Playing on PS4
I can't believe just how stupidly dense all the inane side bullshit is in this game. I loved AC2 and AC Brotherhood, and maybe if I went back I would see they exhibited this characteristic as well just to a lesser degree, I don't remember enough to say. However I just finished sequence 6 of this game and holy shit I can't take this game very seriously. Every other MAIN STORY mission is a pseudo tutorial or straight forward tutorial for one of the billion side activities that exist in the game. A mission for deep sea diving, a mission for boat pirating, a mission for hunting, a mission for Mayan shit, a mission for capturing forts, a mission for lowering wanted level, a mission for there fleet management mini game, so on and so on. I feel like this game is the most ad hoc game I have ever played. It's like they find it impossible to either create unique situations for the main story, or refuse to only allow players to do something once and must force it into a continued bit of gameplay through side missions. Not to mention the ridiculous amounts of collectibles. It feels like this game appeals to all the shallowest measures of game design.
That's not to say I think the game is bad, but just that it actively works to cheapen itself through exploiting everything it does to the point that it actively detracts from the story. One can only imagine how much contrivance exists in the story in an effort to make possible all the tutorials they need to give for their side shit.