The easy line to draw from Wild Hearts–the upcoming hunting game from publishers EA and Koei Tecmo and developer Omega Force is Capcom’s Monster Hunter. Wild Hearts is a game about exploring large open areas, alone or with two other players, to take down gigantic monsters that move around the map as you fight them. And the developers don’t entirely shy away from that comparison–but they’re aspiring to do something much more than replicate Monster Hunter.

Speaking with Koei Tecmo’s directors, Kotaro Hirata and Takuto Edagawa through a translator, they acknowledged the relationship, saying, “When you’re making a hunting game, Monster Hunter is a huge presence in the genre, so we can’t say we drew on it for a strong inspiration, but it’s not like we didn’t know it was there while we were making our game.”

The comparison is appropriate as the games share many similarities, but developer Omega Force has explored the genre before with a few games in the Toukiden series. In those games, like in Monster Hunter and Wild Hearts, you hunt giant monsters to harvest them for material which can be used to upgrade your equipment. Despite that lineage in the genre, Omega Force is quick to say that Wild Hearts is not an extension of that world. “Unfortunately, there is no overlap. This is a completely new IP for us. We know that some of our fans were hoping it would have some overlap with Toukiden, but it doesn’t,” Hirata and Edagawa said. Wild Hearts and Toukiden exist in two separate universes, but Wild Hearts has allowed Omega Force to pick up where it left off in the genre in a big, well-funded way, while exploring an impressive crafting system called Karakuri that makes it stand apart.

Wild Hearts has been in development for four years and represents an unlikely partnership between EA and Koei Tecmo. The former is an American publisher known predominantly for its sports games and the latter is a Japanese publisher that has had success with Dynasty Warriors, the historical action series. Wild Hearts is being published under EA’s Originals label, which has birthed successful games like Unravel and 2021’s It Takes Two. Despite EA Originals so far doing a good job of embracing the word “original” and publishing games you wouldn’t normally expect to come from EA, it is still surprising to see the announcement of Wild Hearts.

Playing it is also surprising in some ways, and not at all surprising in others. We were given access to an early build that let us play through the opening and the first few major combat encounters. The non-surprising parts of the game will be familiar to anyone who has played a hunting game like Monster Hunter in recent years. Movement feels similar, as does the basic combat of the tutorials. The layout of the world, large and dense, distinct separated areas that can be accessed from the hub city, each housing a few different creatures, also feels familiar. The process of felling one of the giant creatures, referred to as Kemono in Wild Hearts, has a cadence I have experienced before, but there is plenty that gives the game a unique identity, the main one being the Karakuri system.

Karakuri is the crafting system, and in the fiction of Wild Hearts, it’s a type of magic that instantly produces impressive pieces of engineering you can use in fascinating ways. The first Karakuri you unlock is the ability to produce a box you can climb on top of that ejects you into the air. You can quickly generate multiple stacked boxes, scramble to the top, and leap. This is useful for exploring the environment, but it gets really fun when you’re fighting a Kemono. You can stack the boxes to get above your opponent and launch a devastating downward attack, use it to quickly get in the air to dodge an area-of-effect attack, or even create a barrier to slow down a rampaging Kemono. Creating these devices is fast, recalling an expert Fortnite builder, and even during my short time with the game, I unlocked a collection of interesting ones that were helpful both inside and outside of combat.

During my second Kemono encounter, I unlocked what I would best describe as a bounce pad that I used to both quickly fire me out of the way of incoming attacks, or shoot me toward the Kemono for added damage. After that fight, I unlocked gigantic rope arrows I could mount into the ground to shoot off into the distance to create ziplines to make traveling around the world faster and easier. Later game footage also showed walls to be used in combat, devices to let you glide from high heights, and more. The other nice thing about the Karakuri is they are permanent within your world, as are the Karakuri placed by other players participating in your game, which are usable by everyone.

Speaking with Hirata and Edagawa, crafting was an early idea the team wanted to integrate into Wild Hearts, and the first versions had you preparing the devices before heading out into the world, or finding them along the way and carrying them with you. Through iteration, though, they found it was much more fun to make the devices quickly in the middle of combat. Optimistically, the Karakuri system is the mechanic that will separate Wild Hearts from comparable hunting games, and I was impressed with how quickly I was able to integrate the devices into combat.

The Karakuri on the right can be placed by any player and used by any player.

Wild Hearts’ other major distinguishing factor is the design of its Kemono. Omega Force’s stated goal for its creatures is they be a combination of animals and nature. The Kemono that have been shared, as well as the few I fought, had clear familiar animal roots, but are covered in things like tree roots and moss. “When we set out to design a hunting game, we wanted to have this kind of an impact on the field of play where the monster would erode the nature around them to create their shape and really break up the battlefield,” Hirata and Edagawa said. The Kemono look as though they could curl up in the forest and be confused for a giant overgrown rock, which makes them all the more intimidating when you wake them up and they start running in your direction.

During my combat with the Kemono I used a standard kitana and also unlocked an umbrella weapon that, when used correctly, allowed me to stay up in the air for short periods of time to float and dodge various attacks. There are six other weapons available in the game that will each have their own combo systems and finishing move animations.

When you defeat a Kemono, before the battle truly ends, you have the chance to deliver one final blow with a fancy animation. Doing this ends the battle and also instantly rewards you with all the spoils of victory. There is no need to stand over the corpse and manually collect your winnings. Hirata and Edagawa see this is a distinguishing factor of Wild Hearts, saying, “We wanted to distinguish ourselves from other hunting games, and so one of the ways we did that is if you’re putting your life on the line as a player trying to defeat this monster, we wanted the objects to automatically come to you at the end of the game.”

Some other smaller details we learned from our time with the game, and speaking with Hirata and Edagawa, is that Wild Hearts will feature an English dub (our demo was in Japanese), cooperative players will be able to drop into the middle of fights, and the main story campaign will take about 30 hours to complete, but there will be plenty of side quests to tackle, as well as post-game content that will extend the gameplay. Omega Force is also promising full cross-play support and teased some light farming mechanics.

Wild Hearts will feel familiar to fans of hunting games like Monster Hunter, but I walked away impressed with how big a swing this game is from Omega Force and EA. It doesn’t look or particularly play like any game the developer or publisher typically releases (outside of Toukiden), and I am excited to experiment more with the Karakuri system. It’s the mechanic that will help Wild Hearts stand out from the crowd and I enjoyed the process of scrambling up a stack of boxes I built, leaping off the top, and bringing down a powerful blow on a rampaging Kemono. I imagine I will be doing it a lot more with different Karakuri devices on February 17 of next year.

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An Overwatch 2 community manager took to the game’s official forums to share an Overwatch 2 status update. The post outlines some of player’s biggest concerns with the game’s tumultuous launch, as well as lays out how Blizzard intends to address these issues.

The first issue the post addressed was Overwatch 2‘s SMS requirement. Prior to the update, all Overwatch 2 players were required to connect their phone to their Battle.net account in an effort to hold individuals more accountable for cheating or bad behavior. However, after many players expressed frustration with the system and criticized it for being exclusionary, Blizzard has all but eliminated the policy for existing players.

“The majority of our console community (players who already had Overwatch connected to their Battle.net account, including any console player who has played since June 9, 2021) no longer need to meet SMS Protect requirements,” Blizzard wrote. “Any PC player who ever played the original Overwatch has this requirement removed.”

The post then addressed yesterday’s server shutdowns, stating they were necessary for two reasons: one, to address bugs relating to account merges and logins, and two, to conduct upgrades to the game’s databases. Blizzard added that because of these shutdowns, it was able to quadruple server capacity and reduce login queues. Early signs indicate Overwatch 2’s servers are much healthier than before, though Blizzard wrote that this weekend will be the game’s “biggest test yet.”

For those dealing with issues related to merging their accounts (including their Overwatch collections not successfully transferring to Overwatch 2), Blizzard has reinforced that your skins and other cosmetics are not lost and they are continuing to work on resolving the issue. Thankfully, yesterday’s database upgrades should help expedite the process.

The post then addresses a few other bugs and warns players they may see an increase in matchmaking times before thanking them for their patience.

“We understand that the launch experience has been frustrating for many people in our community. We deeply appreciate your patience and thank you for your support, and we are laser focused on improving the Overwatch 2 experience for all players.”

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Overwatch 2 has finally launched, bringing the new game mode Push to the hero shooter. While Overwatch 2 has had a rocky launch, with long queues, crashes, and a phone number requirement that has been mostly dropped by Blizzard, Push has provided a fun new neutral objective mode for people to enjoy. Here’s how Push works and how to dominate in the new game mode.

How Push works in Overwatch 2

Push is a neutral objective game mode, centered around a robot that starts in the center of the map. Each teammate has a winding path to walk the robot down, with the goal of getting the robot into the enemy team’s territory. The winner is determined by which team gets the robot further along or if one teammate reaches the end of the path. In order to move the robot, it needs to be completely clear of enemies and someone needs to be near it, similar to moving a payload objective. Each team has a set spawn near their own base, where the enemy team is attempting to get the robot. Unlike Payload matches, the spawns will not move closer to the objective, regardless of how far you push it.

Best practices for Push

Despite having a moving objective similar to Payload matches, the best comparison for how you should play Push is Control. The goal is to maximize the amount of time where either your team controls the robot, or is at least contesting it. If your entire team is arriving at the objective at the same time, a good strategy is to have the tank lead one healer and one damage hero to the objective from the front, while the other healer and damage character use one of the side paths to flank. Because of the way Push maps are laid out, it is far easier to flank than in other modes, which makes it a more effective strategy.

Once you control the robot, you’re going to want a couple people to babysit while one of the damage heroes tries to pick off one of the enemy players before they reach the objective. Since the winner is determined by how far the robot is pushed, it’s more important to keep the robot moving, even if someone staying on the objective results in a team wipe. Since the enemy team has to push the robot all the way back to their barrier, the further you can get the robot, the more time you are buying for your team to regroup before the enemy team can reach their barrier with the robot.

Best heroes for Overwatch 2 Push mode

Characters like Sombra, Genji, or Wrecking Ball that are great for diving on the enemy are great in Push as well, because they have both the speed to get back to the objective quickly and can push on the enemy team and separate them. Another thing to keep in mind is ultimate use. While there are plenty of great opportunities to use them, the two best situations are to take back control of the robot by opening with an ultimate ability, or by using ultimates when your team is close to getting the robot to the final objective marker. Since the game ends if you reach the final spot, it’s a great time to put pressure on the enemy team.

Other Push tips

The objective in Push makes for great cover.While the robot follows a winding path on each map, there are straight paths, typically through buildings, on each map–so you can get back to the fight a bit quicker.With the straight paths throughout each map, there are also plenty of opportunities to flank the enemy.Once a robot has moved through an area, it will move through that space faster, since it doesn’t have to push the barrier. That means when you get control back from the other team, you should be able get back to where you were pretty quickly.The robot pushes a massive barrier, which can be used as cover. Considering the objective moves through open pathways, this can be a vital piece of cover.If you have the lead you don’t need to win every team fight, just live long enough to stall the robot from moving.Once overtime kicks in, it will not end as long as a member of the losing team is near the robot. There is no time limit to overtime, so clear the objective as fast as possible.

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