I played for about five hours last night and…yeah, it's a pretty good port!
I was hoping to be able to hit 4K/60 on my rig but I was only able to get around 40fps average. I ultimately pulled the resolution back to 1440p and it runs at a smooth 60fps. One thing that surprised me is how consistent the framerate is. Even when I was fidding around with 4K it never really dropped much below 40. If I were interested in 4K/30 it would have been more than adequate, but I'd rather have the extra FPS.
It features native XInput support (naturally), works with DirectInput, and even plays surprisingly well with keyboard/mouse! I favor an Xbox One controller, though if I ever decided to use the bowguns at some point I'd probably switch.
I'd say my biggest complaint is still that the tutorials are so overbearing. I'm pretty sure The Handler told me four separate times how to open my map, yet important movement features like swinging from vines was left completely uncovered. Having spoken to someone who picked up MHW as their first game in the series, he also feels that too much emphasis was placed on exceedingly basic controls and not enough time was spent on the nuances of armor/weapon crafting. He felt that I explained the armor upgrade system better in a handful of sentences than the long, drawn out text tutorials in the game.
The game feels best when it takes a step back and lets you figure things out, but I'm still at the point where it vocalizes some blindingly obvious stuff. Like, if I get paralyzed they make a point of saying "YOU'RE PARALYZED! You'll have to wait to recover!" as if the little lightning bolt effects on my character, the fact that he was trembling, and the fact that my controls didn't work weren't obvious. It also commits that egregious sin where you can be dodging attacks perfectly for several minutes, but the second you slip up and get smacked in the back by a little jagras it pops up this giant "A + LS" prompt on the screen and yells at you for not dodging. Yeah, no shit.
While that does make it a bit more accessible than previous titles, I still think they missed the mark. They spend so much time covering the mechanics that have been beaten into people repeatedly over the past decade that they ignore the numerous nuances that make Monster Hunter what it is. It's as if they simultaneously assume that people are beginners to video games in general, yet they know all there is to know about Monster Hunter's various systems. It just seems backwards to me.
But obviously there's far more good than there is bad. MHW resolves pretty much every complaint that I have about the series, such as reducing the menial grinding (having unlimited whetstones, BBQ spit taking significantly less time, etc), improving the fluidity of the controls, making the game world seamless and open, streamlining monster tracking (this point is probably pretty heavily contested, but I enjoy the scoutfly system significantly more than paintballs). Best of all, it manages to do all of this while still retaining its quirky and fun identity.
As soon as the tutorial-related headaches pass, you're left with an incredible game with a ginormous amount of content. There's no way I can't recommend it.
