Hello fellow gamers! I’ve just been lurking around here and most people may not know, but traveling and photography aren’t my only hobbies. To be honest they are a lot more recent than most of the other ones I have. In steemit I let my geek side completely loose by doing my painting miniature series. One other thing that I spend more time on than I should is gaming. Ever since I was 4 years old and my dad brought a computer at home, I was fascinated by video games and this feeling hasn't changed one bit throughout the years.

Monster Hunter World - Iceborne

So with the recent release of Monster Hunter Rise, I’ve been wondering if I should buy a Nintendo switch and lose a few hundred hours on it or go back to some Iceborne action. PC is the platform I’ve been using for gaming for years so I thought middle ground would be to satisfy my need for Monster Hunter by sharing my experience with the game with the community here on Hive.

One of my best friends has been a fan of the series for ages and was talking about it long before New World was announced. Once it came out all of my friends were playing on a Playstation so I skipped the initial hype around it and still wasn’t sure if it was the right game for me or not.

Probably a year later.. way past the PC launch I decided to give it a try. After an hour or two of looking through videos and playthroughs, I finally got it in my steam library and was ready to explore the lands of New World.

What is the game all about?

Monster Hunter is pretty self explanatory with its title. Your main goal is to hunt these enormous beasts in dynamic and interesting fights. The game is so much more than this though and with New World even more so.

Before you start though you have a sweet amount of character customization to go through. You can play as a female or male hunter and change quite a lot when it comes to your looks. It is a Japanese game so you’ll have a pretty wild selection of haircuts and hair colors.

After you are done with your character you have one more companion to create and that’s your palico. This little ball of cuteness is your trusty companion and if you are like me.. the forever solo player - this will be your best friend taking you out of many sticky situations.

New World takes you to a completely different land from previous games where you find many of the old monsters as well as new ones. The game begins with you sailing on a ship on an expedition to help with the exploration of The New World. The ship gets crushed by this gigantic entity crossing the sea in the same destination. This mysterious being will be the subject of the main story for quite awhile. The hunters have set up a camp in the New World and you follow the leader and go on missions and expeditions following the main story and side quests. The game has quite a lot of exploration and an open world aspect to it that I enjoyed a lot.

As you progress through the main story you unlock new territories and fight new monsters. Once you kill or capture these monsters, you can use the parts you get from them to craft new gear or weapons or upgrade your current ones. There are countless sets and weapons you can create and use as you progress through the game but I’ll explain more about this in the crafting section. As this is a japanese game some of the weapons will be way out of proportion compared to the size of your hunter but it all fits weirdly well.

Gameplay

The gameplay itself could be quite complex and it all varies depending on the weapon you pick. What I like the most about Monster Hunter is that switching your weapon changes the game completely.

There are 14 weapons of choice and all of them have their strengths and drawbacks. Some are a lot stronger than others and some are better in certain situations. Most players will have their one main weapon they would try and master, where others (usually the ones that have more time to spend on the game) would have multiple they enjoy and alter between them. I am probably one of the second kind. I enjoy variety and since this was my first Monster Hunter game I wanted to see what play style would fit me better. I enjoy a few and still cannot say what is my favorite weapon but if I really have to choose, I’d say The Greatsword would be my pick.

Weapons can deal different types of damage that affect the monsters in different ways. These types are cut, blunt and ammo. Some weapons may inflict multiple types depending on the skill you use with them. Monsters would be weak against some of these and more resilient against others, so your approach at fighting always changes as well.

Greatsword

Greatsword is the heaviest hitting weapon out of the 14 but it is also the slowest. You have to time your hits well in order to land these big hits and often, misses can leave you vulnerable. Even though it is not a hard weapon to pick on, it could be hard to master. The size of it is also gigantic, often bigger than the hunter swinging it.

Long Sword

Long Sword is the most popular and considered the best weapon by many in Monster Hunter World. It isn’t that hard to play with but it has many tricks that would make mastering it challenging. The special aerial attacks of this massive katana are eye soaring and definitely one of the best looking attack animations I’ve seen. Another traits that make this weapon great are the long range of it and the sheathing dodge skill that makes you invulnerable to any attacks if it is timed perfectly. If you feel you have an inner samurai sleeping deep inside you, this may be the weapon just for you.

Sword and Shield

This is considered more of a support weapon although Iceborne gave it some more loving. It is very fast and you can use a small shield to block some damage but the range is fairly small. Another great thing about the sword and shield is that you can use consumables without having to sheath your weapon. I have little to none experience with this setup but I have seen people even use it as a main weapon and having plenty of fun. It is also considered a good starting weapon for new players.

Dual Blades

Fans of anime.. this is your jam. This fast paced combat setup with amazing visuals and flashy moves is quite pleasing to watch. The weapons aren’t hard to use and some would say the combos get quite repetitive but it is surely satisfying to watch. With this weapon you will have to manage your stamina as you chip away at your enemies health bars. Have in mind that your range is quite small, these are basically daggers, so you’d be at the monsters feet for most of the fights.

Hammer

This is another one of my favorites. Short range blunt weapon that hits quite heavy. With the Hammer you have a great chance at stunning the enemy when you hit them in the head or trip them over when you hit their legs. The big damage combo (called big bang combo) is super satisfying. Overall the hammer is a heavy hitter that isn’t hard to pick on but has a fairly small range, making it hard to land hits with.

Hunting Horn

The Hunting Horn is the least played weapon. It is a long blunt weapon that has an interesting and very unique mechanic. Every combo you make with this weapon plays a “tune”. These tunes serve to give buffs to yourself and party members. They could be defensive or offensive and are usually not bad especially for party play. The reason why this weapon is so low when it comes to player picks is because it is probably the lowest damage weapon out there. It is fairly hard to use with having to memorize not only the combos but also the tunes and sequences you need to play them in. On the other hand I heard that in the new Monster Hunter Rise, the Hunting Horn is probably the best weapon. Guess Capcom wanted to shift the meta quite hard. :)

Lance

The Lance is another weapon that is low on the damage scale but it does have it’s big pros. The lance always comes along with a big ass shield. This makes it probably the most defensive weapon out there and often used for people to tank when in party. Another con for this weapon choice is mobility. It is hard to move quickly with it and until you master how to hop and swing, a newer player may have a hard time. Other than this I would say it isn’t a hard weapon to learn, the range is pretty big (I mean it is a lance..) and you won’t get more defence than this, so not dodging hits in new encounters won’t be as punishable. Best way to describe fights with this weapon is - ‘slow and steady’ - you would chip away the monster’s health slowly and block most of the incoming attacks if you are positioned properly.

Gun Lance

Next on the list is the GunLance which is in many senses similar to the normal Lance with one big difference. Gun Lances have the option to shoot and to be swung at enemies. There are two types of builds surrounding this weapon - swing lance and the shooting lance. Swing lance doesn’t take advantage of the shooting ability of the lance but incorporates a reload animation for it’s combos, where shooting lances have different shells they can use to shoot at the enemy as a finisher to a combo or continuation. One big thing about Gun Lance is that shooting lowers the sharpness of your weapon which would make hits with it eventually do less or no damage to the monster before you sharpen it again. (I’ll explain about sharpness after I cover all the weapons.)
Swing Lance was one of my favorite builds before Iceborne came and the last build I played as a main before the expansion. I still haven’t really tried this weapon in Iceborne but I may now that I’ve mentioned it here.

Switch Axe

The Switch Axe is a bit more complicated to understand and master. The weapon can be used in two forms - Sword and Axe form. It also uses a phial system that adds additional effects to the sword mode. Axe form has a bigger range and while in it, the phials fill up, While in sword mode you use the phial gauge. The way to switch modes is through a combo that takes you from Axe mode into Sword mode. While in sword mode - you can do a big elemental discharge using a big amount of your phial gauge, that ends up with an explosion. This is the main finisher people use at the end of a combo with this weapon. It is quite satisfying to pull off but there are quite a lot of things you need to follow when playing with the Switch Axe. I wouldn’t recommend this as a first weapon for sure.

Charge Blade

Charge Blade is hands down the most complicated weapon in the game. It is another weapon that switches forms and has an unbelievable amount of combos that chain together. Like the Switch Axe you charge phials in order to unleash stronger attacks. The difference here is that your main form isn’t an Axe but sword and shield, which gives you more mobility and defense. As you combo out into Axe mode, your hunter would connect the sword and shield and create a huge Axe out of them.This is where you’d start spending your phials on big attacks and similar explosion attack like the Switch Axe. This is another weapon that I’d advise newer players stay away from. It would bring nothing but frustration and it’s better to think of one less thing while learning the game.

Insect Glaive

This is your aerial weapon. You would spend a lot of time jumping in the air with it, bouncing off of the monster or ledges and sending your insectoids at the enemy. It is another one that I have little to no experience with but I always wanted to try it out. This is arguably the most mobile weapon in the game as it is fairly quick on the ground but you can always launch yourself up in the air without the need of the environment, to dodge attacks or reposition yourself. The insect glaive also uses a Kinsect, which is a large insect that stays on the hunters arm while he’s fighting. He can send it towards the monster to collect it’s essence and come back. There are 4 types of essences you can collect - orange, red, green and white. All of these give different bonuses - red gives attack buff, green heals, orange gives a defence buff and white gives the hunter movement speed. Collecting all three of red, white and orange buffs together would make a special triple buff that would increase the hunters power even more. This is another visually great weapon that doesn’t see much use. I’d definitely give it a chance one day but one has only so much time to play.

Bow

The Bow was the first weapon I picked when I started. It is one of the easiest in my opinion to learn but one of the hardest to play well with and utilize. Shooting with the bow drains your stamina quite a lot and that shrinks the amount of stamina you have for dodging. Without any gear you run out of stamina quite quickly and you do very little damage. The bow is a ranged weapon but still needs you to be somewhat close to the monsters in order to inflict damage. As you go further away from your target, your damage goes down significantly. (You can only shoot so far with a bow. :)) The weapon is pretty fun and dynamic and having to be close to the enemy makes it pretty fun to use, because you still have to move and dodge. The ultimate attack - dragon piercer - is quite satisfying to pull off and can even be built around. The bow also takes advantage of different types of coatings for your arrows. Some of these will boost your damage and some would act as utility for sleeping or shocking the monsters. If you are a fan of ranged combat this may be the best option for you but in order to master this one you’d need to figure out how to manage your stamina.

Light Bowgun

The light bowgun is like a mini machine gun. This weapon could play very differently depending on the ammo you use. Different bowguns would offer you a wide selection of ammos you can use with them. Some will allow you to use more ammo with certain ones, some would have better recoil or better damage. All of this will change your playstyle significantly. I’d say every bowgun is it’s own weapon class - you could bomb monsters, pierce them, use rapid fire, normal shots, blast them or even use elemental ammos like poison, water, fire etc. Bowguns can also use utility types of ammo like sleep and shock. These are very good because they let you set up an ultimate attack after a monster is asleep or shocked. They are even better in party play because it allows all of your buddies to go ham without being in any danger while the monster is disabled .(well at least until it wakes up..) Bowguns are very versityle and are definitely one of my most played weapons. Light bowguns are quite mobily and are great for newer players. The only problem with these is that you’d have to craft your own ammo. You cannot carry unlimited amounts of ammo and often (especially if your aim isn’t the best) you’d run out of ammo before you kill a monster. That would mean you having to either die on purpose or return to camp to resupply. Crafting in combat is quite easy because of radial menus that let you do these things with 1 to 2 clicks. It is still not the easiest thing for newer players I’d say. You also lack materials when you start playing, so unless you go on some gathering expeditions to supply yourself with ammo ingredients, you may run out fairly quickly.

Heavy Bowgun

Here’s my big boy - the Heavy Bowgun. This one is quite similar to the Light Bowgun with some differences. For starters.. Well it’s heavier (obviously) so you aren’t very agile while carrying it and sheathing it takes FOREVER. This makes you somewhat more vulnerable because dodging isn’t easy. You can however roll with it (the roll distance can be boosted with gear) and attach a shield on it. The shield isn’t as strong as the lance shield but with some gear it could be quite good at blocking almost everything. The special ammos for the Heavy Bowgun have some real fun options as well. My favorite build before Iceborne was a Heavy Bowgun with Wyvern ammo (A heavy blast ammo, that you can carry a limited amount of) and a special ammo that pierces the target from a sniper position and then explodes inside the monster. It’s one of the most satisfying things to pull off. The builds with the Heavy Bowgun are a lot and you can play with it very differently - defence and offence wise. I’d say the Light Bowgun is a lot easier to pick on but the Heavy could be a good choice for someone just starting if they pick the right ammo with it.

When it comes to weapons there are a few more factors to consider - all of the none shooting weapons are affected by sharpness. Sharpness comes in different colors - starting from red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, white and now with Iceborne purple. The sharpness gives a raw damage multiplier - the higher the sharpness the more damage you’d do. As you hit monsters with your weapon your sharpness would naturally go down and you’d need to occasionally stop and get your whetstone out to sharpen your weapon. If your sharpness falls below a certain threshold, your attacks may even start bouncing off of the monster's hard scales or skin, dealing no damage at all.

Depending on your weapon and the damage it does, you’d be targeting different parts of each monster’s body. You discover their weaknesses and strengths by studying their tracks, breaking or cutting off parts, capturing or killing them.You have a monster journal that you’ll be updating the more you hunt. Certain parts of the monsters can be broken or cut off only by specific weapons. For example you can cut the tail of monsters only with slashing or piercing attacks (using swords or blades) and you can break hard parts by using blund or blasting attacks. Bowguns have an advantage here because they can use all sorts of attacks to break or cut any part they would need.

Fighting Mechanics

So you created your character and you picked the weapon you want to play with. Now what? The next step would be to jump in and get to the camp through finishing the first couple of missions. Here you get some understanding of how controls work but the game doesn’t hold your hand for long. Once you are in the camp though you can go to a training area where you get to test any weapon, combos, tricks and more. You even have most of the combos on display on the screen while in the area.

Each weapon has it’s - let’s call it - light and heavy attacks. With these you’d usually make combos. When using them in different sequences your character will perform different moves. It’s not like old fighter games where your light attack is always just a forward jab. If you press light attack three times in a row you’d perform a whole combo of three completely different moves. Combination of dashing, heavy attacks, reloads, special attacks, holding the button for a certain attack and many more will change the movements your character does. Some weapons will have a lot less options and different move sets where others - the more complicated ones - would have too many to memorize. There are leap attacks from edges, mounting attacks, some weapons will have their own special thing when you press two moves at the same time. It could get very complicated very quickly, but the good news is - you don’t have to use every single move you have to your disposal all the time. And you definitely don’t need to use all of them when you first start.

While we are still on the weapons bit there is one very important component in Monster Hunter World that every hunter will use and that is the slinger.

SLINGER

This little device lets you shoot rocks or other similar small bits from the environment and throw them at the monsters to distract or disrupt them. You can also use the slinger to aim at pieces of the surrounding environment and interact with it by breaking hanging pillars or other similar things and trap the monsters with them. Iceborne made the slinger even better, because it introduced two more ways to use it. One is a slinger burst which can instantly throw all the ammo inside and act as a mid combo piece. The second use of the slinger and one of the most used ones are connected to our next subject - the clutch claw. You can mount a monster via the clutch claw introduced in Iceborn as a new device and then throw all of your slinger ammo in the face of a monster.

CLUTCH CLAW

The Clutch came to be in the expansion for New World - Iceborne. It is a claw you can shoot and hook onto a monster to mount it. Mounting a monster usually takes a leaping or jump attack and you need to tire or deal enough damage to a monster in order to mount it. While ontop of a monster that way, you play a small mini game where the enemy will thrust and run around to make you fall of it’s back. If you are successful with your attempt the monster trips and is disabled for a while.
The clutch claw is different. You can do it whenever you want with the difference that the monster is free to just kick you away. If you time it right and clutch onto the monster's head though you can use your slinger to make your enemy charge in a direction of your desire. If they meet a wall or a pillar on the way, they get knocked down. You also have a special attack once you are clutched to a monster, that softens the monster's skin in the area. This increases your damage significantly when targeting that specific place.

Preparing for a hunt

It sounds like a lot but quickly after the first few quests you get how things work. You prepare for a hunt, craft your potions and ammo if needed, go to the Chef to have a meal and go on your mission.

Eating in the New World

So eating is a very important part of the game. It goes as far as you being able to make your own selection of ingredients that the chef prepares. You can fish, collect meals and veggies on your hunts and bring them back for the cook to prepare. Many players will use the automated Chef’s Platter option though, which is usually good enough for anyone and gives a strong enough buff.
The cooking system can get real complicated with specific buffs but in it’s essence it isn’t anything that should put you off. What it does best is to give you extra health and stamina for your next hunt or until you die and a buff to defence, attack or resistance.
You can eat once every 10 minutes. Once you go ona hunt you usually have 3 tries (deaths) to capture a beast. Since deaths here aren’t actual deaths, but a knockout and return to camp, you get to continue the fight from where you left off. You can always eat at the camp on a mission after death but you may get less buffs because the ingredients at the Chef are fresher.

There is only one thing left to cover outside of hunting and that is crafting.

CRAFTING

So the crafting system in Monster Hunter is fairly simple. While you are out in the open, you can gather all sorts of materials. Herbs, shells, insects, even monster poop you can throw back at the enemies to make them run away. There are no hidden recipes or any complicated combinations. Usually you need 1 or maximum of 2 ingredients to create something. If you have the ingredients in your bags you can even craft while you are on a hunt.

In the base you have an unlimited stash to keep anything you gather, while in your own inventory you get a fairly big amount of slots for potions and other utilities.

Crafting gear is fairly simple too. Just need to visit the smity and find the weapon or armor you want to make. You'll see stats, skills and requirements you need for it. Weapons can be upgraded as you progress and find new monsters to combine materials with.

Now that you are ready for a hunt what can you expect?

AREAS

The areas in Monster Hunter World are all very beautiful and detailed. Every single one of them is fairly big. All of them are tridimensional and have many hidden areas you can crawl into or climb up to. They have their natural ecosystem of animals and monsters as well as palico tribes you can befriend (if you manage to find them).
There are 5 main territories to explore in the New world and two more in Iceborne (one of which is a gigantic combination of all places before it).

Every single zone has it's specific traits and enviroments. Some may influence you in a way and you may have to take precautions - Going into a heated lava area may need you to drink a cooling potion or staying out in the frost may require you to take a warming one in order to preserve your stamina.

Most monsters will call home 2 of these areas and won’t be seen anywhere else, while some are bound to only one specific area.
As you progress through the story you discover each zone and a bigger variety of monsters will appear.

Outside of the fighting areas you will have a few camps at your disposal with vendors, your own room, chefs and much more. Without spoiling too much here are the two main one from New World and Iceborne.

First main camp Astera

Main camp introduced in Iceborne - Selina

Mini games

Monster Hunter World is filled with mini games that you don’t necessarily need to engage with but could bring a good amount of fun and variety to the gameplay.

FISHING

Fishing is something you get side quests for - catching a specific fish in an area. Some fish are used for cooking and some for crafting. The crafting materials from fishing usually have their counterparts from gathering so you won’t miss on anything if you don’t like to fish. The minigame itself is quite simple but as you progress through the game you will encounter certain fish will only be interested in specific lures. If you are a fan of achievements or a completionist, this will make the experience a bit less tedious, bringing more variety to your game.

CAPTURING CREATURES

Each territory is filled with different critters, insects, lizards and more. As you play through the game you will find an NPC that will show you how to capture these. Once you caught them they would give you some research points but more importantly, you can release them as pets in your room in the main camp. It is a fun little thing to do when you encounter something new and interesting - the pokemon master in you livens up. Keep in mind that most of these animals will be scared of you and you may need to be sneaky to get to them.

POOGIE

Poogie is a cute little pig that roams around the camp. He isn’t very friendly to you at first but if you are persistent in giving him attention he warms up to you too. You can dress him up in different outfits if you figure out his mini game and find these clothes. :)

TAKING PHOTOS

The game will let you meet with many NPCs that have interesting requests. One of them will ask you to take photos of the hidden palico tribes. Once you get the camera though, you can photograph pretty much anything.

Crossovers

Monster Hunter World is infamous for the crossovers with other games in completely different genres. These crossovers offer small questlines that often bring amazing rewards in the form of sets from monsters or other gear.
In these special quests you play as a different character from that specific game. For example you can play as Gerald from The Witcher in one of them. Latest one they did was with the movie Monster Hunter where you’d play as Artemis (Mila Jovovich).

These crossovers can be found after the main story of the game is complete. They could be quite hard and some even brought endgame content to grind at the time they were released.

MULTIPLAYER

Playing with your friends is a huge part of the Monster Hunter World experience. Certain content is meant to be played with a group and nearly impossible to do solo (or simply not rewarding). I’ve always struggled to find friends to play with on the PC so I took the solo route and either skipped or skimmed through the multiplayer content. However you can play the entirety of the game with a friend or more. The game allows you to party up with up to 3 more hunters. You can also make or join public games and enjoy the company of complete strangers.
Another cool feature is the SOS flair. This allows you to send a signal to others, that you struggle with a certain mission. If people are willing to help or are on the same content as you are, they can easily jump in and help you out.

Conclusion

Monster Hunter very quickly became one of my favorite games. I often come back to it in between playing other titles. You can easily spend hundreds of hours playing and still have things to explore, new monsters to conquer or weapons to try out. Any fan of the Dark Souls genre would have some quality time in the New World of Monster Hunter. The arpg aspect of it is what made me fall in love with the game. What I mean by this is the constant collecting of materials and improving your gear, weapons etc and the beautiful open world exploration. You constantly have goals to strive for other than simply killing the next monster in your way.
Some of the cons may be the grindiness that you can find yourself into. With how much content there is though and the Iceborne expansion fully out, you’ll have close to a hundred hours of story and exploration to do before you get to a place that some may consider as a heavy grind. With recent updates Capcom changed a lot of things, making the endgame a lot less tedious as well.

I know this isn't the usual post you'd expect from me, but I felt inspired to write it and spent a whole working day doing so..😅I hope people like it. Let me know if it is something people in the community are interested in. I may write more for other games I like. Does anyone else here enjoy some Monster Hunter action? I'd be happy to see someone else still enjoying the game. Anyways I hope at least one person reads this way too long post and to see you again in the next one!