Like bro it’s a fucking toy, you would think that it’s a religion the way these dingleberries talk.
Every major game company is greedy and terrible, your favorite gamer shit isn’t any less mindless consumption-y than the gamer shit that you don’t like.
It sucks because the whole industry is shitty and instead of acknowledging that they distract from the real problems facing the industry by squabbling about which souless company is the most souless.
The same kind of people complain when game industry workers try to unionize.
I always assume it’s just children on Reddit that act like that… I hope.
My first AC so I don’t know the history, but the weapon balance practically revolves around stagger. Everything is about stagger, either building it up or exploiting it when it happens for a big dramatic finish. I could see people who were used to the game without it disliking it, but I’m enjoying the distance manipulation , pressure, and footwork game it encourages as you need to make sure you’ve got a punish ready to go - or at least a kick. Deciding betweem going for a melee strike before they’re staggered to build up stagger for your other, not as damaging weapons and risking getting staggered yourself in the approach or during your feint cancels or using feints to force a panic dodge to land a missile hit to then actually punish with a nasty melee direct hit is all exciting.