I must once again apologize to Monster Hunter Wilds director Yuya Tokuda: I haven't used the new-fangled weapon swap feature a single time in well over 100 hours. I have no doubt that several Capcom devs bent over backwards to let players holster and retrieve a totally different weapon mid-hunt using the new Seikret bird mount, even designing an entire armor skill system to support this feature, but I haven't touched it. Not once. This, to me, exemplifies Wilds' uneven experience.
It's somehow been 10 months since my 4.5/5 Monster Hunter Wilds review, which I stand by. Wilds is on my GOTY list for a reason. In that time, the "we're so back" dial has wobbled like a metronome. Here is a brilliant game – one of the finest combat sandboxes I've ever experienced, enlivened by dozens of incredible monster boss fights and embellished with stunning equipment designs – but also one diluted by inconsistencies. Since February, Capcom has struggled to pick a direction for Wilds, stretched by conflicting design goals, buffeted by the winds of player groups seeking different things, and saddled with a PC port that still runs unacceptably poorly after, I'll remind you, 10 months.
