Monster Hunter is one of CAPCOM’s oldest IPs, alongside titles like Mega-Man, and Resident Evil. The title allows players to live out the most authentic journey of hunting vicious beasts of various forms, shapes, and sizes across various lands. Monster Hunter Rise literally elevates players to new heights and new mechanics never seen in the series before, and with the release on all the PlayStation and Xbox consoles, the fun is now truly global. In our Monster Hunter Rise Review, we’ll take a look at the console release for the already exceptional title.
Introduction
Monster Hunter Rise was originally released for the Nintendo Switch in 2021 and later for the PC in 2022. There was no news of the title coming to the PlayStation or Xbox Consoles at the time, but despite the hardware on the switch, the title was easily one of the most memorable and dynamic entries to the series to date. Introducing the ability for players to Wirebugs, which is a massive game changer when fighting monsters.
The addition of easing traversal with the Palamutes, the ability to use items while you’re fighting, and other minor changes make this the most impactful entry in the series yet.
Story
There isn’t much of a story to Monster Hunter games. You immediately take on the titular role in the title after a very lengthy and detailed tutorial and are thrown to your first monster in a matter of half an hour. From here, you will now journey far and wide, hunting monsters for sport, quests, and whatever other purposes you feel fit for your adventure.
You can take on these challenges by yourself, with friends, or even with random people via matchmaking, but we find that playing with friends will always yield better results, especially later in the game for the more challenging monsters.
There is a story here, but it is just there to help segway you towards bigger and more deadly monsters, new areas, and other parts of the game. It’s not as deep or rooted as other single-player adventure titles, but that is the appeal of the game itself. You can pick up and get right into fighting without caring about the narration detracting from you.
Gameplay
The gameplay is still the same rinse-and-repeat formula from previous games, but with an added twist. Wirebugs are a new way for your character to move above enemies or to new places in the world. The best way to describe it would be a miniature Bat-Grapple of sorts. You have 2 charges of these at the start of the game, you can also collect more in the wild, but once used, will not return back.
When you’re taking on regular mobs, these are shorter encounters that last a few minutes and are quick for getting supplies and pelts. However, the proper monsters and bosses are the ones that will make you compete in a marathon as you do a certain amount of damage to the big bad of the level, catch up to it on your palamute, do more damage, and repeat until it inevitably dies.
In typical Monster Hunter fashion, you have a broad array of weapons, skills, and other aids to help you in your journey that you get as rewards from quests, farming the world, and more. Finding the right fit of weapon and armor to ease your journey is a curated experience that you must figure out on your own, and you have to do all of this while also managing your other stats, such as health, armor, stamina, and other attributes of your character that can impact your combat readiness and survival in a fight.
Palamute
In addition, players also have access to a new companion – the palamute. A dog-like creature that doubles as a faster way to travel the map and also helps you in combat by fighting along your side. You also still have your cat-like companion with you, the Palico, to aid you in combat and hint to you about the monster’s status, but otherwise, the formula is more or less the same as the prior entries in the series.
Graphics
The highlight over here is the release of the game on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, And Xbox Series consoles. We finally have the capability to play the title in 60FPS and even 120FPS with the help of the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles which makes the experience itself all the more refined, easier, and much more of an incentive for fans to return to the series.
In addition to the frame rate modes, there is also a massive improvement to graphics, with 4K resolutions supporting 60FPS via graphics mode and 1080p resolutions supporting 120FPS. This allows players on different display sizes to choose what’s right for them, and trust me when I say that at 120FPS, this game becomes something entirely different.
Visually, the game is absolutely stunning. All of the screenshots in this review are taken in the prioritize graphics setting on a PS5, and while I did enjoy the 120FPS mode more, this is something that 4K TV owners will vastly appreciate when they want to show off their new display to friends and show a game running in near flawless 60FPS, where the standard for 4K is currently 30FPS for the majority of AAA titles.
A good change of pace for a title like this which greatly shows why the title should have come to the consoles long ago, but as they say – better late than never, right?
Load Times
In addition to the amped-up FPS, the load times are significantly faster. The longest part of the load time will be setting your characters for the first time, but after that, getting into the game is a seamless and fast experience which, even between switching between the world missions, villages, and other locales, feels quick, smooth, seamless, and offers a lot of incentive to never look at distractions like your phone when you’re engrossed in the title.
All in all, the port is superb, and if you are a fan of the series, this is a great time to get into the game!
Conclusion
The Monster Hunter games ask you to commit to them in the form of long hunts, meticulously crafting your armor and weapons, and ensuring you have the best stats, crew, and more for your hunts that can last for hours on end with the right group of friends.
Rise is a brand new entry that introduces a lot of new features to reduce the monotony of travel that was in previous titles, and some minor quality-of-life changes also improve the experience. The console release is superb, and alongside PC, it’s the definitive way to play the title.
If you are looking to move from Iceborne or World to this title, we can highly recommend doing the change as you will find it to be a refreshing change.
What did you think of our Monster Hunter Rise Review? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This review is based on the PS5 version of Monster Hunter Rise. The key was provided by CAPCOM.
