Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak Review
I've got a confession to make - I wasn't actually that excited for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak during the lead-up to launch. While I greatly enjoyed my time with the base game last year, over the last 15 months I've come to realize that many of the changes that the game has made to the series' formula didn't really gel with me. Rampage Quests are the most obvious example, since it seems that I was far from the only one that outright disliked them by the end, but they were far from the only issue I had with the game.
It certainly didn't help that the game was blatantly unfinished at launch either, meaning that by the time embargo lifted and all of my friends had the chance to play the game for themselves, I was already burnt-out. Despite everything, I always knew that I'd be back for Sunbreak, regardless of how I felt. Monster Hunter is my favorite series, through both good times and bad, and Monster Hunter expansions never fail to offer more than enough content to justify returning to see exactly what they have to offer. It's a happy coincidence, then, that Sunbreak is one of the most content-packed expansions yet.
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Whereas Rise left me wholly disappointed the more I looked back on the game, it feels like the few issues that I have with Sunbreak are likely to be improved upon as the expansion continues to receive updates - and it's not like the current state of the game is bad by any stretch of the imagination. I could nitpick about how it adds less monsters to Rise than Iceborne did to World, but that feels unfair when you look at what else the expansion brings to the table, as well as what's ahead. That's not to say that I'm judging Sunbreak for what it can be, but rather as some reassurance for anyone that might be heading into the expansion feeling a bit underwhelmed by what's been shown. Sunbreak is already one of the best expansions that the series has had, and it's only going to rise up that list from here.
Score: 9/10
