I don't think Jason is a terrible protagonist as some here like to think. I think concessions were made for gameplay reasons that make you think he goes from pussy to predator in less than 30 mins and it feels a bit off. If they had drawn it out it would have made more sense in character story progression but possibly taken away from gameplay pacing.
Now, I think it could and should have been done, but as it is I'm okay with it. Douchwy protagonists are never good unless they learn to repent their douchey ways, but Ubi chose to sacrifice character development for gameplay. I'd rather have both, but I'd I had to choose I'd choose gameplay EVERYTIME.
That aside, I think that this type of game(open world) excels more with emergent gameplay anyways, and that is this games strength. When you can have a SINGLEPLAYER game with so many possibilities and choice, it makes it considerably better. How many shitty linear games with a good story can we be fed before we're tired with the formula? Fallout 3:NV managed to have great emergent gameplay and a great story, but it lacked in mechanics, and I feel that that game is the closest overall in capability that this game can be compared to.
Right, I don't mind that Jason turns into the ultimate soldier in a short span of time. It's a video game, and the game justifies it with all of the mysticism revolving around how he's got the warrior spirit inside him and whatnot.
My biggest issues with the story revolve around the overall lack of progression you get from doing missions. You never feel like you're accomplishing something. Hitman Absolution did this aspect REALLY well, because you know from the very beginning who the bad guys are--there are no twists. But each mission sets you up with a despicable group of mini-baddies who are extremely satisfying to take out--just as much so, if not more so, than the major antagonists. Again, I've not finished FC3, but from everything I have played so far, there is no such sense of progression. You assault faceless groups of baddies, one after another, with no real connection to Vaas or Hoyt. There's no "Lenny" here, no "Sanchez" (Hitman Absolution characters). You attack his operations, (Kicking the Hornet's Nest spoiler)
, but you're not really HURTING them. Meanwhile Jason, and in turn the player, is supposed to be driven by the need to find his friends and brother.
But you never get to know his friends, or his brother. There's no connection made to them. You're supposed to care about characters you've not spoken a word to (yet). It's clear there's been a ton of Assassin's Creed influences here, so you'd think that they'd at least take a cue from AC2 and build emotional bonds like with Ezio and his family first before you set out on your revenge/liberation quest. Maybe this comes into play later. Supposedly as Jason turns into a cold-blooded killer (or whatever all the media/reviews say) he starts to lose touch. But even if that were the case, the game would still benefit from making connections first before they supposedly break. An open world game like this really needs a strong narrative to pull it together. Again, really hoping this game gets better.