Since February 17, Wild Hearts is playable, the new hunting game from Koei Tecmo under the EA Originals label. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus has been playing it daily since the release. And that, even though – or because it requires more and more from him.
The release of Wild Hearts did not go smoothly. Especially on PC, many players complained about performance issues and the price of up to 80 euros did not seem really justified.
Nevertheless, Wild Hearts is an absolutely fantastic game that I play at least briefly every day, often even for the entire evening. According to Origin, I have now spent 42 hours in the game.
The images in the lightstone guide by colleague Christos Tsogos are from me, and most of the gameplay that our video team uses to create amazing videos was recorded by me. But the videos are also good:
Most of the time I spent playing, hunting one of the many different monsters or looking at and upgrading new weapons. The upgrades became necessary at some point because the monsters get really tough.
So tough, in fact, that a boss kicked me out of life dozens of times before I could finally defeat him. Despite the frustrating experience, I still stick with it. Why?
Wild Hearts is getting harder – But I’m getting better
When I was invited to the preview event for Wild Hearts before its release, I completed the first quests and hunted monsters for 10 hours. Actually, I don’t play hunting games like Monster Hunter; only Dauntless was able to captivate me some time ago.
From the perspective of an action RPG fan who enjoys Soulslikes, Wild Hearts captivated me immediately. I compared it to Elden Ring and even claimed that you don’t die as often in Wild Hearts.
By now, I’m not so sure. Some of the bosses are really tough, and I need both knowledge of the weapons and the correct use of the Karakuri, the game’s building system, to defeat monsters.
But that’s exactly what keeps me playing. After 42 hours, I’m still not in the endgame, and I’m sure it will get even trickier later. But my fighting spirit is awakened. I want more, I want to get better, and I want to hunt bigger monsters.
There is a lot to do without overwhelming me
‘On the side,’ I collect materials for all kinds of things, as is customary for the genre. New weapons and armor, upgrades, and food that grant advantages in combat. What I find even more exciting is the building system.
Through a talent tree, I can unlock more buildings that I place in my camp. Devices then collect ores, food, or materials for me, so I don’t have to run around the world all the time.
What I learn and upgrade is up to me. Do I want to become a better cook? Or should my buildings become stronger in combat? I learn some new constructs only by fighting a specific monster as a ‘flash of genius.’
It all sounds complicated, but the various trees are largely linear, and you can’t ‘misallocate’ skills. At first, the huge board looks completely overwhelming, but I quickly figured out what I wanted and where I should develop.
With weapons, the system is even cooler:
- certain weapons have advantages against specific enemies or special effects
- the basic weapons can be crafted with little material; only the upgrades become “expensive”
- all upgrades can be reverted, and the materials are returned
- this allows for the creation of other weapon types or upgrades without the need to farm again – excellent for always being well-prepared or trying something new
I like it when I can develop further, and Wild Hearts completely caters to this need. No matter what I do – somehow it improves me, and if I want, I can farm specific upgrades. Really good.
Wild Hearts would be a hit as an AA game
Even though I celebrate Wild Hearts so much, the game has a significant problem. It simply doesn’t receive enough recognition.
Wild Hearts is a game under the EA Originals banner, which supports indie games. This is also evident in Wild Hearts: the ideas are fantastic, the gameplay excellent, and the storyline better than what I have seen from Monster Hunter.
Normally, indie games and AA productions are not sold for between 70 and 80 euros, but for 20 to 40 – if they are expensive. I cannot say how much influence EA and Koei Tecmo had, but this is precisely the point that draws criticism here.
24,000 players on Steam are okay for an indie game but poor for a AAA product, even if there are three more platforms. Ranking 23 among the most viewed games on Twitch would be okay for a small production, but a prestige project needs more to reflect its success.
I do not know the expectations of EA and Koei Tecmo for the game – just as little as I know how many sales there actually were. But based on the data I have, I can say: There’s more potential in it.
Wild Hearts has great potential that has been hampered by several factors. Especially the rather poor PC launch cannot happen with a game priced at 70 or 80 euros. Fortunately, there was already the first patch a few days after release:
It’s a shame that the release is going so poorly. However, that does not mean that Wild Hearts is a bad game. For me, it will certainly be my favorite game for a few weeks – even if it may not always sound that way.
If the developers stay on the ball, continue polishing, and deliver quality free updates in the future, I see myself returning from time to time over the coming years. However, I probably won’t be playing every day by mid-March:
Diablo 4: Open Beta starts in March – All info about the test
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