Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Review

Monster Hunter: World released back in January 2018 to widespread critical acclaim, something of a first for the series in the west. While the series has been pumping out impressive sales numbers in Japan for a long time, the west has always been more lukewarm on the series and with the majority of titles being tied to portable systems, it made that barrier even tougher for Capcom to break into the western market. So when Capcom announced a new Monster Hunter game aimed at consoles, the first since Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on the Wii U (a game that was ported up from the 3DS) many people were excited. Fast forward over a year and a half later and Monster Hunter: World has established itself as Capcom’s highest selling title worldwide and is played extensively to this day thanks in no large part to the great post-content release.

Monster Hunter: World saw a barrage of constant new additions to their monster roster as series favorites returned alongside deadlier variants of the game’s toughest threats. Exciting events such as collaborations with Square Enix and CD Project on Final Fantasy XV and The Witcher 3 events made the game always worth returning to and with the base game so stacked with content, there was always something new to find or discover be it a new weapon to train with or new friends to help out. This all brings us to Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, the game’s first and only large scale expansion and large is exactly what you’ll find it is. You may be forgiven to be fooled into thinking you’re only getting one new area to hunt in but the area is the largest to date in a Monster Hunter game and there’s so much content packed into the release, with more to come through post-launch content, that you’ll easily put just as much time into this new expansion as the base game.

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Hoarfrost Reach is a beautiful location full of many secrets.

It’s worth noting that you’re required to finish the base game’s storyline before you can even access the expansion content as the story is a direct continuation and you’ll be delving into the Master Rank difficulty from the get go. Following your Hunter’s exploits in the New World, a sudden migration of Legianas to the west have caused some concerns for the Research Commission and so begins the journey to the new landmass of Hoarfrost Reach, a beautiful glacier packed full of forests and caves full of deadly beasts. For fans of the original Monster Hunter World story, you can expect the same here with more fascinating cutscenes introducing the new monsters and a story that holds your interest until the credits roll. The story in Monster Hunter World does just enough to provide you with a motive for everything you do and the continued story of some of the more colorful characters such as your ever faithful Handler is always welcome along with the ever fantastic voice cast.

There’s a new base for you to make your new home here, Seliana and it’s packed full of new and returning characters and lots to see and do. The first thing you’ll notice here is the layout is handled a lot better than Astera, everything is all situated closely without having to run up and down stairs or using a lift and you’ll find item boxes all over the area meaning that you can always make a change to your loadout at any time. Your new room is better looking than ever and there’s a lot more customization too such as being able to change the placement of bookshelves, beds and more, all of which you can find more to unlock with your research points allowing you a lot more freedom on how you unwind after a long hunt (and besides, who doesn’t want a room with your own hot spring). On top of the usual services you had in Astera, a few new ones have been added to give you more interactivity, my favorite being the new Steamworks, a new facility where you can play a simple mini-game of guessing the correct button prompts to fuel the engine during which you’ll obtain lots of useful items as a reward. You’ll need to procure fuel in order to even begin the process but you’ll find it slowly recovers via quests or by converting some of the newer ore into it, regardless of how you obtain it, you’ll want to make full use of it as it’s just one more way of getting useful items needed for the tougher hunts. Finally, the Gathering Hub is probably the greatest improvement, gone are the days of leaving your friends in the Hub to go and check out if you can craft something from your latest hunt, now everything that you’ll ever need is in the new Gathering Hub. On top of that, you can interact with steam baths and hot springs just to add a little more of a personal touch and you’ll find that once you’re in an online session, you’ll never need to leave if you have other matters to attend to.

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The new Gathering Hub is full of neat little touches such as the foot baths.

The new hunting locale of Hoarfrost Reach is by far Monster Hunter World’s best yet, the level design is incredible with lots of hidden shortcuts and passages along with a real layer to it. You’ll find caves exist beneath the surface, while you can cross icy bridges to climb large mountains all the while you trek through deep snow that leaves tracks everywhere you go. The level of detail on the snow is fantastic and really adds to the immersion of being in this landscape. In fact, an early encounter with the new Beotodus, makes full use of this as it dives in and out of the snow as it attempts to attack you. It’s a difficult opening hunt if you’ve not played Monster Hunter World since launch and if you haven’t spent much time in the post-game content of the base game, you may find yourself struggling a little. The landscape is a lot more interactive, being able to knock down large stalactites from the top of a dark cave can really lay the hurt on to a marauding monster and you’ll find more instances of such tactics as you open up more of Hoarfrost Reach through the story. Indeed, you won’t have full access to Hoarfrost Reach from the get go, more opens up as you progress through the story giving you that feeling of always have something to look forward to and by the time the credits have rolled, you’ll have an incredibly large locale to hunt your monsters in.

You may be forgiven to think that having just one locale could get boring and Capcom have done an excellent job in having the story still take place in the New World (from the base game) throughout the new adventure, every monster now has a Master Rank version which comes with new moves to learn and materials to earn along with many of the new sub species such as a Coral Pukei-Pukei which will utilize deadly bursts of water against you. This helps stopping you from getting burnt out in spending all your time in Hoarfrost Reach and you can utilize the new Raider Ride feature to mount up on small monster Tailraiders to direct you to a pin you’ve placed on the map, including monsters! It helps keep the old areas feeling fresh and you won’t really feel like you’re playing old content as you take out the new Master Rank monsters there or gather some of the new ore.

Along with new monsters comes new equipment to forge and all of the weapons in the game have lots of new options to forge or upgrade into. Nearly every tree will feature new upgrades up to a possible Rank 11 for most weapons and you’ll need to hunt down the Master Rank monsters to get your hands on them. For fans who like to collect as many weapons as possible like myself, this will keep you occupied for many countless hours again as you look to complete your collection. The addition of being able to craft Layered Armor (armor that changes your appearance without changing your gear) yourself is a welcome addition too and there’s some great looking ones to hunt down, even if you’re into trying to fit into the theme of the frozen tundra landscape you find yourself in. There’s the addition of a new rank of jewel which comes with multiple skills on them rather than just the one skill the base game jewels provides, this gives the possibility of more diverse loadouts than ever before as you mix and match for some great skill combinations that just wasn’t possible before.

The new monsters to Iceborne are fantastic and they have a nice mixture of types other than the usual wyvern type monsters. Beotodus is a better version of the dreaded Cephadrome due to its aggressiveness and the fact that it won’t stay buried at all times. Banbaro has some techniques that may surprise hunters giving chase when you think it’s on the run and the size of it is intimidating, especially when fighting the larger crown versions of it and of course the main flagship monster provides a great challenge. The returning monsters and new subspecies are also welcome and I was both overjoyed and overcome with dread when I met Barioth for the first time. A monster that always caused me trouble in the previous games has been perfectly realized for Monster Hunter World and the sheer size of it alone is enough to make it daunting before it even attacks you. A lot of the returning monsters will evoke a feeling of nostalgia for long time players and give some of the newer players a chance to see what all the rave about them were, I never felt like I was facing a monster or hunt that felt more like a filler, everyone felt worthwhile with lots of new moves to learn and adapt to. I’d go as far as to say that this probably my favorite feature of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne as a longtime player of the series and I think other fans will feel the same way.

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The new variants of older monsters are a welcome addition.

The biggest change to the combat is the Clutch Claw and it’s probably the first thing you’ll find yourself trying out as soon as you start you first battle. The ability to now use your Slinger without having to put your weapon away is huge, it means the various types of Slinger Ammo is a lot more viable in your hunting strategies and something that a lot of people overlooked in the base game will now get some much needed love. All of the weapons have new moves associated with this addition and its well worth taking to the Training Arena to learn out the various new moves and how to put them into action. The second new addition is the Clutch Claw itself, an added claw on the end of your Slinger that will allow you to grapple on to a monster from distance and then carry out a few new attacks. For example, if the weapon you’re using is classed as a light weapon such as Sword and Shield, Dual Blades or Insect Glaive to name a few, then you can use an attack that will cause the monster to drop Slinger Ammo. If you’re using one of the heavier weapons however, such as a Lance, Great Sword or Hammer then you’ll wound the target area you strike to cause it to become easier to break or inflict damage. Alternatively, you can unload your entire stock of Slinger Ammo on a particular area and should you choose to do so on the head of the monster, you’ll send it crashing off into that direction, useful should you want to maneuver it into a trap or off a ledge. Finally, I found the Clutch Claw useful for when a monster was on the run, being able to grapple from distance to keep up with it and then send it into a wall will cut of its escape pretty quickly. These all open up new and exciting strategies to use on the monsters and some monsters even seem like they’re intended to be fought in that particular manner.

There’s been some much needed improvements to the multiplayer hunts too, none of which are more useful than the dynamic difficulty added to the game. In the base game, there was two version of a monster which affected its health and how much damage it could inflict. The first was if you was playing solo, the monster would always have a set value based on the size of the monster, the second was in any multiplayer game with more than one human controlled player, this would adjust and balance it for a group of three or four meaning that if there was just two of you, you’d be facing a tougher battle. You’d also sometimes find yourself in situations when everyone will leave your hunting party mid hunt or your connection would drop, essentially leaving you on your own against a monster scaled to four. With Iceborne, there’s a new paired scaling for when you’re up against a monster with just two player controlled hunters and should you find in a hunt that people join or leave, the game will automatically scale up or down to match the number of hunters, this ensures that you’ll always be challenged appropriately for the task at hand. It’s a fantastic quality of life and one that improves the whole multiplayer experience as a whole. There’s also been some adjustments to how Squads work in the game as they take on a much more guild like feeling as you’re now able to assign ranks within your Squads and you’ll have a new Squad Card that will have vital information about your hunter and your Squad which helps to build out the community even more. You get the sense that Capcom want to bring people together more with Iceborne and with many of these new features, there’s never been a better time to play multiplayer be it with friends or not. Being able to add your gestures to a radial menu that you can access in the Gathering Hub is also a nice quality of life and allows the Gathering Hub to become a lot more sociable than it ever was in the base game.

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Seliana is better designed than Astera when it comes to it’s layout.

It does sound all positive and for the most part it is, the graphics are still fantastic and the general gameplay loops is a great as ever if not better. There are a few gripes still hanging around, mainly ones from the base game that haven’t been improved upon with the expansion, none less frustrating in having to start a hunt solo for the first time before exiting back to the HQ to join a friend, if you’ve yet to see the cutscene associated with that monster then you’ll need to see it on your own first before you dive into it in multiplayer. It’s disappointing that Capcom didn’t give an option to skip a cutscene should all members of the hunting party choose to skip it, an easy fix that should be there by now. The loading times are still the same (on PS4 Pro) and they become increasingly irritating when you fail a quest multiple times however this is another issue carried over from the first game which would’ve been nice to see improved if possible (one example where the PC version shines).