This was the most mixed AC game I have ever played. I didn't know if i liked it or hated it until the very end of the DLC. The answer is...I liked it overall but it has A LOT of issues. Let me explain.

First the good:

- Naval missions and naval locations were awesome! Ship combat, visiting old temples and ship graveyards while captaining the Aquila was so cool.

- Finally having animals and children so now cities feel even more alive.

- Combat took a bit to get used to but felt great after a while. The weapon variety was great and the inclusion of smoke bombs, poison darts and specially Shao Yun's ROPE DART! Hanging redcoats in trees with these was badass.

- Really liked the "Prologue" plot twist of having played as a Templar the whole time. Also loved Haytham during the whole game. Can't wait to read Forsaken!

- Loved the homestead missions and Achiles's death and funeral. These were the most human and emotional missions in the franchise yet and I found it a very welcome change of pace.

- Hunting was fun to a point. The game asks a bit too much of hunting to do all the logbooks and side activities but in short amounts it's very fun to explore the frontier or the homestead and parkour around the trees.

- Really liked how similar Desmond and Connor were. Not only because they are relatives but also because they were pawns in a system they cannot change even if they tried. Pretty depressing though.

- The dynamic weather system and day and night cycle were great additions to the franchise and visually worked great with all the main locations.

- The DLC (specially the powers) was so fun to play and a great ending to Connor's story (for now). Great final boss fight against King George. Loved how creative it was and AC needs to experiment more with alternate universes.

- Personally loved the Modern Day sections and we got to see the amount of cool shit Desmond learnt to do during his time in the animus. Also him sacrificing himself to save the world was a very fitting end to his "redemption" arc. Obviously would have liked to see more of him and maybe become Master Assassin but it was a very heroic way to die.

- Connor was fine as a protagonist. He was the Batman of the franchise and even though he was a bit more generic than Ezio and Altair, his strength and care for the people he loves and protects made up for it. His arc during the DLC was also really interesting to see and made his character even more badass than he already was in my eyes.

Now the bad:

-The amount of content in this game is overwhelming. There is just too much. The map sizes were too much, collectibles were too many, side missions were too many, even the tutorial was too long. The 40hours it took me to finish it felt like 80. I even had to do multiple breaks during the months it took me to finally finish this game. Too much of everything and probably the developers were in a lot of pain making this never-ending game. Not even counting the DLC. Yikes.

- The crafting and trade systems were a little too overly complicated. However, crafting weapons and upgrades for Connor were at least a bit cool to do.

- This was the most buggy AC game I've played 100%. The amount of bugs this game had were too many to count. Enemies got stuck, Connor got stuck, graphics and lighting also had troubles, some music didn't play during cutscenes and even during the Tyranny of King Washington DLC I've fought against texture-less enemies. Horribly disappointing.

- I found this game's codex quite boring and even I, a history buff, didn't care to read many of them relating to battles or buildings.

- I also feel that parkour got a bit downgraded compared to revelations. Movement is more automatic and "accessible" and it tended to bug out a lot more than previous installments. Even AC1...

- Characters other than Haytham, Connor and Aquiles didn't feel interesting enough to me especially compared to AC2 and Brotherhood.

- I did feel that they tried to retread a lot of what AC2 already did in regards to the revenge story and the apple's corruption during Tyranny of King Washington.

- I didn't like parkouring and exploring New York nor Boston. They didn't feel interesting enough specially after having played in Constantinople and Italy. Everything was sort of plain and visually the game mostly delivered only in the Frontier and even then it was too much with not enough to do. However I have to say that with the DLC powers I did have a lot of fun exploring Washington's New York, but that's mainly because I could just fly anywhere, if I had to parkour like in the main game I maybe wouldn't even have finished the DLC honestly.

- "FUCKING HORSES CAN'T GO THROUGH ANYWHERE. JUST JUMP, JUST DO IT. STOP BUGGING OUT PLEASE IM BEGGING YOU." (Me the 3543 times I needed to use the horse in the frontier on in the homestead.)

HOLY SHIT THIS REVIEW IS LONG.

TLDR: Lot of good, Lot of bad. However they really tried to change it all up and this is certainly a step in the right direction for future games to improve upon all the foundation that this game did to change up and modernize the Ezio formula.

3.5/5 = A game with a lot of balls in regard to how much they tried to do in only one entry. A lot of misses obviously (mainly all the bugs that plague this game) but I'm glad I played this. Now onto the next adventure...

WHAT A REVOLUTIONARY GAME! IT CHANGED GAMING FOREVER!

And those are all the good things I can say about this game.
In 2024, this game is just mediocre.

The story is bland. Some characters are interesting but none are fleshed out enough to be memorable. Radio music was alright but very limited amount of songs available. Mission structure was repetitive and some were just irritating and difficult for no reason. Cars also broke with the slightest breeze. No planes, no bikes, no choppers.

It's the base of what's to come so at least that's something.

Now onto Liberty City Stories...

Well shit.

Chronicles China was such a delight to play and such a breath of fresh air after playing Revelations...
This was not.

First the good: Art style was unique, music was mostly pretty cool and the sniper sections were fun to do.

Now the bad: The voice acting in this game is one the of worst I've ever heard in a videogame. All guards sounded bored and with the same tone of voice and Nikolai's was in my opinion the worst of all. All of his cutscene performances felt like he was learning how to read out loud. Anastasia's was the only one I'd say was serviceable. The story was forgettable and predictable (they straight up copied The Last of Us in its final act). It felt unoriginal and Anastasia nor Nikolai were likeable at all. The game was way more restrictive in terms of gameplay than China and it felt repetitive and frustrating from beginning to end. Shao Jun's inclusion in this story didn't feel worthy nor necessary.

This game felt like a chore to play and didn't feel like a worthy successor to China. It helped fill in some information regarding the comic The Chain's events but other than that felt like a waste of time.

At least it was better than the DS games i guess...

4/10.