Regarding the 1896 update, well, look around the recent reviews. It's easy to see most people are upset with the new UI, me included. That being said, the game is getting a whole lot of negative reviews right now, and I can't help but notice most of their issues lie solely with the new UI, which is fair, and they're probably giving negative reviews to try and coerce a change that is sorely needed, but the fact of the matter is that the rest of the positives of this update are ignored.

The consequences of a bad UI is that new players may be deterred from learning how to use it, and overall it takes longer to get into matches and start playing the game. You spend more time in the menus than you do in the game right now, at least for me. It's certainly something that needs a look. As an aside, also very upset they removed the Monstorvm and the Liber de Armamentariis, two lore books about the monsters and armaments in the game that you'd progressively unlock entries in by killing monsters and using weapons and their variants. Another artistic change, the post-match summary no longer includes the artistic cards which show your accomplishments during the match, now all you see is numbers. I'm afraid it's an example of oversimplification, a theme echoed by the entire UI update itself.

To me, however the game play itself is still as great as it was, the new map is refreshing, and you can tell Crytek really learned from their past maps. This map is leagues above, as far as I've seen, very few underground boss lairs that stall pushes onto the bounty team, and when there is there has been multiple entrances, ways to flank, good overlooks and sneaky little spots. Buildings have gotten bigger with doors to divide rooms better, the map overall has much more elevation, enfilades and defilades, the forests are more engaging to fight in, rather than repeat tree clusters and elevated spots, and overall it just looks beautiful.

That being said, some of my friends have had issues running the game now versus before, so ensure you have somewhat of a beefy setup. DLSS on balanced mode certainly felt the best for me, just as a heads-up.

As for the new event running, so far I like the new weapon and variants added, I like that they're adding more ammo types to guns that didn't have many options, and I have no complaints so far with the bullet drop that was just added. A huge, huge thing is that everyone now has every ammo type unlocked by default, without having to unlock them through using the weapons, which is great, no more grinding to try and make a weapon feel viable to your play style.

Overall, for new players, I'd say, just try to be aware of all the current issues, especially if you're running on a lower end setup, I'd steer clear for now. If you're unwilling to try and commit the horrible UI to muscle memory, check back later, hopefully they've mitigated how bad it is or have changed it altogether by then.

My setup is pretty old now, about 5 years without an upgrade, and I can run it fine, so I'll put my specs below to help give you an idea of what will run the game.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600, 3400 Mhz, 6 cores
GPU: MSI GAMING GeForce RTX 2070 8GB GDRR6
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4
MOTHERBOARD: Msi B450 Tomahawk (MS-7C02)

Overall, I recommend the game to new players, granted you're keeping all of the above issues in mind. Hunt has a very fun setting, time period, and the gun play and weapons have always been a niche that to me is filled by no other game. It's a blast with friends, and the game play frequently switches from slow-paced stealthy game play to high-octane shootouts within a moment's notice. Those are the things I love about this game, and it's something I haven't been able to find in any other.

EDIT: At the time of editing this, Crytek has announced planned changes to the UI that fixes a lot of the primary complaints, making it easier to recruit and equip hunters with a load out and adding a tab dedicated to getting back to the play/lobby screen without having to press control or navigate though the news panels and hit the bounty hunt button every time. Will it fix all of the problems with the UI? Probably not. But the response has been swift and it's clear they're listening to the community, so hopefully, eventually, it gets to a place that everyone is happy with.

Before I start my review im just going to say I just bought this not too long ago and only have 13 hours, But besides that people are saying you need freinds to play this game, And yes, It would be nice to already have freinds to play with, But for me its been a nice way to make new freinds. So no worries! :) Anyways I find this game very fun and just couldnt stop playing.
(Update): I have friends to play with now, And this game is just amazing with the new addition of the Alliance DLC, Really it adds everything the game was missing, and it promises to bring even more heavy weapons, Not the same Hwatcha, Mortar, Gatling combo you see on the same ships every time you play, And now it requires even more communication to win the game, Along with 4 difficulties (Easy, Normal, Hard, and Hell.) Playing on Hell takes not only skill and communication, But great strategy of what guns you put on your ship and which ship you use for which type of mission, There are Defensive, Attacking, And Retrieval missions. If you have friends that are willing to play this game with you, I definitely reccomend it.

This game is pretty fun, Only problem is, If you are looking to play with others on multiplayers, Forget it. Look to play with about 2 to 3 people max. On top of that the server are sometimes "Not valid in your area" Or something along those lines.
And I do know that some people like to roleplay on this, But my question is how do you roleplay in a large and vast galaxy when only 4 people are there to play in it? So if you were looking to roleplay or play with others, Chances are this game is not for you.