see my review for MHW for overall take, but MAJOR improvement over the base game

only real gripe is the renaming of G rank to Master rank, it's just so ehhhhh

G rank forever

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.

The pinnacle of Monster Hunter.

It might not be as comprehensively complete in its content as Generations Ultimate before it, or as modern and streamlined (derogatory) as Rise|Sunbreak after it. However, it's a perfect distillation of what the franchise must aspire to be in the future, and a perfect entry point for newbies.

This review treats base MHW and the Iceborne expansion as a single game.

Monster Hunter, while successful, had always been a niche game before the breakthrough that was this release. It was a series that had seen minimal changes and experimentation throughout almost 15 years of history and had a reputation for being "clunky"and "unfriendly".

This game is the first major overhaul to the formula: bigger interconnected maps, new animations, revamped monster AI and the best graphics improvement the series has seen. It allowed the underlying magic in the older games to be worn on the game's sleeve, plain to see and easy to access, thanks to important quality of life improvements without dumbing down what made the old games special.

It's easy to get into, but hard, and has a ridiculously high skill ceiling. Its replay value is nearly infinite thanks to its vibrant, alive world and unpredictable monsters that entice you to go back in, peel them down and craft yourself a new necklace that'll make it a little bit less of a pain next time.

haven't finished all the optionals but the main story is over, and given how big everything is, i don't really plan on 100%.

while this is a massive improvement from the main game, the main issues still stand, those being :
-hunting for clues is silly
-a absurd downgrade of weaponry from Generations, given how the main focus is the visuals and feel of the world to attract new players
-astere is still too big for no reason other than ''LOOK HOW AWESOME THIS NEW HUB IS''
-The absurdity of grind to get mantles.
-the cryptic way of unlocking certain equipments and missions.

but speaking of the DLC itself, its much more of the same, some classics come back, the addition of guildlands is a interesting way to grind and upgrade old gear.
however i still prefer rise, simply put a more straightfoward and fun experience

Iceborne takes an already great game and adds much, much more. It's a whole new game. Monster Hunter expansions don't disappoint, and with this one is not different.

Clutch claw feels really fun to play with. Tenderizing, using new slinger moves with your weapon combos (especially being a Greatsword main). The new map, the return of great names as Alatreon and Fatalis... This game made me wish I could experience Monster Hunter Tri all over again with these mechanics.

For me, personally, the pinnacle of Monster Hunter games. Some find it too easy, but I think it's very immersive and fun. World feels fleshed out, characters are interesting, revisiting scenarios, exploring the difficult missions with newcomers, making new friends. This game allowed me all of this and much more.

Iceborne is.... pretty damn good. I won't pretend its perfect and that it fixes all of the issues i have with world, but it definitely helps make up for a fair amount of it. MAN I had such a better time going through iceborne than i did all of base world.

the monster roster here is almost immaculate: plenty of hard hitting returning monsters, and the new ones that were added are all great to fight (except maybe namielle, you're pretty but annoying). shara ishvalda alone makes my top 5 fights in the series, though only at number 5. Seliana is a much better hub town than Astera (which i didnt mention in my original review but, astera kinda sucks lol), and the quest progression in Iceborne feels better, but still not perfect. Most of the weapon designs, even with the scrappy trash ones, are fantastic and really shine here. Hoarfrost is also probably the best map in the game? Ties between that and Vale, but not decisive on it yet. I also like what the clutch claw adds, as far as moveset improvements and being able to wallbang.

So what about the bad stuff? Multiplayer is still pretty fucked here, as you can't play through Iceborne at the same time as other people. And since monster health scaling values are fucked up (thanks clutch claw), single player hunts are ROUGH. Both of my Iceborne playthroughs I felt like I practically needed to grab people to play with since I didnt want to slog through 30-40 minute hunts just for like.... Banbaro or Glavenus. The balancing also took a deep dive here, with every post-game update completely making all builds made prior to that update irrelevant. Not as much an issue now with everything being out, but making a whole build just to pretty much throw it away next update was a horrible feeling. I also think the endgame grind here is not particularly good, but honestly i dont think its ever been good in any monster hunter. Definitely not THE worst.

Overall, Iceborne is pretty great. If you want to try out monster hunter, or play world for the first time, PLEASE pick this up alongside it. The game is practically incomplete without it (and kinda middling if you ask me), and some of the fights here will stick with you for a long time.

So I had a previous review that was a bit more negative on the game and very similar to my lame shitpost review of Xenoblade 2 where I simply said "objectively better than the first game." I feel I was a bit too harsh on Iceborne then. Now a lot of the problems I had back then are still there but 3 years away from this exclusively playing Rise and Sunbreak definitely helped in giving me a newfound outlook for Monster Hunter World and Iceborne. Especially the latter.

Post Monster Hunter 3 I haven't really disliked any Monster Hunter game. 3 has a really lackluster roster, but I understand why it was like that. I don't like it, but I get it. P3rd on though? Banger after banger full on 10 on 10 games baby. P3rd? Banger. 3U? Banger. 4U? ALL TIMER THE POPEYES CHICKEN OF MH. Gen? Banger. GU? Banger. World would be the first one to really sort of shake up this streak for me as while I never did find the game terrible I always felt it was lacking something. A sort of charm the previous games had that the 5th generation wouldn't really bring back until Rise. Iceborne only exacerbated this despite the return of some of the more vibrant and odd monsters from older games. Didn't stop me from putting over 2K hours and now another 295 into it with this replay lmfaooo.

So yeah getting it out of the way now. Iceborne is a bit of a janky load still. The clutch claw sucks. This is a lukewarm take, but man does it suck having to do this to even make WEX work. The movement of the characters also feels really off compared to the previous games and even Rise. There's a bit of that Rockstar Euphoria bullshit going on where I feel some control responses take like 3 hours at times and cool I just got one shot by Fatalis epic. I'd talk about the deco grinding (still sucks), Guiding Lands (kill me), or the FOMO events, but those are mostly a nonissue now. If you're playing MHWI in 2023 (enjoy by the way if you got it on the current sale that shit is a steal) none of these things will really matter as naturally grinding out what you want or deco events may just get you decent decos. For The Guiding Lands unless you really want to augment some gear (and there's no reason to really care about attack and health augments I didn't use any at all this playthrough) you can just avoid it besides the mandatory story quests or Raging Brachydios event (one of the best fights). FOMO events nonexistent since Fatalis dropped back in late 2020 and the game is so much better for it. This is what it should have been all along and it rules. Yeah I still have my issues with some annoying shit. Why does the game punish me for playing good by having that dumb Rajang wall grab and Fatalis falling over knock me down? But the good out weighs the bad. Also while I find Rise's art direction to be much better as I feel MH should be a very stylized (yet realistic) franchise I can definitely at least say that the environments in this game are gorgeous and the HDR is so goooood when you figure out how to make it work. Just the wonderful contrast and colors you can give it. On a technical level yeah World is genuinely impressive especially for a PS4 game, and now on PS5 with the minimized loadtimes and unbroken 60fps lordy... All that paired with the amount of content makes this at this point in time one of the most bang for your buck games. If you've ever been interested in Monster Hunter and wanted an idea of what the franchise is then yes this is the game to play. I may prefer Rise and feel in many ways it is more representative of the franchise as a whole post Tri (goofy yet earnest) World is the game Wilds will definitely build off of more than the former even if it takes some elements from it.

It's a bit of a mess (why is Nergigante turned into Monsterverse Godzilla and why are the ledges so fucking annoying and why are the maps so tight and cramped) and some things really feel like the devs at times are trying to counter the player trying to have any fun (CC tenderizing), but MHWI is in my opinion still one of the gold standards of what a AAA release should be. This doesn't just end at release content wise, but in post launch content with free additional monsters and events to keep the game alive. Yeah it may not be the best MH, but I'm thinking it's a pretty damn good game.

Now if you'll excuse me I'll be playing Monster Hunter Rise and the older ones until Wilds releases alongside any other games I want to play.