It's a game that has managed to unlearn every great thing AC2 learned, and one that dutifully retains its core mechanics, despite them not servicing the game it had become at all.
It drops the ball on the Desmond storyline in a way you only can if you just don't care any more, and not only has the blandest main character out of all of them, but also opens the game with a character that is actually compelling, making it even more of a bummer.
Altair was barely a character at all, and his main defining trait was being completely oblivious to the obvious ways in which he was manipulated. Connor - set in unflattering contrast against the vast, nuanced life journey you just experienced as Ezio - follows Altair's example only to add some whinyness on top. :|
The absurd linearity and trial and error nature of some of the mission design evokes the very first Splinter Cell, which is a bizarre connection when one of them is a methodical corridor stealth game and the other is an open world one.
By the time 3 came out, the hit and run/conflict avoiding, parkour-centric gameplay of the first two ACs was already long long gone, but AC3 is another style of game *entirely* that is forcefully pushed through the filter of Assassin's Creed's original ambitions. I would call it a total conversion mod if I was feeling hyperbolic.
It wasn't until Unity that the leftovers from what AC used to be started making sense again. 3 was by far the worst offender.
