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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  Gaming  |  But is it Fun?  |  Topic: Monster Hunter: World - Capcom - PS4 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: Monster Hunter: World - Capcom - PS4  (Read 10404 times)
Falconeer
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on: February 16, 2018, 05:27:57 PM

But is it fun? NO.

On paper, this is exactly what I was looking for and more. A Japanese game with obscene weapons, a lot of upgrades and a fair amount of grind, but most importantly boss battles after boss battles. I believe Japanese game makers are among the best in the world when it comes to fleshing out a fun combat system with ridiculous weapons. Slap any one of those combat systems to a game where you have to hunt gigantic beasts and you have an absolute winner.

Or so I thought.

Turns out, everything here is some kind of evolution of the previous games which apparently had a shitty combat by design (or maybe due to the limitations of the hardware), and as a result Monster Hunter: World teases you with beautiful big monsters who are not fun to fight. That is not the only problem of this game, but to me it is certainly the hardest to get over. There are some mechanics that drag you in, for example the idea that every monster you hunt gives you materials for its own unique set of armour, but nothing ever overcomes the fact that the whole "hunting" process is a murky, sticky, clunky affair.

Combat animations lock you in place way too long no matter what kind of weapon you are using, the camera and camera-lock features are sub-optimal, the need to resharpen your weapon is cool in theory but another interruption of the already lacking flow of battle, the escaping monsters -another nice idea in a "hunting" game- can be infuriating, some inventory choices feel so artificial (1 trap at a time?) and just in place to honour a questionable legacy system or basically stab you in the nutsuck, and so on with another million things where everything that could be the opposite of "quality of life" has been implemented with religious dedication. Tiny confusing icons for a million items that certainly serve many purposes while none of them seems particularly worth exploring or understanding. The main hub/city of Astera is uninspired and once again missing any kind of flow, the menus are mostly terrible with redundant or almost useless functions, and the stupid tiny little obligatory snippets of written dialog every time you interact with an NPC that you have been interacting with for ages just remind you of issues that make you wonder if it isn't all a filler, to make what is a pretty dull game seem larger and deeper than it is. It's almost ironic that in a game plagued with interruptions and slowdowns, there is NO pause button. That is right, you can't pause, ever. If you need to go to the restroom or someone knocks on your door all you can do is force the PS4 in standby mode.

There are some nice things. To see two giant monsters fight each other is always good, be it a game or a movie, and your monster-themed armours are addictive. The visuals are good although nothing special at this point, and sometimes exploring the environment feels pleasant, with no music (good choice!) and lots of tiny things to look for.

But eventually it all boils down to roaming around the same areas for a long long time, swearing at the stupid scoutflies for distracting you with lights and sounds when all they are doing is getting confused themselves or pointing you to the next fucking useless plant of crap, then eventually after mindlessly collecting all the tracks of your prey randomly scattered around (a process that is interesting the first three or four times you have to do it) until you get a hold of the big monster and a boss fight ensues. And here starts the carnival of slow ass animations, idiotic stun mechanics, a lot of swinging your weapon into nothingness and sometimes hitting something without any satisfying feedback or clear understanding of what is going on. Yet, with enough hitting and rolling behind the monster you will eventually prevail.

Of course I am making it sound worse than it is. But no, it is not fun and that's Monster Hunter: World biggest problem. A game that should be fun, had all the chances to be fun, and yet managed to be dull. It is not a pile of shit. It simply is not fun. No matter how much we want to like it, no matter how much we try to minimize the boredom, the stark reality is that this can make you go back to it for the next armour or to see the next monster, but it is totally not fun.

Trippy
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Reply #1 on: February 16, 2018, 05:52:46 PM

You forgot to complain about how your Palico is useless (or sometimes even worse than useless) and always fires off his or her Vigorwasp Spray when you don’t need it.

Also you are wrong awesome, for real
01101010
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Reply #2 on: February 16, 2018, 06:08:19 PM

Combat is a pretty far departure from what I am used to. The monster battles have no rhythm to them. The camera targeting system is just dumb even after screwing with the settings.

That all said, I am actually really enjoying it.

---------------- update

After spending a little more time with the game this weekend, I'd like to strike the rhythm part of my statement. I assume part of the adventure is to work through each monster's flow (attacks, pauses, etc.). Rhythm comes from weathering the storm, then unleashing hell, or weaving attacks within the storm. Combat is more understandable now that I have realized this is not about a DPS burn rather than outlasting the monsters - equal emphasis on dodging (or blocking) and attacking.

Still dislike the camera system, but futzing around with a few more settings and I have something I am able to work with and feels more into the flow.

edit: to address my original statement
« Last Edit: February 19, 2018, 04:21:49 AM by 01101010 »

Does any one know where the love of God goes...When the waves turn the minutes to hours? -G. Lightfoot
Yegolev
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2/10 WOULD NOT INGEST


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Reply #3 on: April 13, 2018, 08:10:12 AM

I see a lot of people playing this.  One person on this forum changed his PS4 avatar to one from this game.  I read this description and it could describe any Monster Hunter game that I have played.  I think I need more opinions.

Reminds me of a conversation I had when Fallout 3 was announced.  I said "It's post-apocalyptic Oblivion! (frowny grumble)"  The reply was "It's post-apocalyptic Oblivion! (gleeful smile)".

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
01101010
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You call it an accident. I call it justice.


Reply #4 on: April 13, 2018, 10:54:40 AM

Was that me? I actually have no idea what my PS4 avatar is now. But I admit, I am enjoying the hell out of the game. Still am not at end game since I am a masochist and am loving the farming aspect to get better armors/weapons. That said, I am getting close to being at end game and realize once there, there is not much left but chasing the final 1% of upgrades that come from the 'lottery' aspect of the game.

Does any one know where the love of God goes...When the waves turn the minutes to hours? -G. Lightfoot
Yegolev
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2/10 WOULD NOT INGEST


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Reply #5 on: April 13, 2018, 12:04:39 PM

It wasn't you I was thinking of, and I can't even remember the mapping of F13 <-> PSN unless there is some obvious connection.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Rendakor
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Reply #6 on: April 13, 2018, 12:23:47 PM

I see a lot of people playing this.  One person on this forum changed his PS4 avatar to one from this game.  I read this description and it could describe any Monster Hunter game that I have played.  I think I need more opinions.

Reminds me of a conversation I had when Fallout 3 was announced.  I said "It's post-apocalyptic Oblivion! (frowny grumble)"  The reply was "It's post-apocalyptic Oblivion! (gleeful smile)".
From everything I've heard*, people are mostly excited because there hasn't been a MH game on a real home console in some time; they went from PS2 > Wii > Wii U and otherwise it's been all handhelds. Given how underpowered Wii/Wii U were relative to their console generation, it's good to have it on systems with some power.

*I haven't actually played it yet; waiting for the PC release.

"i can't be a star citizen. they won't even give me a star green card"
Trippy
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Reply #7 on: April 13, 2018, 03:20:03 PM

I see a lot of people playing this.  One person on this forum changed his PS4 avatar to one from this game.  I read this description and it could describe any Monster Hunter game that I have played.  I think I need more opinions.

Reminds me of a conversation I had when Fallout 3 was announced.  I said "It's post-apocalyptic Oblivion! (frowny grumble)"  The reply was "It's post-apocalyptic Oblivion! (gleeful smile)".
It's the most accessible MH game with many quality-of-life improvements from what I've read. Running on systems with proper controllers helps a lot too. And of course the graphics are finally current gen, as was mentioned earlier, which hasn't been true since the first. Some hardcore players of the previous games have complained that this one is too easy (no G rank yet, among other things) and miss some of the stuff in the previous games. It's also currently lacking in the number of different monsters to hunt.
Hoax
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Reply #8 on: August 14, 2018, 06:38:13 PM

Necro:

No its not fun. Yes Falc was right.

I will go further. This is a bad game. It has way too much hidden info. The ui is out to fuck you. The game is out to make you do all the unfun parts for at least half your play session and boy are the unfun parts not fun.

I think Falc was wrong that the combat is inherently bad. There is a system to learn here and if you learn it you'll be good at it etc. That's good video gaming. But you just don't spend enough time engaged in combat. Much of the fight is the 2-5+ times you need to chase the monster around. Or you need to run off and re-sharpen your weapon. Whatever.

What makes this very unfun? The game doesn't let you teach yourself anything. Which is something in 2018 we expect anything that isn't a 1-man indie project to at least attempt to do. MHW does not. It has old shitty legacy mechanics and you could forgive that if you could at least read some tooltips and know what the fuck they do but you can't.

What's the difference in damage between white, green, yellow and orange sharpness? Fuck you.
Wait you mean different attacks are more effected by sharpness than others?
Wait you mean different attacks make you lose more sharpness than others?

Everything in the game that matters works like that. Everything.

If that info is avail in the game anywhere, I've got no idea where it is or how to find it. Hell if its even true because I read it off some random ign/gamefaqs/reddit guide from some fuckwad OG_MHVet_Naruto69X so i don't even know if those systems exist/work that way. Let alone what the actual numbers are for real. In a game that is basically all about numbers because at its core this game is about hitting the right place with the right thing the right way and then you do real damage otherwise you do 3 damage and fuck you player for being so stupid...

Verdict: Not fun.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2018, 06:40:07 PM by Hoax »

A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation.
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Trippy
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Reply #9 on: August 14, 2018, 09:02:17 PM

Necro:

No its not fun. Yes Falc was right.

I will go further. This is a bad game. It has way too much hidden info. The ui is out to fuck you. The game is out to make you do all the unfun parts for at least half your play session and boy are the unfun parts not fun.
So the thing about the game is that many if not most of the "unfun" parts have "counters" (with some unfun stuff having multiple counters). As a newbie you won't have access to most of the counters for a while but they are there in the game. One example is monster roars which can be *really* annoying as they will instantly interrupt whatever you are trying to do at the time. However there are multiple counters to roars. The "easy mode" one which can take a while to acquire are Earplugs. However equipping those means you have to give up equipping something else in their place which may help in other ways (more damage, etc.). So there are tradeoffs. The advanced counter to roars is dodge rolling, but that requires good timing and more advanced knowledge of monster behavior*. And if you watch advanced players play, especially speed runners, that's typically what they'll do cause they use their equipment slots/skills for moar damage rather than "quality of life" stuff.

Quote
I think Falc was wrong that the combat is inherently bad. There is a system to learn here and if you learn it you'll be good at it etc. That's good video gaming. But you just don't spend enough time engaged in combat. Much of the fight is the 2-5+ times you need to chase the monster around.
There are multiple counters to monsters fleeing including the fact that monsters will usually before they flee drop an item(s) on the ground that are specifically design for stopping them fleeing, if you can pick them up and hit them with it fast enough. The generic way to stop most non-tempered monsters if you don't want to deal with picking stuff up are Flash Pods. As a newbie you won't have access to many of them but once you unlock the ability to cultivate things you'll have more than enough to have them with you at all times (which you should, always).

Quote
Or you need to run off and re-sharpen your weapon. Whatever.
Again there are "counters" for this. There are ways to reduce the need the sharpen and there are items that sharpen much faster than the default whetstone (the fastest being a single stroke along your weapon).

Quote
What makes this very unfun? The game doesn't let you teach yourself anything. Which is something in 2018 we expect anything that isn't a 1-man indie project to at least attempt to do. MHW does not. It has old shitty legacy mechanics and you could forgive that if you could at least read some tooltips and know what the fuck they do but you can't.

What's the difference in damage between white, green, yellow and orange sharpness? Fuck you.
Wait you mean different attacks are more effected by sharpness than others?
Wait you mean different attacks make you lose more sharpness than others?
First of all, that stuff really doesn't matter if you are just trying to get to the "end game" (which I'm defining as farming tempered Elder Dragons). Second if you really care about that stuff and you don't want to watch a bunch of videos then spend more time beating on the pole...in the training room. The game shows you your damage number so almost anything you want to know about damage in the game can be discovered by beating on training pole and paying attention to the numbers**. This includes how sharpness affects damage.

Quote
Everything in the game that matters works like that. Everything.

If that info is avail in the game anywhere, I've got no idea where it is or how to find it. Hell if its even true because I read it off some random ign/gamefaqs/reddit guide from some fuckwad OG_MHVet_Naruto69X so i don't even know if those systems exist/work that way. Let alone what the actual numbers are for real. In a game that is basically all about numbers because at its core this game is about hitting the right place with the right thing the right way and then you do real damage otherwise you do 3 damage and fuck you player for being so stupid...

Verdict: Not fun.
It sounds like you may have started with the Great Sword or Hammer. It is true that with certain weapons each hit matters a lot because of how slow the attack animations are for them. If that's causing you issues cause you keep missing or hitting a part that is armored then you might want to switch to a faster attacking weapon like Dual Blades or Bow (if you prefer ranged) while you learn other parts of the game.

But like I said above the game shows you your damage numbers so if you pay attention to them (which is easiest in the Training Room) you can figure most of this stuff out on your own.

If for some reason you really need to know all the nitty-gritty of a game before you enjoy it you'll need to learn Japanese awesome, for real ***


* Except for the roar at the start of almost every fight which is very predictable

** You can do the same by hitting monsters but it's harder to pay attention to the numbers while you are trying not to cart

** The official guidebooks, which have numbers up the wazoo, are Japapnese-only right now
« Last Edit: August 14, 2018, 09:04:13 PM by Trippy »
Rendakor
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Reply #10 on: August 15, 2018, 06:03:40 AM

Hoax, all of your complaints can be leveled at every Monster Hunter game in existence. That doesn't make them invalid, but when a franchise is successful by doing things a certain way it's unrealistic to expect them to change.

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Reply #11 on: August 15, 2018, 09:33:47 AM

yea, monster hunter as a whole is an esoteric piece of shit

like, it's both fun and absolutely not fun at all at the same time

just play shadow of the colossus ps4 every time you want to play monster hunter

they're not at all the same, but MH is MH
Trippy
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Reply #12 on: August 15, 2018, 11:24:11 AM

Hoax, all of your complaints can be leveled at every Monster Hunter game in existence. That doesn't make them invalid, but when a franchise is successful by doing things a certain way it's unrealistic to expect them to change.
They did make MH:W more accessible than its predecessors, though. For example visible damage numbers is new to MH:W and is a *huge* change. If you think the damage mechanics are opaque in MH:W just imagine what it's like in the earlier games without those numbers visible.
Hoax
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Reply #13 on: August 15, 2018, 03:07:33 PM

Hoax, all of your complaints can be leveled at every Monster Hunter game in existence. That doesn't make them invalid, but when a franchise is successful by doing things a certain way it's unrealistic to expect them to change.

I've never touched a MH game, and the question this sub asks is simple. Is the game fun out of the box basically from the very start. This game is not fun. So I posted why it isn't fun. Saying "if you had a nostalgia boner for this bad game you would tell yourself it was fun" != the game being fun.

Saying "these terrible mechanics get better when you read the right guides and get another 5 hours into the game" is exactly why we made this sub and distilled the question of what is worth playing down to: out of the box is the game fun to play.

Reality is MHW is not. You spend a way too low % of your playtime doing the fun stuff and even then you are pretty much lost in the wilderness about how and why anything works the way it does.

A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation.
-William Gibson
01101010
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You call it an accident. I call it justice.


Reply #14 on: August 15, 2018, 03:13:47 PM

Hoax, all of your complaints can be leveled at every Monster Hunter game in existence. That doesn't make them invalid, but when a franchise is successful by doing things a certain way it's unrealistic to expect them to change.

I've never touched a MH game, and the question this sub asks is simple. Is the game fun out of the box basically from the very start. This game is not fun. So I posted why it isn't fun. Saying "if you had a nostalgia boner for this bad game you would tell yourself it was fun" != the game being fun.

Saying "these terrible mechanics get better when you read the right guides and get another 5 hours into the game" is exactly why we made this sub and distilled the question of what is worth playing down to: out of the box is the game fun to play.

Reality is MHW is not. You spend a way too low % of your playtime doing the fun stuff and even then you are pretty much lost in the wilderness about how and why anything works the way it does.

Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

Does any one know where the love of God goes...When the waves turn the minutes to hours? -G. Lightfoot
Falconeer
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Reply #15 on: August 16, 2018, 09:03:40 PM

You spend a way too low % of your playtime doing the fun stuff

This is a fact though.

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