After 500 hours in Monster Hunter World, the Monster Hunter Wilds beta feels like a new pair of shoes: fresh and stylish, but a little uncomfortable

GamesAction RpgMonster HunterMonster Hunter WildsAfter 500 hours in Monster Hunter World, the Monster Hunter Wilds beta feels like a new pair of shoes: fresh and stylish, but a little uncomfortableWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works. GamesAction RpgMonster HunterMonster Hunter WildsAfter 500 hours in Monster Hunter World, the Monster Hunter Wilds beta feels like a new pair of shoes: fresh and stylish, but a little uncomfortableWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Capcom) Playing theMonster Hunter Wilds betafeels like previewing my entire 2025. This is it, folks. This is where I will spend several hundred hours next year. It’s more Monster Hunter, shiny and new. Even in a hacked off and inelegant beta package with no real single-player option, no gear or build crafting, UI hangups, and a few performance concerns, I’ve still been chucking my evenings into it just to hear that combat system sing. I’ve played the early PS5 beta for about six hours, which feels like rating a whole sandwich after picking off and eating the bread. Still, it is good bread. Four new monsters and 14 revamped weapons? Yeah, that’ll kill another dozen hours once the beta is on all platforms. A new Monster Hunter game always feels like an occasion, andMonster Hunter Wildsis an especially energetic one so far. The beta feels good, often great, with the foundations of Monster Hunter World – far more than Monster Hunter Rise – weaving in changes and features that take the reins and steer this thing in exciting new directions. The world after World (Image credit: Capcom) First impressions, then. The beta environment, the Windward Plains, is ginormous, and stuffed with environmental tools that I habitually ignore in favor of just stabbing monsters. Vine traps, falling boulders, healing bugs and plants, resources galore – you know the drill. The 3D map is a big upgrade and makes navigation much smoother, as does theGoogleMaps-equipped bird mount called a Seikret, which will just auto-taxi you to whatever monster you’re after. I like Focus Mode a lot more than I thought I would I like Focus Mode a lot more than I thought I would The stalking and tracking part of the hunter side of Monster Hunter has definitely been streamlined even more. I know that will bum some people out, but as someone who’s mainly just here for boss fights and a peerless crafting grind, I’m not complaining. Seikret, take me to this Chatacabra, on the double. And don’t go anywhere; I need you to scrape me off the pavement the next time a monster curb-stomps me because I got greedy with my combos. The Seikret pick-me-up is incredibly strong, almost rivaling the Wirebug recovery in Rise for letting you quickly get some distance and heal in relative safety. The mobility and aggression in monster AI feels pretty comparable to World so far, with some design cues from Rise as well. The armored gorilla toad Chatacabra is a fun punching bag with heavily telegraphed attacks and plenty of staggers to exploit. Doshaguma, especially the larger alpha variant, feels like a much tamer version of Rise’s Goss Harag – bear-like and prone to just smothering you with its mass between swipes of its claws. The ink-spitting leviathan Balahara is my pick for the most frustrating monster in the beta. It justwill nothold still, and it constantly whips its head around as it seems to attack the ground behind you. (Image credit: Capcom) The top predator of the Windward Plains, the lightning wyvern Rey Dau, is the peak of the beta.Capcomnails the sound design once again. This thing is an alien railgun with wings, so it’s only right that it sounds like God slamming a car door. It’s a shame the quest itself is such a hassle. You initially have to find Rey Dau during intermittent lightning storms, one of the environment’s many fluctuating weather conditions, whereas other monsters spawn all the time. Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more Beta pains (Image credit: Capcom) That said, the seamlessness of these freeform expeditions is nice. Quests only start once you’ve hit your target monster, and you can just keep exploring after the hunt’s over. This makes speed runs easier to track and it reduces downtime between hunts, at least in a back-to-back setting like this. It’s like the aimless excursions in World but with a little more direction, and more loot from the looks of it. A quick trip to the nearest base camp, including several handy temporary ones, and I’m ready to go. I do miss the one-button item restock, though; if Wilds has one, I haven’t found it. The UI is a bit messy altogether, which is one of my biggest problems so far. Unhelpful pop-ups clutter the screen and delay essential inputs like opening the freakin' map, while important details like weapon-specific bars and resources seem oddly tiny. The good, the bad, and the insect glaive Some 1,100 words in, it’s finally time to nerd out over the weapons. I’ve focused on my darlings – lance, hammer, charge blade, and insect glaive – but I’ve been keeping tabs on all 14. I’m hungry to try greatsword, which got an honest-to-goodness parry, and longsword, the perennial favorite. All of the ranged weapons seem absurdly imbalanced, as is Monster Hunter tradition. Sword and shield feels mostly unchanged from World, and strictly better if anything. Dual blades do be blading dually. Switch axe I probably know the least about, but everything I’ve seen is encouraging. Gunlance might be the biggest winner of all the weapons, with huge buffs to shelling and powerful additions to its normal attacks and guard options. Capcom, if you’re listening, you need to roughly quadruple the motion value on this Capcom, if you’re listening, you need to roughly quadruple the motion value on this Finally, the bad news: I don’t like the new insect glaive at all. It’s still early days, but the gameplay loop that I loved in Rise is just gone. The thrust opener is slower and weaker, aerial attacks were gutted, and the divebomb thrust is much harder to use and aim. Almost all of the weapon’s power budget has been funneled into a whirlwind attack that pushes you to collect and burn all three kinsect buffs as quickly as possible, which is extremely boring to me. I don’t play the famously nimble insect glaive to use stationary charged attacks. It just feels pigeonholed, so while I may be missing something, I’m hoping it gets significant changes before launch or I may drop it entirely. The Monster Hunter Wilds beta isn’t even live yet, but over 23,000 fans on Steam gathered to stare at its start-up screen. 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