A remarkable experience; gorgeous graphics and sound, great weapon control, and magically realistic monsters.
Unfortunately, Gamespot's misguided review has done irreparable damage to the Monster Hunter franchise in the US market. Because of this, it will have been two years before the US will see a follow up. If you don't think Gamespot had it wrong, then ask yourself why MH won a game of the year award, MH-G was one of the top sellers in Japan, and MH-2 already won a future game award, and it will sell massive numbers on its release day (Feb 16) in Japan (250,000 units and counting).
So what happened here? And the bigger question is, should I run out and buy MH before MH-2 is released? The short answer is if you want to come as close as possible to experiencing a battle with a huge, flying, fire-breathing you should pick up a copy today (now under $20). Don't rent it, buy it. Anyone who suggests the game gets boring after 5 hours, or suggests renting it, never really even played the game. That is just a fact - it takes at least 5 hours just to get your feet on the ground. And this is where the misconceptions and wrong-headed reviews of Monster Hunter got started.
On the other hand, if you just want to storm into a game, pound on the x button until you slay a giant dragon, all within an hour, then Monster Hunter is not for you. You can stop reading and move on. Forget it.
You might think of this like the "Karate Kid" of console games. If you know the movie, the kid had to wax the karate master's car over and over until he even started any training. Yup, you are going to have to do a little "Wax on, wax off!" before you are worthy of fighting the big guys. You are going to have to learn to forge around the areas to find ingredients for potions, cook meat endlessly, and slowly build up your armor sets and weapon sets. And I mean slowly, because nothing comes easy in Monster Hunter. The designers must have worked tirelessly to come up with innovative ways to make your life miserable. And to quote one more movie, "A League of Their Own" Tom Hank's says, "It's the HARD that make it great". That's Monster Hunter in a nutshell.
Now, if you are still with me, when you buy a copy of Monster Hunter, here is what you can expect. You can use five different weapon types (great sword, hammer, lance, small sword and shield, and bowguns) with dozens of outrageous variations. The weapons are ridiculous and unwieldy. You will stumble around clumsily at first and your will "feel" the weight of these crazy contraptions. You will wonder why it takes "forever" to swing a sword as you are getting trampled and torn apart. You may even delete your lance in anger and wonder how anyone can possible use that silly thing. You will try a hammer once and pledge you will never use one again. You will endlessly shoot a bowgun without even making a monster flinch and shake your head in disgust. And maybe you will give up and post a bad review and never play again.
Or maybe you will push on...
Then you will start getting it. Roll with the weight of massive weapons and start unleashing combos strong enough to stop a massive beast in its tracks. Thrust and slide with a lance in strafe-like maneuvers to knock the horns off a massive beast before it even knows what hit it. Unleash weapons with fire, poison, paralysis, electricity-like lightning or deadly black dragon power. Trap dragons and pound them until their tough outer armor cracks. Run and roll and maneuver past fire blasts, poison spit, water jets and all the other nasty attacks thrown at you and get in a devastating blow to the neck.
You'll beat the small beasts, and you'll get past the bazaar "Kut-ku" bird like dragon, and when you conquer the flagship "Rathalos" dragon (the cover beauty shot) you will feel an incredible sense of accomplishment. You will then begin to see the great possibilities of making fantastic armor sets, using the carves and rewards from your kills. You will hunt again, in search of that on rare part needed to complete a powerful weapon and armor set that will make you invincible in battle. You will develop mad skills using your weapons, and the monsters will get bigger and more outrageous.
Then you will be addicted.