Monster Hunter World Live Play #01
Played this game extensively during MCO. Those were tough times as it was sudden, and to a certain extent, unplanned. Stopped playing it for 2 months since going back to work in June, and just remembered it again recently when the extension for RMCO is announced by the government (until 31 December 2020) in Malaysia.
Took a quick trip down memory lane, and also testing out a new setup (I like to call it Couch Cam), at the same time couldn’t help but take a look back at how this game managed to save my sanity in so many ways.
A little backstory about this game : I first got this title through Playstation Plus “FREE GAMES” offering, but just never got around to download and play it “for real”. The first time I heard about this title was from my Wii Gaming days when I just managed to play a few minutes of the Japanese version of “Monster Hunter Tri” (and everything is in Japanese) and I was hooked, however due to the language barrier, it was quickly forgotten but I wanted so badly to play it again “someday”. This is a franchise that was released in 2004 (Wii version in 2009).
Then so happens a gaming acquaintance of mine bought a copy and played it for a while on the PS4, and I had it on my wishlist “forever” (Around 1 year to be exact) before I managed to get the free copy (even after this it took me a good 3 months later to actually download and play it).
So technically this is not the first time I am playing it, in fact I am at Hunter Ranking 9 (playing the story mode, quest mode and multiplayer group hunts does help you level up faster). Of course, one thing that also helped me “get over the newbie curve” was also the fact that I had the Defender Amour as part of the free giveaway in conjunction to the IceBorne Expansion Launch! Talk about giving value…! Developers just added “Additional quality-of-life improvements on the base World game” even if you don’t own the expansion. Which makes me mightily impressed and this game is definately worth a visit, as you don’t need to farm and put it more hours to get to a level that you can play with the other advantaged PROs (like my gaming acquaintance who started way earlier *hint hint*).
I haven’t really finished the game’s story mode, just managed to recall I did open up a few new areas, been on a blimp and saw some really weird monsters. Now, I am just picking up the controls again (Lesson Learnt : don’t pause too long between plays hahaha) but its a blast to keep unlocking new monsters to hunt.
In this play I decided to skip all the stuff I used to do : picking the right armour, making sure i have the right traps, study the monsters before going to the hunt… My gaming acquaintance is a pro at capturing monsters (a skill that sadly I have not yet mastered fully… tried it twice and failed twice haha) but the myriad of gameplay options and weaponary will keep you engaged regardless you are the “cowboy hunter” type or the “careful strategist” (guess which one I really am?).
The only not so good part about the game is that it does take a while before the game “sends you off for a hunt”, due to the multiplayer nature in quest mode. A small (waiting) price to pay, considering that there are actually special events that can help you win some exclusive gear.
Although we are still in the pandemic (and the developers did apologize for sub par quality of content updates) I’d take it as a sincere effort from the developers to “keep going”.
Perhaps it will encourage me to support the IceBorne sequel sometime in the future…!
Playstation Store (PS4) :https://store.playstation.com/en-my/product/HP0102-CUSA09554_00-ASIAPLACEHOLDER0?fbclid=IwAR22njBFlRc5tqFxbjr5tih8skW0xlXm0DgUVDhFJ-_gGo0dae58vj6MYTM
