Monster Hunter: World’s release on PC is one of the cleanest ports of a console experience out there. Upgraded visuals while retaining the core Monster Hunter gameplay is all anyone could really want. Keyboard controls are a little off-putting, but setting up the use of a controller is easy enough.
For reference, check out DigitalChumps’ review of Monster Hunter: World when we reviewed it on PS4!
Back in February, I claimed that Monster Hunter: World was the best jumping-in point for the series. With its release on PC, players can finally jump into MH: World with the best possible experience. While I won’t completely rehash my review from February (which you can find here), there are a few things that should be pointed out about the PC release, and why one might consider playing it over the console counterparts.
First off are the visuals. Monster Hunter: World was a gorgeous looking game on PS4 and Xbox One. But as one would expect, the PC version of MH: World is vastly improved. I’m not necessarily playing on the beefiest PC rig out there: Intel i7-4790k, 16gb RAM, EVGA Nvidia 970 GTX, with everything overclocked. Despite desperately needing to upgrade my PC, I still found a distinct upgrade in the overall visual fidelity of the game. Those out there with much stronger rigs will probably find MH: World to be one of the prettiest games in their collections.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the overall gameplay. Like I said in my original review, Monster Hunter: World really shines in it’s gameplay. While I still find myself feeling overwhelmed with the sheer amount of systems that are thrown at you from the get-go, MH: World really rewards players for grinding out to learn these systems. Once you get the hang of things, these complex systems become second-nature and really add a dynamism to the game overall. One point worth noting is that often I felt that the combat systems were much better played with a controller, while many of the crafting systems and overall preparing for hunts felt more natural on the keyboard/mouse. Dedicated PC players should have no problem playing with either, but I felt using a controller was a more efficient game of actually facing monsters.
But overall, the PC version of Monster Hunter: World may in-fact be the definitive version of the game. Consistent frame rates, upgraded and cleaner visuals all make for a really enjoyable Monster Hunter experience.
