Skip to main content
If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Monster Hunter World: here's an in-depth look at the bow, hammer, and light bowgun

Monster Hunter World's different weapon load-outs will change how you play pretty significantly.

Monster Hunter is coming along very well and looks amazing in 4K. Arekkz has delivered some fresh gameplay from Gamescom, showing off how some of the game's different weapons play in this latest iteration of the series.

Arekkz has already shown off four of the game's fourteen weapons, and these videos dig deep into a few others.

Watch on YouTube

The bow looks like a lot of fun in Monster Hunter World. In the past the weapon was perhaps the 'easiest to master', Arekkz says, but this is less of an issue in World. It's 'incredibly fun' though, and now controls in a way more familiar to anyone who has played a third person shooter. You use L2 to bring up crosshairs, and you can move while aiming. It's got some crazy special shots, and the 'critical distance' mechanic means that you need to stay fairly close to the monsters to do the most damage.

Watch on YouTube

The hammer is a massive blunt force instrument, which can stun monsters when you hit them in the head with it. It's got lots of great, simple combos that chain together well, and if you're using it well you can time your swings so that when the hammer 'bounces' off the enemy you swing it back down after the recoil, doing more damage with each successful smash. You can swing it around and do devastating downward slams with it too, which all looks extremely satisfying.

Watch on YouTube

The light bowgun allows you to move quickly (as opposed to the heavy bowgun which slows you right down), nimbly attacking enemies and dealing elemental and stasis damage. In the video above, Arekkz repeatedly fires explosives into the monster, which looks extremely satisfying. The light bowgun doesn't have combos per se, but its abilities work together very well.

Monster Hunter World continues to look pretty excellent, then. It's due for release in 2018.

Read this next