Monster Hunter: World
Additional Comments
Looks like I'm 18 hours into Monster Hunter: World. I thought I was at 20, but oh well. I'm still enjoying it. Having learned how to better control my weapon (bow) has helped a lot. Now I can move and attack at the same time which, on a controller, is a lot more difficult than with keyboard and mouse IMO. Still, we fight battles with the weapons we have, not what we wish for. That may have more to do with needing to use the D-pad to cycle through potions and such. I may have to look deeper into my control settings to see if I can move that to the L1/R1 buttons or something. Awkward there, nonetheless.
I've opened the second zone, which is nice. At some point during my first major encounter in that area combat just suddenly clicked for me. I learned to move while firing and to keep my cross hair where it needs to be. Environment is playing more of a role now and I'm able to better recognize patterns in attacks. Higher monsters that would take 40 minutes to MAYBE kill now take about 15. I learned how to sprint too, so that's useful. lol?
This really does have a lot in common with WoW as far as questing grinding and material collecting, and I enjoy that mostly. Minor (ha! miner? any chance for a Galaxy Quest reference!) issues consist of material locations. Unlike WoW, the spawn points for your mats are static. They will always appear in the same location after a period of time. While Warcraft mostly did too, it was still random as to if the mining deposits would appear or not so you were forced to constantly be on the move, else wasting too much time waiting while another player loots the next deposit. Not the case here. Just run a few patterns on the map and you have everything, and that quickly becomes boring. Still, the environment is HUGE and layered. The other night I accidentally crawled through a vine cluster to find a pathway up, up, and up. After about 10 minutes of following this trail I ended well above the zone's jungle canopy in a nest of possible the strongest alpha monster in this zone. The scream of this beast alone was enough to literally immobilize my character in fear before it turned away and left me alone. Clearly it felt no threat from me.
There appears to be an interesting dynamic at work on that point. I could be wrong, but it does seem as though some creatures sense fear and are sizing me up as a competitor or prey. All monsters run at some point, but there are layers to that. Creatures run from each other too. Or attack each other. There is a simulated ecosystem here where you can find alpha monsters eating lesser monsters. You can then see the hollowed corpse left behind and look inside the cavity remains by adjusting your camera POV. Interesting stuff. But while the environments are large and populated by a wide variety of creatures, plant and insect life (you can collect bugs to use as fishing bait, btw), all these lesser creatures spawn similarly to the collectible materials noted earlier. That is to say even if you kill them, within 5-10 minutes, they will re-spawn in the same exact location.
I suppose the balance there is that you are nudged to enter new zones, assuming you're tracking along the assigned quests and story so you probably won't notice. Or at the very least, not pay too much attention to it as your environments and goals will continually progress. For me though, I enjoy exploring; and after the first few primer quests, you are allowed to do so at will (though you are limited to explore only zones that have been opened via the questing progression, so yeah. they do set you up to not stay in one place for too long). Yes, I am still discovering new caves, vines to climb to higher platforms, etc., but I am already damn sick of seeing the same lower level creatures only in their few designated areas.
Cats are everywhere, so whatever gripes I have are balanced with that.
Higher level monsters do much better in that aspect as they freely roam the map, at least within the zone they are allowed to roam through. Too, it looks that while there are alpha-level interactions that play out randomly (mean two monsters attacking each other when their migrating paths intersect), some feel staged. It's subtle and that is not a complaint. On the contrary actually! My first quest and monster encounter in this second zone set me up for a huge fight that was interrupted by another alpha monster. At a point, both monsters' attention was only on each other, allowing me to safely run in taking shots as I please. The interference eventually revealed a huge sand trap that the three of us fell into continuing the battle below in some cavernous sub-zone. I'm sure such events are well known as has been a marketing point for all videos that I've seen of the game, but there really is nothing that I can say that could prepare you for the level of awe in watching a T-rex looking titan attack another right in front of you as if you were as insignificant as an ant. Because, well, you are. Add to that staged environment destruction where these epic battles literally destroy small plateaus and the earth beneath your feet, things really feel alive.
Good news is that though I may be slowly finding monotony in the grind, a story is just starting to take shape in this new zone. This looks promising and will be a good distraction from the pattern in repeating these kill quests.
Sorry for lack of pics. I need to figure out how to capture my ps4 screens.
Last edited by ynwtf; 03-22-19 at 09:41 PM.