So, that Monster Hunter Wilds beta, ey? Oof. I bet Capcom is kicking itself. This close to the launch of the full game, and hordes of people are being turned off what is likely going to be one of the biggest games of the year because of some poor optimisation. It makes sense; if a street vendor gave you a free sample of something and it tasted burned and bitter, you’re not exactly going to want to open your wallet for more, are you? Even if the poor cook promises you the full meal will be decidedly better quality.
We’ve come to expect better from Capcom. It’s on a roll, after all. Whether it’s the triple-A suite of unputdownable action classics, or the slightly more esoteric curios it’s finding time to pump out in-between, Capcom seems to be on a heady roll with its current-gen release slate. So what the hell is happening with Monster Hunter Wilds?
To catch you up, if you’ve not been paying attention, the beta has some serious issues. Poor performance, poor graphics, and (if you listen to Reddit) a completely ‘unplayable’ dip to 20/25FPS in some busier sections. Capcom even released a second session of the beta, but did so with an almost apologetic message noting that the issues from the first test will still be present. It’s basically the same build with more content. Even the PSN outage and resultant bonus time won’t affect you; you’re playing a sub-par, old, un-updated version of the game.
And there’s the thing, you are playing an old build of the game. Recently, I had the chance to head to the Capcom offices and play the near-final version of the game on a PS5 (nope, not even a PS5 Pro). And let me tell you; it’s wildly different. No pun intended. It’s smooth, it’s well-behaved, and it looks out of this world. I’ll grant you, there is still the odd judder, or a second or two where you can feel the game ‘catch up with itself’ so to speak, but largely this version of the game is better. I’m explicitly talking about PS5 here, and the graphics aren’t as blurry as you’ve seen in the beta. It’s playable, it’s pretty, it’s palatable.
I also hopped between the framerate and fidelity modes for different hunts, too, and when I was playing at 60FPS, I had a small gaggle of other media huddle around my monitor to admire the crisp, absolutely unsullied fluidity of the fights (specifically, I was setting fire to Nerscylla, a Temnoceran that was first introduced in Monster Hunter 4). This fight itself is great; imagine the arachnid on the 3DS with a more animated moveset, more situational awareness, more aggression, and with roughly 1,000 spider babies it could p**s out to overwhelm you. The dream is real, guys.
And therein lie Monster Hunter Wilds’ biggest victories: the team is now so adept at working with the world, the monsters, the engine, and how the player will act, that it can leverage all these things at once to create fights that feel better than anything in the rest of the series. Yep, better than World. Yep, better than Rise. I played Rise for well over 500 hours, and all I wanted was more; more interactivity, more options on the flowchart, more immersion per monster – because you inevitably end up fighting all of them at least ten times each. Wilds delivers on that, and how.
Seeing a Rompopolo move to a completely different moveset in its home habitat so it can blast you with oil is amazing. Watching Nerscylla interact with its babies, its web, or the other endemic life in the area to modify your fights is awesome. Everything in Wilds goes just that bit deeper than we’ve seen in other MonHun games – and it makes that core gameplay loop that’s always been at the core of the series even more compelling.
Inside baseball time: I spend a lot of time in Google’s ‘Trends’ tab for work, trying to divine what stories we should be researching to hit emerging topics of conversation. When you’re seeing things like “Why is Monster Hunter Wilds so laggy?” and “How to increase FPS in Monster Hunter Wilds?” and “How to fix Monster Hunter lag?” absolutely shoot to the top of the table, well, you know you’ve got a problem on your hands. I wish there was a way for Capcom to give people a shot at the final version of this game – maybe a free trial or something – because it is worlds apart (again, no pun intended) from the beta you’ve all been complaining about so far.
If you’re in doubt regarding the PC version of the game, you can use the benchmark tool now (which is designed to help you understand the final version of the game more than the beta) to see how the final build will run for you.
Otherwise, Monster Hunter Wilds launches for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC on February 28.