Wild Hearts Review (DOY)
There's a game here if you are able to run it somehow without issues. The game is severely cpu heavy so at even 3440x1440p you aren't getting 60 fps in some areas and multiplayer situations even with a 3800x cpu and 7900 xtx GPU ; ~75% gpu usage with cpu usage pegged. The system requirements are lie. The game used to be able to run on steam overlay, but EA had the genius idea to nutter that with the launch of their worse launcher EA play App. Camera and controls are in at the bare serviceable category with things that need improvement.
I am at the end game of Wild hearts. While there is a respectable game underneath there are many negatives centred around the reputation of both EA and KT. EA is infamous for games releasing undercooked and KT has been known for bad optimization and even worse PC ports. All these things happened like a self fulfilling prophecy. EA pulled the plug before anything meaningful in terms of optimization could be done, but i think KT is too technologically incompetent considering the state of Wo Long and Dynasty Warriors 9. Not to mention the game was on Xbox gamepass with it competing against MH:Sunbreak the same year it came out.
I think the combat is more refined in monster hunter compared to wild hearts both on the level of weapons as well as monster combat. Many of times I see a monster pull a move and do a completely different move because animations move sets aren't nuanced in distinction in Wild hearts. There is also more monster variety in monster hunter compared to the same 4-6 monsters that get rehashed with improved move sets going across chapters in wild hearts. Monster attacks in wild hearts also seem to suffer from larger then husk hit boxes and very AOE spamming on certain monsters especially at the end game.
Rise Sunbreak has very satisfying combat with many tools to complement a hunt and i will compare it to Wild hearts for this review. I only really used 3 weapons: katana, blade and claw and karakuri staff. These weapons are very satisfying to use but the core mechanics seem to be fill the gauge by doing X and do big damage once gauge is filled. There are no counters, no iframes outside of rolling/dodging and you are severely relying on your karakuri (structures) to create attack opportunities and to pull off the more high damage move sets. Using these either feels to enhance combat or outright break combat flow because you have to stop what you are doing enter a "build" stance and then start pressing Helldiver sequences hoping you don't get interrupted to build special structures. Of the two so far MH:Rise and World have move organic combat with more depth.
I've gotten used to it on KB+M but the controls leave a lot to be desired and the default bindings suck. You are also locked to 4 basic katakuri when there are 6 total; d-pad limitation on controller? Movement is bugged with KB+M as sometimes you will do a weird round about walk/run when trying to move the opposite direction your character is looking. I am fighting the camera at times because of the dynamic camera which you can't turn off. Simply put the input options. camera and HUD options are lacking when compared to Capcom’s offerings.
Performance? Launch was terrible or abysmal based for those brave enough to play the game on release. Compilation and traversal stutter galore and still existing in the game. Heavy CPU bottle necking on most modern systems during that launch window. You were not having a good time in the game if you were running anything less then a 5800x3D cpu to even allow your GPU to push frames. I am barely getting 60 fps on 3400x1440p on a 3800x CPU and 7900 xtx GPU with the gpu only logging 70 to 75% meaning cpu bottleneck issues are not resolved. The game world is large but overall the graphics nor the monster interactions or lack of there of justify the performance.
The structure and food systems i find are a point of contention in the game. They are either overly complex, mundane or limited. Your hub village limits the number of food processing structures you can place despite the over abundance of such structures. Food you have to go through mundane collection , process and process again and eat the food to raise max HP before a fight, but repeat this process over and over because food is a consumable in the game with wait times for processing. Getting around in a map is easier with a glider or zipline, but depending on your build you may not be carrying a glider and your map resource limit may not allow more zipline placements. These systems should have been streamlined, but yet their launch state feels very experimental.
All in all if you find the game at 75% off i would say give it a try if you wanted a monster hunter at home with fortnite building. But otherwise no way is this worth 90 CAD + 13% tax. This game is also on game pass if you wanted to give it a try and already have a subscription. Keep in mind though that this game is most likely going to stay abandonware. I have no idea how much EA funded for this game, but it definitely was not cheap and i highly doudt the investment was recouped. This IP is most likely owned by EA is will stay in limbo completely to the fault of EA and KT incompetence and negligence.