Monster Hunter: Wilds, PS5 Review
I am narrative focused gamer 90% of the time. Monster Hunter: Wilds has a 9-10hr Campaign with a raft of characters all voiced and animated with extensive cut scenes…and when viewed solely as a narrative experience, it is exceptionally poor. After the first 2hrs I even turned into KCs own Richards modus-operandi, of hammering the skip button on every cutscene!
I wanted get back into the action and hunt some beasts without the naff “narrative fluff”.
So, the story and characters is not the reason to come to the hunting grounds. Thankfully though, Monster Hunter: Wilds core gameplay loop of exploration, crafting and hunting is fantastic. The all-important monsters are massive, unique and I really enjoyed all the planning and prep. To then go toe to toe in battle against them. I played as a Bow-Gun main, as it gelled with my “shooter” gameplay preference. Which sure, isn’t metah, but I enjoyed it.
So, from a core gameplay design perspective the title is a triumph. But when I stepped back to put words down for the review, with a more ‘critical eye’. Well, there are some massive issues that I have to highlight.
I played on PS5-standard and was not impressed by the graphical quality, even in the “resolution mode”. As Digital Foundry highlighted, the lighting in particular is very flat which gives Wilds are very Grey feel in all modes. PS5 gamers don’t get anything even close to a 4K/60fps either. The native 60fps mode looks so poor, akin to a 360-generation game, it is not even worth considering. The best you can get is the “Balanced Mode” which is 40fps at 1250ish-p. I can’t speak to the PC performance, but a quick survey of Steam reviews shows that Capcom has some work to do there.
The environments, both Desert and Jungle etc… look great. Humming with life, stuff to harvest and animals to skin! It just a shame the quality of the graphics don’t match the artistic vision. Now with this all said, I would argue that we can park the fidelity and narrative flaws as non-fatal, just noteworthy considering the sort of game MH: Wilds is. A deep, co-op fucused, end-game grind game, with hundreds of hours of gameplay on offer.
Monster Hunter: Wilds vs. the end user
As stated, Monster Hunter games are about the “end-game”. Upgrading, farming, hunting and build-crafting. To constantly get stronger, to go off and fight the biggest and toughest monsters in the world. This process requires hours and hours of menu navigation, planning and crafting for complex combat. So, with that all in mind, it baffles me as to why MH: Wilds ‘User Experience’ (U.X) is so bad!!! The User Interface (U.I) in particular is just terrrrrible in both implementation and aesthetics.
Everything in the menus is badly laid out, poorly explained and inherently unintuitive. I found the HUD and Menus whilst in combat created such a cognitive load, that they were too hard to use in the chaos of a 15min fight. The multiple radial menus hidden under other radial menus, which require multiple button presses to select different ammo types or skills is insane! I got to the point in combat of choosing what I needed at the start, and just sticking with it unless the fight really, really went pear-shaped. It would have to be going really, reaslly badly for me to risk trying to swap shit out.
In 2025, after so many years of slick and intuitive UI and menu design across the gaming space, MH: Wilds feel like an unwanted blast from the past. When compared to somewhat similar games like the Horizon series. Where everything in the menus has a flare, but manages natural approachability and functionality, it just highlights how Capcom needs to fire the current UI lead. As I suspect they are a masochist!
But there are still a few lollipops and rainbows…
Throw away story, terrible menu UI and poor graphical performance aside, the title is still an amazing bit of game design. By that I mean, the afore mentioned issues would be a death-blow to almost any other game, but Monster Hunter: Wilds is that good. Its player freedom, ‘end-game’ grind and glut of content cannot be ignored. I really enjoyed my time…. after I got clear of the Campaign.
So if you have some tolerance for a game not being super approachable and you are looking for a long-term title to sink a few hundred hours into, then Monster Hunter: Wilds is a must buy.
