‘Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak’ preview: more monsters, more hunting

nme.com:

Monster Hunter is what I call, in the best possible way, a Ronseal game – the RPG does exactly what it says on the tin.

Since its global breakthrough with 2018’s World, Capcom has done even better with cutting down the faff and getting players straight into the main event, while Monster Hunter Rise streamlined it into an almost arcadey variant where some hunts could be over in less than ten minutes despite still being allotted the maximum 50 minutes typical in the series.

That may be a better fit for a flexible system like the Switch but understandably comes in for criticism from core fans used to more of a challenge.Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is then just what doctor ordered: a massive expansion that relocates from the Japanese-inspired village of Kamura to the more medieval Elgado, but also isn’t afraid to knock you on your arse and see more hunters getting carted (community jargon for when you’re KO’d by a monster before the scene cuts to a cat wheeling your body on a cart back to camp).As an expansion that can only be accessed once players have beaten Rise’s campaign, it should come as no surprise that the expansion’s new Master Rank quests don’t need to throw out a glorified meat puppet for your first hunt.

Then again, for this hands-on we’ve been thrown in the deep end by taking on a four-star Master Rank hunt. Also, despite having sunk over 100 hours into Rise since last year, it’s been a few months since my last visit so I was a bit rusty, re-familiarising myself with my main weapons Long Sword and Hunting Horn on top of Sunbreak’s new mechanics.Nonetheless, this hunt was the perfect opportunity to take on new monster Lunagaron, something of a cross between a dragon and an ice werewolf.