I'm writing this review in January of 2016, having bought the game much cheaper than the original price and having the ability to download all the patches/updates on PlayStation 4. I feel out of fairness I need to write this review considering the bashing the game took, which it may have deserved considering it took me over a half hour to download updates.



With that said, I love this game. Personally, while it's not as large as Black Flag, the graphics are the best I've seen to date (I haven't bought Syndicate yet) and the detail throughout the game is impressive, even so far as going into random buildings they're all decorated based on where you are in the city (poor, rich, aristocrats), looking through the crowds it's not obvious there are any replicas, and the landmarks are detailed. Taking place during the French Revolution, certain areas are more difficult due to a stronger police/lawful (gendarmerie?) presence, while other areas are essentially (as far as I can tell) devoid of any enforcement. Unlike previous games perhaps, the crowds do respond more frantically when you kill a Templar/criminal, normally running away, and it attracts any nearby allies of the person you kill or law enforcement.



I'm not sure how good or bad the story is compared to other games. Personally, I don't get so interested in it where I remember every character's name, every minor mission I do, and every detail of the story like some gamers do. I normally play, listen, read about it online, and that's it. It hasn't seemed any better or worse than previous games. The difficulty is similar to other games where there are some difficult moments but nothing where you feel like you're going to be there for eight hours or throw your PlayStation through the window.



There is so much to do in this game I spent hours upon hours avoiding the main story, renovating the places available and completing side missions. Once you synchronize all the spots in the city it can be overwhelming just how many things there are to do. I've slowly gone from area to area doing as much as I can. There are certain parts you have to complete the main mission or certain side missions to get (like lock picking skills) and it can be annoying how hard or long it takes to get certain things, like double assassination skill. But, some of the side missions in themselves, including full investigations of someone being murdered, are so involved that when I take a meta-view of the game it's overwhelming to me how complicated and involved it must have been for the programmers and producers of this game.



If you have an internet connection, I would highly recommend you buy this game, download the updates, and play. In the beginning it's sort of rough because you have no gear and die very, very easily but over time it gets better. I'd also encourage you to just go on YouTube and cheat with the Nostradamus puzzles. You'll spend hours trying to figure them out for nothing major. When you actually just type in whatever one it is on YouTube and see how far away some things are, you'll be glad you didn't waste your time. It's probably the major thing I don't like about the game. Even just flat out cheating it will take you over an hour or so to do all of them if you rush to each one. I'm not really sure how the developers thought people would find it enjoyable. (These types of things are why I never buy games brand new; I want to be able to cheat and figure them out quickly. Life is too short.)



Maybe it's me, having grown up in the 80's with Nintendo, but when I see reviews bashing a game like this because of a lack of innovation or something, it doesn't make much sense to me. It's almost like previous games were too good and there's no way to top yourself. Like music, sports, chemistry, physics, and what not, I think the more you realize how hard and difficult games like this are to make the more you may appreciate it. Yeah, at times there are little glitches, your dude plunges to his death and the like but it's nothing where I would think to give this any less than a five. That would be like dating a beautiful woman and insulting her because you don't like the color of her nail polish.