Alright, I'm reviving this thread to post a few of my impressions.
First off, the twist is completely ridiculous. Why, oh why did they have to do that? It totally destroys any hope of immersion. I remember watching the trailer/demo being played by the creators, and noticing the little "glitches" in the camera. I called it right then, prayed I was wrong, and was bummed to be right. Sad, because it's all completely unnecessary.
Semi spoiler/complaint: Yeah, thanks a ton for pulling me out of the 12th century so I can go get in a bed to go to sleep. RIVETING. So am I actually controlling my ancestor through this machine? Wait, I'm controlling my ancestor's memories embedded in my own DNA? So did this happen? Or is it re-happening? STUPID.
The controls are ass. Neat concept but in my opinion it idn't pan out with the 360's triggers. Maybe it's better on the Dualshock. I hate the camera.
The gameplay, as others have said, is hyper repetitive. Come on man, change it up!! Idea: Don't you think that maybe after the 1st assassination in a city, people would be on the lookout for a dude dressed like a scholar, but runs around on rooftops? It would have been cool to have to go get a set of Brown scholar's robes with a big cross on them for when you are in Acre. Maybe do a side assassination of a corrupt friar or something. Hell, that's a pretty basic idea, and it would have been very welcomed just to do something different before a major assassination.
Climbing is really fun though, and surprisingly hasn't gotten old.
I'm a big, big story guy. I've read the Halo novels, and am not ashamed of it! I like immersion, and I usually give video games' crappy stories a pass, as I just enjoy games. That said, I have no idea what's going on with this story, and I've assassinated 6 of the 9 people on my list.
The characters talk a lot, and I can't discern what's going on. Everyone has a great middle eastern accent, or an English accent, except for the main character. All I know is, dude sounds like he was voiced by the lead programmer doing his best early-twenties angst. The main character's voice destroys whatever little immersion I was clinging to. I wouldn't have been surprised if he would have said, "My bad Bro" after getting stripped of his rank. It's ridiculous.
All of this negativity, and I'm still playing it. I guess I'm just playing it to finish it, but I won't be going for mega-achievements or anything. This game could have been one of the greatest. They should have kept it for another year I guess.