Monster Hunter Rise will finally be in our hands this Friday, but is it as good as fans of the series will be hoping for?
As you may have spotted, reviews of the game (including our own) have now been released into the wild. Below, we've rounded up a selection of quotes and review scores from a number of different outlets to see just how well the title's gone down with the media ahead of its launch.
Before we dive in, we'd naturally like to urge you to check out our very own review:
OK, now you've read that, let's see what other critics had to say.
We'll kick things off with some high praise from Eurogamer, who called it "the Switch's best game since Breath of the Wild":
"If you've been put off by the challenge, the investment or even the action, Rise does its very best to smooth the path and open up Monster Hunter's charms to all. If you're already smitten with the series like I am? Well, Monster Hunter Rise might well be as good as video games can get."
The folks at GameInformer were a little less impressed, awarding the game a 7.75/10:
"Monster Hunter Rise is far from being the next definitive chapter in the series. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a polished-but-conventional adventure with a few small-scale nuances, then you’ll be right at home in Kamura Village."
VG247 went with a score of 4/5, calling it a "solid, standalone entry":
"Ultimately, Monster Hunter Rise is a solid, standalone entry to the series which pulls back on the scope of recent games on more powerful platforms, but doesn’t skimp on the fundamentals that made the Monster Hunter name."
Switch Player gave the game a maximum 5/5, describing it as "an endlessly thrilling adventure":
"Overall, looking at the great new additions to gameplay, the fantastic new monsters and the further expansion of the already thrilling combat, this is undeniably the best Monster Hunter game ever to grace a Nintendo platform. Rise has ascended the list of my favourite Switch games with ease, and has perfected an already winning formula to make an incredibly impressive and satisfying action game."
IGN awarded the game a 'great' 8/10:
"Monster Hunter Rise mixes classic Monster Hunter ideas with some of World’s best improvements and a whole bunch of clever new mechanics of its own. Not all of them are slam dunks, but they are all fun – and the introduction of Wirebugs and the mobility they bring to every fight is so great I never want to give them up."
And finally, a 4/5 from Gamesradar:
"Monster Hunter Rise is a great adventure, providing fascinating new tools like the Wirebug and walking a fine line between arcade and fast-paced HD gameplay. The Rampages are a neat new addition when used sparingly, but a reliance on online hunts to finish Rise’s story is a puzzling step."
Monster Hunter Rise launches on 26th March and is available to buy either digitally from the Switch eShop, or physically at retail. Are you looking forward to playing the game this Friday? Let us know in the comments.
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Comments 47
So it got an 8 and a 7.5. Clearly the game must be garbage then! ;p
Eurogamer might as well worship rise if it's as good as botw. And if it is as good, i'm absolutely buying this
I mean Game Informer reviews are kinda garbage anyways lol
Ah man, I don't have time for this game, but I may not be able to resist! 😂
but does it blend?
Game Informer's big problem is that its more MH basically while glossing over all the new things what totally change the way the series plays.
what sort of score is 7.75 out of ten? Nonsense stuff. That’s not ‘out of ten’ in my mind, it’s essentially a score out of 1000! Keep it simple for goodness sake.
@1ofUs It depends. If you like the genre, it might be. But Monster Hunter is nothing like Zelda.
I don't care too much about scores, but while checking out metacritic I came across a review from a Czech site claiming that Rise "is missing the best part of MH gameplay, which was tracking monsters in World" and that was quite an eyebrow raiser for me.
Other than that, Rise appears to have a typical reception you would expect from reviewers for a Monster Hunter game not backed up by a huge marketing campaign.
I read that the Famitsu score is 10/10/9/9.
Famitsu gave it 38/40. I wonder if they will release a DLSS patch after the switch pro drops. Graphically the game looks very good but some of the textures up close look a little roughy. The monsters however look amazing. My biggest issue graphically is the tiling effect of land and water. It’s really off putting to me.
Still can’t wait to play it this friday
It's got an average of 87/100 on Metacritic based on 61 critic (non-user) reviews. That is a really good score.
Let's not forget that the many updates bound to come will make the game even better. Monster Hunter World was quite ass from the get go.
So does this mean that the PC version of Monster Hunter is no longer receveiving anymore updates?
@Murbs 7.75 is a score out of 10.00, not 1000. Decimals exist.
Personally I will wait until Monster Hunter Stories 2.
@TheLightSpirit Alright then, thanks for the info. I was just curious if this was the next over all game in the series or a continuation after MH World or not.
Let’s hope the game will became in time, as reach in content as mhgu.
Wait, do you have to go online to finish the story? I cancelled NSO last year as there simply weren't enough games i played that used it (Payday 2, Doom Splatoon 2 and MHGU).
Yeap those are about the right scores for a Monster Hunter game though I never really take GI's review that seriously. They tend to give less than stellar review scores to good games like Sonic Generations (6.75/10) and No More Heroes (6/10) but gave crap like Sonic 2006 the same exact scores (6.75/10).
@Aneira I loved World. It really streamlined things and made the series better.
This is the first MH game to really tempt me... hhmmm I must resist. I don’t the time for this. <Checks eShop page>... hmm don’t do it! ... ***** ***** ***** such internal conflict .... oh a demo yes thank you lord!!
@Robo-Knight Pretty much. World is almost at its end, since they are probably moving on to World’s successor, if we’re to believe the leaks.
Seems like a solid B
I mean they are probably comparing it to monster hunter world which I think is unfair given the technical advantage other consoles have but a 8/10 is still impressive and glad I made the choice to pre order, can't wait for tomorrow when I get my copy early 😜 (got to love shopto)
This will be my first time playing any Monster Hunter game , so I'm pretty excited.
@1ofUs of all those reviews, Eurogamer's is the only site I respect, so I'll go with theirs.
@FargusPelagius Afaik not really because "multiplayer" quests difficulty themselves scales dependent on the number of player, something introduced to the franchise only with Iceborne(previously, multiplayer quests were auto-balanced to 4 players even if there were only 2 or 1 player).
So you could most likely run the same quests as a purely solo or local wireless multiplayer setup now.
Easy Allies gave it a 9.0 and it explains the game very well in a video narrated form.
@Aneira Also very much this. World at release was still a VERY different beast than World as it was just before Iceborne's release adding even more.
And it's already confirmed we're getting Chameleos(and more!) next month!
It's also an interesting deal because (I could recall wrong) though Chameleos is an elder dragon he's not at the top tier of the franchise in difficulty. I believe he's even appeared as a Low-Rank monster in some games?
So it could be interesting if "power creep" is kept more reasonable this time around as World definitely had fallen into the habit of focusing ONLY on endgame content in it's updates if I recall well. Like... I wouldn't mind if some updates even added Low-Rank monsters to the game this time around, since that's the segment of the game players are always first exposed to so it could be nice if even the Low-Rank tier was a beefier one year from now than it is at release.
Like... One of my issues with Iceborne was perhaps due to the ways it itself focused ONLY on the new Master Rank, whereas previous "Ultimate/G"(i.e."Master" rank) expansions also added more Low/High rank monsters to the base games they built up from(For example, MH3U's Great Wroggi which wasn't a thing in MH3 but got added as a new monster that could be encountered straight from low rank in 3U).
I kind of felt the fact Iceborne focused solely on Master Rank kind of discouraged new MH players from feeling like it'd be worth getting it since they'd have to power through Low/High rank before encountering any of that new stuff?
Either way, I'll see what else is planned to be alongside Chameleos since he's supposed to come with some other monster(s) as well.
I’ve already Pre-Purchased it and I’m ready to go! I can’t wait to play it!!!
@Ludovsky
I welcome Chameleos. I've never played handheld and Tri was my first introduction to the series (loved 3U). My first encounter was in GU which I for some reason had a better experience with than World. Probably to do with there being far more content in GU. I also felt world was a step back compared to GU where I've just gotten used to the Hunter Arts. Mobility felt far worse in World. It did get better down the line though. It could also be because I'm a GS wielder. Anyway... Chameleos was fun and felt different to most other fights.
I still dream of a return of Jhen Mohran, although I'm aware I'm short of support there. For me it was one of the better large monster fights. I really hope there are some good ones in Rise. (No spoilers please). Zorah Magdaros was boring.
I dig what you're getting at with adding to low rank. But I'm not sure it will do much good for current hunters, since you're over powered. I didn't even know you could transfer your save game from Tri to 3U. It must have been exclusively to handheld as Wii > Wii U seems impossible.
Good luck friday. It's my first pre-order in years. Never understood the point. Now I do
The main complaint seems to be the lack of the crazy G rank fights and special missions. World did the same thing at launch and then came the updates. The first monster update is already planned for April so indont doubt that people will find that challenge through updates and the inevitable expansion
@Jayvir
I always set a goal forging ALL armor pieces in the game. That's a good 800 hours for you right there, while you wait for extra content
@jump gameinformer is a hit and miss on reviews same applies to ign as well.
@sanderev yes, you’re right - but when scoring to two decimal places you’ve given yourself a 1000 point scale. It’s just a pet peeve of mine
@Jayvir capcom is planning on bringing more monsters,armor sets and other stuff in dlc form for rises just like pass entries.
The only MH game I've played is Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on my 3DS. I'm sure MH Rise will be an upgrade, but I will wait for a sale.
@Murbs @sanderev I fail to see a problem here. As long as we're not using any filthy irrational numbers for scores, I won't object...
I've seen several reviews that imply that Monster Hunter Rise is the first Monster Hunter game for the Switch. Are they simply not aware of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate?
I'm super on the fence about this one, gonna wait for fan reactions.
I’m concerned about the last review’s “ a reliance on online hunts to finish Rise’s story is a puzzling step”.
So is it impossible to 100% the story offline?
It downloaded last Friday as well as balan which I can't wait for both
@sanderev yes but working to 2 decimal places means that the lowest value is 0.01 therefore to score 10.00 it needs 1000 of them.
I think you are missing the point of the comment, 0.05 of 1000 is a minuscule amount (1/200) therefore negligible and irrelevant. 0.5 has more value (1/20), 5 even more value (1/2) you get the gist.
I think the original commenter made a fair point on relevance.
Came to read about MHR reviews. Instead get an entire conversation on why 10.00 = 1000. I must be on Nintendo Life!
Game Informer and VG24/7 seem to basically be reviewing it as "it's not MH World so it's not as good." The criticisms aren't aimed at comparing it to previous handheld games, but mostly compared to what World did on more powerful systems.
IF only world hadn't botched the co-op I might have even played it beyond like 4 hunts before switching to 4GU. Though this time I'll be going all solo, I think.
@Duncanballs
You'd really think somebody would understand basic math. Or the irrelevance an extra .05 actually has on a score out of ten.
@gaga64 I'm confused about that too. I'm guessing they meant to say "multi-player" quests rather than "online".
It's always been possible to play any quests in MH solo including the ones intended for 2-4 players. It sounds like Rise is even more accessible in that regard since they said monster HP scales based on the number of players.
Ive played a few MH games in my time but never really got far in to them. World is by far my most played MH game. It just looks beutiful and the maps feel alive. Ive never got my head around the MP side of MH although ive always wanted to try it. Suppose some friends would be a start 😂😂
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