Amidst the controversy and attention focused on the recently released Atomic Heart came another Hearts game, Wild Hearts, a new single-player RPG from EA. Although it is similar in name to Atomic Heart, it is completely different. It’s a game that I’ve personally waited for because of its rating, which is dominated by one series, the well-known Monster Hunter series.
Wild Hearts is a game about catching monsters alone or with other players, based on RPG elements, embraced by a wide open world, and with a backstory to play.
EA decided to enter this classification of games with a new title, through Wild Hearts, which shows the extent of the company’s interest in individual story games recently, a trend that has been evident on the company’s directions and projects in recent times.
So how are Wild Hearts? Is it a strong competitor to Monster Hunter or a miserable attempt by EA to enter a new category for it?
The story without spoilers
Wild Hearts takes place in feudal Japan, between the 12th and 17th centuries, in a fantasy world called Azuma, a world heavily borrowed from that era.
In that world, monsters suddenly turn against humans, and then the hero – who is the player – comes, who is an experienced monster hunter. The player takes on missions from the people of Minato City to hunt monsters in order to protect them and spend their affairs, and for money, of course. Along the way, you’ll learn more about the secrets and history of this city, as well as interact with the different characters of its citizens.
The story isn’t the backbone of Wild Hearts, which is okay given the nature of the game, but the story does the trick and does its part in keeping the player interested and curious as to what happens next.
Game content
- The process of hunting monsters begins with equipping the equipment, then selecting the monster from the map directly, and then starting the hunting coin, which requires you to locate the monster. This is usually done by building a monster locating tower.
- There are small monsters in the world that are easy to kill and get useful resources, both for making gear and for eating and increasing health.
- The open game world is divided into regions and islands. Any of them can be fast-traveled once access to them is unlocked by progressing in the story.
- Huge monster battles are divided into several stages, which are 3 in most, where after causing a certain amount of damage to the monster, it runs to another place and you have to chase it, and there the battle is completed, then the monster flees again to another place, and there is the final stage of the battle.
- Monsters grow stronger and their attacks vary with the progression of the battle, some of them get angry and literally breathe fire, and some of them use new strikes with the help of the elements of the surrounding environment.
- Wild Hearts also introduces a pivotal and revolutionary feature in this genre, the building feature. You can build with an ancient magic known as Karakuri, which allows you to summon constructs of various shapes out of thin air.
- Building with Karakuri magic is central to everything related to Wild Hearts. From combat to exploration, construction takes up a large part of the game’s content. You can build several boxes on top of each other to jump onto the monster and deal high damage and special attack, and also build a barrier wall of 9 boxes to block the monster’s attacks or block its charged attack. That’s in addition to the exploration tower that tells you where the monsters are, and other structures that aid in exploration.
- New camps, which are areas to revive upon death, can be built by touching the dragons’ hangars distributed in the game world, then you are allowed to build a tent, a campfire as a fast travel point, and more. These sheds could also be upgraded to allow the construction of more useful items in the camp.
- The construction is done using Karakuri thread, which is a resource that can be easily obtained from the environment.
- There is an evolution tree for Karakuri magic, the progression of which allows you to summon more constructs with a wider range of uses.
- The game is not devoid of RPG elements, and equipment can be made and developed. Each weapon has a huge skill tree to upgrade the weapon, and armor has a two-way upgrade menu: the human shield direction and the monster resource-based shield direction. The shield tilts in either direction depending on the upgrades you make, which is reflected in his stats.
- Battles in Wild Hearts can be played alone or with other players, which applies to all battles. The help of other players can be requested once the planning of the hunt has begun, and other players can also be joined and assisted through the hunter portals scattered in the world.
- Each weapon has its own set of attacks and style, along with weapon statistics and the possibility of its development. There are hand weapons such as the sword and spear, and long-range weapons such as the bow. One weapon can be taken from the inventory to use in battle.
Positives
- Featured battles. Use construction add genius! The battles are simply fantastic. Despite the simplicity of the attacks, the quality of the monster design along with the smoothness of the strikes and the use of weapons, all this in addition to the use of building as an essential element in the battles, makes the battles something else.
- The world-building is elaborate and pleasing to the eye. I had a great time traveling around the world of Wild Hearts, both in the wilderness and in Minato City. The world is amazing both visually and design.
- Fantastic acoustics, both sound effects and music. Every sound made on Wild Hearts is an ear-pleasing ballad. From the sound effects of everything, the weapons and the sounds and roars of monsters, to the music that plays during battles. Epic music that makes you feel like you are in an epic confrontation!
- Variety of weapon attacks. Each weapon has a different character and a variety of uses, for example, strikes cannot be blocked using a regular sword, while another weapon such as “Wagansa Blades” or Wagansa Blades – which looks like an umbrella – can block strikes, and allows you to jump in the air and perform a powerful attack. And so with other weapons. It constantly refreshes the atmosphere and keeps you constantly testing weapons and their functions, without getting bored.
- Mastery of battle design, despite the repetition of some of them. We must pay tribute to the design and division of stages in this way presented by Wild Hearts, it is a style that makes you feel difficult to hunt a huge enemy monster, it resists and if it fails to defeat you it will flee, so you can tame its anger and kill it once and for all. That gradation made me feel like a real hunter, and it’s even sweeter when other players join you in the fray.
Negatives
- Poor technical performance on PC. There are users with powerful cards such as the RTX 2070 who complain that the game does not exceed the 30 frame barrier. That’s enough to give a glimpse of the game’s performance on medium devices, although it’s not that graphically powerful. This is in addition to a number of technical errors and “glitches”, the most important of which is the slow motion problem, which I could only solve by setting the frames to 30 frames per second.
- Not supporting the Arabic language. It is no longer acceptable that we are in 2023 and a huge company like EA releases a new important title, and that Arabic is not supported. Especially since it’s primarily a single player story game.
- Camera in battlesespecially when mounted on a monster, it goes crazy at some angles and you’re not able to see a thing in certain situations.
- the map Its usefulness is limited and is only useful for quick travel or checking out available hunts. However, it does not aid exploration or provide the player with any other information, such as showing the whereabouts of monster quest towers or other important items.
Do I recommend Wild Hearts?
Yes, if you:
- Fan of Monster Hunter games, or at least interested in this category.
- You won’t play it on PC.
- She loves RPG games.
- Interested in ancient Japanese culture and its charming atmosphere.
But do not forget that it comes with 70 dollars, which depends on you, dear reader, if you are ready to pay this amount or not. But if you ask me, the game is well worth the price for its content, offering up to 50 hours of content, but its technical issues get in the way.
Finally… Wild Hearts proves itself with its own identity
There is no denying the dominance of Monster Hunter games in this category of games, which makes it not easy to enter a new title in the rating, it is difficult to outperform or match Monster Hunter even with a completely new title.
But what Wild Hearts has done is enter the category by establishing a name for itself and creating its own identity, yes it shares a lot of the basics with the Monster Hunter games, but it also adds its own touch that, if you ask me, makes it excel in many aspects!
It is a new successful attempt by EA in individual story games this year, after we got Dead Space Remake and we are days away from Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and more of the company’s projects. Projects that show there is still hope for EA. There’s no doubt that its mainly technical issues are a huge negative, and if they are fixed soon, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was nominated for Game of the Year.
Graphics and sound – 9.5
Gameplay and battles – 9.5
RPG Elements – 8.5
Technical Performance on PC – 6.5
8.5
Excellent
An excellent and surprising experience from EA, it broke into a category dominated by a distinctive title, but succeeded in establishing its feet and creating an identity of its own, to revive a category of games that deserves more recognition. With the exception of its technical issues and some design flaws, Wild Hearts is one of the best games of the year so far.