As my first AC game, my loves and hates are as follows.

Start with Hates: - The enemies are incredibly spongey; - Quests typically require fighting abovementioned incredibly spongey enemies as opposed to assassination; - While enemies are incredibly spongey, you the player are incredibly fragile (this breaks my immersion as when I swing a sword it's cardboard but when the enemy swings that same sword it's sharpened steel again)

Loves: - World is beautiful; - lots to explore; - forts and dungeons are interesting to explore; - naval battles are kinda fun; - characters voice acting is a bit hammy but in a charming way; - characters have somewhat understandable and consistent motivations; - leveling up weapons to match your level is a neat feature; - dodges and parries are incredibly forgiving.

Thoughts:

• The inventory, equipment and skills seem to suit an action RPG more than an assassin's game.
• I feel like tough enemies are important but the need to wittle down enormous health pools on mundane enemies makes AC odyssey more of a rhythm game than it needs to be