Eh, you don't really play these games for the story, it's just a vehicle to fight monsters. 

I'd really recommend Rise, it's on PS+ essentials. No reason not to and it's built great for newcomers. My recommendation is learn the insect glaive weapon, it's perfect for soloing and really fun to play. The games really are as good as how you find the weapons to be fun, they change the game dramatically. 

Anyone that played Insect Glaive in previous games and in this one?
How does it compare? Because I've heard people say they made it feel sluggish now.

Nah, feels better than world but not quite as good as Rise however the insect is really fucking slow even for a starter weapon but on the other hand it's way easier to get the 3 buffs for some reason, it seems more forgiving for where tou aim. I can't be sure but I' almost positive they shaped the buttons too and make the downward spin attack after jumping on circle where it used to be triangle. You can't use the diving spin attack to clip the monster and stay in the air, that's the Bissett issue for me, I hope there's some reason for it and will be in the main game. 

You can see the damage you're doing on the monsters body which open wounds. So fucking cool, could just do with some blood now and that it'd be epic, where you follow blood trails.

I spen some time roaming around killing monsters, the game does take a hit in quality at that point. It's certainly not the prettiest game ever and the artifacting noticeable as a insect glaive user but something makes up for it in the way the environments and the monsters pop. The monsters with furr are drastically lower quality than what the previews shown but the game also isn't so sharp it makes you look sick. It looks like a remastered version of World. But it's a beta with more than 4 months til release.

It got half a million on steam after all ready been out on PS5 for three days. That's wild. That's MH wilds.

I clocked 1k+ hours on Rise and never bothered to install my version of World, so it tells me we might have close tastes (very good ones, I would say).

I've never played a Monster Hunter before but I'm tempted to try this beta.

It's only 16gb and is rather short but you get to explore openly for as long as you want so there's no reason not to. I would recommend anyone who is new to MH to choose the weapon you think will suit yourself and then immediately look up a YouTube guide on that weapon, forget in game tutorials. The UI can be intimidating but it only looks that way, it's actually really simple. The game itself feels complicated but it's insanely simple, damage monsters until dead, pick up materials, craft new weapons and armour and repeat. All while keeping an eye on some basic stats that only matter so much, you can brute force any build but it's just beneficial to build smart.