Visuals: A+ If it's not the best looking game ever made, it sure damn gets a close second :D
Story: Jin is a character you immediately love. The story revolves around you fighting off Mongols who've invaded your home. Jin is an honorable samurai who is confronted with a conflict that forces him at times to break his code. This hits home in multiple ways, I wont spoil much in characters and story but I'll say that I felt attached to Jin and it made me legitimately rethink decisions based on what was the "honorable" thing to do. The world feels incredibly authentic and helps engage you in the characters and plot even more.
** I strongly encourage playing on the Japanese audio track with English subs**
Just adds to the feel even more! Some reviews mentioned bland side quests........ I dont know what they're smoking but I felt like the side quests were sick. Especially the epic tales. One has you hunting down a legendary sword technique the ends with an epic duel on top of a sword laden dueling ring in the middle of a lightning storm that's giving me goosebumps just thinking about it. It felt like a movie.
Gameplay and Mechanics: Although the comparison to other open world games is fair. There are so many things that set apart GoS from your old assassins creed, horizon zero dawn, etc. Using the guiding winds feels natural and not too "gamey" I liked not having a glaring waypoint or other minimaps to follow on my screen. The non quest activities like fox dens, golden bird shrine hunting, haiku poems, bamboo sword training, all felt great and different. Not having a lock on system at first was weird but honestly again, added to the feel of being a samurai surrounded by guys.
Photo mode: this needed it's own comment! I'm not a photo mode guy, but I've spent hours making screenshots etc with this game. It's just that fricken good looking and frankly the photo mode is far more complex and interesting than any other game I've used it in.
Just an incredibly memorable experience, immediately an all time favorite.