Monster Hunter Now in IOS

App Store Editors’ Notes

Amazing Game, One Issue.

I love this game. I’ve always loved games like Pokémon GO, they’re just fun to me. However, unlike Pokémon GO, this game doesn’t just warn you about playing while driving, it entirely restricts your gameplay if you’re moving too fast. The idea is to stop people from playing and driving, but in reality, this only hurts passengers. Even if you hit the “I am not a driver” prompt, your gameplay remains restricted. Drivers can just be jerks on the road, holding at a light longer than they should just to continue playing. But passengers have no control over whether or not they can play the game at all. Please, for the sake of everyone who plays this awesome game, change this. I’d rather the speed warning appear every 5 seconds and annoy me repeatedly than not be able to play at all, especially because, also unlike Pokémon GO, when you sit still, there’s no way for you to do anything, you have to just wait until a monster spawns on you. In Pokémon GO, there’s incense. In JW Alive, there’s scents. In MH Now, there’s nothing, no way of attracting monsters to you more often. I rarely walk anywhere because I don’t have the freedom and time to walk, so I’m always either unable to play because I’m sitting still and there’s nothing to do, or unable to play because I’m moving too fast even though I’m just a passenger 95% of the time.

Love the game but there’s work to be done

I’ve been playing monster Hunter since 3U. It’s my favorite game franchise and when this was announced I was so stoked! The game is a lot of fun; being simplified for mobile, but still keeps plenty of mechanics in tact despite that. It looks really good, it plays smooth (only ever having minor lag hiccups), and hunting with friends is awesome. There’s also isn’t a lot of monetization which is nice to see for a Niantic game. But after the first two days a few cracks peeked through. For one, spawns are slow and your search range is pretty small. With the way it is now there’s a pretty decent chance you’ll just have to miss out on some hunts due to them being on property you can’t access. Second, the health is really slow to regain. In the later quests, where things hit like a truck, you really begin to feel how slow the regen is, and the lack of healing items other than your daily potions. Last, the speed lock. I understand they don’t want people driving and playing, but why have a confirmation notice about “being the passenger” if it’s going to lock the game completely? I feel like this should be adjusted in some capacity. Other than those it’s been an awesome game with so much promise for the future! Happy hunting!

Great Callback to Mainline Series

MH:Now is an awesome interpretation of the mainline games, cutting a few corners to make it work as a mobile game. The inclusion of multiple weapons is a must, but Niantic should’ve included all 14 weapons from the start, or at least at HR15 like they did. Only having 6 to choose from is a bit of a disappointment. The weapons we do get include many of the mechanics that the regular series does, requiring directional swipes of your thumb to execute. However, not all weapons feel as robust. The Light Bowgun, without a manual reload or even a melee attack, feels like an after thought. For the weapons that do have these mechanics held over from the mainline games, the lack of a Training Dummy means you can’t practice or learn them. This feels like another oversight. The last mention is the lack of an online party. I’m not sure the requirements behind this, but many of my friends are states and countries away. It would be nice to hunt with them and vice versa, as this would allow us to benefit from each other. As it stands now, the friends list looks more like competition between friends rather than co-op. Aside from these few complaints, I was delighted with how much they did add to the game. With enough marketing, it might even pull in a bunch of new players. I hope it does, so that when the new title releases after MH:Rise, more people will be familiar with it.

Surprisingly robust but …

Also unsurprisingly stingy, and not even in a way it needs to be. I get it is a mobile game and in fact bought a pass already for it to support it. The two biggest issues by far I have with the game are the material drops from monsters and not being able to freely travel between biomes. The reasons for this is the game artificially imposes nonsensical goals on you (slay “x” number of monsters in Forest habitat, for example). I have no problem walking all over the place, but unless you happen to walk where the game geographically demands you walk that triggers said Forest biome, you’re not completing that goal and thus advancing your campaign. You’re effectively stuck. Second, material rarity is tied to monster tier, i.e., tougher the monster, the higher (rarer) the material that drops from monsters after a successful hunt. The problem with this is you can target a high tier monster (since you need that monster’s material to forge stronger weapons and armor) yet upon defeat of blue tier monster, you’ll instead receive basic tier 1 material at a disproportionate rate than what you would expect, even from a mobile game. I shouldn’t hunt rarity 6 monsters, only to commonly receive rarity 1 and 2 material. It’s insulting and doesn’t respect player commitment to the game. Throw us a bone here. Tweak the drop rate and allow the player to more easily complete their campaigns and this game gets an EASY 5 stars.

Extremely fun, few minor hiccups.

I am around HR 70 and have been playing since release day and have also played and completed every MH game since it’s inception. While I have thoroughly enjoyed this game and everything it has offered I have 2 glaring issues with it. Positives first, all of the monsters are fantastic additions and I love how fluid they are majority of the time. I love the weapons, and especially the new additions with a recent update with the DB and Lance. I love the armor sets and being able to mix and match them to your liking of your specific weapon of choice to enhance its abilities. The theme music I enjoy and have always let it play when launching it. All of the settings and options to hunt at your comfort and your phone’s abilities. The only 2 negatives I have are the shop and the circle around you to find various monsters in your vicinity. I think the shop is very pricey for what you receive and impact the gameplay a lot more than I’d like and I also feel the circle is a little smaller than it needs to be, even if it’s expanded slightly. I would like the addition of weapon tutorials, and learning how to use your weapon to your fullest potential. Thank you if you read this review and I look forward to further updates and what amazing things this team has brought to this game. Happy Hunting!

Nonsensical Restrictions

Can’t recommend. To this day, STILL cannot play as passenger. This is an easy 5 star if passengers were allowed to hunt. Allow me to explain why the restrictions don’t make sense. If you are playing while in a car or public transport, etc (as passenger, obviously) your gameplay is limited to inventory and quest menus only. Presumably, the idea here is to stop (stupid) people from hunting while driving, OK fair enough. Problem is, it doesn’t work. If you’re driving and playing (because you’re stupid and deserve whatever comes to you), then can just stop the car somewhere or be a jerk on the road making others wait to get the hunt started which then can’t be restricted, etc. Basically, if you’re the driver and you’re playing, you’re fine because you have control of the vehicle. If you’re the passenger however (the one should be able to play), you can’t do anything. Wanna play during your daily commute? No. Wanna play while your SO or friend is on the wheel? No. Wanna play for your friend on their phone while they drive? No. Wanna have some fun doing multiplayer on a road trip with friends? No. Wanna just gather some stuff idly on a trip or commute? No. You a student taking the bus to school or something and wanna play with your friends to and back from school on the bus? No. Sorry, no fun allowed go play Pokemon Go instead. This only burdens actual passengers, not drivers. Capcom, why???

Niantic

Another great game runied by the greed of Niantic. The game at the start is great there is so much to do and the monsters are easy to hunt. Although as you progress monsters health begins to ramp up on top of that their attacks ramp up too. Without proper gear you will likely get one shot by most attacks and this is where the game falls flat. Lack of resources due to the only way to get them is to go to a resource area that refreshes once per day. Also progression is rng is depended on what the monster drops when you kill it. But wait you can carve the monster… WRONG you can have to pay to carve the monster to get extra parts. Also remember how I said monster will start getting stronger well you only get 5 potions a day which at the start is fine, but when you progress monsters attacks will start doing so much damage that after a fight you are using 1-2. Progression after rank 30 is hard at monsters that I need in order to upgrade my weapons don’t spawn and when they do I can’t carve them because I’ll need to spend gems in order to do that which are unobtainable without spending money. Niantic is known to be money hungry and has done similar things with Pokémon go and they of course are doing it with this game and it’s sad it’s at the start maybe if they allow 3 carves a day just like Palico paintballs it would make the game much more appealing for higher rank hunters and increase the time for fights cause 1:15 is not enough.