Monster Hunter World Offers More Ways To Take On Its Fearsome Beasts

One of the biggest releases in early 2018 is Monster Hunter World, the first new installment in Capcom's long-running franchise to release on a home console since 2010. The move to PS4 and Xbox One has opened up new gameplay opportunities for the series, which we got to see firsthand during New York Comic-Con.

The demo on display at Capcom's booth was the same one featured at this year's Tokyo Game Show; you can watch our full playthrough from that event above. The quest we selected dropped us in Wildspire Waste, a sprawling, arid canyon region dotted with marshes. Like other areas, Wildspire Waste has its own unique ecosystem and monsters, such as the Barroth, one of the series' recurring monsters and the target for our hunt.

Despite the jump to home consoles, World still feels like a traditional Monster Hunter game, only now the gameplay offers even more flexibility than it could in the past. Thanks to the extra horsepower of the PS4 and Xbox One, areas are no longer segmented by loading screens, making each region feel like one cohesive world. This also has a major bearing on the gameplay. In previous titles, monsters would retreat when wounded and disappear when they left an area. Now, however, you're able to chase them when they attempt to flee without being disrupted by a loading screen--and vice versa, changing the way you approach a hunt.

You also have more options at your disposal in Monster Hunter World than in previous games. Along with the usual 14 weapon classes to choose from, each player is also armed with a slinger, a new multipurpose tool that can fire projectiles to distract or lead monsters to a certain spot and let you swing across chasms like a grappling hook. In addition to the slinger, you can utilize the environment to your advantage; leading a monster into a tree, for example, would cause a net of vines to fall on top of it and pin it to the ground. We took a similar tack during the Barroth hunt, tricking the monster into charging at a large stone pillar to temporarily stun it.

Monster Hunter World launches for PS4 and Xbox One on January 26, 2018. The game will also release for PC at a later date. During TGS, Capcom gave fans a much closer look at World's story and exploration.