Mike's Take
Like Locke, this isn't my first Monster Hunter game, but so far, it's the only one that's snagged me. For me, it has less to do with the decreased barrier to entry than it does with the fact that Monster Hunter: World is in the gaming zeitgeist. Previous games were either on consoles with limited online functionality or portable games that were primarily geared towards the kind of ad-hoc play that Japanese PSP owners enjoyed during their train rides.
The mere fact that I have my entire friends list on PS4 playing Monster Hunter at the moment gives me ample opportunity to get a crew together and hunt!
As someone who has played a few of these before, the quality of life changes are super nice. The lack of loading barriers between areas on the map is a huge one, as are the Scoutflies that help you track your prey. Whetstones becoming an unlimited use item is a wonderful change as well. Basically, anything that reduces the collection grind and ups the ability to play with friends is A-OK in my book.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: When the battle is too daunting to take on single-handedly, hail up to three other hunters to assist during quests by sending up a SOS flare to a worldwide server full of potential teammates.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.