Which is good, because you’ll want to do what you do to the monsters in the game to the game itself, being hunt it down, murder it and carve it up to wear as a hat. It’s a metaphor, probably.

Monster Hunter World takes you on another deep dive into the Monster Hunter series and the treasures that lie deep within the games, as you bring your head up, gasping for air, that familiar itch will come back and you’ll find yourself planning your next cycle of hunts, because your cat needs a new shirt or something. A beautiful world filled with life, Monster Hunter World brings a great breath of life and freshness to the franchise and cements it into greatness.

Monster Hunter fans have had an odd ordeal to live through when it comes to playing Monster Hunter games. Starting out on the Playstation 2, which I recall seeing the trailer for and yearning to play it like a twelve year old has never yearned for something before, and since then the games have been released, quite literally, all over the place. Bouncing from Playstation consoles to Playstation Portables and then over to Nintendo with the Wii, Wii U and 3DS. Fans of the franchise have had to work hard to be able to play their favorite series about trying to make dinosaurs a whole new level of extinct. At long last, however, the series has returned to major consoles with Monster Hunter World, releasing on Playstation 4, Xbox One and eventually even on PC, eventually.

Having not played a Monster Hunter game since Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, which saw me take to the game like an addict takes to any addiction, the thought of a new game to get ready to dive into left one itching with excitement. Honestly, it’s probably not an addiction, I can quit whenever I want. Monster Hunter World is fully aware that it’s not just courting long time fans of the series, who will follow it across every platform it hops to, but also new players who exist in the preinstalled player base for the consoles themselves. The game takes these old and new players on a new adventure to fight new monsters in “The New World” so everything is pretty new.

As part of the 5th Fleet your job in The New World your job is one of research. This isn’t just researching the new monsters, and how many different coats you can make out of them, it’s researching the “Elder Crossing”, a mysterious event in which elder dragons from other lands all seem to be migrating to this new and mysterious land. One monster of particular interest is Zorah Magdaros, a, quite literally, mountainous monster seemingly made out of lava. Outside of the great mystery of the Elder Crossing, you’ll also be solving the riddles and particulars of this new land and its ecosystem.

Veteran hunters may now begin to wonder how exactly you’re meant to go about this whole research malarkey. It definitely wasn’t in previous games. Fret not, Monster Hunter World takes a very liberal definition of the word “research” and takes a leaf out of Darwin’s expeditions to the Galapagos Islands and that’s by murdering everything in sight, and then also maybe eating them, like those tortoises. On your travels through Monster Hunter World, which isn’t a new theme park, you’ll come across the tracks, fur, scales and mucus of the various monsters you’re hunting. Gathering and examining these finds all help further your understanding of the monster itself. Furthermore taking a giant sword that’s larger than your own body and charged with elemental fire and smashing the monster’s face to oblivion also constitutes as research and also helps the scientific cause.

Do try and not think about the logistics of Monster Hunter World too much. Going with the idea of “researching” the monsters, the game does give a good mechanical reason to hunting down monsters and getting deeply involved in tracking them, as the game provides you with your Hunter’s Notes which are filled with information on each monster, such as breakable parts, weaknesses and rare and common drops, you no longer have to spend time trawling through wikis, hungry for information, wondering if you’ve gone in too deep, as now it’s all readily available at your finger tips, within the game itself.

Alongside the introduction of “research”, the biggest change you’ll come across in Monster Hunter World is that it’s vaguely open world. Each area you’ll be “researching” in is no longer split up into separate areas numbered 1-10 with specific layouts and designs, your quest no longer involves running from number to number trying to locate the monster in a 1 in 10 chance you’ll come across it, only to throw a ball of paint at the beast before finally engaging in “research”. Instead, the areas are all wide and massive and while there are still numbered areas, these areas are fluid and it can quickly feel like you’re in an actual jungle, desert or what have you. You’ll be pushing through clumps of vines and climbing massive trunks of trees or maybe finding yourself in an underground burrow of a monster that leads you out to new areas. The maps themselves are so large and sprawling that I was still able to find new areas that I’d never been to 60 hours in. Thankfully you no longer have to search this whole complex for your beast, like trying to find a dinosaur in an appropriately sized hay stack, instead you’ll track them, as mentioned previously. A system I wasn’t initially all too happy with, just following this green glowing line from track to track, but it can be quite fun. Suddenly the trail goes cold and your scout flies just stop, sometimes knowing the lay of the land can find you a short cut that the monster you’re tracking may not have known, this aspect of tracking each monster manages to make the bit of the game before you start swinging your sword actually relevant to the experience, and that’s a great achievement because you’re now engaged with the world itself, not just running from area to area, blindly searching for some scaled tail.

The world, both “New” and titular, doesn’t stop being involved there though, as even during combat you’ll find yourself keeping your eyes peeled to the land itself for an opportunity or two. While you’re slapping your giant bell (Ooo err) into a monster’s face, you might spot some hanging boulders that you can drop onto your foe’s skull, for “research” or maybe some vines that you can try and tangle the dinosaur in and there are many more elements to grapple with. It’s just great.

Speaking of combat, the combat in Monster Hunter World is as strong as ever. Pick up a weapon and swing it around your face and hope it connects with the face of a nearby monster and shout “RESEARCH!”, the latter part is optional, and slowly learn the various combos and unique characteristics of the weapon you may have chosen. Monster Hunter games in general have a very detailed system that involves different weapons doing different types of damage and different monsters having particular weaknesses, sometimes specific to the part of their body, or if they’re covered in mucus or not. The weapons can be anything from large katanas that use a bizarre system that mean your attacks get stronger and stronger through the use of your “Spirit Blade”, maybe you’ll be using an actual musical weapon which provides buffs to your team through musical combos, or even a lance with an actual cannon inside of it, called The Gunlance. It’s one of many rabbit holes that you’ll find yourself tumbling down through in the world of Monster Hunter World. There are so many levels of understanding at play with each weapon that as you descend on your journey you’ll slowly stumble upon new features of the weapon you may have been using for several hours already.

You’ll be locked in a deadly bit of “research” with your target, as it snaps at you with it’s giant fanged face, as you dodge roll out of the way and run back in to try and get a few hits in against the giant creature. As they spew fire and poison at you you’ll be running to take cover or trying to climb a ledge to jump and mount the beast. You can even knock your flying foes out of the sky by blinding them with your slinger, allowing you to quickly dive in and get some powerful hits off while it writhes on the floor in pain. For “research”. If brutal “research” isn’t something you enjoy you can also stalk your foe to its nest, normally after it tries to run away, limping, to get some rest and trap the beast with a shock or pitfall trap, in which one can only assume it’s kept in good care, for “research”.

For all the jokes about “research” these monsters you face are all delightfully unique and have their own unique move sets and patterns. One beast would fly into the air and release a dust cloud around it which would soon ignite and release a huge explosion, in which everyone would quickly turn tail and run like there’s no tomorrow when you see this thing rise into the sky. Reading, and learning, each monster’s tells becomes such an important part of the process that with each encounter with a monster you’ll learn some new quirk for them, be it their attacks, weaknesses or even routines as they walk the lands. Monsters can sometimes come across one another while you’re out on the hunt and you might be able to enjoy the wonders of what can only be described as a Monster Wrestling Federation, MWF, as monsters lift each other up and almost suplex each other into the ground. It’s great.

It’s too easy to get lost in the wonders of Monster Hunter World, it’s what’s been happening in this already lengthy review. Not enough can be said about just how nice and wonderful the game looks. When you’re walking through the jungle and break through the trees to find a beautiful and breathtaking golden sunset, or if you’re lost in the colourful and eerie Coral Highlands which is full of peculiar wild life and bright pink coral forests there’s always something for your eyes to ogle. The monsters all look great and are so unique and detailed with their own quirky personalities and tactics. Not to mention the outfits you can make out of their flesh and/or bones range from the weird and wild to the cool and wilder. I’ve never really put such level of detail into the outfit I’m going to wear, and definitely not enough to go out and “research” for it, in both senses of the term.

The number of things to fall in love with in Monster Hunter World are numerous and I’ve barely touched on the home base itself which is filled with oddities like a kitchen run by cats who are obsessed with muscle gains, but also care about making you a fine meal, and there’s even just a random pig in pajamas that walks around and you can pet it and carry it like a baby. Also the game is filled with cats, because they’re your best friends in any world and help you out on your “research” and can ALSO be dressed up in a whole variety of painfully adorable costumes.

Monster Hunter World is, to date, the best Monster Hunter experience out there. Everything that made Monster Hunter great previously has been tweaked and improved and made to look beautiful, and then things that let Monster Hunter down have just been massively improved and turned the whole experience into this massive adventure into a rather odd world of scientific research, research that involves, literally, trying to put a giant monster into chains so that you can research it. When a character shouts “Alright, now restrain it, fire the chains!” the world of good you’re doing does feel questionable, but then you’re involved in this large and epic event and it’s bloody wonderful. The only complaints I could primarily throw at the game revolve around the monsters who have been in the series for a long time still using tactics they’ve had for decades now that involve running back and forth in an all too prolonged loop. The multiplayer is great and effective for playing with random strangers as they can jump into your mission at the drop of a hat but it’s tricky and awkward for playing with your actual friends, if you have any, and sadly there aren’t as many monsters as I wanted there to be. The latter half of the game where you delve into “High Rank” sees you mostly fighting the same beasts all over again, but now with some colour changes, which is great as things get tougher, but previous games have also included a whole host more of new experiences at that point, but then in Monster Hunter World you get to more readily experience fights against the elder dragons, which are outstanding. So really my complaint is that I wanted more of the game, which I think is a pretty good thing that I still crave the thrill of “researching” monsters, even after nearly 90 hours of play.