Fantasticly beautiful gameworld, combined with great gameplay, hobbled by an adolescently executed story.
Here comes the "but". But………………..they've hobbled the game with a story written in an incredibly adolescent manner. Yea, it's a game, and we all like to suspend our disbelief, or we wouldn't be gaming.
But, we (the character) and our young adult buds all tripped off to the S Seas without the slightest bit of research to ensure we weren't in drug dealing, slave trading pirate/mercenary infested waters and islands. REALLY?
After escaping we're helped by the believably down trodden locals who expect us to buy into their third world mystical hoo doo, whereby we acquire abilities, skills, and powers (not actually casting any spells, but nearly so). The shameless, financially motivated merc of FC 2 is really looking a lot more believable at that point. REALLY?
Depending on how you play the side missions vs the main story (Ok, OK, …………."quest" ) line; we knock out, a bunch of pirate infested encampments, killing dozens into the hundreds of pirate scum, have to hunt down and scag a bunch of wildlife to "craft" our gear (why are we doing that when we're buying our weapons/ammo from the locals whom we've just taken their island back for…wouldn't the profiteering ******s be selling us the gear too?). REALLY?
The Assassins Creed series is blatantly ripped off for the climb the tower to reveal the map mechanic. REALLY?
Then, for some reason, the Dev Team was motivated to stick their hand up our *** via multiple lengthy cut scenes (that to the best of my knowledge CANNOT be skipped on subsequent play throughs) that totally defeat the whole highly touted sandbox, open world game play pre release hype. REALLY? Why in the Gamer God's name would we put up with any of Citra's mystical ****, when we've just over run an island, and wiped out hundreds without her mumbo jumbo? Why does Sam, the abandoned, unpaid intelligence asset stick around for months or years unpaid, and unsupported only to sign on with us when we show up? Then insist the only way we can overcome is to blend in with the bad guys, when we just got done successfully doing the opposite on the last island? Why would we agree to his plan? Oh that's right……………because the sand box, open world (tightly scripted, corridor like, and linear situated in what looks like a sand box) main mission won't advance if we don't. REALLY?
And, unlike many/most of us would have done the cut scenes have us (our character) do one stupid thing after another. REALLY? One would have been OK. This mechanism shouldn't be the game advancement default though. Sand box, open worlds have multiple mission completion paths, that sometimes eliminate the possibility of subsequent missions. Really!
How about several highly scripted boss battles that, during the course of which, repeatedly take control of us, then release the character back to us? REALLY? One word………….tedious.
Here's the tip, Devs: Allow multiple story/mission completion paths. Some of which will certainly knock out other options/missions, boss battles (e.g. because we already killed that boss "our way, not yours"). That's sandbox, open world game play. Really!
The characters and environment are lovingly rendered, well executed (through mo cap and voice/live acting), and have sssooooo much potential you've thrown away with an adolescent fanboy/girl approach to the story script. Yes, there are trade offs, and compromises in game production as well as real life. The trick is to make them in an enthusiastic manner combined with wisdom. Really!