Those are the two things I care about the most in AC games now since they completely left the original AC identity behind. The combat felt weightless to me in the gameplay, but there are a lot of people claiming that they love it. So I'm unsure what it actually feels like. How varied are the different weapons, and different weapon combination?
As for exploration, is it possible to turn off the Point of Interests on the map so you can just roam around blindly and come across great loots randomly, rather than being spoiled by all the markers that tell you exactly where to do, what to expect, etc. It just ruins the surprise and the joy of exploration for me.
Finally, are siege/sacking villages etc repeatable activities like the skrimish battles in Odyssey? Once you took a settlement, can you lose it again like in Middle Earth Shadow of War, where you need to defend the settlement against the AIs, or take it back again if the enemies recaptured it?
Thanks in advance for answering those questions.

@unhappylawbro Any weapon in game can be dual wielded when you unlock the Heavy Dual Wield skill, meaning you can have a two dane axes, a dane axe and a shield, two heavy shields, etc. There's also a skill that allows you to switch your currently equipped dual wielded weapons on the fly, i.e. toss them in opposite hands to mix up combat.

There are one handed hammers, one handed axes, two handed axes, spears, shields, daggers, and two handed swords. Most people say two daggers are the go-to combination, but I've found that two hammers are the way to go, with the blacksmith hammer in the mainhand for the knockdown perk. I do switch it up a lot though, using two spears, a spear and shield, two one handed axes, etc. Though I rarely I've rarely used two-handed swords because I think they don't belong in the game, and I haven't used flails for the same reason.

In any case combat is pretty nice, offering you a lot of possibility for melee combat.

As for exploration, you have some tweaks you can use like turning the icon distance meter off, turning the compass off, and discovering things naturally, etc. Although icons will still be on the map so you'll still get an idea where an item or event is, etc.

Sadly, the castle/fortress sieges are not repeatable, which is something I really hope they change because it was one of the most fun parts of the game. They will be adding repeatable raids though with hopefully decent rewards so you have a reason to keep raiding monasteries, etc.

As for taking settlements, that's not possible. You can take Castles and fortresses, but they're tied to the Siege mechanic, typically as part of a locations storyline.

Personally I think it's a great game both in combat and exploration. Really it will come down to you, give it a shot and check it out. If you a worried that much about it being good, wait for a sale.

As I've stated time and time again, I found exploration unrewarding. You quickly run out of stuff you actually need to spend resources on and that's the only loot you're getting (beyond very rarely getting equipment, which you won't need once you've found the one set for your play style).

Basically the combat is pretty standard, nothing revolutionary here. Attack, dodge & parry. Throw in an ability or two to mix it up.

Exploration is okay, but once you 100% complete your first area, it becomes a serious grind.

Raiding was probably the most fun I had, but there isn't enough monasteries to raid. The zealots were fun the first couple times, but became super easy as my power level sky rocketed.

The combat is stale and trivial. The exploration can penalize you if you visit an area where a quest is supposed to be. It's possible to bug out those future quests and be completely stuck with progress.