Let's simply remember that this episode offers several interesting new features (attacks and "filoptera" movements, canine companions, possibility of riding monsters, etc.), but remains relatively difficult to approach (sometimes confusing menus, many abstruse terms to learn, and the need to farmer to progress). The PC port that interests us today does not change anything on the bottom, but improves the form in a not insignificant way. The first launch of the game is also accompanied by a waiting time dedicated to the compilation of shaders, which was absent from the Switch version. Limited by outdated hardware, the latter was content with a framerate of around thirty images per second and relatively low calculation resolutions (1344x756 in television mode and 960x540 in portable mode). These values are now a thing of the past, these two essential parameters being completely unlocked here. The joys of 4K and 60 or even 120 fps are yours, depending on the power of your computer! And if your machine is equipped with an SSD, you will benefit from significantly reduced loading times, which is far from trivial in a game that makes us go back and forth between the central city and the different hunting grounds. .
Happiness never comes alone, the PC version also offers us support for 21:9 screens, as well as high resolution textures, and therefore more precise. This is particularly noticeable during close-up cutscenes, with clothing and faces appearing much more detailed than on Switch. More discreet during the combat phases, because of their dynamism, this improvement is still observable on monsters and certain decorative elements. Graphically, the game is progressing undeniably. But the set is still limited by its "switchian" origins, and therefore cannot compete with truly next-gen productions. The game is clearly more beautiful than on the Nintendo console, is rather pleasing to the eye in absolute terms, but absolutely no graphic slap is there.
A CONTROLLER OR NOTHING
As far as controls are concerned, this PC version has the good taste to take into account all the possibilities. Thus, an option allows us to choose the type of joystick buttons that will be displayed on the screen. Icons corresponding to the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Switch controllers are thus available. Other parameters prove to us that the keyboard/mouse couple has benefited from a certain care, since it is for example possible to adjust the sensitivity of the mouse. Alas, the reflection was not pushed to the end and it is actually almost illusory to use the keyboard and the mouse, unless you are particularly masochistic. The character creation screen immediately betrays this problem, since it is impossible to rotate our hero with the mouse. You actually have to use the "O", "K", "L" and ";" keys. (in QWERTY version just to complicate things even more). In the game itself it remains fortunately possible to control the camera with the mouse, but it is then improbable key combinations that come to disturb us. Thus, some basic maneuvers require us to press both the wheel and a click or, even worse, the wheel and a side button, even though not all mice are equipped with this refinement. The game may well think of adapting the display of controls on the screen according to the last device activated, the vast majority of players will (rightly) abandon the standard PC devices to find the comfort of a controller. We can also regret that Capcom did not take advantage of this port to review certain menus, which remain unnecessarily confused in places. If this PC version of Monster Hunter Rise is therefore not revolutionary, it still fulfills the basic contract of the "superior version", namely a game generally identical to the original, but more beautiful!
