Nothin' But A G Rank Thang - Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (REVIEW)

written by Justin Prince (@prince_justin)

I know, a little bit delayed but it’s been a rough month. I was planning to drop this review near the end of September, but shit got wild at home… anyway! It’s about time I finally share my thoughts on Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, an experience that was way more than JUST an expansion. I will be mostly touching on what’s new here, so my review of the vanilla game still stands.

Iceborne brings the G-Rank, renamed to Master Rank, experience to Monster Hunter World, a game I’ve sunk hundreds of hours into since it launched. Iceborne closes out the story of Monster Hunter: World in grandiose fashion. Shortly after solving the the mystery of the Elder’s Crossing, another mystery makes its way to the Research Commission. Plunging you and your trusty Handler back into another world altering problem you need to solve. Starting with the migration of Legiana from its home in the Coral Highlands to a winter wonderland across the sea and a mysterious song that brings some exceptionally powerful heavy hitters out of the woodwork, Iceborne introduces so much to the already packed world of Monster Hunter World, truly expanding the experience in Zorah Magdaros scale.

The biggest addition is the inclusion of a new map and as well as a new hub, dubbed the Hoarfrost Reach and Seliana respectively, this chilly new environment finally bring to Monster Hunter World all major locales and gives us a reason to craft hot drink. The Hoarfrost Reach comes with it new monsters and a multi-leveled map that rivals the size and scale of the Ancient Forest. I absolutely loved exploring the Hoarfrost Reach and especially liked how it evolved as you progressed through the story… opening up more of the map as you uncover the truth behind the mysterious song and the Legiana migration.

The Hoarfrost Reach is a huge new locale to hunt a myriad of monsters, in vanilla MHW my favorite map was always the Coral Highlands, but this one takes the cake as far as I’m concerned. A vast locale, frozen with both depth and verticality. While grand in scope, I rarely ever felt lost in it. I admit that even now I still get lost in the Ancient Forest, but the Hoarfrost Reach has the sheer size of the Ancient Forest while also being very player friendly while navigating. Iceborne’s new hub, Seliana, captures the living nature of Astera while also improving on the user’s experience. While Astera felt like a massive hub, I could never get used to constantly running around just to utilize the important NPCs like the smithy or the canteen. In Seliana, everything is laid out in a very user friendly manner without forcing the player to traverse the entire hub just to get from one NPC to another. This felt even more evident while playing the story and I had to return to Astera, only to realize how much I loved the more streamlined layout of Seliana.

Gameplay has further been improved upon here as well. Two key things that change the controls significantly are the inclusion of the new clutch claw and the ability for every weapon to shoot the slinger without having to sheath first… mind you something the SnS has always had (RIP). The clutch claw first, this grappling hook augments the slinger, turning it into a claw that lets you latch onto a monster then mount it. This isn’t like the mounts we are used to, while grappled onto a monster you have two options; attack it or use flinch shot to stagger a monster and send it hurtling forward. Attacking after grappling will either tenderize that body part and/or make the monster drop slinger ammo. Attacking parts that have been tenderized also cause more damage, further incentivizing the use of the clutch claw. As for flinch shots, as long as the monster isn’t enraged, if you grapple onto the monsters head and you have any slinger ammo (mind you, only the slinger ammo you pick up… not craft) loaded, you send the monster hurtling forward. This new mechanic is useful for sending monsters where you need them to go… or making them run into walls, knocking them down.

Gameplay wise, similar to how the jump was from Low Rank to High Rank, the jump from High Rank to master rank is substantial. Monsters hit way harder here, in one of my most shameful master rank moments, I carted to a freaking Great Girros. Even some of the lower threat level monsters were given some sharpened fangs. New moves on top of some new mechanics make this experience a fresh one all over again. The grand scope of it is just super sized, this is more than just an expansion, with every monster from the base game (save for Zorah and Xeno) represented in Master Rank.

Further adding to all that’s new here, Iceborne further ramps up skills and decorations. Adding level four decorations. These new decos give you two (or three) points in one skill or combine two different skills in one decoration. After the steep deco grind the base game was, I see myself grinding even more for these level four decos, some of which has continued to elude me. Some skills were ramped up, given additional levels while others were changed to better balance the game. One interesting new mechanic is the ability to go beyond the max level of skills, provided you are wearing the right armor pieces. For example, wearing three pieces of Lunastra Master Rank gears gives you Tool Specialist Secret, a skill that allows you to equip up to five levels of the Tool Specialist skill instead of the standard limit of three. Building mixed sets is going to be a lot more interesting when taking these into account. As for items, a new feature called the Steamworks allows you to gain useful items via a guessing minigame. Overall, this helps to alleviate the need to always gather resources and can help ease up what you focus on in your garden.

Now I won’t touch too heavily on it because I want to save it for a future article, but I am loving the endgame here. The base game had me hunting pretty much the same tempered elders, it got pretty stale, but when you get to the Guiding Lands… you’ll see just how different the endgame grind will be.

VERDICT

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is set to eat up more of my hours this year. Monster Hunter: World was my favorite game of last year, now with the expansion I find myself jumping in as often as I can. I am a hunter through and through, all the players I hunted with, the friends I made along the way, the memories I had with this game… good and bad… are all well worth the ride, I love Monster Hunter… but Iceborne… this made me REALLY love Monster Hunter even more.

5 out of 5

A pitch perfect expansion!