It's my favorite Monster Hunter, the atmosphere and gameplay are impeccable, it's a shame it never got a true G version (3G came way later and has different design sensibilities that bring it closer to what they were cooking up for 4).
I dabbled in the previous games a bit but the demo for this just clicked (the great jaggi felt so huge and menacing even if you eventually learn to kill it within a few minutes with the starting gear) enough to go back and play Freedom Unite and every sequel since (except Wilds yet, not good enough PC) and it's still the best to me.
I'm reading there's a less than perfect mod that lets you play the high rank content locked behind the defunct online service (pretty much the game's only flaw but still better than the games that followed in terms of its minimal story and vibes and how you start solo and coop quests etc., but of course it's better if you can access all quests and areas in solo as in the games before Tri where you accessed the multiplayer hub offline) but I haven't tried it.
I'll never understand why folks hated the swimming so much though, I love it, it enhances both combat and exploration and I miss it every time I fight a water based monster in the sequels as they just skim the surface of shallows.
Similarly I didn't get the hate for the rampages in Rise that caused them to ditch them for the expansion making it a bit disjointed. I didn't love them like Tri's swimming but I didn't find them so bad or so different to previous games' elder dragons that rely on the arena gimmicks more than regular fighting, if not better with the little extra control you got in the placement of the weapons while getting to also fight some of them with your character as normal etc.
The expansion should have just improved their systems and made them a bit less prominent, more like once in a while deals like jhen mohran fights in Tri, while still adding the regular fighting apex tier monster quests and all that end game stuff but without making it so they're basically obsolete remnants with no purpose once you finish the main game.
/2c