‘Monster Hunter Rise’ review : Packed with fun mechanics

If you were patiently waiting for the ground-breaking role-playing game Monster Hunter World to be launched on the Nintendo Switch, your wait is over. Well, you still will not be getting World on the Switch, but Monster Hunter Rise is the next best thing. The sixth mainline instalment in the Monster Hunter series, Rise is built from the ground up for portable gaming with an imminent release on PC and other consoles in 2022.

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While Rise does pare down the world a bit, what it does deliver is a full Monster Hunter experience and then some.

The peaceful and ninja-inspired village of Kamura is threatened by a mysterious event known as The Rampage. The settlement has to defend itself against an all-out attack by hordes of monsters in a frenzy. While threadbare, the story is a great excuse to go out and defeat monsters, but somehow feels incomplete as if there were big plans for the game that were somehow put aside for perhaps follow-up content or a batch of sequels.

Monster Hunter Rise is a ‘lite’ version of Monster Hunter World, with all of the mechanics and monsters that made the game great in one portable size. You get all of the fun weapons, combo systems and more, in a slightly smaller world.

The way you navigate the world gets a big upgrade though: the Wirebug lets you zip across terrains and makes your Hunter instantly more manoeuvrable. It has the ability to latch on to anything in and out of a fight, letting you position yourself for a critical hit or get out of the fray to take a breather.

The Wirebug also lets you mount the monsters allowing you to ride them around as well as control them, adding a new dimension of monster-versus-monster fights for some major damage. In addition to your Palico, a cat that fights with you, you also get a dog, Palamute, that you can ride and control from the start. This makes the game world far more traversable that other Monster Hunter games.

That said, Rise is an easy game, and you will soon be levelling up and taking on larger monsters. The game embraces the slow burn of the grind as you work your way towards the end-game. Tweaking your load-out, weapons and armour is always critical to the action. Though in this case, there are some nifty additions in terms of power-ups you get when you explore; so there is less menu jumping.

The new Rampage mini-game lets you set defences, use special powers and turret attacks to push back monster hordes. A fun diversion, it does feel a bit flimsy and could use a bit more depth to justify playing it more.

The verdict?

Given that the Switch is in the middle of its cycle, and with the rumours of a new more powerful 4K Switch on the horizon, Monster Hunter Rise still manages to look great on the ageing Nvidia hardware. Though at times it does not look consistent, with some areas looking beautiful and detailed while some look sparse and boring, the good frame rate never slows down the action.

The feeling of wanting more permeates through the entire Monster Hunter Rise, perhaps because the mechanics are so good, and the content not enough to satiate you at times. Despite everything, Rise is a triumphant feat in condensing everything that makes Monster Hunter great into a portable game.

Those playing the game now can also look forward to a free update next month which adds new monsters Apex Rathalos and Chameleos, as well as an additional story ending.

The writer is a tech and gaming enthusiast who hopes to one day finish his sci-fi novel