Monster Hunter Rise PC review: A PC port that rises above the original

Monster Hunter Rise Review Source: Windows Central

Back in 2022, I was introduced to what would apace become ane of my favorite games of all time, Monster Hunter World. It was an amazing activeness game that allowed the actor to hunt large, terrifying monsters and perform awesome feats of force I thought were only possible through cinematic cutscenes in other games.

Since then, I've been hooked on Capcom's Monster Hunter series whether I was hunting in the frozen tundras of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne or befriending monsters in the Pokémon-like RPG spin-off Monster Hunter Stories two: Wings of Ruins. I would always be there to see what new activeness-hunting adventure Capcom would come up with adjacent. And today, I get to review the PC port of Monster Hunter Ascension, courtesy of an early-access review code provided by Capcom.

A few months agone, I got the risk to preview Monster Hunter Rise's PC demo (provided via an early-access code from Capcom) and I was feeling optimistic by the end of my play session. The PC demo's updated visuals and frame rates improved the demo's gameplay immensely compared to the Nintendo Switch demo. So, I was looking forward to seeing whether these upgrades would help refine the gameplay of the total PC version. Does information technology succeed? Let's grab our hunting gear and find out.

Hunt with your friends

Monster Hunter Rise Pc Box Art

Monster Hunter Rise (PC)

Bottom line: Overall, the PC port of Monster Hunter Rise is superior to the Nintendo Switch version, thank you to the PC enhancements. It has some of the all-time combat mechanics in the Monster Hunter series, the new monsters are an absolute delight to hunt, and the improved frame rate and resolutions enrich the hunting experience. Information technology does have a couple of flaws, but they are modest issues in the k scheme of things.

Pros:

Fast-paced gameplay improved cheers to college frame rates and resolution
A large roster of awesome monsters to hunt
The PC version comes packaged with all the mail-launch content updates
The Binge missions are chaotic simply fun arcade-similar hunts once you formulate a sound strategy

Cons:

Creating specific builds for your character can be restrictive
Hunting in multiplayer can be straining on the eyes at times when there are four players and 4 NPC partners fighting at one time
The story is as well unproblematic for those looking for a complex narrative

Monster Hunter Rise: Presentation and performance

Monster Hunter Rise Review Source: Windows Key

Category	Monster Hunter Rise
Championship	Monster Hunter Rise
Developer	Capcom
Publisher	Capcom
Genre	Action
Minimum requirements	Windows 10 64-bit Intel Core i3-4130 3.20GHz / Core i5-3470 / AMD FX-6300 8GB RAM NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 (DDR4) / AMD Radeon RX 550
Game size	23GB
Play time	l+ hours
Players	Unmarried, four-player co-op
Platforms	Nintendo Switch, PC
Launch price	$60

One of the big selling points of the PC version of Monster Hunter Rise is the improvements it has fabricated to the frame rate and resolution. The Nintendo Switch version was merely able to achieve 30 FPS with a 780p resolution. Meanwhile, the PC version is able to attain uncapped frame rates and 1080p or fifty-fifty 4K resolution. It too includes other graphical upgrades such as high-res textures, movement blur, depths of field, anti-aliasing, detailed shadows, and more.

My PC rig is equipped with an Intel Cadre i5-9400 CPU and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, so I was able to run the game at lx FPS with 1080p resolution with no issues. You won't have to worry about getting the latest, cutting-border PC graphics card or GPU to experience this game's enhanced visuals and operation.

Going from 30 FPS to 60 FPS made a huge world of difference when it came to gameplay. Inputting commands on the original Nintendo Switch version felt stiff and acquired my attacks non to execute half the time, and I had to resort to button-mashing to brand sure they would annals. Cheers to the higher frame rates, this flaw is fortunately not nowadays in the PC version. My attacks came out exactly when I inputted the commands, making the combat system feel much smoother and more than fun, particularly during the turbulent Binge Quests.

The improved resolution also heightens the monster-hunting experience. Seeing the monsters with more detailed scales and fur textures made their designs more visually appealing compared to how they looked on the Nintendo Switch. The special effects of attacks also received visual upgrades, with anti-aliasing smoothing out the edges so that they no longer look like pixelated smog. This makes fights against certain monsters much more enjoyable since it's easier to come across what's going on on-screen and the visual spectacle of their attacks is now pleasing to the eye.

Monster Hunter Rise Review Source: Windows Central

My favorite attribute of the presentation is that the graphics settings show you images of how the game will await when you tweak the settings. This is an amazing quality-of-life improvement I wish more PC games would accept because information technology helps those not familiar with avant-garde graphic settings set up them more than hands without having to research online.

My only outcome with Monster Hunter's presentation is when you chase with other players in multiplayer. Monster Hunter Rise is the first Monster Hunter game where players tin can accept an NPC partner with them in multiplayer — a Palico or a Palamute. While this sounds cool in theory, information technology can cause some hunts to become unnecessarily disorientating in execution. Having four players and iv NPCs fighting a monster simultaneously can lead to dozens of explosions and special effects going off at once, making it hard to tell what's going on and straining the eyes.

To make matters worse, the choice to reduce the special effects (or "hit effects" as the game calls them) in the graphics settings does little to mitigate the sensory overload. Thankfully, this problem mostly happens when y'all fight a monster in an enclosed space like caves or tight corridors. Still, this effect could exist resolved if there were an option to turn off the hitting effects of other party members and only leave your attacks with the hit furnishings on.

Monster Hunter Rising: Story

Monster Hunter Rise Review Source: Windows Primal

The impetus for why you're hunting monsters in Monster Hunter Rise is to arm yourself in grooming for a cataclysmic event known only equally "The Rampage." Every 50 years, monsters that ordinarily would exist fighting each other in turf wars, of a sudden get this inexplicable urge to band together in hordes and go on a stampede, destroying everything in their sights.

Your home, Kamura Hamlet, was near destroyed by this unnatural phenomenon fifty years ago, and at present signs are showing "The Rampage" will exist happening once more shortly. Equally one of Kamura's newly appointed hunters, information technology is up to yous to defend Kamura Village from "The Binge" and notice out what has been causing monsters to berserk in the hopes of ending this calamity once and for all.

The premise of Monster Hunter Rising is your typical Monster Hunter thing — a peaceful village gets threatened by monsters, and you are tasked with stopping them. It's a uncomplicated monster-of-the-week plot that'due south mainly concerned with setting the player off to hunt absurd monsters based on Japanese mythology, and it doesn't change beyond that. So, if you lot're looking for an action game with a deep, complex narrative packed with novellas worth of character development, you won't find that hither.

Monster Hunter Rise: Gameplay

Monster Hunter Rise Review Source: Windows Central

Monster Hunter Ascent follows a linear, mission-based structure where y'all are tasked with hunting a monster within a time limit. These missions take place in various various ecosystems with multiple heights of tiptop that you lot must traverse if you're to find your casualty. To help yous accomplish your assignments, you can pick upwards crafting materials on the map to make potions and traps, and pick upwardly small animals called owned life to boost your stats.

Your character is also accompanied by a host of animate being companions that aid yous during the chase. First is the Wirebug, a large insect that produces ironsilk, assuasive yous to swing through the air and help y'all climb upwardly mountains. The second, the Palamute, is a large dog-similar creature that you can ride to travel at keen speeds to reach your destination. And finally, there'due south the Palico, a humanoid cat that can assist you in battle with traps and gadgets.

It is incredibly satisfying to read the monster's set on patterns and acquire when to contrivance and counter them with the new Silkbind Attacks.

When you have located the monster, it's time to slay them with your chosen weapon. Monster Hunter Rise has 14 weapon types for you to utilize, each with their own movesets, strengths, and weaknesses. The Wirebug can as well allow you to perform aeriform attacks and use supermoves called "Silkbind Attacks" during combat. In one case y'all have damaged the monster enough times with Wirebug attacks, you lot can apply the Wyvern Riding mechanic to briefly have command of a monster using the Wirebug's ironsilk like a puppeteer to attack other monsters or crash it into a wall.

Upon slaying or capturing your quarry, you collect their body parts as a reward for your efforts. You then take the body parts back to Kamura Village's local smithy, and he'll use them to forge powerful weapons and armor so you can hunt more dangerous monsters to a higher place in the food chain.

This forms the core gameplay loop of Monster Hunter Rising, and it is just fun as it was on the Nintendo Switch. It is incredibly satisfying to read the monster'south assault patterns and learn when to dodge and counter them with the new Silkbind Attacks. I was chock with excitement at the new weapons and armor you get killing these beasts. The over-the-top designs remind me of the more fantastical weapons and armor from Monster Hunter 4 and Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate. This motivated me to hunt the monsters multiple times so I could employ their parts to forge entire sets of gear and prove off how absurd they were to my friends.

1 of the best additions of the PC version, bated from the graphical enhancements, is that information technology comes packaged with every gratis postal service-launch update the Nintendo Switch version had upwardly until Ver. three.6.1 (the Nov 2022 update). This includes the finale of the High-Rank quests' storyline, several new monsters to fight, and Effect Quests, which reward new weapons, armor, poses, emotes, stickers, and more than. This means that PC players won't have to wait several months for the PC port's content to catch up with the console version like they had to do with the PC port of Monster Hunter World.

Rampage Quests

Monster Hunter Rise Review Source: Windows Central

In between the standard hunting quests, the time volition come when you must defend the village from "The Rampage" in the class of Binge quests. Rampage Quests are tower-defense-similar missions where y'all must fend off wave later on moving ridge of monsters coming to bash down Kamura's gates. In addition to your armory of weapons and traps, you can set up defence turrets (both manual and automatic), use environmental traps, and summon NPCs to help you halt the horde's advance. You also have access to gongs, which once rung, give yourself and your teammates a massive damage heave so yous tin dispatch monsters more speedily.

To complete Binge Quests, you lot must keep the gates of Kamura Village safe until the timer runs out or you defeat the leader of a horde. The leader of a Binge horde tin be either a Major Threat (an enlarged version of a regular monster) or an Noon monster. Apex monsters are mutated variants that are utterly immune to traps and Wyvern Riding and characteristic new attacks that hit like a megaton bomb.

Monster Hunter Rise Review Source: Windows Central

I will admit I didn't take kindly to the Rampage Quests at first, when playing solo. I would oftentimes get ganged up upon by monsters and go thrown off my turrets which led to a frustrating starting time impression. Still, once I understood the intricacies of each defensive installation and put together a game program, I started to enjoy the Binge Quests. I went from being a monster's chew toy to a ane-hunter ground forces that annihilated every horde earlier they could fifty-fifty breach the beginning gate.

The Rampage Quests truly shine when you play them in multiplayer. Having multiple players control a pack of monsters to trounce an Apex monster while another player blasts information technology to smithereens with cannons was an amazing arcade-similar experience. Non to mention the rewards y'all get for conquering the Rampage Quests are worth the planning and endeavor.

Restrictions on character builds

Monster Hunter Rise Review Source: Windows Key

Since the PC version's upgrades fixed my biggest outcome with Monster Hunter Rise from the Nintendo Switch version (the overall looks and game experience), the only other criticisms I have are cadre gameplay flaws that prevarication in both versions.

My starting time criticism is the limitations of the Switch Skills system. Switch Skills is a gameplay system that lets you switch out attacks in your weapon's moveset with new ones. These Switch Skills can offer creative and exciting new ways to play your favorite weapon. However, at that place is a problem I have with this arrangement. While you can switch a few regular attacks moves from your moveset, you can simply switch out one of your 2 Silkbind Attacks.

This ways that with some weapons, I'm stuck with 1 Silkbind Attack that I don't find highly-seasoned to my playstyle, and the Silkbind Assault I can switch out, it's a move I don't want to remove. I would much rather adopt it if I could switch any of my weapon's supermoves to diversify my gameplay, much like how you could with Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate's Hunter Arts.

Monster Hunter Rise Review Source: Windows Cardinal

My 2nd and biggest complaint about Monster Hunter Rise is the Melding Pot. Without getting into spoilery details, the Melding Pot is a organisation that allows you to use monster parts to create accessories for your character chosen Talismans. Talismans add passive or agile buffs to your character's abilities (which are called "armor skills" in this game) or enhance ones already granted by your weapons or armor. However, the Talismans produced from the Melding Pot have randomized stats, i.e., they could possess any armor skill in the game and at any level. This ways that you could spend weeks at the Melding Pot and never get the Talismans you want to help y'all build your character exactly how you want information technology.

Yet, this doesn't mean you tin't defeat monsters without optimal Talismans. Every weapon and armor set you lot can craft through normal means is viable and volition help you kill any monster so long as you are skilled enough to employ them. All the same, farming for Talismans is still a very tedious activity that could've been done ameliorate. I would prefer it if we could create Talismans with the exact abilities we want, much like how Charms, the accessories from Monster Hunter Globe were made.

Last thoughts

Monster Hunter Rise Review Source: Windows Central

Overall, I enjoyed the PC version of Monster Hunter Rising much more than I did the Nintendo Switch version. The PC version's improvements made the gameplay much smoother to play and has helped me appreciate aspects I didn't like initially, similar the Binge Quests. Plus, all the bundled costless mail-launch updates will keep players busy for weeks to come.

The flaws regarding the restrictive Switch Skills and Melding Pot may not seem like a large bargain at showtime, but they become more noticeable as time goes on. It is my fondest hope that these bug are addressed in the upcoming paid DLC expansion, Monster Hunter Ascent: Sunbreak, so this game can truly reach its total potential equally ane of the best games in the Monster Hunter series.

If you're looking for a fun game to play with your friends, so I highly recommend checking out Monster Hunter Ascension when it launches on January. 12, 2022. It is one of the all-time multiplayer games on PC and the perfect fashion to first the new twelvemonth.

Let'southward go gear up to hunt!

Monster Hunter Rise Pc Box Art

Monster Hunter Rise (PC)

Bottom line: Monster Hunter Rise is a solid action game that features a superb gainsay system and lots of boggling creatures to hunt with your friends. The PC port improves upon the original game'southward foundations with college frame rates and resolution to give players a more polished hunting experience.

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