When it comes to the Monster Hunter series, I must admit I arrived at the party a little late. For years, I bypassed these games, primarily because they were confined to handheld consoles that just didn’t pique my interest. Plus, if I’m being honest, the graphics didn’t appear too enticing.
Monster Hunter World was my gateway into this universe, and it’s safe to say that it was love at first hunt. Ever since, I’ve been a devoted fan. As I reach over two dozen hours into Wilds, I chose to bulldoze through the main campaign before diving deep into sidequests. Sadly, that part of the experience left a bit to be desired.
Let’s be real: the campaigns in Monster Hunter aren’t celebrated for their intricate plots. They function more like elaborate tutorials, slowly introducing you to the plethora of systems and mechanics you’ll be mastering over hundreds of hours. They essentially act as a grand tour of each game’s ecosystem.
The formula is familiar: your team sets out to chase down some elusive creature disrupting various regions. As you close in, other beasts get in your way until you eventually decipher the chaos en route to facing your main target. After that climactic encounter, you’re ushered into High Rank, where the true Monster Hunter experience unfolds.
This general outline holds true for both the campaigns in Wilds and World. Yet, it’s the finer details that differentiate a captivating adventure from one that barely registers.
World’s campaign thrived because of its narrative drive. Enter Zorah Magdaros, a behemoth so mammoth it required an entire community to even dare to slow it down. The campaign stretched the imagination of what encounters could be like in Monster Hunter. While many players weren’t fans, given the often tedious tasks of building defenses and loading cannons to whittle down Zorah’s health, I found these elements to be refreshing.
These segments deviated from standard play, which was just what the campaign needed to break any potential monotony. Plus, Zorah’s trek through the game world wasn’t just for show; each step forward unlocked new areas and showcased the impact on local ecosystems. The narrative kept you guessing, maintaining enigma right up until the end about Zorah’s true purpose, lending an urgency and intrigue to the storyline.
Now, let’s switch gears to the Wilds campaign. Here, you won’t find a Zorah-type phenomenon looming large. Arkveld, the headliner beast, makes intermittent appearances that baffle the characters, only to promptly disappear until the plot decides it’s time for its return. In a peculiar twist, it’s not even the final challenge—that honor goes to a sleeping giant introduced just a mission before the curtain falls.
The campaign lacks the sense of unity and urgency that comes from diverse groups banding together to tackle a shared threat. Monster introductions in this iteration seem almost haphazard, as if they were shoehorned in without much finesse, appearing suddenly in missions requiring you to confront them on the spot.
It feels as though there was a connective tissue among the characters and stories that got lost somewhere along the way. Hints of deeper developments are sprinkled throughout NPC dialogues and cinematic snippets, yet these threads never fully unravel.
Even the subplot of a bygone civilization undone by its own weather-altering tech fizzles out, coming off more like a fragmented narrative better suited for a lore compendium.
The Wilds campaign, in many ways, mirrors the primary issues plaguing the core game: an overemphasis on accessibility at the expense of losing its unique allure and rugged charm.
While we may soon forget the Wilds main campaign, as more highs and lows of the game come to light, one can’t help but ponder the potential of a true sequel to World’s campaign.
