Monster Hunter Wilds

 PlayStation 5
Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 107 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 104 out of 107
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 107
  3. Negative: 0 out of 107
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  1. Edge Magazine
    Mar 20, 2025
    70
    We can't shake the sense that we've trodden these paths before. [Issue#409, p.104]
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  2. Gamekult
    Feb 24, 2025
    70
    The problem when reviewing a game of this scale, part of a series with more than ten entries, is that personal attachment and nostalgia inevitably play a crucial role. It’s clear that the franchise no longer offers the same experience as it did years ago. The rough, unwelcoming, and flamboyant feel of the past has given way to unwavering accessibility, a clear pursuit of simplicity, and a deliberate openness to newcomers. While the game’s addictive foundations are still present, they are nonetheless hindered by an at times excessive simplification of its mechanics. However, Monster Hunter Wilds remains a thrilling experience, even for veterans—provided they accept that it is no longer the game they once knew.
  3. Hardcore Gamer
    Feb 24, 2025
    70
    Monster Hunter Wilds is a fun experience and has all the staples that make the series so enjoyable. Unfortunately, some choices make it hard to enjoy yourself for a significant amount of time while making your way to the portion of the game that you’re trying to experience.
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  1. Kotaku
    Feb 24, 2025
    Monster Hunter Wilds is at its most beautiful and chaotic when all the elements and residents of its dynamic world accidentally collide; multiple monsters locked in a turf war as smaller creatures scurry around, some trying to escape, others following their pack leader into the action, all while hunters set exploding traps and raging storms pass through before eventually breaking into daylight. I wish all of this were integrated into the harder, better, stronger, faster logic at the heart of the game’s RPG progression in more sophisticated ways, but that liveliness does inject more life and zeal into a very familiar pattern, one that still works and now feels more robust than ever.
  2. The A.V. Club
    Mar 3, 2025
    Don’t get me wrong: As a long-time player of the franchise who’s already put 70 hours in for this review, I’m firmly in the grip of the addiction. I’ll be playing this thing for at least another month or two, getting every ounce of meat off its bone as I perfect my weapon sets and maximize my fit. (I’ll leave more in-depth sartorial analysis to the fashionistas, but the armor looks are generally strong, if not as out-there as some of World‘s outfits.) But I can’t help but feel a little dissatisfied at how easily Wilds has set me up for the binge. Many of its changes to long-standing franchise tradition are initially, and genuinely, thrilling: The first two dozen times you land a wound strike, it feels great. But the worst thing I can say about these changes is that, taken as an aggregate, they serve to rob the monsters of some of the glory that the game’s art designers have done such amazing work to re-instill in them: Transforming gorgeous creatures into a rote series of hitboxes and weak points for easy disassembly. The best Monster Hunter games have taken the “hunter” side of that titular equation seriously. Monster Hunter: Wilds, by contrast, is more like an extremely slick action game than a celebration of the hunt. Its storytelling has taken an undeniable step forward, but its play—where this franchise has always lived or died—has lost some of that all-important spirit.
  3. The Verge
    Feb 24, 2025
    Even in its first real competition with 2023’s Wild Hearts, which infused monster hunting with Fortnite-like building, Wilds shows that there’s still nothing quite like the thrill of a hunt in MonHun. They can be exhausting and challenging and, at times, frustrating; my thumb remains sore from all of the rolling and dodging I’ve done over the past week. But it’s also immensely satisfying to actually pull off taking down one of its massive beasts, a combined sense of relief and joy that few other experiences can replicate. Wilds doesn’t change any of that — it makes it feel even bigger.