Monster Hunter Outlanders preview - “Different from the console version in the greatest way”

I am going to admit something I possibly shouldn’t right now: I had my doubts about Monster Hunter Outlanders. I simply could not see how you could put the authentic experience of those long epic battles on a touchscreen. And to be fair, TiMi Studios did not go for a 1-to-1 retelling, and Outlanders is phenomenally better as a result.

Let’s set the scene. You take control of a Captain of the Adventurer’s Guild, travelling into Aesoland to investigate the mysterious Aurora. And we quickly learn two things: you are both stupidly reckless and incredibly brave. This is shown in an epic opening movie where you free-fall from hundreds of meters to deck a classic Rathian that is terrorising a village, and then plummet to the ground, before duking it out with your team against this powered-up beast. What an opener. 

A fully voiced protagonist is a novelty for Monster Hunter

It is also worth noting that I am almost certain this is the first time a Monster Hunter protagonist has been voiced, which is pretty cool. So, you save a village, they adopt you, and you explore from there. A fun story, no doubt, but let’s start building up to the main course: the combat.

Before heading out on a mission, you will compose a team of four characters to accommodate that scourge of mobile gaming: gacha. We can’t have it all. There are three classes characters fall into: Assault, Disrupter, and Support. But inside that, there are boundless possibilities, and not just from the weapon they wield. 

For example, in Support, you have Madelyn, an SR rank who can heal. But there’s also Arkaya, an SSR rank who can throw up shields instead. Each character also has their own unique ultimate skill to take into account, so you end up with so many interesting dynamics you can choose from.

Having said that, your main character can freely switch between roles and wield any weapon. However, you won’t want to swap from Assault and Dual Blades, because they are awesome. If you are curious, however, the weapons currently available are Long Sword, Dual Blades, Great Sword, Bow, Heavy Bowgun, and Lance. 

The unique combat styles in weapons return in Outlanders

They each have special properties, such as the Long Sword having a focus, parry and counter-attacking for massive damage, or the Lance being a more defensive option. Then you have the Dual Blades, which turn you into a maelstrom of spinning top with whirly stabs of doom. But with stamina management, you are a sophisticated kind of chaotic. 

So, you picked your team, and you picked your target; it’s time for combat, and this is where Outlanders shines. As you would hope, since it's the biggest part of the series. Outlanders had a hard task here: a hunt in the main series can take ages, and that wouldn’t work for someone who's only got five minutes to spare.

So, TiMi improvised. Combat here is a lot faster-paced than usual. Battles with big foes will generally only last a few minutes, especially if you go online with a full team. There is still a lot of skill involved, with timing playing a huge part in parrying and dodging. Having said that, I do have my beef with the dodge mechanic. 

It feels like it is not responsive enough for the style of play Outlanders is going for. A lot of the time, I am in mid-swing when the enemy gives that tell-tale red shine, and I start hitting the dodge button. Nothing happens until the monster barrels me over. In the main series, you would expect to be punished if you pressed too foolishly, but in this arcadified edition, you’d think there'd be more of a window to move or cancel your attack.

Mastering the Ultimate Charge Cycle can lead to apocalyptic combos

As touched upon before, each character has their own ultimate attack. They range from Raya trapping foes so you can wail on them for a few seconds, to Keres whipping people with her hair and leaving a bone spike at the point of impact. She is an interesting one. 

Anyway, there's a handy Ultimate Charge Cycle where an Ultimate of one type helps recharge the next in the cycle. So Assault will charge Disrupter, will charge Support, and so on. Very helpful for setting up a heavy burst window. All of this adds up to a much more accessible Monster Hunter experience, and one you can knock out a quick hunt on your lunch break.

There is a part of me that's in turmoil over this, I must say. I have played Monster Hunter since the PSP Freedom trilogy, so I am incredibly used to the slow-paced, wait-for-an-opening, long-haul battle. In Outlanders, you can pretty much just spam attacks and still survive, and the fight is done in two or three minutes. 

To begin, I didn’t think I would enjoy it, but I just had to step back from the lens of the main series. Outlanders is not another instalment; it is a custom-made mobile experience, and it is absolutely perfect in that regard. This quick combat style is exactly what you need for a hectic lifestyle where you can’t do a longer battle, or simply don’t want to. I can see this converting many non-fans thanks to the accessibility.

A massive open world with perhaps too much to do

But we aren’t finished yet. Why would you think that, because of that epilogue above? That was just for the combat; there's still a ton more to this game. Exploration for one. Outlanders has an expansive open world, full of just way too much to do and collect. Luckily, this isn’t mandatory, but it’s good fun. You can find treasure chests, save people from ambushes, or one of my surprising favourites, cairn stone stacking. I spent about 20 minutes on one trying to beat the impossible high score. Never even cracked the leaderboard.

There is also a big emphasis on movement. You can easily scramble up any mountain you encounter, plus you have the ability to craft two very useful traversal tools: a zip line and a fan that rockets you in the air to fly around with your glider. Note, fly, do not let go of and attack a Rathian in the opening scene, hero!

When exploring, you will be able to avail yourself of nature's bounty, gathering herbs, wood, rocks and the like. Plus, you can carve up your fallen foes. Any Monster Hunter fan knows next: crafting! You can, of course, deck yourself out in the pelts of your foe for extra defence, offence, and more skills than you can shake a stick at to turn your heroes into a true power house.

Unfortunately, I did get the feeling that the developers tipped a bit too much into the Ubisoft method of map stuffing. The amount of icons and collectables on the map can be a little overwhelming. It feels at odds with Outlanders’ combat. The fights have been streamlined to fit mobile’s pick-up-and-play methodology, but then you can’t walk five steps without a collectable popping up. If the team wanted something that players could sink time into, then create optional console-length battles instead. 

As I said up top, when I first heard about Monster Hunter Outlanders, I wanted it to be a shot-for-shot Wilds adventure. And that did prejudice my view of the game, for approximately five minutes. That’s all it took to realise that TiMi Studios has created the perfect Monster Hunter experience for mobile. Sorry, Monster Hunter Now.