Monster Hunter World Beta

Daily Ramble 135: Trying it Out

With a look at the trailers yesterday, I had the opportunity to actually play the beta today.

And things were pretty fun. Character creation was pretty good for a PS4 game and I liked the extra touch of creating a kitty alter ego too. The idea seems to be that if you run a quest that needs more that one character or are in a multiplayer game that has too few actual players, the cat joins in as an extra hunter. It’s pretty cool and I got to experience it in one of the multiplayer matches I played.

While my character shows a big axe, I used a hunter’s bow in each of the quests I played. I figured since I’m new to the game it’d be better to try to stay as far away as I could from the creatures I was hunting and I think that was smart. While there are methods of evasion and dodging, I wasn’t very good at them and only avoided getting run over by the Great Jagras when I was able to keep my distance.

Since this was just a beta and I didn’t have a lot of time to play I didn’t get into the crafting but it was clear that you can find materials in the forest and from monsters you’ve killed that you can use to make weapons, armor, ammo, and other stuff that’ll help you in the long run. And the impression I got is that there is a level progression that opens up harder and bigger monsters to hunt. While I didn’t try out the single player mode, I did go into the training area where I got to try out the dozen or so weapon that were available. They each had their own special attacks and abilities and that was pretty cool but I worry that I’d have trouble remembering all the buttons to press for the special combos.

On the whole I enjoyed the game. I’m not 100% sold on it but I’d have no problem getting it if my buddies were interested in playing. I’d like to see what the leveling progression brings and what kind of long term growth and exploration there is. As well, I only saw a couple maps but I’d like to know if there are larger maps, more maps, or if there is more of a world to explore.