Good afternoon, ladies, gentlemen and those of a non-binary nature! My name is Daibhi and this is the Gamerhub. Monster Hunter Wilds released on the 28th of February 2025, and by the time of writing, it’s already Capcom’s fastest selling game in history. It’s sold 8 million units already across both console and PC, and we gave you our first impressions before the weekend. It’s fair to say that we liked it at the beginning, and now, with a crazy amount of hours logged in and a slightly dishevelled me having completed the game, we ask: Is it really that good? I would put a TLDR here, but in fairness, a full review is required. So, without further ado, let’s dive right in and review this beauty.
Plot
I can’t really talk too much about the main core of the plot, simply because the game is less than 4 weeks’ old, and this review is designed to make you at least considering buying yourself a copy of this game. But I’m not going to waste a glorious few inches telling you that plot embargoes suck eggs: I’ll do my best to give you a spoiler free summary of the plot, and then talk about how it’s structured. Apparently, I’m nice like that. You play as an adventurer in a group of people who go on a search through a previously uninhabited part of the Old World to search and deal with a monster. That monster was previously thought to be myth, and it’s your job to make the titular wilds safer for human habitation.
The plot is very uniquely structured, with a big part of this happening in the post-game, and I’ll rant a little about the structure later, but it is worth playing through after the credits for that twist. I won’t ruin it here, and I’d advise you not to spoil it for yourself. However, if you’re the curious type, Ecosia is your friend.
Gameplay
When I suggested that this game is likely to win Game Of The Year in the first impressions, I wasn’t kidding around here. It’s the gameplay of this beautiful thing that makes it so danged addictive. I have spent wayyyyy past my allotted gaming time with this game, and is it because of the plot? Nope. Is it the graphics? No, but the graphics are amazing. It’s the gameplay. Let’s start with the basics, and I’ll walk you through how f**king good this gameplay is [Editor’s note- I’ve had Daibhi rewrite this twice due to his bad language usage].
Monster Hunter: Wilds is a third person action-adventure RPG that is heavily boosted by the game’s unique mechanics. Firstly, there’s an aid called The Seikret. The Seikret is an amazing doohickey in the form of a mount. This mount helps you evade dangerous situation and works as a pathfinder and compass to help you get through what is honestly one of the biggest open worlds I’ve ever seen in a video game. Don’t try the Dunkirk Spirit (running like hell) in a battle situation though. Monster Hunter Wilds will make you actually have to battle through, unless you’re woefully unprepared. Gamers, that was me multiple times until I got my head around how to play this game properly. It’s fair to say that I don’t naturally pick these types of games up well and The Seikret really helps out in this situation. You can duel wield weapons from the very start of this game, and you get access to all the weapons you had during Monster Hunter: Worlds.
The weapons aren’t the only thing that come back for this game, either. The Slinger comes back with a few tweaks, and this becomes something of a crutch towards the end of the post-game. It helps you forage through the environment for useful crafting items, but it has an even better trick up it’s sleeve: The Slinger triggers environmental traps and helps with interactions with unfamiliar environments. I got wayyyy too reliant on The Slinger at the earlier moments, and that came to bite me later on. Gamers, don’t be me. Be smart and vary your playstyle through several types, taking note of the time of day, and you won’t be me halfway through the post-game, wondering why nothing works the way I want it to.
There’s something else to mention about combat: Focus Mode. Take a pinch of the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS) from Fallout, a bit of the planning skit from Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr and blend it with Detective Vision from the Batman Arkham games, and you have the right idea. This game won’t guide you to killing monsters though, and taking out a not so tim’rous beastie requires forethought and planning. I’d advise really wounding one limb before using Focus Mode, as you’ll see why with the results. It will make the earlier game easier, but you’ll appreciate why afterwards.
Finally, the monsters. I mentioned in the first impressions that I had a Jurassic Park moment with this game, and it’s true. It’s damn true. In the sense that the monsters really do move in herds. You can spend ages on just watching and observing how the monsters behave in packs and have herd mentality, and I honestly spent a good while doing so, channelling my inner Dr Alan Grant. If you’re doing the Pokémon thing though, and hunting every type of monster in the game in order to catalogue them all, this won’t help you. A lot of things will change what spawns around you. From the time of day, to whether you’re mounted on The Seikret or not, to even the weather! It’s best to really vary your approach here.
Soundtrack
If this game doesn’t win a Grammy in 2025/26, it’ll be both a great travesty and a condemnation of how The Grammys work and are judged. This game’s soundtrack is already topping Spotify charts, and it really doesn’t surprise me one iota. The music for this game is incredible: enough for me to recommend you get your setup some seriously good quality speakers. Seriously, I don’t have BOSE speakers with my setups, but the music in this game is good enough that I found myself scouring Gumtree and Shpock to find some. If you’re using a console and have the associated headphones, for the love of the Konami code, use them. Your ears will benefit from the sonorous sounds of a full orchestra and synths. To put a quantifiable measure on it, this game might just have the best soundtrack of a video game since Marvel’s Spider-Man. Yes, it’s that good.
Graphics
If any game is going to make you ditch a console for a PC, Monster Hunter: Wilds is that game. Let’s deal with the consoles first: This game looks phenomenal on both the PS5 and Xbox Series family of consoles. Looking at how this works on a Xbox Series S, this game got real performance out of my console. It was jaw dropping to see how much detail could be packed into the game, despite the file size.
However, it’s blown out of the freaking water compared to how good it looks on a medium spec gaming PC. Dear lord, this game is unlike anything I’ve ever seen on a PC. You can pinpoint individual hairs on the fur of The Pelicot with the PC. The reflections are crisp, and it looks like something from two years into our future. This is going to be the game that ages like a fine wine or a good whisky from Scotland, in my opinion. There is a drawback- even on a mid-spec PC, this game makes my hardware sound like a rocket taking off, but the difference in graphics was totally worth it.
Final thoughts
This game might already be my personal game of the year, which is terrifying considering we’re barely out of February. It more than earns that from a riveting plot with a great twist, a superb soundtrack which deserves all of the awards and some ludicrously great graphics. There are a couple of drawbacks- A lot of the more important plot beats happen in the post-game, which is weird to say the least, and the graphical demands of playing this game make your hardware noisy. Other than that, this game is nigh-on perfect, and genuinely the best thing Capcom have put out in years.
I give this game 4.8/5 Joysticks
For The Gamerhub, I’ve been Daibhi and you are all legends.
Now, where can I get this soundtrack on CD? Are CD’s a thing still? Is there a tape cassette if not?
