It's the one mainline MH game I haven't played and I want to try it out because I hear it's like a "best of" tribute to the series.
However I also heard it's pretty long, and I have no idea how populated online is these days.
Apparently you can play as a Palico which sounds rad as fuck.
Is this game worth playing in 2024 or should I just stick with World and Rise for now?
MHGU is an incredible game in my top 3 in the series. You can play it as a vanilla old school mh game (guild style no hunter arts) or as wild as the game lets (Valor GS and Valor LS are the most extreme play styles in the entire franchise). The way I usually describe the game is a more-realized vision of Rise at its best. Instead of the crazy movesets being on cooldown (wirebug skills), they're integrated as alternate weapon movesets themselves (the styles). Hunter arts are even more over the top cooldown abilities.
Are you plannung to play on switch or emulator?
I'm planning to get a cheap used copy for Switch so I can use the online functions without too much fuss.