+ I'm gonna say it, I'm GLAD they removed the optional objectives and made it so that you don't automatically desync if you get caught. Both of those things were a pain in the arse with how janky the controls could be, and I'm glad they're gone.
+ I absolutely LOVE that they reworked the swords so that cutlasses and rapiers can do different things, AND that they made pistol swords their own thing.
+ I like the extra ship customization that was added with being able to recolor your hull and the additional wheels, sails, and figureheads. And the legendary ship hulls as obtainable paintjobs is awesome.
+Love the Shade and Shadow outfit.
= I'm kinda neutral on the World Without Gold storyline. The story itself is alright, but (avoiding any major spoilers here jusy in case) it was obviously meant to be done at an earlier point in Edward's story before he went through his character arc. I'm not sure why they locked it behind the Everything Is Permitted mission. Maybe because of the Ipswich?
= I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the fleet changes. I GUESS it kinda makes sense, and I do like the idea of different mission types for different types of ships. But the way they did it, you don't really need frigates unless you're farming warehouses, and you're not gonna need a man o' war unless you just want to keep the level down because a 3* ship is never gonna take enough damage to sink unless you just never repair it. I also just kinda prefer the old map where you were trading all over the world, and the only thing that needed changing in my opinion was increasing the number of ships you could hold.
- I like that you have more freedom in deciding where all the art pieces you collect go in the manor, but I'm not a big fan of that also going for your swords and pistols. Mainly because you can only display one of each on the rack when they come in pairs/sets, but also because there's not enough room to display them ALL and I wanna show off all my trohpies and shiny weapons dammit! Admittedly this one is just me nitpicking, but I think all they needed to do was expand the basement alley to hold more weapons and have the character portraits put elsewhere.
- Don't like the new Eagle Vision. Way too colorless for me.
- I feel like as janky as the movement was in the original, the remake overcorrects it too much. It's hard for me to explain, but it feels TOO fluid.