Visually pretty typical of Assassin's Creed games with a big emphasis on the architecture, which is really well done. A bit lacking in variety, though, when compared to earlier games which alternated city vs countryside or compared to Black Flag which had the various island and jungle scenes to mix it up.
Gameplay is pretty smooth. Sometimes the auto-assist goes too far (so you jump on and climb things without meaning to, because as you run past the auto-assist assumes you're trying to climb, even when you're not really that close to an object or wall). But it does make climbing when you want to fairly quick and easy. And combat is well designed.
Gadgets are a real highlight. I didn't use them enough in the early game, but later realised they make a lot of difficult challenges much more achievable and there's some reasonable variety. And the gear system adds a bit of an RPG level-up feel to the game that earlier Assassin's Creeds never quite achieved.
But then, there's nothing exciting or different and the story is *very* straightforward and lacking in any depth. On top of that, the modern-day aspect that was one of the key things that made earlier games so awesome is a complete joke here. It'd have been better if they dropped it altogether, because the little here and there just makes it feel forced and draws attention to the fact that it was so poorly considered.
And the collectibles thing has gone waaaaay overboard. When I finished the game, putting in quite a bit of effort to not miss any nearby chests and other secrets during missions, and ensuring 100% sync each mission, I looked at the map and had barely collected 10% of all the junk lying around. Assassin's Creed was always bad for that, but it's so overdone now that it makes collecting anything feel meaningless.
A perfectly fine time killer, but too bland to really pull you in in any way.
Gameplay is pretty smooth. Sometimes the auto-assist goes too far (so you jump on and climb things without meaning to, because as you run past the auto-assist assumes you're trying to climb, even when you're not really that close to an object or wall). But it does make climbing when you want to fairly quick and easy. And combat is well designed.
Gadgets are a real highlight. I didn't use them enough in the early game, but later realised they make a lot of difficult challenges much more achievable and there's some reasonable variety. And the gear system adds a bit of an RPG level-up feel to the game that earlier Assassin's Creeds never quite achieved.
But then, there's nothing exciting or different and the story is *very* straightforward and lacking in any depth. On top of that, the modern-day aspect that was one of the key things that made earlier games so awesome is a complete joke here. It'd have been better if they dropped it altogether, because the little here and there just makes it feel forced and draws attention to the fact that it was so poorly considered.
And the collectibles thing has gone waaaaay overboard. When I finished the game, putting in quite a bit of effort to not miss any nearby chests and other secrets during missions, and ensuring 100% sync each mission, I looked at the map and had barely collected 10% of all the junk lying around. Assassin's Creed was always bad for that, but it's so overdone now that it makes collecting anything feel meaningless.
A perfectly fine time killer, but too bland to really pull you in in any way.