I recently got Monster Hunter Rise and I played it for 2 hours so far. How does the first 2 hours of the game hold up vs what you can expect of the typical game flow? Is it worth getting even just based off the beginning of the game?

I am starting a series on my blog today that I like to call 2 hours in, where I play a game for about 2 hours and then I give it a review. I picked 2 hours because that is around the requirements for a refund on steam, which will mostly be the games I review but it also lets me review the tutorial system of a game. It allows me to assess and report to you my readers if the tutorial of a game lives up to the whole experience of the game later on or if it gets better after about 2 hours. I know that today is a game that is on switch so the refund part will not come in to play but I would love to look at the introduction of the game as well. So how well does the first 2 hours of the game hold up to what you might expect from Monster Hunter Rise after putting in a little more time?

Well I would love to start by saying that I enjoyed the first 2 hours of Monster Hunter Rise. I am somewhat new to the series as I started playing Monster Hunter on the 3ds with 4 ultimate, and playing every single one all the way through since then. So with that said I can say that most people who have played the more recent games like I have, they know exactly what they are getting into with Monster Hunter Rise. They changed a lot of mechanics and yet it retains that Monster Hunter feel for me at least.

So I enjoyed the first 2 hours but what do they entail? Well this is where your mileage may vary for this game. The very beginning has you do a character creator, as a lot of games seems to like doing now. Now this is why your mileage my vary from mine because I did not go too in depth with the character creator, I was able to quickly make a character that I liked using the presets and changing color of hair and skin, without having to go into the in depth slider to change face shape, eye shape, mouth shape, etc. After you create yourself a character you then have to customize and name 1 palico, a cat teammate, and a palamute , a dog teamate. I know there are some out there who may spend the first hour of the 2 that I judge solely in the character creator and that is alright.

as for me I would say I was all set and done and watching the introduction cutscene in about the first half hour. After the introduction cutscene they hit you with a lot of tutorial whether it is a small cutscene or what their preferred method which is a popup with a wall of text. This is fine and I like that because I knew a lot of the basics like crafting weapons and shopping so I was able to skip a lot of that text and get into the hunting after the first 45 minutes total. This game undid one thing that I loved in Monster Hunter World, where the first 4 quests are just retrieval quests. In World they did not hesitate to get you into the action but Rise returns to that older formula. I did about 2 of these and decided that I needed to get to the actual hunting.

To do so I called up a couple of friends and we went to the guild hub. Unlike World the story and the multiplayer quests are once again split up and I am in favor of this. I love this because the pacing and the flow of these quests are so different, a monster that would take me an hour to get to was offered immediately in the multiplayer hub so I hopped right over to that. I would say I was able to hunt around 3 monsters on top of that before I hit my 2 hour cut off.

That is what my personal 2 hours into the game looked like, now if you got as far as I did I would say that it is a good representation on what the game will be like. Mostly what you need to know is that through the recent games I have played the game feels like it sets you up to get the general flow and feel of how the game progressses and plays once you hit a steady stream of big monster hunt quests. They always taper off the delivery quests and lean heavily towards the big fights. I can see new players not making it this far as they learn the ropes and read all those walls of tutorial text that I was lucky enough to skip. Yet it gives veterans a bit of time to still explore the new mechanics like the wire bug and monster riding so as to slow them down a bit and give them an experience that also still feels like a fresh take on the series.

So if the game was a steam game would I be returning it? No I would not be returning it as this is a tried and true formula that always works for me and gives me tons of enjoyment. Do I think that the tutorial of the game is representative of the gameplay later or as a whole, or does it feel like a restricted tutorial? I would say, depending on how far you get again that the tutorial can feel representative of the game as a whole later, but if you are slower getting through the 2 hours just know that the tutorial is not quite representative but flows and tapers into what I consider the main body and type of the game a lot smoother than other game like kingdom hearts 2 where Roxas is a tutorial character and twilight princess where exploration are gated and you don’t get a real weapon until hours in. If you have the knowledge or bravery to skip text boxes and jump right into the guild quests you can start hunting like you would if you were 20 hours into the game and that is something I highly appreciate. The game does not feel like it has a block of progression one would label the tutorial section.

With that all said that is just my take on Monster Hunter Rise. If you agree or disagree or just simply want to chat, don’t be afraid to leave a comment here or over on my twitter I will reply to every single one I get. If you like my writing, the blog, or just my style please give me a follow here or on my twitter it or sign up for my email newsletter it would mean a lot to me and any likes I get on this content always helps and means a lot. Otherwise I will see you guys in my next article and I hope to see you there again.