It feels less "Assassin's Creeds"-y than other entries. The games were getting to be pretty cookie-cutter with regards to combat; parry, attack, parry, kill. This game completely does away with that, to the point where you have neither the hidden blade nor the ability to parry early on. It's much more, dodge, wait for an opening, use utility or a shield break, get some hits in, dodge back, etc. And enemies won't wait to attack you one at a time to give you a chance to press a button and do a flashy assassination animation while everyone patiently watches; if you get surrounded, you get killed. The RPG elements have been fleshed out significantly, offering you the opportunity to choose what skills you want to invest in. Do you prefer ranged combat? Invest in bow and arrow skills. Do you prefer using tools like bombs and darts? Invest your points over there. It makes a concerted effort to give you different ways to play the game in a way previous entries did not. The RPG elements extend to combat as well, with your hidden blade no longer being a guaranteed one-hit kill. Enemies have HP, your weapons deal damage based on their overall stats, and can also give a host of status effects, so changing up weapons is far more than just a cosmetic change (the same cannot be said of armor, however). And the weapons play differently from each other as well; the tactics that work with twin short swords are going to be useless when using an enormous axe.
It tries to do things more like Witcher 3, with lots of sidequests that involve "finding clues" and whatnot (but mostly boil down to go to location, kill animal or bandit, leave). The world is more open than any other entry as well. Even Black Flag, with its endless seas, would have loading areas to get into major cities; this is just one giant open seamless map. The cities are miniscule in comparison to other AC games, but the tradeoff for a massive world that you can explore without transitions feels like a breath of fresh air. You still do the same old AC staples; find loot, climb towers, clear lots and lots and lots of little question marks off your map. But because the world feels alive, it invites exploration. You can spend time in this game just hunting (and you will need to if you want to upgrade your base stats), and it's legitimately an enjoyable exercise. You can even do some good old-fashioned tomb raiding.
I wouldn't say the game is some revolutionary title that we'll all be looking at 10 years down the road saying "that changed everything." But it's an excellent entry in a franchise that was feeling completely overdone.
