Ubisoft just can't get these GR games right...
My main beef with this iteration of GR is that it doesn't know what it wants to be.
The engine seems optimized for big/open maps with few enemies (which would be fine), but many of the missions are indoors or outdoor "corridors" and the lack cover ability of a R6V2 or the stealth of a SplinterCell, (Read: too many choke-points). This makes the game more frustrating than it's worth. In fact, it seems like two sets of maps from two studios, just smashed together (see in-game credits). (Oh, and thanks to whichever studio squeezed out that Robotech-in-the-arctic mission -- a scripted cacophony of ridiculousness).
To elaborate more on shortcomings, "prone" simply gets you killed, and somehow we've lost the ability to roll into cover. But even if we could, the cover isn't very covering. You can crawl behind a solid 6 feet of marble and get nailed until you die. The enemy invariably shoots through ANYTHING, and worse, you are forced into bad tactical positions since your ally AI team is always running ahead of you--again way too scripted.
What happened to ordering your team to do smart/tactical things (GR1). And didn't I used to do that with verbal commands (GR2)? Ah, Ubi you've advanced this game so far!!!
Much of the "tactical" that made TC games GREAT got ditched here in favor of a more scripted mad-dash approach to combat. And frankly, there are other folks that do that better than Ubi.
About all I really cared for was the gun smithing addition to the game,
In sum, if you loved traversing a wide-open map that spanned miles--thus giving you many strategic options to meet your objective (ala GR1, GR2 and some of GRAW) -- forget this game. It plays most like a poorly implemented Gears game. I'm quickly losing faith in Ubisoft.
Update: One week later ... selling it back. Cut scenes ruin flow and replay value. Will be interesting to see if the buyback is even $20 since the multi-player option was through a code with Ubi online. (Another reason this will be my last Ubi purchase.) Take note, Ubi, you gained some teen CoD fans and lost me.