Another AC bomb - And not Da' bomb, either!
The newest edition is quite frustrating to long time fans. All of the most solid features of the series have been abandoned and dumbed down for newbies, yet this new interface isn't highly accessible either, which makes the change very very baffling. Buying and selling parts has become a chore, as has equipping thanks to schematics. Now, you must first clone a schematic to customize. Then, you can equip any part that's for sale, but if you don't own the part, obviously you can't use it until you do buy it. So when you equip, you must then buy, or risk forgetting about it. If you don't have the cash, you must hunt down whatever you previously had equipped, and sell it. It's a fairly tricky annoyance to explain, and there is no getting use to it. It is inferior to having a garage and a store though, and that's the bottom line.
Missions of the AC series have long been clones, knock offs, and rehashes of the first game's missions, which it had a lot of, along with lots of variety. If you played AC1, you've played all sequels. Missions are way too short most of the time, and the objectives are pretty "meh". But things are nothing new in the AC universe.
Let's skip all the dozens of minor issues of this game and get to the meat: This game controls like ass. AC has always had unconventional controls, but they worked very well for the initial games, and it didn't much change over time (yet newbies and FPS fans would always gripe about them). So, we got new FPS style controls, and now everyone can see why FPS controls weren't integrated sooner. They are useless in a game requiring the use of so many buttons simultaneously. It was tricky getting use to the usual strafe, look, dash, fire 2 simultaneous weapons, using evasive maneuvers, and managing energy in past games (when the dual weapons were added), but with the 360 control and AC4 schemes, it is impossible thanks to the right stick being a necessity. Using the right stick means abandoning the 4 face buttons, and using those buttons means abandoning the ability to use the stick, which by default means no looking left and right while running and gunning. Controls can be customized, but it is never satisfactory, especially thanks to the zoom/lock-on and manual aim features jammed into the same stick as key movement. Push the button once and lock on to whatever target the damn system wants to grab at the moment. Hold the button, and lose all lock on abilities. Simple enough, but when standing still can get you killed in a matter of seconds, it is an issue. You must stay moving, boost because walking has always been useless in this series, fire weapons, and try futilely to target the one target you actually want to kill, and not distractions. In the heat of intense combat, no joy compares to the lock out sight going out while trying to dodge, fire, conserve ammo, and kill a very powerful enemy. Needless to say, you lose a ton of life having to revert to auto lock and find a target. It's a nightmare of a control scheme that had nice features implemented poorly. No energy wasted boosting on ground is nice, if not baffling. But boosting has become more or less useless compared to the dash boost. It's similar to the ability to walk in games where you spend the entire game running. Walking without boost might as well be scrapped for permanent boost , and the dash boost should replace the actual boost (at least, that's how it would need to work for this game's play speed). Other nice features like manual aim, were long wanted (like when you want to kill door locks and conserve ammo, but enemies on the other side of the door keep steering your lock elsewhere.) This game ironically has no use for manual and manual was crammed on in the worst place. The only plus of the game is the weapon/part balance, which is much better and the look of the ACs. They've never looked so good or painted up so pretty. Sadly, games looking good does not make them good. Speaking of looking good, the graphics are a love/hate affair. Yes, it al looks decent, but everything is dull and grainy, and the distances between enemies and you is usually so large, you might as well be fighting dots. You really don't see much of enemy ACs you fight, likewise, with enemies you must kill from afar, all you see are target locks, unless you zoom, which detracts from play greatly when your trying to do so much.
The game is just too much bad to catch all the details. To sum it up, go find a used copy of AC1 and a PS1, and enjoy that. There hasn't been an AC game yet that compares. Other AC games have brought nice new toys and features here and there, yet none of the experiences has matched the interface, story delivery, mission variety, challenge, balance, and fun of the first game.