Quick Look: Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Let me show you my Jaggi.

I've been so hyped for this! Just 4 months to go till PC -_-

Thanks Jason and Jeff!

I showed you my Jaggi, please respond.

I'm maybe six hours in now, only about 3 main quests deep, and I'm absolutely in love with it so far. There's so much packed in here, the new hub is super well designed, there are so many potential options for set building even this early on, and the first non-beta new monster I've fought (one of the variant subspecies) was a really tough, satisfying challenge. It's even thrown in a genuinely surprising and interesting narrative twist already.

It's like having a brand new Monster Hunter laid out in front of me, but still grounded within this framework and setting I already know and love. The Quality of Life changes all seem really smart, too. I'm so excited to slowly work my way through everything in here. If you liked World, this isn't really a hard sell, but it already feels essential for fans of the base game.

Are people going back to PS4/XBOX after moving on to PC? I want to play this, but then I remember the load times on my base PS4

I look forward to playing this in January. Also good to see Jason using the lance. A true gentleman's weapon.

It's very hard not to buy the base game again on PS4 and play through that to get to Iceborne, but I can't abandon my PC save. Still very salty about the 4 month gap between consoles and PC. It looks so good!

90% of the wind out of my sails knowing that they did not figure out the how to get all players into a game regardless of if they have seen a cutscene. I get that it is likely a hard fix, but I think they should throw everything they have at that one.

So Jason says there are no real quality of life improvements regarding scoutflies and trying to find a new monster, but I think he just totally forgot about tailraider riding. This is a new ability that they introduce right at the beginning of Iceborne where you hop on a tailraider and it takes you around the zone across all the tracks you need and finds the new monster for you. Definitely use that instead of just running around!

Pleased to see more GB Monhun content without the dang bow, it can be fun to use but so boring to watch.
Honestly feel tempted to get the dlc on Ps4 before the pc version comes out. I'm baffled that they haven't reached parity between versions yet, can't be that hard to put it all on pc as they already have plenty of experience with the base game port by now.

Btw I'm pretty sure the reason clutch claw direction didn't work at the end was that you weren't on the monster's head, Jason...

@drm2thej: That seems pretty major, and pretty silly that it wasn't mentioned? Maybe it is limited use in some way?

Can't wait to play this...when it comes out on PC in four months.

@north6: Its not really that limited. I think the ride can tire out if you use it too much per quest, but realistically you're just going to use it to get to the monster once and then chase it around on foot after that. Unless it's something like Rathalos that jumps to the opposite side of the map when it runs. I suppose you could run out of juice if you were out gathering on an expedition for awhile.

It's a nice feature. It will take you to whatever you pin on the map and you can choose to have it walk or run. Run if you want to get there fast, walk if you want to gather along the way. And you can go through all your prep and setup items on the ride there.

@mezza: Good to know, initial monster hunting can be tedious, and that seems like a game changer.

IMO the best Monster Hunter game now, endgame is also great. I am excited to see the franchise moving forward.

@drm2thej said:

Around the 12:50-13:15 minute mark, Jason actually does go looking through his item menu for something to call a "raider" to ride around, but he doesn't find it and wonders whether it's something you need to earn area by area.

Yeah, I think what must have happened is that he doesn't have Tailraiders in Hoarfrost Reach yet. I didn't realize that was a limitation until I just had it happen in my own game!

That does bring up another thing that wasn't really mentioned, I don't think.

They added a new faction of felynes for Hoarfrost Reach, and all the felynes clans get new levels and abilities. Once you level them up (per zone and clan) they can send you on treasure hunts, which is just a fun little thing you can do to supplement hunting. It's basically like a scavenger hunt type of thing, rewards knowing the maps really well (I just did one with the bugcatchers in the Ancient Forest).

I assume the tailraider riding ability turns on when you befriend the new Hoarfrost clan and gain tailraiders there by leveling them up.

There's actually a lot added to the game that makes a lot of sense and acts as QOL improvements now that I've put... jeez probably >15 hours into it since it unlocked on Thursday. The Palico tools all get further levels, for example.

wow this is a MASSIVE change! Very cool!

I hope we get more Monster Hunter Mondays with this new content. It's super fun watching them all fight monsters together.

This has consumed my entire weekend and could not be happier. Its great.

Tailriders allow you to use items while riding so have a nice hotdrink and sharpen while chasing your prey. The claw mechanic is so much fun and allows some great set-ups.

@razgriz_one: So here's a bit of perspective that might... at least lessen the amount of wind being taken out of your sails. I don't expect it to turn around people's opinions considering "playing through the story with other people at the same pace" seems like such a big part of western gaming, but here goes:

In the older games, there were whole separate lobbies for offline and online modes, and the "story" (or what little of it there was) quests were entirely contained in the offline segment. Aside from technical limitations, this was because the devs wanted people to go through the story on their own in the offline segment (which had slightly reduced monster stats) so that they'd learn the monsters first before going online. With how much of a time investment each quest can be, and how one player can screw up a whole hunt, the story mode essentially acted as a "skill check" of sorts before wading into the deep end. It's pretty clear to me that the devs were essentially thinking the same here, where they expect people to do the story mostly by themselves, and call for help if they really need it. I also think this is why they call the quick multiplayer initiator the "SOS flair". Now, I get that expectations are different for many people here, but considering they probably added in multiplayer into the story segment to try to appease the western audience, I think it's understandable why they have such different priorities.

There's also the logistical issues. The game they created here essentially has a living environment that is constantly changing in real-time, and cutscenes are all but real-time. What would the other players (whom haven't seen the cutscenes yet) do if they were able to start the quest at the same time, but another player initiates the cutscene? Do they get paused in place until the cutscene is over, even if they're in the middle of an encounter of their own? Assuming people care about the story, wouldn't they "miss out" if the player character being portrayed in the cutscene isn't their own? How would you ensure that all players will get to have the same experience, where they look for the tracks of a new monster, and encounter it in the correct place for the cutscene? I know people usually don't care about MH's story; but I think it's safe to assume that the devs are really proud of their work, and want everyone to experience the most of it, albeit in a very rigidly structured, Japanese-ass way.

Finally, here's the "suck it up" part of the argument. I have over 300 hours on this game (more if I include my playthrough on consoles), but I haven't seen an unskippable cutscene in... about 260 hours. You have to see these cutscenes ONE. TIME. for the story. The main content of this game is in the grind/replayability for equipment crafting. I don't want to dismiss people's dissatisfaction with the cutscene ordeal, but it's SUCH a small part of the experience in the grand scheme of things.

I'm definitely not going to say this whole setup was ideal, and that it solves all of the issues I mentioned. It's definitely a band-aid solution to "hey we still want to make a very linearly structured story of ONE hunter being the savior of this expedition, but people would want MULTIplayer in this". IMO, they should have just stuck to keeping the story content separate as an offline-only thing. But I just can't stress enough that this game is worth so much more than some minor irritation about how it restricts the story playthrough. (What people really need to complain about is the goddam dreadfully bland designs that some of the weapons got subjected to... I get that they were trying out new things, but holy shit do they fucking SUCK compared to the previous games....)

I'm using the gap as an excuse to not spend money on more games right now. ;D
But I would of course like to play right now. Difference is that I do have the base game on PS4, pretty far in to. But I switched over to PC earlier this year, and I don't want to go back, for multiple reasons.
One is of course the load times are so much faster, and another the framerate is more comfortable too. But the main reason is I know more people who play it on PC, so I rather wait for that, and focus on the games I already have to play.

Jason: I installed a mod...... to put the clothes back on.

Oh my god that meal looks incredible.

@escapevelocity: Dude. They had to solve one problem to get me on board, they failed, whoops.

I love Monster Hunter with a passion I don't feel for most things, but a bad design choice is a bad design choice. I am not blind.

Wait, did she just roast them sweet potatoes in the furnace?

Animations in this game are off the chart.

Now I can't wait for Autumn to get some Yaki-Imo.

@razgriz_one: "Dude." Like I said, I don't expect what I said to turn around opinions (I DON'T think they made the correct design choice, like I wrote). All I'm trying to do is provide perspective that might have even a tiny bit of a possibility to broaden people's views so they don't get as blinded to a great experience because of a small inconvenience. In that effect, I'm not really addressing this to you specifically, since I hear the same complaint in many places(BRAD*cough* though I get it's worse of an issue for a reviewer that can't put in 100s of hours like the game is designed to). People just need to relax a bit.

i very much enjoyed this QL as a person kind of on the fence for even more monster hunter. of course i'll buy it, but i think i can hold off till the pc version drops, not prepared to start the game over on PS4 just for the addition. That's crazy, Jason.

In the vein of stuff I liked growing up its cathartic and very fun when jason brings excitement to games because ultimately I know when he's jazzed about something being fun I likely also totally dig it, like absolver or ashen or this or anything oool. Jason is cool.