Wild Hearts Reviews
Wild Hearts refreshes the hunting genre with clever crafting and awesome beasts but is brought down by a poor technical state and weak story.
Wild Hearts’ building mechanics add a very fun twist to its familiar but well-executed co-op monster hunting formula.
Sublime combat can only do so much to carry a flawed building system, too few monsters and terrible performance.
Far more than just a Monster Hunter clone, Wild Hearts exceeds expectations and then some, mixing streamlined action with inventive new toys.
Ultimately, Wild Hearts shows up as a colorful and curious contender in the hunting game genre, and a very welcome one right now. With games like Monster Hunter Rise going for a less challenging approach, this game brings fascinating ideas that make it the breath of fresh air that the genre needs, combining difficult battles with some twists in mobility and construction, in a completely unexpected fashion. Some improvements to the unfortunate performance issues are needed, but the overall experience isn’t less enjoyable because of them.
"You'll need to stop and familiarize yourself with a monster and its attacks if you want to succeed"
The gameplay matters most in Wild Hearts – it’s fresh, chaotic, and breathless. It does not reinvent the hunting genre, but it does just enough with its addition of the Karakuri gadgets and arresting locales (not to mention the myriad ways to traverse them) to give the genre a fresh and welcome perspective. A stronger story would have been welcome, and the camera leaves much to be desired, but Wild Hearts is a deeply engaging experience even with these faults.
Wild Hearts latches onto the familiar gameplay loop of Monster Hunter and infuses it with a fast-paced crafting system that lets you build your way to victory.
I can picture myself weeks from now, strolling among the creations, gadgets, and objects that my friends and I have left littered across our worlds, thinking back on these early days in Wild Hearts. These constructions are marks of solidarity in a game that could have been mere homage. Building in Wild Hearts isn’t just a mechanical conceit. It’s the pillar of its identity.
Wild Hearts often feels like a game that doesn’t want to be played. It’s fussy, it’s janky, and it constantly trips itself up. An erratic gameplay loop, an absolute bastard of a camera, and some ill-conceived weapon gimmicks prevent Koei Tecmo and EA’s experimental hunting joint from ever really succeeding where its genre rivals have. It’s ironic that building is such a core part of this game: if this is the start of a series, Omega Force has laid down some important groundwork, but it needs to make some serious structural revisions from the foundations up if it ever wants to look eye-to-eye with Capcom’s imposing juggernaut.
Wild Hearts offers a fresh take on the monster hunting formula.
Irritating performance issues on PC aside, Wild Hearts is an impressive Monster Hunter clone that brings a lot of fresh ideas to the table.
Wild Hearts S is a satisfying, if unspectacular, addition to the Switch 2's early library. The monster hunting and equipment building is just as rewarding and addictive as you would hope, and there's tons of replayability here whether you're playing solo or with friends.That being said, the technical performance is just okay, while the lack of any significant content additions to this re-release feels like a missed opportunity, especially if you previously played this on other platforms. I'd still give Wild Hearts a recommendation, as its blemishes don't ultimately take too much away from its many strengths, but perhaps this is one to wait for a sale.
Wild Hearts is a fantastic video game. It has so much flair and personality, and so much of it is designed with fun in mind.
Wild Hearts is not only a great exponent of the genre, but it can also be a highly recommended entry point.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Wild Hearts S breaks the streak of good ports for Nintendo Switch 2 with a title that gives a good and a bad touch: it improves performance compared to what was seen on other platforms, even without reaching 60 fixed fps (30 on portable, 40-60 on dock), at the cost of a significant graphical drop that can be an impediment for some players.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Wild Hearts S is not the best place to play Wild Hearts. The less powerful hardware struggles at points to do the large, fantastical setting justice, and it's disappointing to find the performance is inconsistent in a port of an older title. However, this is an old-school hunting title, whose core mechanics hold up extremely well in a post-Wilds world.
Though it can be a blurry mess at times, Wild Hearts does plenty right to justify a play by both monster hunter veterans and newcomers to the genre. The Karakuri system is genius and enhances an already fantastic combat experience, and co-op is wonderfully implemented, making it easy to group up with other hunters.
When you get into the action and get into the right rhythm, Wild Hearts works. Too bad for some uncertainty too much that delays, or interrupts, this state of grace.
Review in Italian | Read full review