Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Review - A cool expansion for Monster Hunter Fans

The Monster Hunter series has always been known for its difficulty. While Monster Hunter: World was challenging, it lacked a certain tradition from the series, and that was extremely tough G-Rank Hunter quests. The massive expansion, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, finally addresses the lack of G-Rank with their new tier of difficulty, Master Rank.

What's new?

Adding a new tier of difficulty isn’t the only thing that Iceborne brings to the table. With the expansion, it brings along a whole slew of improvements, new monsters, new equipment and expands the story of Monster Hunter World even further. The caveat, however, is that you are required to clear the original Monster Hunter World content first before you get access to Iceborne’s content.

Despite the majority of the Iceborne’s content being locked away by progression, the expansion does provide new tools for new players and changes up how hunts work within the game as a whole. Namely the Clutch Claw.

The Clutch Claw is an entirely new mechanic that allows players to mount a monster and damage certain body parts. This drastically decreases the defenses on the aforementioned parts, allowing you to do more damage. The Clutch Claw also allows players to unload all ammo within their slingers to force a monster into charging in a straight line. By sending a monster charging, you can force them to run into terrain which in turn knocks them down, giving you precious time to hit the monsters without retaliation. 

The Clutch Claw is one of my personal favourite additions to Iceborne. It gives combat more depth and solves the problem of slingers being underutilized. 

Expanded Story

Once you’ve cleared the main storyline, that’s when Iceborne really begins. The story picks up not long after the events of the main game. The New World is once more experiencing an ecological upheaval with some monsters making mass migration to places unknown. Naturally, players are instructed to follow these monsters to a snow-covered area that will become the centerpiece for the expansion, Hoarfrost Reach.

While the story isn’t anything to write home about, I play Monster Hunter not so much for the story as it is for the intense actions. With Hoarfrost Reach as the new area within the game, this snow-covered terrain will be visited multiple times throughout the game. Visually, it is what you expect from a snowy region. Thankfully, the monotony of white is broken by glacier blue caverns and muddy brown hot springs. The endemic live, as well as monsters that roam around, are vividly animated as one has come to expect of Monster Hunter World.

Familiar but new

Speaking of monsters, some iconic monsters from earlier Monster Hunter games make a comeback in Iceborne too. Along with these returning monsters, Iceborne also introduces three new Elder Dragons alongside a host of reskinned monsters with alternate movesets from their regular counterparts. 

While some might complain about the reskinned monsters, I don’t have any complaints about it. Many of these monsters come along with new attack patterns or a new single attack that can change up how you would normally approach the monster. Monster Hunter is just as much a game of skill as it is a puzzle to find the most effective way to counter each foe. The new Elder Dragons are also generally well designed and unique with interesting attacks, which can make them a visual treat for newer players.

Unfortunately, some of these monsters are locked away in a special area called The Guiding Lands. The Guiding Lands contains the environment of four other locations within the main game. What this means is, as you are running through The Guiding Lands, you might find yourself in a desert area when you were in a jungle area.

The Guiding Lands is the endgame content for Iceborne and it can be quite a slog to get through. To unlock the special monsters, you have to level up the individual biomes within the Guiding Lands. You do this by hunting and tracking the various monsters that will spawn in this location. The Guiding Lands is also the only way you can get endgame equipment as most of the materials you need can only be found within the Guiding Lands itself.

Building a new home

When there are new monsters and difficulty ranks, there will naturally be better equipment. Instead of heading back to the main hub of the game, Astrea, Iceborne has a new location hub called Selena which has everything the original hub has. 

The armoury, the canteen, and even the Melder are all conveniently located near each other. Selena also introduces a new minigame as well as an expanded room decorating option and even an interactable hot spring pool. It should be little wonder why Selena is my go-to base these days. I save more time by doing my shopping and upgrading there as I don’t find myself running all over the place.

Conclusion

Monster Hunter World has gotten a little stale since its launch but Iceborne adds a massive amount of content to it by building upon the foundation of an already great game and breathes new life into it. 

There is so much to do in Iceborne and there are content updates already planned for it with new monsters being added. Iceborne is exactly what Monster Hunter World needed with its challenging end game, if albeit a grindy one.

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is available now for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The PC version is slated for a January 2020 release.

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