Monster Hunter Now could be good. Lengthy-time readers of the location will know my opinion on the sport from the often-gushing articles I’ve revealed over the previous 12 months. However from Summer time Recreation Fest 2023, once I first performed the sport and fell in love, Niantic has improved the cell title immeasurably.
Initially, the roster of monsters on provide – and the general flavour of the multiplayer gameplay – was restricted. Until you had IRL pals to go and hunt with, you have been locked into enjoying a lot of the recreation in single-player, which implies grinding out high-end monsters and infrequently getting backed into development bottle-necks if you happen to couldn’t slay sure beasts.
It was a reduction, then, when Niantic launched the flexibility to matchmake with different gamers earlier this 12 months. It’s all very passive, and that’s form of the purpose. Should you load right into a Hunt-a-thon that’s going down at your native Submit Workplace, say, and nobody else is round in the true world, the sport will now mechanically discover different gamers which are ready in lobbies all over the world so that you can kill a Barioth with.
With completely no additional work or button-clicking in your half, you’re out of the blue teamed up with a lance person from Berlin, a sword and defend person from London, and a bow person from Seoul. The job’s a goodun, and also you’re breaking fangs and hewing off tails earlier than you understand it. All it’s worthwhile to do is discover a hunt and participate.
However this has been restricted to Hunt-a-thons. Meaning you’ll be able to’t play with gamers all over the world to defeat that tough 8-star Mizutsune in your native park. You may’t get some randoms in to bash the horns of a Radobaan. You may’t recruit bow customers to shred the wings of a Rathalos while you’re employed on separating its tail from its physique. It’s an issue, and makes the sport really feel fairly lonely.
Effectively, excellent news! As of Friday, June 26, a brand new function within the recreation applies the identical match-making logic we’ve had for the previous few months in Hunt-a-thons to common encounters within the wild. This new function, which Niantic is looking ‘Dimensional Hyperlink’, mainly implies that a number of of the monsters in your map will probably be ‘trapped between worlds’. When you choose them, you’ll be taken to a fast foyer (just like those you’ll discover in Hunt-a-thons), and from right here it’ll mechanically populate with different gamers which are ready to slay the identical monster you’re.
It may appear a bit of ineffective, this, however when you consider the actual fact you get extra rewards while you hunt in a gaggle, and sure monsters at your degree could also be tougher to kill by yourself, it is sensible. There are additionally quests that require you to hunt in teams once in a while, and this new function will make it so much simpler to finish these in a well timed method (and can hopefully imply you gained’t have to purchase tickets to hurry the method up…).
Niantic reckons there are over 15 million folks enjoying the sport for the time being, so it’s best to by no means wrestle to search out somebody within the foyer with you. I play about three or 4 Hunt-a-thons a day, and normally the foyer is stuffed inside seconds in these encounters. I think about the identical will probably be true right here.
“With greater than 15 million downloads globally, we all know our neighborhood is having fun with the prospect to hunt monsters on the go, and we’re excited for these gamers to ask their pals to hunt along with gamers from all all over the world, whether or not they’re in San Francisco, New York, London, Berlin, Seoul or Tokyo,” mentioned Archit Bhargava, senior director of product advertising and marketing at Niantic, in a pre-brief concerning the replace. “There’s by no means been a greater time to leap into Monster Hunter Now, whether or not you’re a very long time Monster Hunter franchise fan or model new to the sequence.”
Sure, that’s a reasonably PR-forward assertion, but it surely’s true: if you happen to’re new to the sport, and even simply contemplating getting concerned because of the hype that’s constructing round Monster Hunter Wilds, the flexibility to hyperlink up with gamers all over the world is definitely going to make these first few hours a bit simpler for brand spanking new gamers.
I’ve in all probability logged effectively over 500 hours in Monster Hunter Now, by this level, and I’m nonetheless not bored of it. Obtain it, play it, and make the look forward to Wilds that a lot simpler – you gained’t remorse it.
Monster Hunter Now’s Dimensional Hyperlink replace is Friday, June 26. You may obtain the sport on iOS or Android.
