As we previously reported, Gamescom 2024 is the first place where the public can play Monster Hunter Wild. Luckily for me, I was pretty much the first to play the public demo of the game – and I’m here to tell you that the combat flows faster than in Monster Hunter World, and is even more dynamic than in Monster Hunter World. Compared to “Monster Hunter Rise”.
The main difference that series veterans will notice here is that there’s an extra cadence to the flow of combat when it comes to dealing damage to monsters. In the past, your combat tended to follow a fairly strict flowchart: Encounter a monster, attack it, destroy one or two parts, chase it to a new location, destroy another part, chase it again, and then capture or kill it. Obviously I’m boiling things down to the basics, but that’s the point.
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With Brawl Stars, Capcom has added a new mechanic to this familiar formula that’s more reactive and dynamic than previous mechanics in the series: Wounds. You can focus your attacks on an area to create wounds on a monster before destroying part of it. In the single player demo we saw the Chutacabra (similar to the Tetsucabra but less rocky and more like an ogre) and since I’m a sword and shield user I was tanking the front of the body and rolling to attack Its front legs and face.
Within 20 seconds I noticed some wounds appearing around these weak spots. A prompt appeared, telling me to use L2 to enter Focus Mode (the game’s big mechanical addition), then press R1 to perform a special attack that drove my sword into the monster’s face. This does massive damage, knocks it back, and gives me a Chutacabra material (one that I don’t need to carve or pick up off the floor in particular).
In terms of combat, this will give players more responsive and aggressive options if they are enthusiastic enough to engage in combat. Previously, stunning monsters, knocking them down, or breaking parts would definitely give you a good chance to deal massive damage – but now, damaging them allows you to dish out massive shots of damage in a faster, more intense way .
I haven’t experimented too much with different weapon types, but I imagine certain monsters will react differently to certain weapons – this means organizing with your team and choosing who will rip off the various types of weapons you inflict Scars will be vital and the battles more intense.
It seems like inflicting wounds and going into focus mode to exploit them also helps weaken parts of the monster so they can be destroyed after you’ve dealt the damage you want. From what I’ve seen with Chutakabra, it seems that areas of the body that can’t be damaged (in this case the flanks) can also be injured, meaning that even if you’re not attacking critical areas of the body of the beast, you will make progress in weakening the monster overall.
In my opinion, it just gives the combat more texture. It gives players more objectives and adds a whole little flowchart to the overall mode that’s made Monster Hunter so engaging across four generations of consoles (and counting).
It also raised questions for me about the pacing of weapon and armor upgrades; during my fight, I inflicted and broke nine wounds (approximately) – and received a material for each wound. Does this mean we’ll be completing the upgrade tree faster, or does it mean Capcom is speeding up the gear upgrade system in some way? That remains to be seen.
Long story; Doctor? Monster Hunter Wilderness is pretty good. Combat feels more intense and intense than ever, you have more tools at your disposal to mess with your prey, you have more control in your hands, and once you get going you’ll feel like a real Super hero, hold the weapon and lower the string. This is really going to be special and I can’t wait to play more.
Monster Hunter Wilds will launch on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC in 2025.
