As you might expect, a new Monster Hunter game is bound to pack in a bunch of quality-of-life changes that series veterans and newcomers alike will appreciate. One of the biggest tweaks comes to Monster Hunter Wilds’ map, which is now 3D. In the past, maps have been flat while trying to communicate the sheer density of the different biomes, which made them a bit of a confusing mess for players who weren’t already familiar with the layouts of the areas. Now, it should be much easier to maneuver across Wilds’ huge new environments.
When you’re in a big fight, you’re typically picking at weak points in the hope of crippling the monster’s movement or abilities and getting monster parts, which used to break off and appear as shiny bits you needed to manually collect. That no longer seems to be entirely the case, and now when you break parts of the monster, you’ll automatically pick up smaller pieces, meaning you don’t have to scramble in or out of combat to get every last scrap now. You’ll still need to carve bigger pieces, like tails, and dead monsters can now be climbed on in order to harvest them. And hey, if you’re hurting after a fight or on your way to another one and don’t want to choose between your different potions, there’s now a dynamic healing option that’ll pick the best fit based on your health.
Funnily enough, explosive barrels (which used to be static) can now be picked up and thrown at enemies, and potentially even teammates. There’s a million little changes like this that should make dealing with all the nuts-and-bolts stuff outside of monster-killing simpler and more approachable than in its predecessors. Oh, and as a fun aside that I’ll also chalk up to “quality-of-life changes,” explosive barrels (which used to be static) can now be picked up and thrown at enemies, and potentially even teammates. Look, being able to troll my friends is important to the “quality” of my “life.” It counts!