Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak Review (IrishCoffee)
Rise has been my recent obsession, and apart of that was never actually playing the DLC. In my honest opinion on every single Monster Hunter game, its FAAAR better to jump in LAST after the content and expansions drop. You get to experience the game's full lineup of content from start to finish, without having to wait months for content drops and balance changes.
Sunbreak is... Odd. I played through the base game and went straight into the DLC when i was able to. The separation of the DLC and the base game is VERY jarring, like several features that could have been added very easily to the base game WITH OR WITHOUT the DLC. You get onscreen move tutorials like in Wilds, you get additional endemic life to use in fights, you get ai hunters ONLY in the DLC, most of these features could have easily been added to the base game from the release of sunbreak like World did in Iceborn. The point of the expansion is to add more monsters and areas and add more endgame/story content. The onscreen move tutorial and silk move loadouts would have been MASSIVE early on for new and returning hunters learning the weapons again. Its just incredibly odd to lock these features behind a paywall and only unlock them after entering the DLC.
The DLC monsters and maps are great for the most part. I can't confirm if you could fight the monsters in event quests even if you did not own the DLC though. The new areas are downright beautiful and massive with detail and zones. One second your in a swamp with a evil looking tree, next your in a ice cave next to a crumbling castle. Its hard to believe this was a Switch exclusive game at one point with how detailed and huge these areas can get.
With all that being said, its a Monster Hunter expansion. As mentioned, im very disappointed with the features being locked until you hit the DLC. At the end of the day though, its a fine DLC. The DLC monsters are visually fantastic but are just fine to fight and farm. The new areas are great but just like the base game's, you explore them once or twice then run through them to get to the monster. I am loving what Rise offers, but i can see why this got somewhat mixed reviews on release. Hopefully Wilds wont follow the same path and lean more into what World did. Give the base game the added tools but lock the new areas and monsters behind the pay wall.