Wild Hearts Reviews
The monster hunting genre has always been big enough to support more games besides Monster Hunter. It’s just that previous games haven’t quite scratched that itch the same way that Monster Hunter does. Wild Hearts is the first one to come pretty close. That’s good news if you’re a Monster Hunter fan because it means you now have one more good hunting game to play. It’s honestly good for a first crack at the genre — the Koei Tecmo’s solid Toukiden series notwithstanding — and I look forward to seeing how it further evolves in the future.
Wild Hearts seems to have the right ideas about what a modern monster-hunting game needs. If it could inject some of the flashier bits from their other games, then Omega Force would definitely have a fierce competitor on its hands in the monster hunting genre of games. Right now, it does of course stand in Capcom’s shadow, but suddenly this subgenre has started heating up. Competition breeds innovation, and it’s exciting to wonder what we’ll see next.
Despite some performance issues and awkward camera controls, I would recommend Wild Hearts not only to long-time fans of monster hunting but to players like me who never quite understood the hype before. Wild Hearts will make you understand as it made me understand. From its immersive world to its unique building system, this is one big release you will not want to miss out on.
Too bad, we were close to touching an absolutely huge title. However, if you skip the not-so-sexy packaging, Wild Hearts might just surprise you.
Review in French | Read full review
Wild Hearts will not surprise you with its graphics, but it will do so for its combat system and its ability to stay glued to the screen either playing alone or playing cooperatively
Review in Spanish | Read full review
I’ve got plenty more to see of Wild Hearts before giving it a score, but as it stands I’m not relishing the task. Its frame rate issues and graphical glitches make this RPG game unplayable on PC, and it’s not just me; other colleagues within PCGamesN and PC reviewers across the internet have found the same thing. I’m desperately hoping that a day-one patch will fix these issues, because the game shows a lot of promise. While it may require a bit of relearning for some experienced hunters, there are plenty of fun new ideas that make hunting in Wild Hearts different enough. But in its current state, we can’t recommend picking it up.
Wild Hearts treads familiar ground as you hunt one monstrous beast after another, but Omega Force has added new tricks and gimmicks that help separate it from the games it draws inspiration from. At the end of the day, it proudly stands as a unique experience with its own identity.
While having to hunt monsters driven from their habitat by human intervention and a lack of food engenders a sense of Shadow of the Colossus-level guilt, there's no avoiding the sheer depth and consistent enjoyment that Wild Hearts has to offer.
Wild Hearts is a massive single-player and co-op hunting game with an RPG backbone supporting it. The mixture of story, creative mechanics, thick strategy, and beautiful visuals makes this a top-tier hunting experience. If the controls could be improved a bit and break from traditional stuck-in-the-action sequences, it would be nearly perfect. Overall, it’s a great first go at a genre that is severely lacking in competition.
Wild Hearts is not flawless and you can see it was made on a budget, but it's a great starting point for a franchise. Most gameplay mechanics are good enough and some are even exceptional.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Wild Hearts is a great success that takes the template laid out by its competition and strikes out on its own with the addition of an invaluable new tool in the form of the karakuri. That magical string not only holds the game together, but lets it stand tall at the end of the day. Sure, you can boil it down to Monster Hunter meets Fortnite, but also if you stop and think about that for a second, that idea kind of rules, and so does Wild Hearts. All the while, it makes smart tweaks and skews heavier into style rather than simulation, allowing Wild Hearts to step out of the shadow of giants and carve out a space for its own.
Wilds Hearts is an incredibly fun monster hunting experience that's really only held back by its technical issues. Performance issues across the board on all platforms are what stop the otherwise faster paced and stylish action game from truly giving Monster Hunter a run for its money.
Beyond its unacceptable technical issues, lies one of the most unique takes on the Hunting Action genre in years.
Still, that Wild Hearts gets so much right on its first tentative step into the arena is bloody impressive. Omega Force has created the first title I’ve played that is a genuine contender in the space and they’ve done more than enough to justify Wild Hearts’ place in it. The result is something meaningfully different in a genre no one else has been able to touch. It’s kind of like if someone made a Souls-like on par with an actual Souls.
Wild Hearts' unique Karakuri mechanics and skill systems do just enough to offer a new take on the tried-and-true monster-hunting genre. While there is some inconsistent performance across all platforms, Wild Hearts bewildering bestiary of unique creature more than makes it worth a look.
Wild Hearts is shaping up to be another great monster-hunting title that suffers the most from obvious comparisons to the well-established Monster Hunter series. The developers have promised that DLC is on the way in the coming months with more kemono and karakuri, and it’s all going to be free with no paid updates in the plans (not yet, at least), so even after you’ve finished the base game, there’ll be more to bring you back to Azuma. It’s an impressive effort all around, with a world that continually beckons hunters to return for more. Gear up, for the hunt is on!
Perhaps my biggest takeaway from Wild Hearts is that I didn't once find myself lamenting for Monster Hunter. Wild Hearts was perhaps a risky endeavour, but it's one that's paid off with impressive results. While genre newcomers can treat the land of Azuma as a gateway to monster hunting, long-standing genre fans will find plenty here to keep them happy until the next Monster Hunter adventure arrives.
Wild Hearts has everything you need for a competent Hunting style game. The weapons are fun to use and the upgrades go a long way to make you feel powerful. It's the Karakuri system that will be what draws new players to it adding a new level of depth to gameplay.
Wild Hearts offers a fresh take on the monster hunting formula.
WILD HEARTS manages to carve out its own identity in a genre dominated by a single franchise through its clever takes on classic monster hunting gameplay. The combination of cool creature designs, interesting weapons, awesome maps, and a unique building system all add up to form a fun time.