Capcom finishes the work done with the base title a year and a half ago with an expansion that really feels like a new game. Excellent.
This Reviews has been updated with everything related to the PC version, by Albert Gil and available at the end of the text
It's amazing that we got here with Monster Hunter. To what it is, now yes, the end of a new course for the saga started at the beginning of 2018 with what few believed was going to become the success it is today. More than 13 million players endorse the work of the Ryoto Tsujimoto team, one that decided to democratize the entry into the hunting franchise par excellence of Capcom so that it would also become a mass success in the West. Iceborne closes the circle with quantity, but also with quality. We will be clear from the beginning: it is one of the best experiences we have had of the entire generation.
Because update 10.10 is not just covering everything with snow, it is also offering the second third of a huge puzzle divided before into two ranks. Now comes the third, but it does the hand of changes and improvements in the playable so that it expands and substantially improves the product that we already qualify with an outstanding. Iceborne is too.
To put ourselves in context, the commission of inquiry has decided to cross the sea after the events that take place in Monster Hunter World, the whole purpose of chasing a flock of Legiana who, for some reason, leave the Primal Forest. The commission is there a new unknown territory, buried by snow. A new page in a book that seems to have no end. Here it all begins: new base, new commissions, about two dozen monsters, variants, old dragons, new weapons and combos … We have rarely seen something like this with an expansion. Welcome to Seliana.
More difficulty A reinterpretation of the G Range
The increase in difficulty is no joke. Just as there is a jump from the Low Rank to the High Rank, there is also a jump to the Master Rank, which is what we have traditionally known as Rank G. The whole community asked for it: it was not enough with the tanned monsters of the endgame. There was a common reproach among the community more dedicated to the title, and that is that Capcom had not opted for a difficulty as high as in previous installments; especially when MH4U and MHGU did such excellent work in that regard. Content and complexity were two key elements in these deliveries and, now, in Iceborne the balance has been balanced.
That is why we can only access Iceborne if we have RC 16 (the range we have at the end of the main game campaign). Goodbye to armor and weapons of rarity 8. What used to be the roof, which guaranteed strength and power in combat, now becomes part of the trunk. Iceborne sends you a message from the first minute: you will have to collect many materials and you will visit the forge a lot. It is enough to say that the armor with which we faced some old dragons in the main game paled against a nervous Tobi-Kadachi of a star in the Master Rank. This time we will have oddities from 9 to 12, the latter the essential ones for the endgame of the expansion.
Many have feared that Iceborne's difficulty was to be something artificial, that the game could begin to make "traps" to overpower some creatures. Nothing of that. To begin with, the difficulty is now dynamic: if we are two hunters the game will be regulated in real time so that the life points of our objective are in accordance with the established time (50 minutes as a rule) and the number of suitors in the hunt. If a third hunter enters there will be another ipso facto setting; The same if you stay alone. It is very well thought out and it works.
But how difficult is Iceborne? Actually, if you have reached this point, if you have already passed the base game and know each race, each recess of the scenarios and have internalized the combos of the class of your weapon, it will not be desperate. It all depends on the skill of the player, but artificial intelligence demands much more mastery of the moment than in the base video game. The missions are also slightly longer; what was previously completed in 30 minutes can perfectly go now to 40 minutes, that's why it is the Master Rank. The moments of tension are also greater and, for more inri, there is something that we greatly appreciate: the monster understands that a hunter is weak and prioritizes the attack on whoever is on the ropes. If you are paralyzed and you are at a stroke of fainting … cross your fingers.
Cooperation is therefore essential with this increase in difficulty. It is no longer worth forgetting to sharpen the weapon, it is no longer useful to try to endure with the Medicines provided by the base camp. If you go to the Frost Creek you cannot afford to go without Hot Drink unless one of the jewels of your armor has such ability. The cooperative experience has been a pleasure in these weeks of preparing the Reviews. Going only to the missions of four and five stars of master rank is crazy unless we have the best existing armor for that type of monster; not so much because we are going to die but because we will not have time to end the hunt or capture. Communication is key in the process, that is why we recommend more than ever to play connected to a chat group, each hunter must assume a role in the battle, as always, but these missions play in another league, this is something serious indeed.
Let's talk about monsters: Iceborne is a complete game
A simply spectacular moment.
In case it was not clear, not all the missions of orders in Iceborne are carried out in the Frost Creek; there are also others in the scenarios surrounding Astera, which may give some sense of monotony for repeating some missions. It is not quite so for two reasons: the first is that missions are much more difficult because of the Master Rank, which entails the appearance of other races and materials; the second is the main monster of the commission, which will present many variants. From the most classic and seemingly simple, like a Pukei Pukei Coral, a Paolumu Nightshade or a viper Tobi-Kadachi. At no time have we had the feeling of repeating something we already did in the past.
The large number of developments make us raise, without a doubt, that this is not so much an expansion as a second part. We are not going to quote here anything Capcom said (which is not everything new or everything that comes back …), but we have back faces known to saga lovers for more than a decade like the Tigrex, also Barioth, Nargacuga , Glavenus, Brachydios or Yian Garuga. We insist, this is not all …
The confrontation against Velkhana, the flagship of the video game, or variants such as Legiana Howler, Odogarón Ebano or Anjanath Fulgúreo, are added that they feel really novel. We have not stopped thinking about the expansion or when we turned off the console for what had just happened in many missions. We have seen the credit titles after 65 hours, but we assure you that we expect more than triple when the campaign ends. It could not be otherwise in the saga.
The retractable claw, much more than a hook
A claw to dominate them all.
It is surely the retractable claw one of the fundamental elements of Iceborne. The team, with the idea of Kaname Fujioka and Daisuke Ichihara in the lead, made known in a recent development newspaper the need to introduce a new playable mechanic with which to introduce dynamism to the battle. This element, far from serving only for what is initially thought, which is the possibility of getting hooked from a distance to the monster, raises to the maximum power what we already saw in Monster Hunter Generations and what in the base game materialized in raising us to a creature and start hitting.
The retractable claw becomes an essential element for the strategy, especially if we play alone. It gives mobility, provides speed and makes it clear that verticality is, once again, a key element in the design structure of this video game. If the design of the maps was now higher in all its scenarios, starting with the peculiar Primal Forest through the Wilderness of the Needles or the Coral Highlands, in the Frost Creek it seems to be thought of zero to make use of the claw retractable When we are clinging to a monster, wherever it may be, new combos and auctions can be made; It all depends on the type of weapon. Also called sling combos. The claw is part of the sling, but now its use is raised to another level when it can be used with the weapon drawn. With the Double Swords or the Katana, for example, there are moments where you feel the power in your hands.
The horsemen
We cannot forget the arrival of the mounts, which were already in a certain way in the saga with the Monster Hunter Stories spin off, but which now materialize here as a new way of transport. Nothing to run, now the so-called Horsemen will do that tracking task quickly to reach certain places on the map at full speed; They also look for traces. When you arrive, if you wish, you can pounce with the claw and start the battle.
The Frost Stream is again the protagonist for the changes it applies to the physics engine. When you see those icy stalactites in the tundra you can knock them down so that they fall directly on the monster thanks to the sling, but what is quite differential is the possibility of using this retractable claw as a gun to make the monster collide against a wall and lose several thousand hit life points. If we hit the sling and hit your head in positions close to a huge wall, it is a matter of getting it right for that huge pile of stones to make an appearance.
It is especially in the final stretch when more times we have to use the head for a mere matter of economy over time. If you have fifteen minutes left and you still see the end away, it is best to cause a catastrophe on the map that precipitates the weakening of your monster. We will see stampedes, caused or not, mounds that collapse, surfaces that are destroyed, literally, or geyser stones that interact with the environment due to temperature changes. It does not reach the point of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but the Frost Stream makes you feel in a living and changing environment, seasoned by a very striking local fauna.
What was once a two-way relationship between hunter and monster now adds a new element: hunter, monster and environment.
Quality of life details that make the difference
Monster Hunter has always been a saga with menus and interfaces that can be improved; It is possibly that one of the reasons why in the West he had so many problems to fit. It is also clear that in this fifth generation things were done much better both aesthetically and strictly related to the UX / UI design, but in Iceborne small changes have been applied that should be reviewed. It may seem somewhat trivial, but when we finish the hunt we can click on "Take all" to avoid having to accumulate all the materials one by one.
Seliana is also a smartly designed base of operations. Let's not fool ourselves: in Astera we sometimes took a long time to get to what places. The meeting room of this new location is, by far, the most complete. We even have the forge inside, which will make it easier for us to be in direct contact with the rest of the hunters with whom we will go on an expedition, exchange objects, go through the canteen, take a thermal bath and do everything we need. All in the same place; that is "now come" because everything is done there.
For those who ask: yes, it is possible to caress our palico in the hot springs of the meeting room, there is new animation in the kitchen … A base on which it is nice to be: it is very fast to move from zone to zone before go hunting. The hunter's house, part of the research base, has huge customization options; all aesthetic, but that once again shows that they have taken seriously even the smallest detail.
The steam factory is a small surprise. A place where fuel is burned – which is generated automatically when completing missions – in a minigame where we will obtain in return objects of maximum utility, from Megapociones to resources to forge and improve armor. Capcom is aware that in this expansion we will need many more objects because they will be spent faster. To avoid making expeditions without any other claim than looting, it is now possible to use the research points as a currency for the Steam Factory. A resource that we accept willingly. In the Botanical Laboratory, for example, we can now even grow dung capsules.
A final heart attack
For reasons of embargoes and because it would be a pleasant surprise, we can only tell you about our feelings with the end, what seems to be the end and what is behind it. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is better and bigger than the original video game that landed in stores in early 2018. Those new creatures that we meet in the last orders are a display of originality in design and behavior. Their patterns, skills, body behavior … their demand, in short, subject us to a pulse that has immediately become some of the best scenes we remember in the present generation of consoles.
Capcom has spared no expense. He has not done so in Devil May Cry 5 and did not do so in Resident Evil 2 Remake, two of the most successful titles this season. What is unusual is that three projects of this quality have crossed the road in a matter of months. Iceborne is at that level for the quality it brings in the company and also for the saga, because it completes the idea of this human team started about five years ago in Osaka.
The staging, the presentation of each zone, each monster and each confrontation is a show. The fanservice is not lacking, with confrontations in scenes and in the battle between creatures that are part of the lore of the saga. Those dream face-to-face take place in places that seemed impossible and in ways that did not fit into the plans. On a technical level we cannot add much to what we already said in the original Monster Hunter World Reviews. We have again three graphic options: 1080p / 60 FPS, 4K / 30FPS and a last variable option where the graphics are prioritized at the cost of some resolution and image rate and there are no improvements of any kind in the technical; It is still the same graphic engine.
The new thing, the Frost Stream, is artistically very powerful also because of its use of snow, notable in all aspects for not having been satisfied with being an aesthetic addition. Depending on the height of the snow it will slow us down more or less. Weight. It affects the movement and, of course, it also affects the monster to take down. The Frost Creek comes to cover a gap that was not represented in the base game. We had desert, forest, wilderness … but we didn't have a map where the low temperature and the snow were the main protagonists.
The soundtrack of the expansion, in its overall calculation, remains at the level seen for a year and a half. Again, all the compositions are orchestrated, there are exclusive themes for each monster and an instrumental variety that is in tune with the great mix of ecosystems of this universe. We will listen to flutes while string instruments sound from behind to the rhythm of other percussion, intensity changes at the time of the battle … Long songs, which lend themselves to be heard as the visual section does to be contemplated.
And speaking of contemplation, the photo mode is not trivial, but it cannot be used as much as we would have liked. Here is one of the negative sections of Iceborne: we still cannot pause the game at any time. Unless we put the console to rest, there is no way to pause combat and, therefore, the clock. It is useless to include a photo mode with which to take captures in different perspectives and with editing options if we can only stop to take pictures at times where we do not fear for our health. There have been moments where we were literally flying in the heat of battle, moments that lent themselves to being photographed to immortalize the moment, but how to do it beyond a screenshot? Perhaps that is why it is called "vision mode", because in reality what it does is remove the interface elements to take better screenshots, which are not optimal.
An update is necessary in this regard, as is the design of the menus, as we mentioned earlier. It is still unattractive to access the inventory, the amount of steps we have to take to do simple tasks … It is not agile, it continues to drag the problems of the PSP era. Surely there is fear to apply changes that discontent the most conservative, but it is not necessary to give up the essence to make improvements as they already did in the MHW itself, such as automation when creating potions if we had the necessary materials, for example .
If we add to that the high loading times when loading the missions – there are no loading times at any time during the mission or when changing zones -, returning to the base or changing the flat in Astera and Seliana, we have the last loophole there that remains in the game experience. We have played in PlayStation 4 Pro and, as we say, sometimes we have waited more than a minute and a half to load a mission. It is in exchange for forgetting loads and ensuring a fluidity that does not pale at any time, but it is still a long time for certain moments of the game.
On the other hand, video game optimization is total. We are in update 10.10, which is the numerical name of the update and not only introduces content; things are also corrected, many things. On the official website they have summarized the patch notes on monster and mission settings; from the non accumulation of altered states when we had already been affected by that condition to the readjustment of the direction and size of hit / block in certain attacks. Nothing small, all favoring the user experience and also affecting the base game. That is, if you do not buy Iceborne you will be able to see yourself benefiting from almost all changes.
PC version: characteristics, changes and absences
With four months of delay with respect to the version of consoles finally comes the first expansion of Monster Hunter World to PC, Iceborne. A huge package of additional content for an already majestic game, which as we saw there in September will delight all those compatible users eager to have more monsters, weapons, armor and, in short, 'endgame' whom dedicate hundreds of hours to make the perfect build with which to face the deadliest beasts that have been seen so far in the Capcom title. Leaving aside all the virtues of the title that we already detailed in the console Reviews and which could not be otherwise are also included in the PC version, the latter presents as its main novelty a technical deployment free of the obvious limitations of The other versions.
But the 'port' is not limited this time to offer textures in higher resolution (especially notable if you use the free DLC of high-res textures) and an unlimited image rate per second, but also includes for the first time in the support title to render the game using DirectX12 libraries, thus solving several of the instability problems that had been encountered in the original conversion. In general, we are still facing a good port, which is not excellent. The graphical improvement is remarkable and the optimization is decent, but without obtaining the expected results using the platform's leading hardware.
Despite the adaptability of the title to work correctly in different configurations, it continues to demand the latest equipment if you want to enjoy it with all the graphic options to the fullest, and with those we guarantee a rate of images per second that approach 120-144 per second that many would like (as seen in the attached video, an Nvidia 2080 Ti moves the game to the maximum at about 70-90 fps). On the other hand, the controls are still well adapted to the keyboard and mouse for those who prefer this control system, including new combos and movements for each weapon. However, the biggest handicap of this version is still the inexplicable delay that it suffers in terms of content with respect to the console versions: the PC version of Iceborne comes out with months of delay and without the latest updates.
Again Capcom has promised that its objective is to launch the pending patches as quickly as possible so that in the near future both versions are on par in terms of content and adjustments, but the reality is that the same promise was already made with the first World and as these 4 months of waiting have ended up proving it did not end up being fulfilled. At the moment a first big patch and the Resident Evil 2 event for February and a second patch for March have been confirmed. We will see if this time Capcom does keep his word and the huge PC community does not have to fight for months to get the necessary ornaments to complete 'builds' with an expiration date in advance.
CONCLUSION
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is the culmination of an idea, of a new way of understanding the franchise started last year. There was fear of changing certain things, but all those changes now close a circle that gives reason to those who thought this was the right way. Iceborne is bigger, deeper, challenging and complete than the original game; It is a simply brilliant second part, which makes us understand the reason for the name of this new branch. A total title, which covers everything and requires the player in exchange for a really rewarding reward. The playable news, new monsters, the Frost Stream or Seliana itself as a whole have only added, the last piece of a puzzle where we have game for months. Base game and expansion add more than 130 hours only with its main tasks, but they are really many more. A video game that is among the greats of this generation of consoles and leaves the bar very high for the next. Now yes, this time yes, World lives up to the reference deliveries of the saga. Immaculate work, an excellent product that carries, for this reason, an outstanding qualification.
THE BEST
- Content: it is not an expansion, it is almost a new game.
- The design of the Frost Stream and the retractable claw.
- The return of classic monsters and new creations.
- The endgame; So far we can read.
WORST
- Some loading times when starting missions.
- Still unable to pause the game during the mission.
- The camera, at specific times, can play tricks on us.
Excellent
A benchmark title in its genre, which stands out above its competitors and that you will enjoy from beginning to end, surely several times. A game destined to become a classic over the years.
