Platform: PS4, XB1. PC at later date.
Release Date: September 6, 2019
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Disclaimer – The review copy was provided by Capcom
Monster Hunter World for a while has been given regular doses of content throughout the months after the game’s release. From the humble beginnings of only including 31 Large monsters to fight and a few event monsters, players were content with the events, missions, and weapons that were already here. Well maybe you’re a veteran who thinks that that’s not enough monsters to fight. Which is true since there seemed to be a wide variety of monsters in the past games, and we fairly enough don’t see quite a few creatures from the past games. You’re also probably the player who is wondering why there are only cold drinks in the game in the game and no hot drinks. You’re also probably a veteran in the game who can kill monsters fairly fast with your top-tier weapons and armor. Well Capcom is going to fulfill these expectations of adding some more content to the game with their newest expansion to Monster Hunter World called Iceborne.
Yes the new Expansion adds a lot to this already big game, but does all of this new content along with new monsters, new armor, and new weapons make Monster Hunter World any better? We’ll show you what we think in our review for Iceborne
In Monster Hunter World, you played as a hunter of the Fifth Fleet who came to the New World in order to support the research team who is trying to figure out the migration patterns of the monsters travelling between the Old World and here. After an encounter with the Zorah Magdaros, the Hunter was tasked to figure out the mystery behind the Mountainous Creature and why it’s migrating to the New World. After stopping it, an even bigger problem emerged that could’ve potentially destroyed the entire continent or event he world. Well after a few trips to the Elder’s Recess and defeating all of the Elder Dragons, you fairly enough took care of that problem and was left to wait for something new to happen.
Well something new did happen, a flock of Legiana have been seen migrating somewhere over the ocean and the Fifth Fleet on Astera is very intrigued by this. So now part of the fleet has relocated to a new base of operations called Seliana to explore this new landmass known as Hoarfrost Reach.
The game has evolved story-wise this time around. Instead of simply focusing on destroying a mountain-sized creature, the adventure takes us a bit closer to the current members of the Fifth Fleet, especially the Handler who seems to know something about this new land. Well whatever the case this means that you as the Hunter will have to fight through several obstacles such as Hoarfrost Reach’s cold weather, new master-class monsters and trying to get the Steamworks moving.
For the most part, the new story is a fresh change of pace as it involves the characters that we’ve grown to know since the beginning of MHW and now we are here to help them in any way we can.
The first thing that you’ll notice is that your Hunter gets a new ability called the Clutch Claw. With your new Clutch Claw, you can grapple onto many of the large monsters to do a quick hit that weakens the spot you attacked, or shoot your slinger ammo altogether in order to launch the monster into a wall to knock them down. It’s definitely a very welcome addition to the game as it adds an extra layer of combat to our already-large moveset. In fact we also get some new moves with every weapon that not only includes slinger-related attacks, like attaching a landmine onto the monster to have it explode when hit using the gunlance. Additionally to these new attacks, players can now use the sling with any weapon without having to sheathe. So now the sword and shield isn’t the only weapon that can do this. Now if you’re using something small like the dual blades or something large like the Gunlance, you can shoot your sling whenever you want.
The new land known as Hoarfrost Reach is full of dangerous creatures in a very harsh, but beautiful environment. Though before getting to Hoarfrost Reach, you’ll be greeted with a new hub area called Seliana. It contains everything you need from the previous hub, albeit you have to do a few missions to fully get it functioning but it functions all the same with both new and familiar faces, so things will stay fresh no matter where you’re at. Not only can you get your food made from your previous chef’s tutor, you can also play around in the steam workshop to earn yourself some extra goodies in order to help players progress through the game. Also, you’ll be playing in the Steam Workshop for a while as guessing the right order can always be a pain.
Speaking of steam, the main gathering hub has been improved in order to house a whole bathouse alongside being a mission check-in area. Now you can really chill out in between missions. Speaking of missions let’s talk about Hoarfrost Reach.
Hoarfrost Reach is the new hunting area that you’ll be exploring throughout Iceborne. While you may actually be going back and forth from area to area, Hoarfrost Reach is where just about everything will take place. The new snowy scenery is probably a new change of pace from the blazing heat that you’ve faced in the past. Instead of using Cold Drinks, you’ll be making Hot Drinks instead. Drinks aside, the reach has several different sceneries to see. Whether it’s from the heavily-snowy forest, or in the deep dark icy caves, you’ll get to see how varied and how almost amazing a hunting area can get. Also hot springs are pretty amazing. You can rest in these in the middle of a hunt and you get to hang out with these cute creatures.
Now let’s talk about the monsters you’ll get to meet in the Reach. As expected from an endgame area, everything that you’ll face will be master-ranked, meaning that just about every large monster that you’ll face will be no pushover. The monsters you’ll see will be a mix of old and new, adding new subspecies of creatures like the Coral Pukei-Pukei along with some truly unique monsters such as the Banbaro who uses the environment around him to ram you into submission. Of course you have to fight what I personally think is one of the hardest fights in Iceborne as players will mostly be stumbling around when meeting it, the Beotodus.
Most importantly are the real rewards that you can get from hunting these Master-Ranked Monsters, Master-Ranked Armor. Of course the armor is stronger than the high-rank variants of the armor and will for the most part look the same. Of course all of the new monsters give you even better unique armor that looks absolutely amazing. Additionally there are even some master-class weapons that you can upgrade to as well, though you have to fight the troublesome beasts in order to get them.
Monster Hunter World is an already-fulfilling game on its own when it first released. With the Iceborne expansion it just about feels complete. With all of these new monsters to fight and discover, Capcom added a lot for veterans and new players alike. For this reason I give Monster Hunter World Iceborne a 9. It’s an amazing expansion that challenges everything you previously knew about hunting. With new monsters and new tactics that are used to fight against you, I’m sure that players will have a blast in the new Snowy region.
A Nintendo Switch trailer was also released.
According to SteamDB.
An announcement trailer was also released.