Tossing my review into the unsurprisingly large pile.
Around launch I saw a lot of people saying this game shouldn't be compared to fromsoft's souls titles because it is "nothing like them". The reality is this game has clearly inherited parts of the formula. I cannot neatly discern where the souls inspiration meets the AC inspiration because I haven't played any of the previous AC titles. I have played Bloodborne and a couple of the souls games, and I can comfortably say AC6 is better than all of the ones I've tried. My issue with many of fromsoft's games is their tendency to punish the player for experimentation, to make exploration often unnecessarily risky and to have horrendous difficulty scaling (Bloodborne I think is a perfect example, with everything after the forbidden woods being mindlessly easy). This game has many of the same faults, but it addresses one of them well.
Experimentation essentially IS this game and you are constantly encouraged to continuously try new builds. It is highly rewarding and while there is a degree of centralization in the latter half of the game, it was never to a degree where I felt I could rely on a single build for every mission. I really quite enjoy this aspect of the game.
Exploration is quite limited level to level and there is not much in the way of satisfying rewards for exploration. That being said, I can divert from the objective and not have to worry about losing my souls and having to play a tedious game of fetch to reclaim them. I can waltz wherever I please within a map generally hassle free and it's somewhat of a shame there's no substantial reason to do as such.
This game's difficulty scaling is terrible. The first chapter was the hardest for me and while there were good ups and downs as it generally maintained a moderate level of challenge afterwards, I felt that the majority of the levels (and especially non boss levels) were too easy. Additionally, arena mode was a huge wasted opportunity. As it dawned on me that this mode presented absolutely no challenge I thought to myself "perhaps there will be some sort of arena rush mode where you have to consecutively take out all the challengers?" You know. Something that would be fun or engaging. Where you might have to worry about resource management and play more or less conservatively depending on the foe. But no, there is no such mode. It's the only part of the game where absolutely no experimentation is required.
The PvP is quite fun, though I wish more people played it. I've yet to have a really good back and forth with a player, but it gives me an opportunity to show off my byootiful designs and draining health bars with dual stun needles over and over is still enjoyable in its own way. A matchmaking queue seems like the right approach to increasing the online player count (as well as some weapon balancing).
I feel it's almost not worth mentioning the story. It is possibly one of the most unoriginal, uninspired, generic, predictable stories in a videogame. It is poorly written, poorly acted and poorly delivered. I saw someone mention this is one of the better stories in an AC game. Really hoping that was a joke.
I think this game is alright. At its core (haha) this is a good game with good design ideas. Unfortunately, there are HUGE areas for improvement. Ideally, the next game will deliver on that.
Around launch I saw a lot of people saying this game shouldn't be compared to fromsoft's souls titles because it is "nothing like them". The reality is this game has clearly inherited parts of the formula. I cannot neatly discern where the souls inspiration meets the AC inspiration because I haven't played any of the previous AC titles. I have played Bloodborne and a couple of the souls games, and I can comfortably say AC6 is better than all of the ones I've tried. My issue with many of fromsoft's games is their tendency to punish the player for experimentation, to make exploration often unnecessarily risky and to have horrendous difficulty scaling (Bloodborne I think is a perfect example, with everything after the forbidden woods being mindlessly easy). This game has many of the same faults, but it addresses one of them well.
Experimentation essentially IS this game and you are constantly encouraged to continuously try new builds. It is highly rewarding and while there is a degree of centralization in the latter half of the game, it was never to a degree where I felt I could rely on a single build for every mission. I really quite enjoy this aspect of the game.
Exploration is quite limited level to level and there is not much in the way of satisfying rewards for exploration. That being said, I can divert from the objective and not have to worry about losing my souls and having to play a tedious game of fetch to reclaim them. I can waltz wherever I please within a map generally hassle free and it's somewhat of a shame there's no substantial reason to do as such.
This game's difficulty scaling is terrible. The first chapter was the hardest for me and while there were good ups and downs as it generally maintained a moderate level of challenge afterwards, I felt that the majority of the levels (and especially non boss levels) were too easy. Additionally, arena mode was a huge wasted opportunity. As it dawned on me that this mode presented absolutely no challenge I thought to myself "perhaps there will be some sort of arena rush mode where you have to consecutively take out all the challengers?" You know. Something that would be fun or engaging. Where you might have to worry about resource management and play more or less conservatively depending on the foe. But no, there is no such mode. It's the only part of the game where absolutely no experimentation is required.
The PvP is quite fun, though I wish more people played it. I've yet to have a really good back and forth with a player, but it gives me an opportunity to show off my byootiful designs and draining health bars with dual stun needles over and over is still enjoyable in its own way. A matchmaking queue seems like the right approach to increasing the online player count (as well as some weapon balancing).
I feel it's almost not worth mentioning the story. It is possibly one of the most unoriginal, uninspired, generic, predictable stories in a videogame. It is poorly written, poorly acted and poorly delivered. I saw someone mention this is one of the better stories in an AC game. Really hoping that was a joke.
I think this game is alright. At its core (haha) this is a good game with good design ideas. Unfortunately, there are HUGE areas for improvement. Ideally, the next game will deliver on that.