The features outlined are:
1. Bounties and investigations: Every quest can now be done either solo or with friends, and will scale depending on how many players are in there. Where once there was filler quests, there are now bounties – instead of needing to go and kill 20 small monsters, for instance, you can just meet that condition while out in the world doing more exciting things. You can carry six bounties at a time. Investigations are optional hunting quests that hand out additional items, which are also new for World. This means that there should be less time spent grinding away at uninteresting objectives.
2. A clear key quest line: You’re now given a much clearer idea of which quests are essential and what you need to do to progress, thanks to the ‘assigned quest’ list, in Monster Hunter World. It’s now easier to figure out what you need to do next to progress the plot forward.
3. Daily bonuses: Each day when you log in you can get a bonus item and voucher just for opening the game. Solid! These probably won’t be huge rewards, but they’re a nice incentive to jump in daily.
4. Research levels: The scout flies you bring with you to track monsters level up as you examine things in the world. Eventually they’ll level up to a point where they can simply tell you where a monster in on the map without you needing to look for clues. You’ll also learn more about monsters each time you hunt them, eventually learning their weak points.
5. House and pets: You will gain access to different houses as you progress this time. You can also get house pets – catch a spider in your net, for instance, and it will be your buddy in the new home you potentially just bought. Cool.
6. The Training Room: There’s now a room…for training. It’s actually very good – plenty of targets to hit, vines to climb, walls to run up, and lots of different tools for testing different scenarios. Arekkz says it’s very helpful and that they’ve ‘thought of everything’. It’s a great place to learn how to use weapons.
7. Squads: Basically Monster Hunter now has guilds/clans, which give you access to member-only online sessions and squad icons.
8. Arm wrestling is back! In the lobby you can start arm wrestling other players at one of the barrels. A lovely little way to pass the time.
9. Weapon and gear previews: You can now try on a whole set of armour before buying, and get an idea of how it will look before you buy. You don’t have to buy a full set of armour only to find that it looks ugly together now.
10. The Wish List: When you mark that you need something for crafty with your Smithy, the game will start tracking it and let you know when you collect the objects you need. Very handy, and saves you from needing to obsessively check yourself. It sounds like the game is generally better at tracking your progress in its many forms now.
Sounds good, right? Monster Hunter World releases January 26 for PS4, PC, and Xbox One.
