Almost a full year on from its Nintendo Switch release, a new PC Steam version of Monster Hunter Rise is out – at last letting us push past the fixed limits of an already superb Switch version. Higher resolutions, smoother higher frame-rates, and a suite of graphics options all play to PC’s strengths as you’d expect, of course – as well as ultrawide monitor support and voice chat. So the basics are all present and correct – but does the new PC port address the technical trade-offs present on Switch, particularly given Monster Hunter Rise’s move to a more taxing, open-ended world design? Equally, what other enhancements make the grade on PC?
In fairness, the Switch version is remarkable on its own terms. It’s a custom-made take on the series built first for Nintendo hardware, and remains an exclusive in the console space. Monster Hunter Rise is also the first in the series built on RE Engine, the same as that of Resident Evil 7 and Village, allowing the team at Capcom to produce more open world environments on Switch with fewer loading screens, removing the partitioning of areas seen in the series thus far. Nintendo’s Tegra X1-driven console handled it well, though certain aspects fell short of even 2018’s Monster Hunter World: the lack of shadow animation for trees being one, as well as a 50 percent animation speed on enemies at range.
So how does PC stack up to Switch? Simply as a result of running at 4K resolution on PC, environments like the Shrine Ruins, with its dense thickets and scalable high-rises, become even easier on the eye. Small details around the hub area are also more striking at a high pixel output. On the frame-rate side, there’s of course a knock-on benefit to its combat at 60fps too. Timing an attack wind-up, dodging, and using the new wire-bug mechanic to vault across large gaps – all becomes more precise at 60fps. Going back to the Switch release is hardly going to be flattering by comparison, and honestly it’s to Switch’s credit that it holds up as well as it does at a fixed resolution of 1344×756. Meanwhile, Switch is capped to 30fps too, with occasional frame-pacing issues – though at least the frame-rate graph rarely wavers under 30fps in the opening few missions.
Of course, a simple bump to 4K and beyond isn’t enough to impress on its own. Increasing the pixel count puts pressure on Capcom to make sure Rise’s world also holds up under closer scrutiny. As a result, a respectable number of extras are added to PC’s graphics menu to help it along. Maxing the game out on its ‘high’ global preset qualifies us for 150 percent image quality setting. This effectively supersamples the picture from a higher base resolution for a cleaner image, on top of the existing FXAA and TAA techniques. High-res textures are also switched on, along with ambient occlusion, dynamic shadows, and the foliage sway option. Mesh detail – which covers draw distances for trees and objects far away – also bumps up to high, along with shadow quality. In motion, it’s a satisfying improvement. Even running on a Ryzen Threadripper 1950X CPU – an admittedly ageing model, and hardly ideal for gaming – there’s no issue hitting 60fps at all. In this case, our Titan RTX – a graphics card just a shade faster than an RTX 2080 Ti – pulls its weight, getting us to a 4K image, and the result is evident in our video analysis above.