And we are back! Welcome to the actual review of Wild Hearts from EA Originals and KOEI Tecmo / Omega Force. We have been continuing with this title since our preview on Monday and, folks, I gotta tell you, it’s a helluva game.
While Wild Hearts doesn’t check every box that we had hoped, faltering in some minor areas, it’s a huge step forward in the hunting game genre. With gigantic worlds to explore, beasts to take down, and boxes to build, with an RPG backbone leading the way, there is a lot to love about this new hunting title.
Let’s get back into this.
A story of struggle and devastation
The story is set in feudal Japan on an alternate timeline. Pulling straight from a universal monster flick, giant beasts of godly decent have become enraged and have made it their mission to wipe humans out of existence. Given the climate nowadays on Earth, I wouldn’t blame them too much. Anyway, the Kemono dominated and devastated the lands of feudal Japan, specifically the land of Azuma, without anyone able to stop them. Your character comes into play when they acquire the Karakuri, a magic power pulled from nature, that gives them the ability to build structures and have an advantage over the Kemono.
While the story is certainly simple in its scale and purposeful in its intentions, Wild Hearts brings a much-needed reason for a hunter to hunt down beasts. I know that sounds silly because this game is a beautiful work of fiction, but sometimes you need some motivation to go out and do a deed in a game. Some of the better games out there have purposeful narratives attached to them, and this one seems as purposeful as ever. The storyline about massive creatures waking up and wiping out pesky humans in a time that didn’t feature too many ways to take them down is bleak as it is apocalyptic. It sets the tone not only for the large amount of destruction that you run into along the journey but also motivates you to create strategies and execute them perfectly to save a land that is struggling to survive. It’s just got a tinge of Horizon Zero Dawn in it because of that bleak essence.
It’s a good story that creates a solid amount of motivation to start a hunt and save humanity.
Gameplay to expect
The gameplay in Wild Hearts is intriguing and honestly built for more co-op than a single-player experience. During my time with this game, continued my single-player experience. I think a few of the editors are intrigued by this game, but none have the GPU power that I have on the PC, which is a darn shame because it might be the best way to play the game. Anyway, the game’s single-player mode still takes about 45-50 minutes per hunt when tracking down and disposing of the giant Kemonos. While most of that time is me drinking healing potions and building structures to catapult myself from an attack, the amount of time seems surprisingly adequate when compared to how massive and mean the Kemono is in the game.
Now, I will caution you that playing single-player probably isn’t the best way to experience the game to its fullest. The game is built for co-op and had I played it with other writers, I might have had less of a struggle. Communicating with others, building structures and strategizing is what this game was meant to be. I will note that those who enjoy Monster Hunter by themselves or who love the Souls series where the difficulty of the game is more important and creates some sick sort of enjoyment, well, you’ll love the single-player mode of Wild Hearts. For someone like me who does not enjoy Souls games, I was surprised how much the lengthy battles didn’t weigh on me during my review experience. But that doesn’t mean you should purposely shun your friends and go solo on this title. For me, this is a game that is built like Destiny 2, where the joy of the experience shines when you have friends you can communicate back and forth with like some badass Avengers team. Taking down a monster as a team is probably more gratifying, though I was pretty satisfied with how I progressed while I reviewed this. But I did hit a few walls along the way.
One such wall was called a Lavaback. The beast is a vicious ape with lava-loaded weapons of destruction. It was a struggle, and not a fun one because he was quick and unforgiving of my mistakes. I cannot tell you how many times I died to this thing, but I will tell you I understood that I had to have a better strategy. The usefulness of my weapons, my Karakuri, and my wits certainly were sharper because of the defeats. Before him, the other beasts were manageable, having patterns here and there to contend with but never anything overly complicated. Lavaback is so fast that building and attacking, as I did with the others, is not as easy as I thought it might be. And that is the joy of Wild Hearts, as you get something a bit different each time you hunt an animal. There are ways the animal reacts and there are strategic options you must take down the said beast with, but it changes from Kemono to Kemono. That type of action and reaction in a battle means the game is deeper and rich with raid-like strategic moments. People who enjoy raids, such as the ones in Destiny 2, will find it easy to get into these fights.
Now, getting back to my original point, this game is truly built for a multiplayer experience. Wild Hearts features a three-player option that I highly recommend you take. Playing with friends and trucking along with designing strategies to approach a fight is cognitively enriching, as it is fun. Though I have played alone up to this point, I can see how different the game would become with players communicating with each other, setting traps using Karakuri, and executing fight patterns to quickly dispose of Kemono. While I’m positive the game would be more difficult should you add more players, as it should be, the game seems like it would be more emotionally rewarding hunting and taking down Kemono with friends.
Staying with taking down Kemono, the game does feature a cool mechanic called Karakuri. This mechanic adds an element of creativity to the gaming experience. The Karakuri ability allows players to create structures, such as a simple spring box or as complicated as a giant wall, that hinder the Kemono attack while delivering a destructive blow from the player. The number of structures offered so far in the game is massive. You can create individual structures or flying machines with this power and combine them to make the perfect trap. Again, using this type of mechanic with other players opens many possibilities of attacks to use against the Kemono. This part is probably the strongest reason this game will be a hit, as I’m sure influencers out there will find wild ways to play this game for months on end. It’s akin to finding ways to transport yourself all over the place in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That was a huge Internet sensation.
Aside from Karakuri, you will also be able to customize your character, upgrade weaponry with a huge backend skills tree, and build up your battle-ready self as the game progresses. While the Karakuri is certainly the reason to play, the weapons/armor/skills complement it very well. It will give you an extra reason to go out and do side and main quests. In other words, there’s more here than just building.
How do the fights feel?
The overall feel of taking down a Kemono by yourself is gratifying as it is rewarding. The battles are cleverly massive and much like how a monster moves from stage to stage in Monster Hunter, the Kemono in Wild Hearts lets you know when it has reached a point in the damage phase where you’re making progress – simply by moving to another section of land. Again, it’s a very Monster Hunter way of telling you that you’re doing a good job.
Despite my best efforts, the only knock I have on this game is how the overall controls feel. They fell into that action/patterned fighting style, where once you begin a sword-swinging move, it has to see it through before you can execute another. I think all action games these days need to break that tradition and go towards something like God of War: Ragnarök action, where the player can break out of the fighting animation if the situation calls for it. There were times with the first Kemono when I started rolling back into the beast instead of away. The dodging works well in the game, as it’s just a simple ‘O’ button and dodged, but moving out of range from a multi-attack move from a Kemono requires a run and a slide. Getting that move going can be tedious at times but again it’s about timing and learning patterns.
As it stood during my review time with the game, I still wasn’t perfect at timing, moving, and breaking away from what I recognized too late as an attack. The Kemono are unpredictable sometimes and seeing a slight move set into motion from them, where I could prevent a hit from happening, yet can’t break my original action sequence, was frustrating. While I’m not a developer, and never claim to have knowledge of fixing or at least updating a game, I think the experience would be better if moves and timing could be fully controlled by the player. Again, this is the only knock against the game. How they have it is common and traditional, but it could be so much better if it were updated and changed.
The worlds are huge
Recently, I played Monster Hunter Rise on the PlayStation 5. I enjoyed that game on a mega console more than I thought I would. There were a wide variety of worlds in MHR, but the spaces for those individual worlds were always kind of restrictive, even though they were tall. They were multi-tiered built which made up for some of the smallness. For Wild Hearts, the worlds are enormous.
The game has a multi-tier feel while also containing plenty of worlds to explore. It’s expansive and it gives off a traditional RPG vibe. I was incredibly impressed with the first few levels and how girthy they felt. When the game opened, that girthiness became even more…girthier. I’m not sure that is a word, but I’m going with it. The worlds you hunt in are massive, and unique in their styles, and they fit the bill for the Kemono that you’re hunting. The first time I made it to the first big city in the game, I was wowed by its depth. When that city sent me to a beach area island, the girth of the world just went nuts. It was visibly impressive and it gives off a Ghost of Tsushima size look, even though that game is much larger. To help make the world even more enticing to explore, there are also hidden treasures around the world. Giving players a reason to explore only stands to make the world big, even when it is not. Wild Hearts does a great job of motivating the player to go find everything, which also builds up the story a bit. Hunting, exploring, and fighting are just what these worlds are made of and, honestly, that gives it a leg-up on MHR.
Visually stunning
Last year, we were privy to a preview and demo of this game on PC. We were given a few hours to enjoy it and from the start, you could see how beautiful the game was going to end up. The rich textures, details, and gorgeous lighting/shading showed how committed the developers were to make this more than just another Monster Hunter title. I was blown away by what I saw and it only stood to improve by the time launch day arrived.
Wild Hearts is a phenomenally gorgeous game that you’ll be visually satisfied with from beginning to end. The additional audio that pushes those visuals, makes the world come alive, and is scored well helps to seal the deal in the presentation category. This might be the strongest part of the game, and the game has plenty of strong parts.
On that note, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
Wild Hearts is a massive single-player and co-op hunting game with an RPG backbone supporting it. The mixture of story, creative mechanics, thick strategy, and beautiful visuals makes this a top-tier hunting experience. If the controls could be improved a bit and break from traditional stuck-in-the-action sequences, it would be nearly perfect. Overall, it’s a great first go at a genre that is severely lacking in competition.
