I started playing MHFU again this week and I really like it. It has the trappings of an MMORPG, but it's actually a modified version of a common MMORPG game mechanic: material gathering and crafting. For those unfamiliar with how crafting typically works in MMOs, you perform certain tasks to get certain materials that allow you to create certain things. MH is similar in structure, and here's how the gameplay basically works.
1) You accept a quest and enter a wilderness zone with a specified time limit (say, 60 minutes).
2) You kill a monster or monsters, or perform harvesting activities like mining ore, gathering herbs, catching bugs, etc.
3) Monster kills drop materials (e.g. Dragon Scales), and harvesting nets you different kinds of ore, plants, insects, etc.
4) When your quest is complete, you return to town and create new armor/weapons or augment your existing armor/weapons with the new materials.
5) Accept another quest and repeat.
This may sound simple (and repetitive), but there is a lot of depth within this basic formula. Each type of monster has its own AI behavior, strengths, and weaknesses. You're given very little in the way of hints on how to beat each beast, so there's a lot of "discovery" involved. You also have the choice of killing a creature (drops normal materials) or tranquilizing it and trapping it (drops rare materials, but harder to accomplish because you need to know the monster's "tell", which indicates when it is weakened and therefore trappable). And of course, the creation and augmentation of armor and weapons is a game unto itself. Gathering rare materials and creating a bad-ass sword or chestplate is incredibly satisfying (the armor designs are excellent).
Layer on top of this the ability to play with three other people online and you have quite a package. I haven't played with multiple hunters, but planning and executing strategies ("You go over there and attack, and when he flinches I'll hit him with the tranquilizer, then you lay the trap") would be awesome. If you put the time in (there's a ton of reading if you want to learn about every monster), Monster Hunter is super-fun. And while the camera control is goofy at first, it eventually becomes second nature.
After playing MHFU a little bit more, I'm super-hyped for Tri.