So, putting aside the fact that the gaming media is terrible and absolutely too lazy as fuck to play the game properly, so as to complain and recommend XP microtransactions (leveling is balanced perfectly fine, in my experience) the game itself is easily the best I've played since III, but probably better than that. It may be my favorite in the series. It has improved combat over Origins, naval combat is both fun and can pretty much be done as much or as little as you like, exploration is very rewarding, and some of the best content in the game comes through sidequests you discover just by exploring (something those dimwitted gaming journalists are clearly too lazy and stupid to realize) and the story has been far more interesting than anything I've played in the series since III (though the modern day stuff has been pretty much nil so far, which is a bit disappointing.) I'll definitely try playing through the games I skipped in the apparent two year gap between this and the next game, but I really doubt any of them will be as good as this one.