I kind of want to play this next if AC5 ends up sucking, but need someone to tell me why everyone was raving about it.
Well since AC:U ended up sucking...
Give it some more time. I went into it with doubts and had some issues at first too. The bow was way to sensitive. Luckily there is an option for that. After changing that, the bow became a great go to. The walk to run animation felt a little jarring... I ended up getting used to that though.
The environment thing should not be an issue. You're in Mordor. There aren't supposed to be "cities" as we know them in other open world games.
There are however strongholds which can easily become far more challenging than the batman challenge rooms toku wants if they end up setting off the beacon. Especially when captains get involved.
You open up fast travel very quickly and you get to ride Caragors pretty early which also speeds up travel. And the strongholds get much larger on the second map.
The game does start a little slow b/c your combat options are limited, but as you progress and they open up, combat becomes super satisfying.
The game really started picking up for me when I went to take on the first Warchief. Each battle with them ends up being something different. Especially if they have body guards.
By the time you get to the second map, the game is fan-fugging-tastic.
I put over 50 hours into it, got the platinum and now I'm itching for the DLC. Really fun and satisfying.