Monster Hunter Wilds preview: Immersing yourself in the hunt has never felt better

Monster Hunter is a series about big stuff. Big monsters, big swords, big guns, big mountains, trees, volcanoes, you name it. Monster Hunter Wilds stays true to that basic DNA, but its attention to detail and the little people you play as is what makes it feel fundamentally different.

This is not any old Monster Hunter game, based on my time spent playing it at a media preview event in Los Angeles. The game I played has the potential to be the franchise’s Skyrim moment—a beloved series nails down the technology and formula to please longtime fans while bringing in scores of new players through its immersive world-building and exploration, its engaging and mysterious story, and its suddenly streamlined gameplay systems. I entered the preview as a person who had tried playing multiple Monster Hunter games but never enjoyed them all that much. I left as a person that suddenly got it. I left as a Monster Hunter fan.