[h1]It's bigger, but is it better? More like bloated[/h1]
The franchise has come a long way over the years, and comparing the very first title to something like this one is like comparing Skyrim to Counter Strike. Sure, the graphics are breathtaking to behold and experience, but for a game to be fun and enjoyable that isn't enough.
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I'll be honest, I have a lot of negative points to cover. The game has some merits: the Tour mode (where you can learn about Egypt's history, events, way of life), the visuals, characterisation and learning about the true origins of the brotherhood (and even the Order), and of course the hidden inner tombs and the pillars from Those Who Came Before.
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[i]I have played the game to completion on two different platforms now so that might make my outlook more negative than intended.[/i]
On a purely namesake-basis, a game about assassinations lends me to expect a certain LACK of combat. While the in-game reasoning is slightly touched upon during the story (working from the shadows is something Bayek only figures out at the end of the game), the game lets me down with how much forced open combat there is. It won't even give you the option for stealth in many instances. So in this respect, it is very similar to almost every title in the series. Bloated combat, bloated killing and slaughter.
Don't even get me started about the elephant fights. Unnecessary content. Elephants aren't exactly doing well in today's world, and this game is asking us to kill more of them? It's kind of horrific, I don't care if it adds to the realism. At least one elephant has to die as part of the main story so that might be enough to put you off playing it.
This extends to gear crafting. The sheer amount of crocodile and hippo and lion corpses you need to loot is ridiculous if you want to craft better armour or a better hidden blade. About the only thing it achieves is to artificially extend the amount of hours you have to sink into the game.
This leads me into my next point: time. So much time is wasted in the game by travelling. I'd say travelling makes up at least 60% of my time played, no joke. While some exploration is fun, in this game it just isn't. Terrain is often a nightmare to navigate, and having a horse doesn't help as it'll quite often refuse to jump little bumps and steep slopes, so you might as well just explore the whole map on foot. But it's a big map. Lot's of places to go to.
Adding to that issue is the quests. It's not enough to have lengthy travel quests anymore. Now they suffer from inception - kill a guy, but first find out where he is, but first find a clue at a crime scene, but first find a scroll or clue about the clue leading to the crime scene, but first walk slowly with an elderly person as they tell you a bunch of exposition about the world that you already learn through the Tour mode of the game. Quests are such overblown domino chains of events that by the end of the game you don't want to do them.
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My own PC playthrough? I found myself overlevelling compared to foes and quests so I went ahead and did the DLCs before coming back to kill the last 3 targets and main quest story sequences, and left all the side quests undone because I was just so tired of the game I wanted it to be over faster.
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Ironically, one of the loading screen tips suggests you try to ghost areas. "HaVe YoU HeArD oF GhOsTiNg?" Well that would be fine, if the game was designed in such a way as to encourage it. I'm sure it's possible for some areas but for forts, it requires you to kill commanders and captains to 'complete' the area. Some enemies are also permanently stationed at treasure chests too.
Even skill points were a let down. So much useless fluff that doesn't really add anything to the gameplay. About the only really useful thing is the predator auto-flesh decay, poison darts and bow damage. If I ever played the game again I would probably try a no skill point run just to prove a point.
I'm also thoroughly uninterested in the contemporary plot as well. I know I probably missed a chunk of it by avoiding every title after AC3, but this happy-go-lucky Abstergo employee talking smack over the radio with her friend... I just can't imagine anything dumber. Thankfully this timezone doesn't feature much in the story so maybe even Ubifail realised how embarrassing she was. William Miles makes an appearance but as John de Lancie isn't the voice actor this time around I don't care much for him either.
Enemies cheat too. You can shoot a guy with an arrow, kill him with the single shot, and disappear into bushes before the guy standing next to him can spot you, but when they finally come looking for you they follow your path away from where you took the shot, often taking them straight up to you where you thought it would be safe to hide. Even just starting out with a huge fort - say you wanted to kill everything without being detected because why not. Nobody is patrolling. You kill one guy. Suddenly guards spring to life and start shuffling around pointlessly changing locations. You'll regularly see guards abandoning important posts like THE FRONT GATE, simply to shuffle into the vacant post you created by killing a guy. What this means is you never get a clear path to anything, as the game constantly messes with you by forcing guards in your face all the damn time. Event night time, supposedly a time where you can catch guards by surprise as they'll be asleep, is ultra-short compared to the day length because this is Ubi and they don't care about actual stealth, only action.
Whew that was longer than I was hoping. But I hope it gives you a good idea of what it's like in the game. What to expect.
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This issue may have been simply me and my controller, but I suspect it could be game-related. Aiming with the bow, and also camera angle view in the boat missions with Aya. I've had constant problems with the camera veering off to the left. Most often it's the hunter type bows you have to hold down to charge the attack, trying to aim for heads was a real struggle due to the unpredictable stutter with moving reticule. Maybe it's my controller on the way out. Once, I had to completely shut the game off and revert to keyboard and mouse as it was giving me hell.
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[h3]I was going to give it a positive despite my problems but seeing how many issues I had with this game I've tipped it over to negative.[/h3]
The fun part of the game for me is succeeding in staying undetected. When the game actively encourages combat, so called action-adventure, then I'd rather go back to Metal Gear Solid or Splinter's Cell. I've lost interest in the franchise, playing it just doesn't have the same sense of accomplishment as the early quadrilogy did.
If you simply have to have it just be sure to wait for a sale.
But remember.
That big online 'check for new content' at every startup will have you seeing red.
