Ubisoft is great at creating really addictive gameplay loops, but their storytelling has been lacking as of late.
A bunch of inconsequential side characters litter this story, with little interaction with any of them, so any deaths and twists in the story do not hit at all. The automatic story missions are also a pain in the ass, especially because it locks you out of acquiring some of the story missions in the game. This is really annoying from someone who is a hardcore side quest completionist, making it so that my playstyle of clearing out the entire map was actually detrimental to my experience with the story.
Overall although - story issues aside - this is still a fun game to just play and get lost in. It's beautiful, it's fun to play and it's packed with things to do and discover.