Hoo boy, this review has been a long time coming.

Monster Hunter: World is a boss-centric action game that revolves around tracking monsters through exotic locales in what is dubbed the "New World" and, well, hunting them. True to its name, a bigger focus has been placed on making the environments feel lively compared to previous games; hunts take place in an vast, open world populated with diverse flora and fauna. Creatures have their own lifestyles and behaviours. Certain parts of the environment are dynamic and can be used in creative ways. And, perhaps most obvious of all, the graphics of this game are absolutely beautiful, amplifying the natural look. However, ending the review here and calling it a day would be doing it an extreme disservice.

Throughout your travels in the New World, you will become very familiar with its feral inhabitants. Each has its own identity--unique designs, mannerisms, strengths, and weaknesses, all communicated in meaningful ways. From the adorable Dodogama to the ferocious Anjanath, monsters come in all shapes and sizes. One thing is certain: the monsters are usually many times your size, so you better get used to playing around their big attacks.

MHW offers a diverse selection of 14 weapon types, each with their own nuances and weapon trees, allowing you to boost your damage and augment your weapons with elements. I am not kidding when I say I hope you like studying videos on how to use weapons, as even the simplest of them have their own unique uses and playstyles. For reference, throughout my MHW career, I went from maining the Heavy Bowgun (a big gun, not much to say) to the Insect Glaive, a polearm that excels in aerial combat, then to the Sword and Shield, a light weapon whose greatest strength is its versatility. I've long since completed the main story of both World and the Iceborne expansion, but I am still having fun trying out all the other weapon types and figuring out how to use them. There is a training area that allows you to experiment safely; I suggest using it as soon as possible to pick and learn a weapon. Don't be afraid to switch weapon types if you get stuck, too.
We haven't even touched on the armour system yet, which offers a comparable amount of choice. Armour sets are comprised of 5 pieces; head, chest, arms, waist, and legs. Within these 5 categories, there is a wide array of designs, each offering different defensive stats. Most of the armour pieces in MHW draw inspiration from the monsters you hunt, letting your hunter look quite stylish, too. Additionally, armour comes with armour skills: abilities that strengthen you in a variety of ways, not just defensively.

Hunts in MHW generally follow a straightforward pattern. First, you collect tracks of the monster you've targeted. Once you've collected enough tracks to locate the monster, it pops up on the map. You then run over to their location and fight. Usually the monster will run to another area; it's at this point you recuperate (heal, sharpen weapon, etc.) and give chase. This loop of fighting and chasing continues until the monster is slain or captured (the hunt is a success), or you faint too many times (the hunt is a failure).
As noted before, a large part of MHW is its environments, including creature lifestyles. To help players engage with this part of the game, players must first explore and locate the tracks of their target before they appear on the map. This feature is a bit of a hit or miss; for some, this only serves to slow players down before they get to the action. For others, this helps develop a sense of familiarity with monsters (i.e. learning their habitats) outside of learning their attacks in direct combat.
Combat is all about commitment, in the sense that every attack has an animation that limits your control until a certain amount of the animation has played out. Combat is also highly expressive; besides your weapon of choice, there are a lot of consumables you can bring into the hunt or find in the environment that offer benefits, from traps and bombs to items that heal or provide temporary buffs. In this game, combat is the smoothest it has ever been in the series; the player character feels very responsive, you can continue moving during animations such as using healing items, and attacks that are timing-based generally have large windows for use. By default, controls are also displayed in the top right corner of the screen and update according to context; this makes the game fairly user-friendly.
At the end of each hunt, you are rewarded with materials that allow you to forge and upgrade equipment. Thus, the larger, overarching gameplay loop is "hunt, upgrade, repeat." Due to the random nature of materials dropping, however, this gameplay loop can get rather grindy at times. This grind is somewhat alleviated with the use of investigations, hunts that provide extra rewards, but it is still very much there.

A large part of the Monster Hunter games is their multiplayer, and it is no different here. Hunts take place in sessions; hunts have a maximum of 4 players while sessions can have a maximum of 16, allowing for easy drop-in and drop-out. Additionally, you can fire SOS flares during hunts, allowing players from other sessions to join you. There is a restriction on story missions however; other players cannot join you until you've viewed all of the hunt's cutscenes, which generally entails encountering the monster and watching its introduction. This tends to be a very large downside when playing through the game with friends, as you will constantly have to wait for everyone to view cutscenes before being able to play together. In general, however, the multiplayer is a big point in MHW's favour. At almost 4 years after release, people still play this game. This also means that there is a good number of veterans willing to help new players find their footing if needed.

Another point I'd like to address is menu navigation. There are a lot of menus and UI windows in this game. Additionally, the game loves to bombard new players with tutorial screens. As a result, it is very easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information overload if you're not used to the UI of, for example, MMORPGs. Thankfully, this is mostly only a problem outside of hunt. My recommendation is to slow down and take the time to process whatever you're looking at, or ask a fellow hunter for help. Half of these info screens aren't even shoved in your face, and arguably these ones are more useful as they pertain to things like weapon-specific controls and combos.

I won't deny that this game isn't for everyone. MHW asks for a bit more patience than usual on the part of the player. However, if you can look past the grind, get used to the UI, and deal with the odd multiplayer quirk of the story missions, you'll find an absolutely huge amount of playtime here. This game has a lot of nuance, way more than I could ever feasibly cover in this review. It is this amount of detail that keeps me coming back for more; I love learning about how each weapon counters the attacks of certain monsters, and the surprising amount of ways I can use the environment to gain the upper hand. Absolutely worthwhile, to both series newcomers and veterans alike.

I'd like to give special thanks to Morgan, a Charge Blade hunter and absolutely wonderful friend who not only got me the game and Iceborne but also held my hand as I was learning the ropes. I am eternally grateful for your help, ya big ol' softie.
I'd also like to thank the countless other players I've met in my travels for making my experience as great as it is. They've not only made for skilled teammates, but also great companions. Cheers, friends.