The Monster Hunter franchise is a beloved series that spans quite a few games. Its new installment, “Monster Hunter: World” hit the shelves on Jan 26.

      When it first came out, I was hesitant to purchase it, I gave it some thought for a couple days, until I finally gave in and bought it.

      I put off buying it because I wasn’t sure I would like it, turns out I was completely wrong, I’ve been playing for close to two weeks, and so far I find very enjoyable.

       The premise of the game is to hunt larger-than-you monsters that live on a continent called The New World. Your ultimate goal is to track down and hunt down the massive elder dragon, Zorah Magnaros.

In terms of what you can do in the game, there is a lot of content.There are five areas you can explore, each with its own set of monsters unique to its environment.

Carson Hile, a Dimond senior, said, “I’ve played the game for about a week, and it’s a pretty enjoyable game. The game runs nice, the graphics look good and the artwork is pretty decent.”

The games shines the most in its design of the monsters.

Hile said, “My favorite part of the game is the design of monsters, sometimes I like to the think the game designer decided to take existing animals or mythical creature and put parts from different animals on that animal or creature. One monster is basically a fire-breathing dragon with a scorpion’s tail on it. It also requires strategizing in order to take down these monsters, you can’t just charge in, weapon in hand, and expecting to beat the monster. ”

Now there’s no game that doesn’t have its flaws, some features of the game can get annoying and some don’t make sense.

John Neef, a player of the game, said, “This game is very fun to play, but sometimes it just annoys me, it’s not the main content of the game that’s annoying, it’s small side features that get on my nerve, like the multiplayer part of the game. There is an area in the game that serves as a hub area, where you buy item and craft gear, now you would think a game that encourages playing with friends would let you see your friends in the hub area, but no, you have to go to a specific area to see them.

“Joining a friend on a quest is pretty easy, but there’s another function called an expedition. Going on an expedition means you travel to an area to explore and do whatever you want without having to be on a quest. Apparently, the game doesn’t want you to go on expeditions with your friends, which doesn’t make sense. The only way around this is a function called an SOS flare, which lets random people join you on an expedition or quest, so basically everything’s riding on the chance that your friend finds the SOS flare.”

Hile said, “one thing that really annoys me is that no characters have names, they all go by their titles, like Commander, or Handler. They’re also a huge part of the not-so-engaging story, so why not give them names? Even simple names like John or Sara would have been fine, it just feels lazy.”

Despite the game’s flaws, it is highly enjoyable.

Elliot Farley, another player of the game, said, “I would give this game an 8/10. It has its problems with multiplayer, but past that is a game that’s a lot of fun to play with friends. The story’s not all that good, but fighting these large monsters is so engaging.