I've been playing Monster Hunter World all weekend. But let's back up a bit.
For anyone who hasn't played, or even long time players, this video is an awesome introduction/recap of the whole series: Monster Hunter: Honest Game Trailers.
Now that that's out of the way...
Me, before switching to the armor with pasties!
Monster Hunter (3) is the reason I bought a Wii. Of all places, I saw a preview for it while waiting in line at a Wal-mart. I was shocked to see a good looking game for the Wii. Then it was the reason I bought a 3DS (MH3U, MH4U, Generations). It's the reason I bought an imported Japanese 3DS (MH4, X, XX), better multiplayer was why I bought a Wii U -- it could transfer games between 3DS as well as act as a hub to connect to the internet for multiplayer from the 3DS.
(And I may have Jailbroken a PSP in order to fix the region and play a Japanese title or two there, too...)
Monster Hunter World is the reason I bought a PS4. And it's the reason why I got a PSN+ account. I bought it shortly before the Beta. The Beta came out, and it was too light in content for me to have a feel for what the game was going to be like, but I was still optimistic.
I'm not going to talk about previous titles, except for minor comparisons, but you could say I'm a bit of a fan of the series. And news of Monster Hunter World had me going out and buying MH double cross for my Japanese 3DS because I couldn't wait for Monster Hunter World. Oh, I did try MH Stories on 3DS, or the demo anyway. I generally don't buy single player only games unless they're rogue-like.
Anyway, I'm going to ramble on about the title for a little while and then I'm going to go back to my Playstation and try to coerce it into going online again.
Town will probably never look this busy again. I don't even remember what was going on when I took this...
Map of the first town, I assume there will be other towns, like previous titles...
I tried to get a screenshot to show off the town, I took three and it still doesn't show it all.
The town is massive, but they provide chain lifts to go from point to point so you don't have to run around if you don't want to.
You probably can't see it in the thumbnail, but that eldritch horror is my first pet!
You get a room to yourself, like previous titles. A fun extra bit is that you can have pets in your home. You use a capture net on any of the Non-combat monsters (ie scenery critters) and you can capture them and display them in your home.
So far I only have a few pets, but I have to go back and play through every single area I've done again since discovering this so that I can catch them all.
In-game crafting trees!
You don't need a wiki anymore! They display the crafting trees as your character learns more about them and discovers new materials. So you can pretty much just enjoy the game and not worry about getting the most awesome gear because they reveal it as you go.
Oh, and I almost forgot! When you combine items to make other items, you can actually designate some to automatically get crafted while you are collecting. Also, if you are manually combining items, they will cheerfully show you everything you can make from the set of stuff you know how to make, even if it requires making intermediate ingredients. Try to make something that uses other crafted goods, and they'll pop up a dialog so you can make the intermediate goods and then return you to the thing you actually wanted to make.
Questing gets more and more straightforward with each new title. This one makes it the easiest. Even a new player can easily see what is needed to improve their hunter rank and advance through questing.
Interestingly, they brought back the ability to just run out the door and into the wilds to do as you please. In addition, when you are in multiplayer, and you defeat a quest, you have the option of staying in the zone to explore at your leisure.
I can't recall if previous titles had a quest board, but I like it. You can either talk to the quest lady or make use of the quest board to actually pick up your quest. Then, when you're ready you can either walk through to doorway or start the quest from the menu.
The endemic life seems to be good only for pets, so far.
The small monsters have harvestable parts.
As you play the game and encounter new creatures, your character learns about them and the town folk learn about them from your character (and other hunters?) so if you need a reference, you can talk to the people in town. I can't recall the title for the one guy off the top of my head, but he sits amidst a pile of books and becomes a veritable encyclopedia.
They provide you with various in-game references so you know what creatures drop what, what creatures are weak against what, and where to hit them to improve your chances of getting what element to break off.
TLDR: what do I like about MHW?
What do I dislike about MHW?
Well, okay, if there were one thing I would like to change, it would be making it possible to turn off name plates. My bastard Palico keeps photo bombing my screenshots with his damned nameplate, even after I've turned off the HUD. And the PS4 cuts my recorded video every 15 minutes... wth is with that? But the video thing is a platform issue and not a game issue.
This game is awesome.
