Personally would have waited until at least the expansion is out, but my best friend was desperate to play it at launch and since we wanted to play together, I kinda had to.

Gameplay wise it's pretty much the same as World, with a few new features. And I have noticed the monsters all die a lot faster and the fights seem way easier (although I've only just unlocked High Rank, so maybe both of this will change).

Instead of separating the camp and the world into missions, it's designed like an open world, kinda like the Guiding Lands in World were.

The story isn't anything special, but neither were those of World and Rise. And it's at the same time super woke and weirdly politically incorrect.

Your Hunter's Guild from the west found this little jeet boy on a research expedition in some eastern lands and now you want to help him find his way back home, while at the same time learning more about the lands and the local fauna. From there you basically help the various tribes of brown people with their problems (and essentially save them from annihilation), 'cuz despite living in monster infested hellholes, they don't know what weapons are. I actually laughed out loud, when the NPC's expressed confusion upon seeing my weapons, because I could have understood them maybe not knowing what a bowgun is, but i use Dual Blades, which are nothing more than oversized knives.