Massive fan of the old game, probably the most nostalgic play ever for me. However... the new combat system just sucks. It's stuck between wanting very very very hard to be the rpg combat system like the other Ubisoft titles and now a kind of Soulslike-ish system. It still has that cinematic flair but is now just dragged out with healthbars and is unbearable if you're fighting on ships. imo there was nothing really wrong with the cinematic combat of the old games. They surely could've made it more interesting in a remake with more weapon or enemy types. But if that's not for you and you want a real timing based parry/dodge system then just play a Soulslike, AC is just not for you i guess. They removed picking up other weapons or muskets as well so it feels even MORE boring now.
The parkouring is alright, still quite buggy and sometimes frustrating when your character just refuses to get of the flagpost by simply stepping down on an enemy ship, same goes for climbing trees.
The graphics and how everything looks are nothing less than amazing. Everything looks just so good, from the animals and nature, to the ships, to the cities and to the characters. Just amazing.
Naval combat is as amazing as ever, some new minor things here and there, nothing huge though sadly. But since the normal combat is just such a bore and feels like a nuisance I just avoided entering ships after like 10 hours of playing. Entering a man 'o war with the new combat system is just a nightmare because of the camera.
Stealth feels more open, specially by having a crouch button. Sometimes it works very good. Sometimes it feels horrible and clunky, mostly because of the enemy AI. They just spot you in ways that feel unfair. Since you can manually crouch now hiding behind objects most of the time doesn't work unless you 'lean' into it like the old game. Not a lot of spaces allow you to do so however which causes you to get spotted. Social stealth is "still in the game" but just does not work. You can throw coins on the ground and a couple npc's grab the coins but it has no function. If you stand in a crowd and assassinate someone whilst "blending in" you just get instantly spotted. They removed most of the stealth aspect of missions anyway so that explains, why bother leaving it in the game though when it has no function or does not work anymore?
New content feels really minimal. No different ships you can have or control and no new forts or legendary ships.
What you do get is a new fleet system that is even less exciting than the previous one. New missions about the existing crew, blackbeard, stede bonnet and the like. They are actually really good and even gave me goosebumps. Then come the new crewmembers and their missions. Just outstandingly boring and without depth. Whilst the old characters now have a more fleshed out story, the new characters juts have a couple missions that mean nothing.
I don't think it's worth this amount of money and is just a bad remake. A good remaster, but a bad remake.
