and often.

On the other hand there is me, I also died quite a bit to be 100% honest but unlike him I got better as time went on. The game has some huge maps, that for a free game look pretty damn good. Admittedly Warframe is still the pinnacle of free games in my opinion, in case you are looking for a bench mark. Planetside 2 also comes nowhere near that mark. The looks and sounds however are nothing to sneeze at however.

The controls function just fine as well, and in out time playing I never really had any issues that I would consider game breaking or even annoying. The layout is pretty standard, so really its hard to mess up and the aiming speed is always going to be subjective to how goo or bad it is, so tasters choice there.

The game however isn’t great and suffers from some flaws. First, it gives you no real guidance on what you should be doing. You pick a faction, but it doesn’t really tell you anything about them. I googled them prior which seems to be your only option. The game then tosses you right in with no explanation on how to even get into battle or how to really even find one. I wouldn’t call it hard to figure out, but I’ve been paying games longer than many of my readers have been alive and I mean that in a very literal way. One of my first memories is of sitting with my dad playing asteroids on Intellivision and thinking the NES was the greatest thing to ever be invented because the graphics were amazing. @torstenvblog was a bit more confused than I was, he is also a bit younger and a bit less experienced. To say its a huge problem would be an exaggeration, to say it is not a problem or could not be a problem would be a lie.

The game however with some practice and time is quite a bit of fun. I found myself using a jet pack to maneuver up a mountain to sneak around the side of a base to take a location or fighting with 5 or 6 other guys up a mountain path trying to push our way to a building wishing our idiot air support would fly over and hit something. There are long bouts of nothingness on huge maps followed by intense moments of fighting and that is where the game is very hit or miss. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.