Monster Hunter World: Iceborne PC Review
After a second extended period of patiently waiting, PC players are again ready to pick up their Great Swords, refill their Slingers, and prepare some Hot Drinks as they set off into the Hoarfrost Reach in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. Iceborne is a massive expansion, one that we think very highly of, and it's no less true on PC. Chock full of new surprising environments, changing up how entire weapon sets feel to play, adding more mechanics and outright whole new systems such as a room decoration feature, there's no short-changing here of stuff to do.
Alongside the release of Iceborne on Steam is a free update for all PC players titled Update Ver. 10.12.00. Independent of the expansion, this is another in a long series of free updates and tweaks that Monster Hunter: World has received since its PC debut in August 2018. World has been through a bit of a wringer on PC over the last year-plus. While the original PC release was generally competent though marred by connection problems, Capcom has put no shortage of effort in supporting the release with features such as adding Ultrawide and HDR support, supporting technologies like DLSS, and even an optional High-Resolution Texture pack in exchange for a hefty chunk of hard drive space.
It is, in a way, disappointing that all of that is overshadowed by another tardy release where the playerbase has to again operate on two separate schedules.
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All told, Monster Hunter World's PC offering is in a much better place than it was initially, and even then it was never a slouch. There's a lot of credit to be given to all of the support that the title has received over the last year and a half, but also a lot of headache that comes with the staggered release. In a burgeoning era of cross-platform play, having a delayed release here feels a bit out of time. With that considered however, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is a game that's easy to recommend without hesitation. Those that have yet to dip their toes into Monster Hunter at all have perhaps the most to look forward to, with a polished and updated total package alongside with new stuff still inbound over the next few months. I know I'm eagerly anticipating what's next.
Score: 8/10
