Normally ‘coral’ and ‘highlands’ are mutually unique phrases, however the lands of Monster Hunter: World have not too long ago undergone a tectonic makeover, lifting sea-beds excessive up into the sky and forests down into the swampy mire. The Coral Highlands are one of many new biomes being launched to the collection by World, and so they’re a sight to behold. Strange, pastel-shaded, vertically organized and populated by some new and fascinating monsters. Come take a peek with me as I rifle by means of the most recent chunk of official gameplay footage launched for the upcoming dragon-bothering simulator.
Having began out with the unique Monster Hunter means again within the early days of the PS2, the Coral Highlands are a revelation. A fancy vertical area the place flying creatures actually rule, and there aren’t too many flat plateaus to struggle simply on, a world away from the arena-spaces of earlier video games. It’s a playground constructed explicitly with the brand new motion tips of the sport (elevator zip-lines, gliders and grappling hooks) in thoughts, and I wouldn’t have it every other means. Not solely is it visually hanging and alien, however the very means by which you navigate it are recent and new for the collection. Plus, it’s good to see this type of setting liberated from the clunky swimming controls of Monster Hunter three.
The setting is populated by an fascinating vary of critters that appear like they need to be swimming round underwater, however have tailored seamlessly to their new life as flying, cliff-dwelling beasties. One creature that does look significantly at residence above water, although, is the Paolumu, one of many extra hanging creatures being launched in World. Part wyvern, half bat, half flying squirrel, all fuzzy. It flaps round and nibbles casually on the coral usually, but when challenged it’ll whip you with its enormous thwumpy tail, and attempt to blow you off cliff edges with blasts of compressed air held in its wobbly inflatable neck-balloon organ.
The video ends with the fluffy (and already fairly battered) Paolumu being interrupted rudely by a Legiana, an particularly graceful-looking wyvern with nearly luminous scales and fins that might take a look at residence simply as nicely within the deep sea as flitting by means of the sky. This being Monster Hunter, it’s not simply all beauty, and the Legiana places the outsized mammal its place: on the bottom, permitting the opportunistic participant an opportunity to get in a number of low cost photographs earlier than the monsters resume their high-powered brawl.
With the PC version having slipped all the way back to autumn of this year, the await our model of the sport has turn out to be nearly insufferable and every new gameplay video jogs my memory that I’ve been neglecting my PS4 considerably.
