Tienes que ser un juego realmente bueno, para que respetes tan poco el tiempo de tus jugadores y aun así ellos dediquen tantas horas a tu juego y que con un simple tuit, vuelvan en masa a jugarlo.

Eso es lo que pasa con Iceborne y te das cuenta que te tenias que haber cogido la versión de PC, pero no lo hiciste en su momento y ahora estas jodido.

No te pilles un MH en consola, nunca.

The game where Monster Hunter went from "only really popular in Japan" to "global juggernaut." The Iceborne expansion saw a lot of changes and the return of some notable monsters like the Brachydios, Alatreon, and Fatalis but caught some flack throughout its lifespan for some of those creative decisions. Clutch Claw was fairly contentious and was seen as overly centralizing, and a fair number of end-game monsters borrow too heavily from MMO design by incorporating DPS-checks to stave off guaranteed death. The introduction of Raid hunts, like Safi Jiiva and Kulve Taroth, are cool but some solo options for people playing either on their own or after the game's initial life span would have been appreciated as these encounters can now feel out of reach due to the overall scale of the endeavors. Aside from those issues, and how some very iconic weapons were made way less interesting to keep with the game's artstyle, the overall experience is damn good. Combat is methodical but smooth, the monsters look amazing, the soundtrack is a banger, an the replay value is out of this world. You can easily drop hundreds if not thousands of hours in this game if you so desire.

Despite having not fought Alatreon and Fatalis I feel I have played enough of Iceborne to say that it’s an improvement to everything MHW did.

To keep this short I’ll say that I reviewed MHW based purely off what was available in World, so no clutch claw was included. The addition of the Clutch Claw was such a good idea being able to give all weapons more approaches to combat and giving a new layer to dealing with some of the stellar new fights available in Iceborne. The new moves added to the weapons also echoes what I previously said and was a welcome addition.

The new monsters and areas are as always fantastic and extremely fun to fight especially the likes of Safi’Jiiva, Shara Ishvalda, Velkhana and even some of the normal large monsters like Zinogre and Rajang were also challenging but engaging fights. There was only one monster that I really didn’t enjoy but this was one out of the 70 monsters overall that was really annoying which is pretty good going (it’s Blackveil Vaal Hazak).

The array of smaller additions such as layered armour and weapons as well as new way to get materials through the steam works were very welcome additions and being able to fully customise the look of your character without sacrificing the bonuses of your armour and weapons was something I was hoping I’d be able to do in World but I’m glad it was included in Iceborne.

With that said Iceborne is a near essential expansion to the experience of MHW and adds a whole new games worth of content worthy of its price tag and time investment. MHW and Iceborne have set an incredible standard for the series and I’m excited to play Rise soon.

10/10

(Logged as a shoe-in for both the base Monster Hunter: World game, and the Iceborne expansion.)
Lavish & deathly exciting at practically all times - varied and expressive social MMO tissue connecting its numerous multi-layered terrariums of gorgeous arenas and silly monsties.

I do have some background with the series, with much history on Freedom Unite, and far less with the fantranslation of Portable 3rd + 3Ultimate at various points through highschool, and hit the credits of Rise. Freedom Unite came packed with FMV cutscenes that demonstrate how the monsters lived in their downtime - characterising the monsters to assure the player that they weren't merely thoughtless models with movesets to memorise, but individual links in the food chain with roles that keep the world biodiverse & strong.
It was always my favourite part of the game, and what felt like the series' missing hook to really sell me on the core conceit was in how this aspect is somewhat downplayed or unexplored.

By God's grace this was the kind of ecological focus MH:W absolutely relishes in. An interlinking tapestry of ecosystems ticking away, living & interacting in countless ways to make the New World feel so gd raw. And it's not just pageantry either, it plays into behaviours and environment interactions from traps to turf wars. So so so good to head out for a simple hunt to watch it blossom into a scrappy mess of tooth & claw, so so so good to go on aimless expedition to a zone and notice a new handful of behaviours from their endemic life. I’d not be able to sleep at night if I didn’t compliment the chefs on all of this, every monster in every zone is given so much purpose it’s inspiring.

One thing this series has always been great at is its environment design - the world of Monster Hunter is a land of plenty, and everything is blown out of proportion to match. You're eating sirloin steaks the size of your head, oyster side dishes that can feed an army. The tooth you built your hammer out of can sink a ship. Zones and skyboxes that coil across different unique biomes rich in visual stimuli, adding heaps of context for the world and how things are as they are. Pan the camera up at any point and you can assuredly see a spire of choral, ice or crystal towering over you from what appears to be a mile away. Hoarfrost Reach is gorgeous I need to live there NOW.

Moment to moment combat is of course good as hell. I love that it’s slow and weighty enough to separate it from a more typical Capcom character action affair. Even with the amassing layers of QoL the series has glazed itself with, World still focuses on hefty player move commitment and punishment. Every weapon here feels great and each individually recontextualises your approach to any fight, but I found a home with the Dual Blades I’m afraid. I love these stupid ale blades man!!! Basically adored the progression right up until the Furious Rajang, where the game takes a very steep swerve into grind and Raid-like Design territory I find catatonic & diagnostic. The Fatalis fight is so much fun I wish I could solo it 😢

One of the better Monster Hunters after it fully released. Terrible endgame monsters you can tell were stunted by the pandemic shutting down development (Fatalis and Alatreon are really terribly done fights, especially Fatalis who has weapon matchups that are insanely bad to the point runners will avoid them) but there was a soul and care put into this game not found in most other games. There was finally an actual gameplay loop, albeit way too grindy. The clutch claw and tenderization nerf was atrocious and should be modded out of your game ASAP if you're on PC. It has a few flaws holding it back, but many of them are moddable on PC. The game boasts far, far more pros than cons without a doubt. Great MH game. Aged a bit better than.... some other entries.

This is for both World & Iceborne.

Wilds got me roaring in some kind of way that made me crave MH for literally 2 months since it's announcement. All single player is how this game should be played unironically, that way you aren't bogged down by inflated near MMO levels of stat increase from part damage all the way to stun values.

Those aside, this is Capcom's so far, MH masterpiece in terms of worldbuilding and ecological care, joyous game.