That said, pulling off a flinch shot and seeing one of these colossal beasts go speeding face-first into a wall before collapsing into a dazed heap is incredibly satisfying. It’s a powerful tool which can initially be a little cumbersome to use, especially when a monster’s thrashing about so violently players wind up desperately clinging to their balls instead of their faces. One of the larger additions to Iceborne is the Clutch Claw, a grappling hook that allows for the temporary mounting of monsters, followed by wounding them (leading to additional damage on the wounded part) or making them flinch into obstacles where they’ll wind up stunned. From faster healing to removing stun states, there’s a loadout for every monster and preference imaginable. Amongst the usual shops and gathering hubs, hunters can take monster parts and turn them into sets of armor and weapons that tweak parameters players can be having trouble with. It’s a tough hike in the frozen north, but there’s help available back at the freshly-established frontier camp in Seliana. There are also a number of new subspecies like the Coral Palomu, which differentiates itself from the others by turning into a water spewing twizzler when provoked. Later, players will contend with massive area-of-effect freezing attacks, health-melting lasers and massive scattershot explosions rupturing the earth. One of the first new ones introduced is a huge Mammoth-like thing that rips giant rocks and trees out of the ground and runs around pulverizing anything in its way. Speaking of the monsters, there’s a lot of them to burn through. And besides, trapping the buggers earns more rewards than wiping them out. The target monsters tend to be truly unconscionable bastards who routinely introduce themselves in cutscenes where they murder anything that happens to be in the immediate area. It’s also time to up the difficulty with all new Master Rank content, which is a new level of challenge roughly analogous to G-Rank from previous entries.įor anyone who feels guilty about heading into these habitats to cull the local wildlife… well, Capcom has these sensitive souls covered.
So what does this expansion offer, exactly? Well, Iceborne offers a ton more monsters, loot and a truly fantastic new environment in the form of Hoarfrost Reach - it’s a beautiful arctic setting filled with new wildlife, new quirks and colossal lumbering enemies ready to rip the throats out of anyone who dares venture there. Hell, it’s the perfect time to hop in for new players as well. Players will need to own and have completed the base game to get the most out of Iceborne‘s new content, given that it primarily takes place after the campaign of the original release, but given how successful World was at attracting and retaining new players, that shouldn’t be a problem for most. Thankfully, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne knocks it clean out of the park with a huge amount of fresh content for new and returning players alike. With somewhere in the ballpark of fifteen million copies shipped (to date) and finally introducing sizable numbers of Western players to what makes their franchise so beloved in its home region of Japan, expectations were high for this first (and final) major expansion to the game. It’s fair to say that the release of Monster Hunter World was a resounding success for Capcom’s flagship hunting series.
WTF Shouldn’t there have been a Dragon’s Dogma crossover event by now? LOW Environmental slope attacks not triggering when they should. HIGH The new mounts are a fantastic addition to the formula.