Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin Review (Shazza)
Denuvo was removed.. only for Enigma DRM to be added.
This has been edited in respect to the aftershock of Enigma's introduction. Original parts of this review that are no longer 100% accurate have been stricken out.
Fun game, problematic practices.
CAPCOM has proven they have no interest in the consumer's enjoyment of their products, with the abysmal state of Wilds, and the debacle that was introducing Enigma DRM to the vast majority of their library.
On its first injection into titles like MH:Rise, RE:Revelations, and Dragon's Dogma, many users were outright locked out of being able to play due to Enigma's aggressive anti-modification measures blocking out Linux and Steam Deck users, along with even cosmetic or game-fixing mods.
There are ways to get around it, including the Ol' Reliable, but this can't be overstated enough: CAPCOM's decision to add in gamebreaking DRM to more of their games, of course, is breaking the games it's added to.
Some hotfixes over the course of 2024 have "largely" fixed the drastic impact this new DRM had on the game. Steam Deck users have been reporting that they're able to access the game again - which is fantastic - and visual/save corruption fixing mods are once more able to function.
In their infinite wisdom, CAPCOM made it so that you can only play with other players in your Download Region, because everybody loves internationally-available, online compatible titles having completely arbitrary region locking.
A very popular mod fixed this anti-consumer decision that CAPCOM themselves has refused to address launch (despite a sleu of complaints from players across the globe), but since Enigma is an aggressive DRM, it outright prevents mods being added to the game, meaning you can no longer play with friends who aren't in your country.
This is still accurate, insofar as the original Matchmaker Region Unlocker mod on Nexus was taken down once Enigma was put into place. Removing Denuvo had actually broken its functionality, and there currently (well over a year later) is no alternative. Cross your fingers that changing Steam's download region will work for you and your friends, I guess.
This of course also means that Linux and Steam Deck users, just like with Monster Hunter: Rise, and can no longer play the game they paid for, because the anti-cheat aggression in Enigma also treats any "non-standard" or third-party parallel software the same as hacking the game files to cheat.
I still don't recommend purchasing CAPCOM developed or published products. They don't deserve your hard-earned money when they can, with absolutely zero notice, completely block access/greatly decrease performance and usability to any game you've paid for years down the line.
It ultimately doesn't matter that the product now functions (somewhat) as intended again, because the premise Enigma has set is a dangerous one to customer-product accessibility and security.