To summarize right off the rip:
Monster Hunter is usually a game you already know whether you are going to buy or not. If you are at all on the fence, just wait until performance improves . If you don't already know for sure that you will love it because it's Monster Hunter, then WAIT TO BUY IT. I am fortunate enough to have received the game as a gift from a good friend; if I were tasked with spending money on it myself at this very moment, I would not be buying it yet.

As far as gameplay goes, it's awesome. Perhaps the best MH has felt in its history. Fights feel good (if a little easy), the weapons and new moves are great fun, monster design is as interesting as ever, and the world is cool. I hope and expect that the endgame and inevitable expansion add the difficulty we're used to. I also desperately hope that they improve the multipayer experience (because Japanese devs just cannot get a grip on that, for some reason).

The story is Monster Hunter. If that doesn't explain exactly what to expect, think of it as a guided tour with a "narrative" that basically just serves to this you from A to B. Nobody plays this series for the story, and this one ain't changing that fact. The biggest issue I have here is the forced slow rides to new places. It feels like a theme park ride in a very bad way, but you auto-walk while at these stages which is a fine compromise to having to run all over the blasted map in World.

Music is pretty good. You spend a fairly large amount of time in menus at camp, and thankfully the ambience and music there are quite nice. Music on hunts and during big moments is awesome. No qualms here.

Visuals? Performance? If there's any reason to give this game pause, it's this. Artistically sound: stylized, consistent, and granular. However, the style is pixel art meets oil painting, the consistency is in how awful it looks, and its granularity is in the sandy appearance of everything you see. This is harsh, because it is actually quite a pretty game, but only if you have a top end GPU and don't expect anything above 1440p60. Reaching 1080p60 should NOT be outside the scope of anything but the lowest end modern machines, and the fact that people with the best GPUs and CPUs on the market can't top out and reach reasonable performances is unforgivable.

The game has the same horrifying issues that DD2 does. You can even see the reuse of many animations (which is not an issue in and of itself), which indicates there is likely a lot more under the hood that it shares with that game. I love and adore both of them, but if you are anything but a super fan who is certain you will feel the same OR if you do not care about struggling to hit expected performance levels: DO NOT BUY IT YET.

To summarize right off the rip: Monster Hunter is usually a game you already know whether you are going to buy or not. If you are at all on the fence, [b]just wait until performance improves [/b]. If you don't already know for sure that you will love it because it's Monster Hunter, then WAIT TO BUY IT. I am fortunate enough to have received the game as a gift from a good friend; if I were tasked with spending money on it myself at this very moment, I would not be buying it yet. As far as gameplay goes, it's awesome. Perhaps the best MH has felt in its history. Fights feel good (if a little easy), the weapons and new moves are great fun, monster design is as interesting as ever, and the world is cool. I hope and expect that the endgame and inevitable expansion add the difficulty we're used to. I also desperately hope that they improve the multipayer experience (because Japanese devs just [i]cannot[/i] get a grip on that, for some reason). The story is Monster Hunter. If that doesn't explain exactly what to expect, think of it as a guided tour with a "narrative" that basically just serves to this you from A to B. Nobody plays this series for the story, and this one ain't changing that fact. The biggest issue I have here is the forced slow rides to new places. It feels like a theme park ride in a very bad way, but you auto-walk while at these stages which is a fine compromise to having to run all over the blasted map in World. Music is pretty good. You spend a fairly large amount of time in menus at camp, and thankfully the ambience and music there are quite nice. Music on hunts and during big moments is awesome. No qualms here. Visuals? Performance? If there's any reason to give this game pause, it's this. Artistically sound: stylized, consistent, and granular. However, the style is pixel art meets oil painting, the consistency is in how awful it looks, and its granularity is in the sandy appearance of everything you see. This is harsh, because it is actually quite a pretty game, but only if you have a top end GPU and don't expect anything above 1440p60. Reaching 1080p60 should NOT be outside the scope of anything but the lowest end modern machines, and the fact that people with the best GPUs and CPUs on the market can't top out and reach reasonable performances is unforgivable. The game has the same horrifying issues that DD2 does. You can even see the reuse of many animations (which is not an issue in and of itself), which indicates there is likely a lot more under the hood that it shares with that game. I love and adore both of them, but if you are anything but a super fan who is certain you will feel the same OR if you do not care about struggling to hit expected performance levels: DO NOT BUY IT YET.