Sprawl Zero Review

When I first heard of Sprawl Zero, I originally thought, "it's a follow up to that one game that wasn't really that great? Hope this time it's better". It was also interesting just how much it was going to borrow from the early to mid 00s FPS games. Games like FEAR, Halo, Dead to Rights and arguably even games like Psi Ops the Mindgate Conspiracy but most likely Half Life 2's Gravity Gun. There's also games like Project Snowblind and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence for it's visual inspiration.

As a whole, I'd say for the most part, it lived up to my expectations of being better than the first Sprawl.

One major difference and a really big improvement is that weapon feedback feels MUCH better this time. Guns actually have a sense of weight and punch to them unlike the first game. Tearing into an enemy with the various weapons feels good to do now. Where the original game's weapons feels like you are firing BB gun rounds into enemies.

Another one is while the first game was FEAR meets Titanfall. Here it feels like a homage to the 00s and also the hitscan shooters of the late 90s. There's traditional cutscenes here and there but also telling a story with no cuts like in Half Life. There's also a leader npc giving you a rundown on the mission objectives something you'd find in an early Medal of Honor game.

The narrative is kind of just there but it does give you more context to what's going by comparison to the first game.

Actual combat of Sprawl Zero is a ballet of using melee, slo mo, grabbing a weapon that can't reload then throwing the gun or lifting environmental objects, and then picking up another weapon or getting health back from the damage you lost from the hitscanners.

There's some cool ideas Sprawl Zero has to it's own like being able to hold bullets or rockets and send them right back at the enemy. You can also do the aforemention throw an empty gun at an enemy and it feels super satisfying to do. It can feel reminiscent of Superhot.

It creates for a very fast and frentic combat system that's very satisfying and fun in the moment. You can also kill an enemy leader and cause nearby enemies' comms to malfuction similar to killing an elite in Halo. Speaking of Halo, there is a very obvious homage to the Gravity Hammer from the 3rd game. It arguably feels better here than it did in that game since the enemies gib a lot more when the attack connects.

Enemies also give health pick ups upon death which is a system I prefer vastly over regen health since it keeps you on the move rather than have you wait and be vunerable. One aspect of 00s FPS design I'm glad it stayed away from.

You even helicoptors being regular enemy types as opposed to be bosses. I did wish you had another way to damage them other than using the magnetic reflection ability.

This might as well transition me to issues. While I do like that enemies give health upon death, I did wish you got one health stim to fallback on since you could be at critical and want to run to the pick up but you might be dead by the time you reach it. The guns are hitscan so you can't just dodge out of the way. The enemy counts also starts to get really high and overwhelming so it would be nice to have one fallback healing item.

The burst fire pistol feels awful and weak to use due to how long it takes to get a kill, not a good weapon to ever have in a game where there's no reloading and all guns are a single clip.

Like Halo there's black bars that pop up when loading a new part of the level and while in Halo, it never gets in the way, here there are parts of the game where you are getting shot at while the black bars are around.

There are some awful levels here and there like Eden where you have to get past a sniper's alley, fight them in a single choke point and fight helicoptors twice with no health items or checkpoints. The final boss is also really bad since you have to do an enemy wave just to fight him and battling him can level your health bar and start a restart. There can be some really annoying firefights here and there but the checkpoint system can allievate much potential frustration.

Overall, Sprawl Zero turned out to be an enjoyable follow up to a game I was very lukewarm on and it's highly worth checking out. Wasn't expecting to enjoy it this much.

Marvel's Wolverine Review

I'm big fan of Insomniac Games and while their Spider-Man titles is not what I think when it comes to them at their peak, they are solid and enjoyable. I can say much of the same for this Wolverine game all though there are some surprises that this game gave me due to also being an intermidiate Marvel fan and superhero fan by extension. Well intermidiate fan from the perspective of a divorced wife but I'm getting off topic.

The story had quite a number "holy crap" moments upon first booting it up. Yes, there have been video games like the X-Men Origins Wolverine movie tie in where you get to play as an unhinged Logan tearing things apart with his claws but it was still shackled to the framework of a terrible PG-13 movie. This Wolverine game feels like it has the tone of a Marvel comic under the MAX imprint. Everything is bloody, gory and characters aren't afraid to curse and be overly mean to each other. It's surprising to see any Marvel adaptation like this let alone a game. Hearing Sabertooth say, the f word for the first time really caught me by surprise. It's a huge stark contrast compared to the writing in their Spider-Man games.

It doesn't just end there, it feeds into the story and writing itself, right at the start at the end of the first mission you kill Omega Red and how Logan himself isn't strongly against killing or anyone else in the story is for that matter. Later on, Jean Grey kills a bad guy in self defense and there's no "we are heroes, we don't kill" speeches to be found. The story officially sold me when Essex wanted to capture and keep Bolivar Trask locked up so he can keep torturing him but then Wolverine mercy killed the latter instead.

The whole story feels refreshing in that just because you are a supervillain, it doesn't mean you'll get beat up, locked up, cause trouble, get a "pardon" and get locked up again and repeat the process. It isn't even scared to kill off child characters like Leech too. No Charles Xavier and his endless idealism that goes nowhere and as much as I like Magneto, he's on the overused side and his origin is hard to reimagine for modern times without some anti aging device.

What REALLY sold on the story was the "sinister" villain Essex. He's the Xavier stand in and well I thought Insomniac was going to make him a sympathetic anti villain but instead it was just a red herring. He was ultimate a parastic self righteous hypocrite who only used his "helping mutantkind" for his own selfish ends. It hits close to for me now. The cutscenes with him might be a little underwhelming at first but it slowly starts to add up.

It's also nice to see elements of X-Men Evolution and Infamous in here too.

While I did enjoy the story I got some issues particularly with the backstory and how a disjointed and vague everything can feel. Wolverine did so much stuff over hundreds of years? He was also a hearld of Apocalypse? He was once had a relationship with Jean Grey a hundred years ago? Essex made him savage and then made him sane again? Feels like so much information happens and feel scatter brained.

Also some side characters like Mystique can feel a little underdeveloped if you don't hear her optional conversation with Tyger at the bar before the Hand shows up.

Combat is pretty good. Yes, it isn't going to reinvent the way video game combat is going to be done but it's fun enough regardless. You got combos with special enders with the triangle button, special attacks on cooldowns, parries, perfect dodges, a kick, the ability to reflect projectiles, a rage meter and critical strikes. It can be fun to chain combos together, use special abilities and then build up some rage to get critical strikes in.

You a solid enough toolset, the big issue is that the game on normal can be a little too forgiving with ability like channeling your rage into healing or the multiple second chances you get. The enemy roster starts to get more interesting when it introduces medium and larger enemies with larger HP and more attacks for you to parry, more projectiles and more area of effect attacks to try to perfect dodge. They start popping up towards the around the end of the Japan chapter so it can take a while for things to get interesting.

The latter couple chapters is where things start to pick up and the enemy count gets higher especially with the proto sentienels, more projectile enemies and long waves

Bosses are also good even if they are a few like Omega Red, and Sabertooth, and Essex. With different attacks and timings for dodges and parries. Sintenel boss being the weakest.

Environmental takedowns and lunging were handled better in X-Men Origins since the former you have a grab button and the latter isn't contextual.

The stealth is on the pointless side and some of the scripted setpieces aren't the greatest especially that bike chase.

Overall, I was expecting a solid time with this Wolverine game and got exactly that with a couple of surprises here and there.

Call of Duty: Ghosts Review

This was a game I played a few years back and knowing it's reputation of the worst CoD game more like the worst CoD game they are aware of but I digress. I remember it being a solid and enjoyable time, it had some memorable missions with the only big sore spot being the terrible ending. I'm more forgiving of bad endings in games since gaming encapuslates the idea of "the journey" better than any other medium. I still feel the same way years later, it's not the best CoD campaign but after recently replaying Black Ops 2, I can certainly say I prefer this game.

One thing about CoD Ghosts that is quite surprising is that it paces itself quite well. We get to live through the eyes of the main characters before the world gets completely anhillated and destroyed. It's also interesting to see a CoD game attempt some kind of bond of family. You got Riley and your brother while also needing to prove yourself to your father.

Some aspects on paper I also like one example being the villain Rorke. He can be pretty overpowered and often wrestles control away from the player for bad things to happen. At the same time, it's interesting because he's one of the former memebers of the Ghosts who got left behind. The plot twist of him still left behind and blaming other people for his problems also makes sense on paper since he spent years being in prison and getting tortured. The problem is that before he kills your father, the torture and imprisonment never gets brought up so it's just nothing more than me and my headcanon rather than something concrete. It was nice to see the game play with player expectations and have the part where the player character pulls a knife out and tries to overpower Rorke like with Shepard just for him to counter and beat you.

Another big issue is Infinity Ward and their insistence for the protagonist not to speak. It was showing problems as far back as MW2 and it still isn't helping the narrative now. Since this game is about familial bond, why doesn't the main character talk and form a geniune dynamic? This appeal to tradition at this point feels like Infinity Ward just refuses to move at this point. It made sense for CoD before MW2 to do it since you were one of many soldiers on the battlefield. Now there's more going on by comparison.

The ending is also random and terrible setting up a cliffhanger that never got followed up on.

Still, it's a moderately decent story and keeps more to the grounded military feeling than Black Ops 2 does.

You know the gameplay mechanics by now. Regen health, ADS, scripted sequences, throwables you might use on occasion, maybe some melee. The shooting is still rather a simple spray and pray shooting. The frustrating parts where enemies have line of sight on you while you are trying to find cover and at critical health or the cover is too small to hide and get a cheap death, it's all still there. I tolerate this stuff more than anything like an annoying family member or friend that I still hang around with.

This is still the same CoD but there are some memorable and enjoyable missions here. Like Brave New World, Struck Down, Legends Never Die, Federation Day, Clockwork, Into The Deep, Sin City, LOKI and Ghost Killer.

Brave New World has part where you have to defend a wall from enemies from above and on the ground. Struck Down has you mark trucks and then slowly destroy an enemy base on a baseball field.

Other missions like Legends Never Die even has you using the water as cover to enemy fire in combat. Into the Deep had underwater combat that has hitscan weapons indirectly become projectile. Ghost Killer has a level where you are on a train and have to maintain your balance while it's shaking.

It has things that makes CoD campaigns endearing like beautiful looking establishing shots and an incredible sense of scale where it looks like other battles are happening while you are doing yours and does a good job at breaking up traditional gunplay like I mention above.

CoD Ghosts does have some fair share of good missions. The problem is that there is a lot of recycled ideas and assets here. If you were on the gaming community around a decade ago, the CoD "Recycled Warfare" meme was said. Games like this can fuel that narrative. MW3 did that and it was charming in that game, here it enters into parody.

You got ideas from All Ghilled Up, a part where you are attacked by an attack chopper and then sneak around using a heartbeat sensor, you are defending a device while a progress bar is slowly loading, a mission on an oil rig. There's even one bizarre mission where it even borrows from Black Ops 2 where attacked a military ship that is your home base. The penultimate mission borrows from CoD2(2005), and MW1 where you ride a tank then a helicoptor and try to a missile from exploding while on a timer.

Overall, CoD Ghosts have it's interesting and novel moments, there's a fair share of derivative parts. Worth checking out in spite of it's reputation

Resident Evil 2(2019) Review

I remembered being so hyped by the very idea of this remake. Back in a time period where I was against tank controls and thought, "this remake will give what the original game had but with better controls". Little did I know, it didn't really give me that. The changes like the tougher zombies, camera shaking when grabbed, Mr. X no longer being scripted and especially A and B games being heavily gutted caused me to have a strong dislike for years to come. This was one of the games that did teach me to never get overly hyped for anything. I have bashed this game many times in my past write ups too. I decided to replay the PS5 version years later. I was dreading that I was going to have a miserable time but surprisingly I enjoyed it much more this time around. It still has the problems I mentioned but a lot of them aren't as big of deal breakers except the A and B scenarios being a red herring now. The best comparison I can make is that this is something along the lines of Tomb Raider Anniversary, a flawed but enjoyable remake.

REmake 2 keeps mostly everything that makes the original game great but what makes it stand out is how it plays with your expectations. If you never played the original, you'll of course get a new experience but if you did, there's lots new to find where it doesn't like you are playing the same game in a different perspective and controls.

RPD Police Station has been redesigned but the general layout remains the same. You still got the Main Hall that connects to a West and East side but the rooms are all fully rendered in 3D rather than the prerendered backgrounds of yester year. The order in which visit iconic places in the story changes too. For example, Kendo's gunshop doesn't appear until late game, you go through the RPD again but with Mr. X stalking you, or even a puzzle where you need different number keys to unlock certain doors in a weapons locker.

The spirit of the original game and the RE of old before 2005 is kept intact. You got inventory space and you have to make a concious decision of what to take with you. What do you prefer? Lots of healing items or ammo? Do you take lots of puzzle items instead? Do you try to try to fit in a few of each? A new addition this time around is that you can get hip pouches to add more space to your inventory.

You will backtrack, fight enemies, solve puzzles some being smaller ones within a giant puzzle.

This is the part where I address the combat and when I first played the game, I was annoyed by many of REmake 2's "quirks". The first major one being how the zombies take multiple hits and especially multiple headshots before dying. I discovered this time around that the game has a dismemeberment system especially when you shoot them in the legs. A common tactic was to immobilize them and then finish them off with either a knife or a few headshots. They weren't as annoying as I once thought.

Camera jerking became less of a problem because I got grabbed much less due to this said tactic. It does become a problem when surronded by many zombies by those scenarios are too few to even notice. Lickers do take a lot of damage but they don't pop up too much either and you'll be decked out with firepower to take them down easily. Surprisingly dogs were easier to run away from than to fight since the survival horror decision making of, "take some hits so you can save bullets" popped into my mind.

Mr. X? This was the biggest surprise, if you keep moving througout the map like you have a purpose, you won't really encounter him that much. Maybe at the library at the most but that seems to be his most common spawn point. It's rather surprising that what was once something I strongly dislike about this remake is barely an issue now.

With that said, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. The parts where you play as Ada aren't particularly interesting since they are mainly just scripted sequences that have nothing to do with the core gameplay. That and I'm not a big fan of the much longer and expanded on sewer section. The layouts can get very confusing and at times even labythrine. The map also isn't as helpful here as it should be do to the disjointed presentation of it. You also fight a lot of damage spongey enemies and super padded out plug puzzle.

Luckily the Labratory is where things wrap up and isn't as dragged out.

The biggest issue is how the A and B scenarios are red herrings this time around. Capcom added them due to fan backlash when they should've just stuck to their guns since there's this weird inbetween. The true ending is unlocked after you do Claire's run. This isn't worth it due to the contradictions in the story and how everything is mostly remixed as opposed to being, "what Claire was up to while Leon was on his adventure". I know I would get annoyed and looked up the final boss and ending on Youtube.

Overall, I'm much kinder on REmake 2 but the botched zapping system holds it back from being on par with the original.

Titanfall 2 Campaign Review

There isn't many if any games where I have played 4 times and I still enjoy playing it even now. Usually there'd be things I'd be more critical on or aspects about the game that just annoys me now. Maybe there's parts of the game I dislike or portions of the game I feel is underdeveloped but no. Everytime I replay the Titanfall 2 campaign every few years and every time I play it, I still find the same level and enjoyment and awe I do when I originally played. Sure there are some issues but every piece media has problems but they are minor in the grand scheme of things.

One major aspect I like about the game is the story but especially on how it's told. Titanfall 2 follows the Half Life logic of the player getting to play out the journey with no major cuts happening unless if it's a load screen. With Titanfall 2, it's more of the bond between Jack Cooper and BT-7274. As the game's opening cutscene eloquantly puts it, "what truly separates the pilot from all the grunts and machines on the battlefield is the bond between a Pilot and his Titan". The story is ultimately about Jack and BT as they are reluctantly paired up together to deliver a distress signal about doomsday weapon that can destroy Harmony. It's a simple set up but it's told very well with Jack and BT's banter and how it's interspliced at the right time.

What also helps is how the game forgoes the issues that many FPS games had where the player character talks during cutscenes but never speaks during gameplay or just not have the character talk at all. Here, Jack talks and while the dialogue options seem pointless, it keeps the player in the moment of wanting to participate but without taking control away from the player and it adds small talk during the down time sections especially.

Jack and BT go through so much together through their banter and with them learning to become efficient together as the game foreshadowed with the quote I mentioned, it's hard for me not to get teary eyed at the ending of "The Beacon" mission.

Gameplay of course carries everything. Right off the bat, Titanfall 2's gunplay feels snappy and punchy and the weapons feel and sound great. You also get a cloaking ability but considering how large the enemy count is and how quickly enemies can put you down, you can use it as a quick way to break line of sight and then relocate to get the drop on the enemy.

What also helps is the movement system since for one you can double jump and you can wall run. What helps the wall runs in this game is that they are easy to do and they can be endlessly chained as well. Double jump is a good to carry the fast paced momentum. There's also the slide which can be fun to use when chained into a sprint and get some quick kills.

Okay, gunplay is good, it's mechanically sound and movement controls are great. What about the levels? They also don't pull punches either. First you have a solid tutorial known as the "pilot's guanlet" that goes over gunplay and movement. Then you got the a rather simple but elegant tutorial as you do 3 of something to restore BT. After that you go to well a made sewer level which is a great series obstacle challenges as you fight soldiers and suicide bombing robots. There's a level where you go through an assembly line that tests your platforming ability as you fight off hordes of enemies towards the end. Effect and Cause being the amazing level where you traverse through 2 different timelines and learn about the doomsday experiement. What's cool here in that it even encourages you switch when there's stage hazards too so what could kill you could help you progress through a level. The Beacon is a great downtime level where it is foreshadowed where you need to be at the start of a level as you slowly progress doing shootouts, puzzles platforming to get to that part. "Trial by Fire" a titan only level. The Ark where you have to platform through moving ships as you kill enemies and having BT do the throw again. It all culminates in The Fold Weapon where you get reign fire with the smart pistol.

Best part of all this? While this is no doubt a short game it never FEELS that way due to how amazing all these levels and everything is in the moment. The weakest level here is Trial by Fire and it's not because it's bad but because it's a Titan only level.

Might as well go to the negatives. The Titan parts while empowering can get boring during extended periods due to how simple it can feel compared to on foot combat. Bosses aren't that great while more going on that a lot of bosses in the genre, they suffer from the weak framework Titan gameplay has. The AI can also be rather stupid too constantly having them run into things or have no idea where they even are. I also find it disappointing that the grapple hook can't be used during single player.

Overall, these issues are minor in the grand scheme of things. Considering how much TF2 is a killer no filler campaign that I enjoy after beating 4 times is surprising.

Shadow of the Colossus(2018) Review

Shadow of the Colossus is a rather strange game to review. Not because it's terrible but because a lot of the games I tend to play multiple times and write reviews on tend to not lean so heavily to the "artsy" side of gaming. Playing SotC feels like a game you are meant to play once or twice at the most but a third time can enter into the realm of diminishing returns. You play it the first time back on either PS2 or the PS3 HD version and then a 2nd time with the Bluepoint's remake of it and then stop there. It can be said for a lot of games but it feels most apparent for me here. There is still a lot of enjoyment and thrills to be had from SotC, it's just not the kind of game you play because of how "fun" it feels to play.

The story is interesting in that not much of it is told through cutscenes. What cutscenes are here are very brief and the storytelling itself is either inferred through details with the sparse dialogue or in the environment. If you are one of those, "every storytelling medium should use the strengths of it's medium" people, I got a feeling you would no doubt champion SotC and Team ICO's games by extension.

What the story can be boiled down to is that you play as a nameless Wanderer and ride his horse Agro as you traverse a forbidden and empty land as you kill monsters who have done nothing to you to resurrect a dead girl. Is she your girlfriend, your sister or an innocent woman he helps out of reluctance? Up to intrepretation. It's an interesting way to tell a story over multiple hours without overly relying on cutscenes and dialogue by extension. It can be an intriguing story to ponder on.

Gameplay is what carries any game and I respect SotC in a lot of ways. Remember those overly long and drawn out enemy waves that plagued ICO? Gone. There's no combat to be found here which to me is the developer realizing their limitations. They know making another game with poor combat wouldn't cut it so they made a boss rush title instead.

I also respect the game for how much it carries itself on these boss battles since outside of these moments, you'll be spent traversing a large, barren and empty world with barely anything to do or even find.

So no enemy waves and no explorable world. The game is ultimately a boss rush game broken up with long horse back rides. Your time is mostly spent fighting these super large "colossal" giants and gameplay is spent trying to find their weak spots and performing the most painful acupunture on both the giants and yourself.

There are two aspects that help sell you on how epic it all feels: music and controls.

The music is almost a character in of itself. I'd say without this soundtrack, the game would fall apart almost immediately. Hearing the haunting music pieces as you are trying to get on to the collosi but then when you get on, these super heroic and triuphant songs start playing and it gives the player the feeling that he is barely hanging on to dear life. It adds so much to the thrill.

How Wanderer controls also plays a role and this divides many. You of course got the grip guage but the way Wanderer platforms around or how unpredictably he can move creates a sense of unpredictablity to the gameplay. Wanderer could struggle to move the way you want him to, he'll fall when you least expect it or the him refusing to grab on to a ledge the way you intended him to.

I argue unlike ICO's terrible combat that there is some delibrate aspects to this since it's supposed to create a feeling that Wanderer is this small insignificant being climbing on a creature that is way bigger than him. It makes the title feel less "gamey" and makes the act of climbing more tension. I dislike using either of them as defenses but considering how SotC has no explorable world and no enemy waves, might as well try to something dynamic to the gameplay.

As a result even if the gameplay does become diminishing returns after a 2nd time, it can still feel amazing to defeat a collosi with the gripe guage almost depleted and with that music playing.

The game isn't absolved of issues. For one using the light sword can be cumbersome since there's a lot of dark areas and the sword is useless when the player is under them making these empty horse rides last a little longer than expected.

Wanderer takes forever to get back up after getting knocked down. It could take about a minute and if you are fighting smaller collosi, you could get hit again and repeat the process.

Since SotC is a puzzle game, you'll get more out of it if you're a speedrunner since if you already know the collosi weaknesses beforehand much of the boss fight gameplay is cut in half. You are meant to slowly think and ponder on how to beat them.

The final collosi is the weakest since by that point, SotC becomes an actual platformer and the collosi itself can feel gamey in how scripted it can add plus the controls needing you to be precise now.

Overall, SotC is still enjoyable but can run into issues

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resyncned Review

This remake is a rather fascinating one on paper. You could say the idea of a Black Flag remake sounds "pointless" since one could argue that it plays "well" even know but I'm not sure if you could really say that about the original game. The story is good and is easily one of the series' better tales, many aspects of it's gameplay especially combat and stealth weren't that great even back then. A modernized version of the game does sound it could help make an okay game, a solid one.

Since I already praised it, the story especially for a franchise that has some characters I geniunely loathe(Ezio Auditore and his entire cast of characters) is surprisingly good. It was rather obvious that Ubisoft was trying to make a more "likeable" lead character again after the divisive if not outright negative reception Connor had at the time of Assassin's Creed 3's release. It worked here since while Edward Kennway is a charismatic lead, he isn't so likeable to the point where he can come off as someone who could never do any wrong or is always right like Ezio was.

For one, Edward starts off the game as someone whose broke and down on his luck and the interesting part is that his wife Caroline doesn't really seem to mind as long as he has him. Edward wants to change his down on his luck status and become more of a made man. He resorts to piracy and throughout the story, that slowly starts to become less of a viable option. He's becomes obessesed with the "Observatory" and he thinks that will get him out of that status. What really sells me on the story is how it can almost at times come off as a deconstruction of the AC series. Where Edward like the audience doubts the significance of the Creed but the more the story goes on, he becomes more accepting of it and views it more of a guide to help him out in life.

It's how all this happens throughout the game and how it feels like a journey is what sells me on the story. How Edward starts off as a no good greedy pirate to trying to make amends for all the wrong doing he did. It's kind of like the first Assassin's Creed with Altair but Edward Kennway has more of a clearly defined backstory this time.

The gameplay itself while certainly an improvement over the original game is nothing overly exemplary. With that said, an improvement is still an improvement.

You have an actual crouch button now instead of the stalking zones of the original game. So now, stealth feels like something that is actually possible. That does depend however since much of it can a game of getting to bush to bush and especially abusing the whistle feature and having enemies getting close enough to you to those said bushes to kill them. The only real way to be caught during these sections is if Edward kills a guard but he doesn't conceal himself and the dead body in the bush right away.

Since stealth in the original game wasn't really a high standard even for it's time with games like Splinter Cell Blacklist releasing the same year, this can be overlooked. I would prefer to have easy but doable stealth than having no crouching button and sprinting to bushes.

The frequent tailing missions are thankfully gone now. I don't mind a few tailing missions but the main story missions of the original game relied on them a little too much.

Combat is also better and arguably seen the most improvement. For one it's counter based and it's not nearly as easy to go on a chain killing spree and wipe out an entire small army. You need to parry and also guard break into order to effienciently kill enemies now. You can guard break through sweeping, kicking into walls, using Edward's guns, smoke bombs can help thin out the herd too. The only issue with combat is that the counter window can be very finicky and some bosses like Roberts can take an insane amount of damage to kill. I had to lower the difficulty here.

I'm describing the on foot combat a lot here but why is it that? For all of Black Flag's reputation of being a "great pirate, bad Assassin's Creed" game tends to be. That can be rather false. Many of the main story missions tend to be the on foot AC affair. Only a couple of the story missions at the most tend to involve the Jackdaw or anything sailing the high seas. Since this is the case, I'd rather put ship combat to easy and occasional get materials to loot to upgrade the ship due to infrequency of story missions that involve the Jackdaw.

Another massive boon this remake brings is that the modern day portions have been completely removed. So no more annoying pace breakers or reimagining plot points that never went anywhere like Juno dying in a comic book.

Overall, this remake did what it set out to do. Pick the AC game that isn't too fundamentally difficult to overhaul and refine that game. It's a decent game, now more of a solid one and is one of the couple games in the series I enjoy.