PBateman

Iceborne is without a doubt an absolutely outstanding video game. With gaming as a subscription, freemium gaming, and battlepasses saturating the online video game market it’s often hard to come by a game with a company that actually cares about players. Frankly, I thought such a thing might be impossible until I started playing Iceborne. Capcom, throughout Iceborne’s active life, constantly released content for this amazing game. Any avid player knows this, but even further we saw every limited time quest become available both during the pandemic to help support staying inside as well as after the game’s development stopped. From there things only get better. Even though Iceborne’s development has been stopped for years just a few days ago we saw an update released for the game. Why? To make it accessible to steam deck players. Honestly, if that doesn’t scream the greatest game ever made I’d have to assume you’re just deaf.Iceborne doesn’t just offer Capcom’s undying support, it also has virtually endless hours of content. With more than 70 large monsters and 14 different weapons you have what is nearly 1,000 different fights to learn, study, and master. You can easily put hours into any one of these fights, and that completely ignores amazingly designed events fights. More often than not “difficult” games end up feeling like developers seeing just how much **** they can throw at a wall until players simply cannot beat whatever has been thrown at them. Iceborne does nothing of the sort. Both Fatalis and Arch-tempered Velkhana are amazing examples of this. In both of those fights, if you are skilled enough to see it, you will always find your mistake. In my now 1000 hours on Monster Hunter World (as of starting this review I was completing my 999th hour) I have never once found myself frustrated with the game, only myself. Iceborne creates an environment for improvement like nothing else. At least nothing else with dope ass dinosaurs.Though it pains me to do so, my integrity as a writer requires me to present at least one counterpoint for why someone might genuinely dislike Iceborne: The Skill Curve. If you aren’t ready, and you are built for it, Iceborn can beat you down like someone beating a dead horse about how great the game is. Many times have I tried to get my friends who are less attached to the game to play it with me and many times have I failed. Between the skill required to use any one of the weapons, manage when and how you dodge attacks, or simply even just where to get useful items Iceborn does not provide ample support. But I do not believe that makes it a bad game.Just because the player is bad, the game does not instantly become bad for catering to them. Some of the greatest pieces of literature cannot be appreciated by someone with a fifth grade reading capacity and that doesn’t instantly characterize them as low quality. To somehow determine Iceborn as bad based on a lack of skill alone is simply rude. Iceborne is a great game, and if you aren’t great enough to see that, then don’t play Iceborne.