HomeFeaturesWild Hearts
Shaky performance aside, Wild Hearts is a worthy alternative to Monster Hunter10 hours in and I’m having a great time
10 hours in and I’m having a great time
Like a sticky ball of regurgitated sap spat from the jaws of a giant dog, review code forWild Heartscame in hot and fast earlier this week. So while other outlets will be delivering their final verdicts on Omega Force’s beast batterin’ simulator today, I’m afraid I haven’t had the chance to play enough of it to give it a fair shakedown yet. It’s good, though! I really like it, and as a hugeMonster Hunterfan I’m pleased that there’s finally a worthy alternative to Capcom’s long-running series. Competition is good!
As I suspected (and secretly hoped), Wild Hearts is a proper Monster Hunter clone through and through. You travel to one of multiple relatively large zones with the intention of killing a very large beast. You attack said beast (a big chicken, a weird rat, a badger with a fringe) using a comically large weapon. Fights are lengthy and arduous. Challenging. Beasts feature multiple forms, and are determined to knock you on your arse and crush you to death underneath their hooves/claws/paws. Eventually, they’ll wander off to lick their wounds, and you’ll show up like a mosquito with a handgun to put them out of their misery. You happily tear off their appendages before crafting them into a lovely pair of shoes or a sharper, more dangerous sword.
WILD HEARTS | Gameplay: Golden Tempest
It’s a rhythmI’m intimately familiar withat this point, one that Wild Hearts replicates so effectively that it can be easy to forget that this is actually something entirely new. But new it is, and with this freshness comes a couple of interesting ideas that give Wild Hearts its own distinct identity. The biggest of which is Karakuri, a power that lets you summon structures out of thin air during a battle. Clambering up a tower of crates lets you perform a devastating overhead strike. A spring sproings you away from the impending tusks of a charging pig. A torch imbues your sword with flames, increasing your damage against enemies weak to fire.
This huge hog is the first challenging fight the game throws at you. Constructing a solid wall is essential to block its ferocious charging attack.
I hate this big chicken with the burning passion of a thousand suns. Its attack patterns are so relentless it made me genuinely irritable. Finally defeating it - and ripping it to bits - was worryingly cathartic.
So, that’s where I’m at this point. Wild Hearts is good! Of course, time will tell if it has the depth and complexity to keep me engaged past its opening few hours, but right now I’m desperate to jump back in. There’s this chicken that’s giving me some bother, you see, and I think it’s about time I introduce its beak to my big comedy hammer.
