Summary
Monster Hunter Wildsis the next entry in the long-running franchise. Over the past twenty years, the series has slowly grown and evolved, culminating inMH World’s explosion into the mainstream upon its launch in January 2018.Worldkicked off the fifth generation ofMonster Huntertitles, and it was succeeded byMH Rise, a portable follow-up that was initially exclusive to Switch. These two fifth-generation games did more than any previous entries to make the series accessible to newcomers and returning fans alike. Now thatMonster Hunter Wildsis set to kick off the sixth generation of games in the franchise, Capcom needs to enhance its quality of life further.
Monster Hunter World’s most apparent change to the series formula was its switch to open areas. In previous games, players would depart on hunts to different locales. Each region players visited would be broken up into zones that were divided by loading screens. This limitation made sense, given thatMonster Huntergameswere finding success on portable platforms, but it sometimes made the series feel old-fashioned. In contrast,MH World’s environments were fully open, more visually dense, and large, making them feel alive when compared to older entries. Because of their size, each one featured additional camps that players could find in the world. These camps allowed for the player to rest and resupply on long hunts.
What Does Monster Hunter Get Wrong About Camps?
Camps inMonster Hunter Worldare something of a mixed bag. As places to go to resupply, they function entirely adequately. Crucially, they also serve as fast travel points, allowing for quicker navigation. They do have some shortcomings, however.Monster Hunter World’scamps are frequently hidden away, and the density of the game’s environments can make locating them a pain. These camps' usefulness and impact on the game’s pacing make them essential to find, but doing so can be incredibly annoying.MH Rise’s sub-campsare unlocked via side quests instead, but this solution still feels like it is adding unnecessary steps to access a basic but crucial tool.
Monster Hunter Wilds Should Show Players Where Camps Are
Monster Hunter WorldandRiseboth suffer from making players take extra steps to access camps in the world. Moving aroundRise’s smaller regions with Wirebugs and mounts is quick, but fast traveling between camps is still a significant improvement. Comparatively,Monster Hunter World’s campsfeel like a necessity due to the game’s slower traversal and larger areas. Rather than making players search for or earn camps that improve the pacing of the experience,Monster Hunter Wildsshould make them available from the start or, at the very least, show players where they are on the map so that they can find and quickly unlock them. This would create less busy work for players and let them focus on hunting monsters.
How Should Monster Hunter Wilds Handle Camps?
TheMonster Hunter Wildsannouncement trailerhints that the game will feature dynamic environments. Over the course of its short runtime, the space shown transforms from a barren desert into something much more vibrant following a lightning storm. The vista at the end of the trailer shows off an area that, if fully explorable, would be the series' largest locale by far. This has led many to speculate thatWildswill be open-world, which would make camps more important than ever before. Even if this speculation proves to be false, camps will be an essential part ofWild’s gameplay loop. Making camps available from the start or easy to earn would improve the game’s pacing and make it more approachable.
If Capcom wants to make players earn new camps, hiding them in dense environments or locking them behind tedious side quests isn’t the way. The function of camps is to make the player more capable of hunting monsters and speed up the game’s pacing, so it would make sense to have them unlocked from the start or at least make their location known so that they can be quickly earned, especially ifMonster Hunter Wildsis open-world. Making camps more immediately accessible would raise the quality of life inMH Wildsand let players get into hunting monsters a lot faster.
