Chris Schilling IT’S GREAT TO PLAY A GAME YOU DON’T HAVE TO ARRANGE EVERYTHING ELSE AROUND.

Why joining the hunt might be the smartest gaming decision you make all year

We’ve all felt it: that twinge of anxiety when you’re about to play something meaty and substantial. Buying a game you know will take up a large amount of your free time represents a big commitment. It’s not simply about the hours you’ll need to put aside, but what those hours mean. Admittedly it’s not quite the same when you write about games for a living, but I still know the feeling all too well.

Anyone with partners and/ or kids will feel guilty about the time they’re spending in front of a screen. Or you might even feel bad for those smaller games you’ve chosen to overlook while you settle into an all-consuming epic. The same goes for other media, too: sometimes these games feel like a cultural black hole, sucking you in and leaving no room for anything else. You could watch the entire run of Black Mirror on Netflix and still squeeze in a season of Stranger Things in the time it takes to finish Assassin’s Creed: Origins’ story – and that’s got nothing on The Witcher 3.

So what a treat it is to play something like Monster Hunter: World, the rare blockbuster you really can take at your own pace. It has a narrative of sorts, sure, but it’s not one with any big twists or revelations for spoiler-phobes lose sleep over. And yes, you might blunder across a GIF of a beast you haven’t yet encountered while idly scrolling your Twitter feed, but you’re more likely to accidentally catch sight of a combat technique you haven’t tried, or a useful new hunting tip or two.

CREATURE COMFORT

World also seems certain to avoid that other pitfall of some big games, whose multiplayer communities soon dissolve, leaving online wastelands in their wake. It hardly matters if you’re late to the party, since you can play the whole thing solo – though its early success and Capcom’s refreshingly generous DLC plans suggest the bulk of its player base will be sticking around and slaughtering things for a while yet. In other words, feel free to join the hunt in your own time – there’s no rush – and enjoy the rare AAA game that doesn’t demand you schedule your life around it.