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.