As we’ve previously reported, Gamescom 2024 is the first place that the public can play Monster Hunter Wilds. Luckily for me, then, that I was pretty much first in line to play the public demo of the game – and I’m here to tell you that the combat flow is even faster than it was in Monster Hunter World, and even more dynamic than it was in Monster Hunter Rise.
The main difference series veterans are going to notice here is the additional beat that comes to the flow of combat in terms of inflicting wounds on monsters. In the past, your fights tend to follow a fairly strict flowchart: encounter a monster, attack it, break a part or two, pursue it to a new locale, break another part, pursue it again, and capture or slay. I’m obviously boiling things down to their most basic, there, but that’s the gist.
In Wilds, there’s a new mechanic that Capcom peppers into this familiar pattern that is much more reactive and dynamic than what the series has done before: wounds. Before you break a monster part, you can cause wounds to appear on it by focusing your attacks on one area. The single-player demo saw us take on the Chutacabra (similar to a Tetsucabra, but less rocky and more ogre-like), and since I’m a Sword and Shield user, I was tanking the front part of the body and rolling to attack its forelegs and face.