Already had this post denied by the AC reddit so I guess I'ma ask you guys!
TLDR: Title ^
I've played AC my whole life. 3 was my first game back in 2012, then 4, then the Ezio Trilogy then eventually every every game except Odyssey and Shadows.
I'm not gonna come here and preach OG = Peak and RPG = Trash. Everyone enjoys what they love, I enjoy OG more but I did like Origins and it's story, the gameplay was eh for me. I skipped Odyssey. I played through the intro of Valhalla, got passed the snowy area and slowly just gave up on the game, I didn't like the Viking fantasy.
Beat Mirage at launch and have attempted to replay it and play the new dlc and updates but the game just feels wrong. The combat in all the RPG games (in my opinion) has always been worse than the old ones but Mirage is just extra bad, I know the point was to make the combat bad to encourage stealth but like... The combat in old creed was never bad and I still was encouraged to stealth anyways so that excuse never made sense to me. But anyways for some reason I just can't get back into it and stomach a NG+ or dlc playthrough, the combination of poor cutscenes, okay story, sticky and unsatifying parkour, and bad combat just ruin my mood even if the stealth is the best that the RPG games have on offer.
I apologize I didn't mean to turn this post into Mirage hate, I liked the game previously, just all recent attempts to play again have failed me and I feel like that's important for my decision to try Shadows.
Shadows has always interested me because of its Season systems (I'd love to play mostly in winter if possible), Light and Dark stealth, and Proning, I've heard nothing good about the story and combat looks to be the same old RPG combat I don't enjoy so I'm asking everyone, is it worth me trying the game on its deepest sale so far if I'm only interested in the stealth and weather systems? I might enjoy bulldozing as a samurai every once in a while too but it won't be my main focus.
Can I change settings to make the game play less like an rpg? Does the parkour still suffer the same sticky janky issues as Mirage?
PS: sorry for the major yapping but I'd appreciate any answers you all give.