My pros and cons list upon ending of the game:
Pros
- Connor's story is really good. Has great characters and IMO, Connor's a good character himself. It feels like a great historical epic. Achilles, Haytham, Lee, etc, most are great characters. I also liked some of the minor players like Lafayette and Faulkner.
- Voice acting. It's fantastic. The guy who plays Connor does a great job. The other stand-outs are Haytham, Achilles, and Charles Lee. Fantastic work from all involved.
- Combat. It frustrated me at first, but when I got the hang of it, it was really fun and visceral. The kill animations are glorious, some of the best I've seen. Connor's tomahawk and rope dart are probably two of the best weapons in the series after the hidden blade.
- The Frontier is gorgeous. Frame rate is great there, and tree climbing, hunting, etc is all very fun.
- Weather effects are really good.
- NAVAL MISSIONS ARE AMAZING, STRAIGHT UP. So fun.
- The music is great. I really loved the soundtrack.
Cons
- Desmond's story ended in the suckiest possible way. No one in Ubisoft knows how to write a proper ending it seems. They wasted the best characters in the series, and frankly... it's a shit ending. I'm sure this isn't "the end" end (there are some things that I think indicate there will be more), but honestly... it's disappointing, unsatisfactory, there's no catharsis and I feel like I wasted my time and energy investing it into Desmond's story. Connor's was the more interesting thing here.
- Lot of bugs and glitches, but it didn't bug me too much to be honest.
- Optional objectives. FUCK THAT. Not fun. I hate seeing the red text once I've failed something. Once I gave up on trying to fulfill them, I had more fun with the game.
- The UI sucks. Seriously, it was great in AC2/ACB/ACR, now you bring it up, it's slow and the entire screen goes away.
- The economy/trading/crafting system is fucked. It makes no sense. I have no idea what to do. I never used the system cause I didn't understand it at all.
- These people explain nothing. The devs have done a shit job of explaining a lot of stuff and they give no manual either. That's just a cardinal sin, not explaining how to do a whole bunch of essential shit.
I don't really like scoring games... I think it's worth playing, but seriously... temper expectations. A lot of stuff they get right, some awesome missions and a great historical story, but other stuff is infuriating.