I caved in and purchased this.
They're taking forever and a day for NG+ Spider-Man and RDR is still a couple of weeks away. I'm somewhat enjoying it so far. They've essentially rebooted the entire series, which is both a positive and negative for me. Really liking Kassandra, too. I'm a little bored of the dime a dozen, generic, dude bro protagonist so it felt good being able to pass over Alexios. Perhaps I still need to figure it out but I'm not really a fan of the combat in this right now. The games world is beautiful though, and the side missions having proper cutscenes as opposed to a single shot angle that was so prevalent in Origins is a welcome change.
The mercenaries system keeps things interesting. It was actually fun dodging the first Merc in villages and out in the world exploring. It felt good to finally take it to him after I leveled up. I enjoyed that about the Phylakes in Origins so I'm glad they kept it + expanded on it here. I can see how being activley hunted could become annoying but with the various options available to get rid of the mercenaries pursuing the player, I think most folks will be fine with it.