Honestly, past the hype train, I feel like I got robbed. Glad other users on here have seen this, since pro journos can't be trusted.

Gameplay:
First person really doesn't work well. Difficulty is laughable, even playing in first person with all aim assist turned on. Enemies take multiple hits, and you are a tank. There's lots of standing in the open and shooting at each other from 10 feet away, out of cover, shaving off health with multiple shots. Basically gives everything a very low energy, low pressure feeling even with all assists turned off, so that you feel no excitement. The whole experience just feels like a chore. Free aim is terribly clunky, and hit detection is something they still haven't got the hang of without lock on turned on. I'm a very mediocre gamer, and this was one of the easiest game I've played, and not in a good way. Enemies are identical in behavior and armament, and don't behave organically enough to justify the sameness on the grounds of "realism". Last but not least, a lot of boring riding through the same forested landscape. Its wants to be the Witcher but lacks the beauty, variety, and depth of the countryside. It also can't get off its own shaft, and constantly make you ride the same area and pause so the developers can jerk themselves and make you look at their masterpiece. Never though, did I have organic moment like in other games where I stopped to admire.

Story:
Bad. But I have a much higher bar for stories than most people, while my gameplay bar is about average. Still if you like HBO stuff more than say FOX or NBC, the story will disappoint. It's the same tragic tale as last time, with very inconsistently written characters. The dialogue is great in some cases, but the overall story is very lacking. The biggest issue is the attempt to paint Arthur as the good guy, vs just a likeable bad guy.

When you murder 700 law abiding government officials, its hard to portray the guy as a classic hero, but try they do. To make it doable, the employ the laziest method ever, which is to make everyone else racist, and Arthur and his gang of barely literate horse thieves and prostitute feminists and equality centric. Why is it okay that Arthur is killing trains full of 18 year US Army personal just doing a job? Oh, because they are, every one of them racists, so now Arthur the murdering thieve is a nice guy do-gooder. Dumb + lazy writing. Makes me wish for Niko again. Didn't pretend to be a good guy any more than Scarface, so when he thinned out the ranks of the NYPD, it still made sense.

Value for money:
Low. They claim like 200 hours in bonus activity, but this isn't the case. You end the game with tons of money, with nothing in the game world to spend it on. Even if you did have something worth buying, you wouldn't be able to make it. All side activities pay very poorly. Robbing a store (banks are not robbable???) pays 30$, meanwhile the bounty you'll rack up escaping will be a minimum of 400$ bounty if you want to have any fun, and you can lose thousands if you die. Bounties pay nothing, like 80$ on average, and hunting fishing is boring (somehow the only viable option is with a bow, and you there are so many animals you can just ride up to them and dead eye, making it pointless to go looking) and pays very little. Stick ups pay 50 cents, and always go the same way. Poker games are limited to 5$, also making them pointless. I think the reason the post game feels so dead is to force people into online.

Honestly, past the hype train, I feel like I got robbed. Glad other users on here have seen this, since pro journos can't be trusted. Gameplay: First person really doesn't work well. Difficulty is laughable, even playing in first person with all aim assist turned on. Enemies take multiple hits, and you are a tank. There's lots of standing in the open and shooting at each other from 10 feet away, out of cover, shaving off health with multiple shots. Basically gives everything a very low energy, low pressure feeling even with all assists turned off, so that you feel no excitement. The whole experience just feels like a chore. Free aim is terribly clunky, and hit detection is something they still haven't got the hang of without lock on turned on. I'm a very mediocre gamer, and this was one of the easiest game I've played, and not in a good way. Enemies are identical in behavior and armament, and don't behave organically enough to justify the sameness on the grounds of "realism". Last but not least, a lot of boring riding through the same forested landscape. Its wants to be the Witcher but lacks the beauty, variety, and depth of the countryside. It also can't get off its own shaft, and constantly make you ride the same area and pause so the developers can jerk themselves and make you look at their masterpiece. Never though, did I have organic moment like in other games where I stopped to admire. Story: Bad. But I have a much higher bar for stories than most people, while my gameplay bar is about average. Still if you like HBO stuff more than say FOX or NBC, the story will disappoint. It's the same tragic tale as last time, with very inconsistently written characters. The dialogue is great in some cases, but the overall story is very lacking. The biggest issue is the attempt to paint Arthur as the good guy, vs just a likeable bad guy. When you murder 700 law abiding government officials, its hard to portray the guy as a classic hero, but try they do. To make it doable, the employ the laziest method ever, which is to make everyone else racist, and Arthur and his gang of barely literate horse thieves and prostitute feminists and equality centric. Why is it okay that Arthur is killing trains full of 18 year US Army personal just doing a job? Oh, because they are, every one of them racists, so now Arthur the murdering thieve is a nice guy do-gooder. Dumb + lazy writing. Makes me wish for Niko again. Didn't pretend to be a good guy any more than Scarface, so when he thinned out the ranks of the NYPD, it still made sense. Value for money: Low. They claim like 200 hours in bonus activity, but this isn't the case. You end the game with tons of money, with nothing in the game world to spend it on. Even if you did have something worth buying, you wouldn't be able to make it. All side activities pay very poorly. Robbing a store (banks are not robbable???) pays 30$, meanwhile the bounty you'll rack up escaping will be a minimum of 400$ bounty if you want to have any fun, and you can lose thousands if you die. Bounties pay nothing, like 80$ on average, and hunting fishing is boring (somehow the only viable option is with a bow, and you there are so many animals you can just ride up to them and dead eye, making it pointless to go looking) and pays very little. Stick ups pay 50 cents, and always go the same way. Poker games are limited to 5$, also making them pointless. I think the reason the post game feels so dead is to force people into online.